01 July 2008 Last Updated on 31 October 2011 Written by Ken Shifrin

Part II: 'The alto trombone is rarer than it was'

Page 2 of 2

 

Footnotes

  1. Algernon Rose, Talks with Bandsmen, London, 1895, p. 113.
  2. Dvorák's Bohemia belonged to the Habsburg Monarchy until the dissolution of the Empire at the end of the First World War.
  3. According to Curt Sachs, during the mid-1800s military bands replaced the alto with an additional tenor trombone because 'das geringe Mehr an ungebräuchlichen höhen Tönen die Minderwertigkeit seines Klanges nicht rechtfertigt'. ('its few additional upper harmonies did not make up for its inferior tone'.) Curt Sachs, Handbuch der Musikinstrumentenkunde, Leipzig, 1930 p. 298.
  4. See n. 1, Chapter 2, p. 51.
  5. 'The alto trombone, though agreeable for playing a melody, it is too insignificant in tone for concerted music'.  Michael Praetorius, Syntagma Musicum II, Wolfenbüttel, 1618, p. 31.  Trans. Charles Sanford Terry, Bach's Orchestra, London, 1932, p. 39.
  6. Anthony Baines, Brass Instruments: Their History and Development, London, 1976, p. 242.
  7. 'En Allemagne, les trois genres de trombones en usage' ('in Germany, the three types of trombone are used'). G. Kastner, Traité Général d'Instrumentation, Paris, 1837, p. 16. 'Drei Arten für Posaune üblich sind' ('three types of trombone are customary'). Adolph Bernard Marx, Die Lehre von der musikalischen Komposition, praktisch pheoretisch part iv, Leipzig, 1847, p. 70.
  8. 'abgesehen davon liegt es nahe'. Ibid., p. 70.
  9. J.C. Lobe, Lehrbuch der musikalischen Komposition, Leipzig, 1850, pp. 309-10. According to Paul Hawkshaw, Bruckner, in the course of his studies, used texts by Marx and Lobe, most probably Die Lehre von der musikalischen Komposition, praktisch theoretisch and Lehrbuch der musikalischen Komposition respectively. However, 'the degree to which Bruckner used these texts... is a matter for future study'. Paul Hawkshaw, The Manuscript Sources for Anton Bruckner's Linz Works: A study of his Working Methods from 1856 to 1868, PhD dissertation, Columbia University, 1984, p. 101.
  10. 'is scarcely used outside Germany'. François Gevaert, Traité Général d'Instrumentation, Paris, 1863, p. 87.
  11. 'the alto trombone is still found in most German orchestras'. Ludwig Bussler, Instrumentation und Orchestersatz, Berlin, 1879, p. 263.
  12. 'Starting no later than at this time, however, one began to execute the alto trombone parts on the tenor trombone, as far as was technically feasible'. Heinrich Kunitz, Die Instrumentation: ein Handbuch-und- Lehrbuch, 3rd edition, Leipzig, 1970, p. 780. Trans. H. Braunlich.
  13. Jeremy Montagu, The World of Romantic and Modern Instruments, Newton Abbot, 1981, p. 104. The third could also have used a bass trombone in F (Anthony Baines, Brass Instruments: their History and Development, London, 1976, p. 245). The classic French narrow-bore designed by Courtois had a bore of 11.4 mm with the bell 'widening' to a mere 15 cm (ibid., p. 243), which was referred to by Bessaraboff as a 'miserable sounding, effeminate pea-shooter' (Chapter 2, n. 167, p. 88).  Baines maintains that up to 1930 the French 'pea shooter' was also played by the first and second trombonist of every British orchestra (ibid., p. 243): indeed, many British brass players contend that narrow bore trombones were still used up until the 1950s. According to Denis Wick, up to the time of the Second World War, the trombones 'which had been in use for at least half a century generally had a very small bore (.450 in.) with bell sizes of about 6.5 in. for the first and second trombones... By the mid-50s the new large-bore trombones were coming into use because, I believe, of their great superiority as instruments, not only their broader sounds.' (Denis Wick, Trombone Technique, second impression (revised), London, 1973, p. 79.) Compared with the French tenor trombones the larger German instruments would have been much heavier and darker-sounding. Hence the origin of the sobriquet 'the dark, German trombone sound' which persists today as something of a misnomer.
