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Music open thread: Of anvils, sheet metal and a typewriter [1]
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Date: 2025-04-07
In another confusion by artificial intelligence, Google tells me that the National Labor Relations Board Act of 1935, commonly known as the “Wagner Act,” was written by German composer Richard Wagner who died a few years before 1935.
Although Richard Wagner certainly has his share of Googlegänger, the author of the Wagner Act was not a Richard Wagner, but Senator Robert F. Wagner.
The only reason for A.I. to give me this misapprehension is that I was thinking that maybe I could determine Richard Wagner’s attitude towards labor unions from his music or his essays.
In Richard Wagner’s music, the anvil is a symbol of work. But who's doing the work determines the mood. In Rheingold, Wotan and Loge descend to Nibelheim and witness how joylessly the Nibelungen are working on the gold Alberich stole from the Rheintöchter.
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The two gods don’t particularly care about the Nibelungens plight, they’re much more concerned about obtaining the gold so they can pay off Fafner and Fasolt.
In Siegfried, we get a much different mood as Siegfried works on the anvil to forge the broken sword Notung anew. Wagner was going for happy, strong and virile.
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With Notung restored, Act I concludes with Siegfried ready to go confront Fafner the dragon and maybe learn what fear is.
I’m aware of the famous Anvil Chorus from Il Trovatore, but as I don’t actually know the context of that famous song, I'll ask one of you to fill that in in the comments.
There are no anvils in Mosolov's Foundry, but there's sheet metal and plenty other percussion.
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A slower tempo but you can hear the percussion instruments more clearly in this other interpretation.
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Contrasting that almost primeval din of machines, here's Leroy Anderson's Typewriter.
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Penderecki also included a typewriter in one of his compositions. I listened to it once long ago and completely forgot about it until now.
The open thread question: What other music can you think of in which percussion is used as a symbol of labor?
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