Whether Vivaldi's Four Seasons or Beethoven's Pastorale - the musical depiction of natural phenomena has always appealed to composers. Richard Strauss, for example, set off at night as a fifteen-year-old to experience the sunrise on a peak in the Alps. On his descent, however, he was caught in a thunderstorm. He later wrote his memories into a symphonic poem. Strauss uses a large orchestra for the depiction of nature, including a distant orchestra and sophisticated instrumentation: Cowbells, a wind machine and thunderbolt are also used.