  14. '[But] one must always keep in mind that these parts formerly were, in each case, performed by the rather brighter and lighter sounding alto trombone, and that the composers knowingly utilised this sound... If the highest register of the tenor trombone has to be used to substitute for performance on the alto trombone, a sound quality is produced which is incompatible with an interpretation that is true to the performance of the work. The highest notes of the tenor trombone have a sound quality of enormous tension and intensity and give the impression that the sound of the heaviest and most serious of instruments has been pushed up into its very highest register, while the equivalent notes of the alto trombone obviously sound freer and also brighter'. Kunitz, op. cit., pp. 785, 619.
  15. Walter Piston, Orchestration, London, p. 270.
  16. Ibid., p. 270.
  17. 'mostly a tenor trombone is used; or, in exceptional circumstances, an F valve-trumpet'. K. Hausmann, 'Die Posaune' in Emil Teuchert and E.W. Haupt, Musik-Instrumentenkunde in Wort und Bild, part iii, Leipzig, 1911, p. 89.
  18. 'In the motet choirs that are accompanied by wind instruments it is best to employ the flugel horn in place of the [former] soprano and alto trombones'. A. Schweitzer, J.S. Bach, Leipzig, 1908, p. 796.
  19. Norman Del Mar, Anatomy of the Orchestra, London, 1981, p. 298.
  20. 'To perform an alto or soprano trombone part on a flugelhorn is of course totally to be rejected, just as much as the rendition on a trumpet... The sound of the alto trombone does not correspond to that of the trumpet and is not to be replaced by it... There cannot be any similarity of sound between the high trombone and these instruments as a result of the difference of the shape of the pipe, the bore, and the bore of the mouthpiece.' Kunitz, op. cit., p. 785. Trans. H. Braunlich.
  21. 'increasingly turned away from the alto trombone and have even rejected its use. The cause for this is to be found in the rising specialisation of instrumentalists on a specific instrument because of the constantly rising technical demands from composers'. Ibid., p. 780. Trans. H. Braunlich.
  22. 'the alto trombone is becoming rarer and rarer'. Salomon Jadassohn, 'Lehrbuch der Instrumentation', Musikalische Kompositionslehre vol. v., Leipzig, 1889, p. 278.
  23. 'one could no longer assume that the trombone section would consist of three different instruments – alto, tenor and bass'. Salamon Jadassohn, Ratschläge und Hinweise für die Instrumentation der Anfänger, Leipzig, 1899, p. 12.
  24. Frederick Corder, The Orchestra and How to Write for It, London, 1895, p. 58.
  25. Corder, ibid., p. 58. In 1895 Algernon Rose contributed, rather unhelpfully, that 'the alto trombone is rarer than it was'. See note 1 of this introduction.
  26. 'that the tenor trombone is used everywhere in place of the alto trombone, which is no longer used at all'. Charles Malherbe and Felix Weingartner (eds) Hector Berlioz Werke vol 1, Leipzig, 1900, p. xii. Notwithstanding, an 1899 brochure from Zimmerman's of Leipzig announced the latest model of Eb alto trombone with the characteristic flared German bell. Also advertised was Robert Kitzer's Schule für Altposaune zum Selbst-Unterricht geignet.
  27. See Chapter 1, 'Tessitura, scorewriting and the erste Abschriftstimme'.
  28. 'some artists; 'even bb''; 'one should not use them because ordinarly the player would be incapable of playing them'. Kastner, Méthode, p. 54.
  29. Berlioz, Grand Traité, p. 200.
  30. Marx, Die Lehre, pp. 67-8.
  31. It is worth recalling that Praetorius in 1618 stated that although a' was considered the highest note on the trombone, with diligent practice one could learn to play even higher. Praetorius, op. cit., p. 35.
  32. 'yet one should never write above bb'' Lobe, op. cit., p. 384.
  33. 'the tenor trombone is thus able to cover the entire chromatic scale between E and bb'' Gevaert, Traité Générale, p. 86.
  34. 'with the most noble sound equally throughout', Bussler, op. cit., p. 58.
  35. Ibid., p. 6.
  36. 'the upper register of the trombone is better handled on the valve trumpet, and the low notes can be better reached by the tuba, it is thus best to limit it to the range of G (perhaps F) to a''. Jadassohn, op. cit., p. 277.
  37. J.A. Kappey, Military Music – A Story of Wind Instrument Bands, London, 1894, p. 54.
  38. See note 9 of this introduction.
  39. 'the alto trombone [part] is written in alto clef'. Adolph Bernard Marx, Allgemeine Musiklehre, Leipzig, 1853, p. 167. See also Chapter 1, nn. 114, 117.

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