# A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Trombone

​TROMBONE (Eng., Fr., Ital.; Germ. Posaune). The name, originally Italian, given to the graver forms of the Tromba or Trumpet, exactly corresponding with that of Violone as the bass of the Viola. Its other name, Sacbut or Sackbut, though English in sound, seems really to come from a Spanish or Moorish root Sacabuche, which is the name of a pump. In the Spanish dictionary of Velasquez de la Cadena this word has three meanings assigned to it; two as above, and the third a term of reproach for a contemptible person. The Italians also name this instrument the Tromba Spezzata or Broken Trumpet, under which title it is figured in Bonanni. The Trumpet in its many forms is one of the oldest of existing instruments; certainly the least changed, as will be shown under that heading. But the special individuality of the two instruments, and the peculiar character of the Trombone in particular, is derived from the method by which a complete chromatic scale has been evolved from the open notes of a simple tube; namely, by means of what is termed the slide. There is much reason to believe that this contrivance is also very ancient, having far greater antiquity than crooks, stoppers, or valves. In the preface to Neumann's Tutor for the Trombone its invention is claimed for Tyrtæus, 685 b.c. Others award the merit of its discovery to Osiris. In paintings and sculptures it is difficult to identify the distinguishing slide. But the writer has from several sources a circumstantial account of the finding of one or even two such instruments at Pompeii in the year 1738. Neumann states that the mouthpieces were of gold, and the other parts of bronze. 'The king of Naples,' he continues, 'gave this instrument to king George III. of England,' who was present at the digging. Mr. William Chappell, in a note made by him more than fifty years ago, confirms this statement, and adds that the instrument so found is in the collection at Windsor. The present librarian, however, denies all knowledge of it. Nor is it in the British Museum. Dr. C. T. Newton has, however, furnished the writer with an unexpected reference, which is singularly to the point. It occurs in a work on Greek Accents, by a writer named Arcadius, who, according to Dr. Scott, may be attributed to about a.d. 200, when the familiar use of spoken Greek was dying out, and prosodiacal rules, like the accents, became necessary. It is as a prosodiacal simile that the reference occurs: 'Just as those who on flutes (αὐλοῖς) feeling for the holes, to stop and open them when they may wish, have contrived subsidiary projections and bombyxes (ὑφορκίοις lege ὑφολκίοις), moving them up and down (ἄνω καὶ κάτω), as well as backwards and forwards.' It is difficult to refuse a belief that the framer of this figure, which is meant to explain the use of accents as aids to modulation, had not seen some sort of Trombone in use.
Mersenne gives a passage, which he attributes to Apuleius, to the effect that 'dexterâ, extendente vel retrahente tubæ canales, musicales soni ab eâ edebantur.'
It is certain that in a.d. 1520 there was a well-known Posaunenmacher named Hans Menschel, who made slide Trombones as good as, or perhaps better, than those of the present time. More than 200 years later, Dr. Burney says of the Sackbut that neither instruments nor players of it could be found for the Handel commemoration! There is an excellent representation of an angel playing a slide Trombone in a cieling-picture given in the appendix to Lacroix (Arts de la Renaissance), and in one replica of Paolo Veronese's great Marriage of Cana in Galilee (not that in the Salon Carré in the Louvre) a negro is performing on the same instrument. Michael Prætorius, in the 'Theatrum seu Sciagraphia instrumentorum,' dated 1620, gives excellent figures of the Octav-Posaun, the Quart-Posaun, the Rechtgemeine Posaun, and the Alt-posaun.
It is not therefore surprising to find the instrument freely used in Bach's cantatas; though it is probably less known that the familiar air of the Messiah, 'The Trumpet shall sound,' was formerly played on a small Alto Trombone, and that its German title was Sie tönt die Posaune.
The mouthpiece is held steadily to the player's lips by the left hand, while the right controls the lower segment by more or less extension of the arm. As the usual length of a man's arm is not sufficient for the intervals required by the larger bass instruments, it is, in their case, increased by means of a jointed handle. The same result has also been obtained by doubling the slides, but at a great loss of simplicity in construction. It is therefore obvious that the Trombone alone of all the wind-family has the accuracy and modulative power of stringed instruments. Its notes are not fixed, but made by ear and judgment. It is competent to produce at will a major or minor tone, or any one of the three different semitones. The three Trombones, therefore, with the Trumpet, their natural treble, form the only complete enharmonic wind quartet in the orchestra. And yet no instrument has been so misused and neglected by modern composers and conductors.
The parallel between the Trombone and the Violin family may be carried even farther without loss of correctness; for whereas they have seven 'shifts,' the Trombone has seven 'positions.' These may be easily described as successive elongations of the sounding tube, each of which produces its own harmonic series. The seven positions may be said in a general way to be each a semitone lower than the last. The first is with the slide entirely undrawn. But in the hands of a good player, the length of slide used for each successive position is not the same. By means of a proportional scale, the writer has found that the 2nd, 5th, and 6th shifts are represented by twice 26, or 52; the 3rd and 7th by twice 15, or 30; and the 4th shift by twice 20, or 40. The reason for thus doubling the indications of the scale is the duplicity of the sliding tube, and the doubled length of vibration. The reasons for the variable length of the positions lie too deep in the theory of the scale for our present purpose. They are also, to a certain extent, due to unavoidable imperfections of manufacture, which cause it, for constructive reasons, to vary considerably from a true mathematical figure. But a judicious player, with a sensitive ear, has the remedy in his own power; and the mechanism as well as the mental sensation of Trombone-playing, when thoroughly learned, more nearly approaches that of good voice production than does that of any other instrument. Unfortunately, the quiet smooth legato method of using it is almost a lost art; having been nearly discarded for the coarse blare of the military player. For his use also modern instruments are made of too large a bore.
Like so many other instruments, the Trombone has been made in every key, from A to B♮; and in every octave, from the two-foot to the sixteen-foot. But whereas the former kind has been very properly distanced by the brighter tone of the long small-bored Trumpet, playing in its higher registers; the latter has also been much encroached on by Tubas, Euphoniums, and Ophicleides, which often, though really in the eight-foot octave, are made to produce a spurious effect of depth by largeness of bore and looseness of embouchure.
The three which chiefly survive are the Alto, Tenor, and Bass; usually in the keys of F or E♭, B♭, and G respectively. A bass in F is far more suited to the two upper members of the group, and has been used without break in Germany, notably by Weber in 'Der Freischütz.' It will be sufficient to work out these in detail in a table.
Table of Trombone Positions.
| | Alto. | Tenor. | G Bass. | F Bass. |
| First position | E♭ | B♭ | G | F |
| Second position | D | A | F♯ | E |
| Third position | D♭ | A♭ | F | E♭ |
| Fourth position | C | G | E | D |
| Fifth position | B | F♯ | E♭ | D♭ |
| Sixth position | B♭ | F | D | C |
| Seventh position | A | E | C♯ | B |
It is here seen that the player has in use the equivalent of seven different instruments, either of which can be converted into any other by a single movement of the right arm; though some sequences involve more change, and are consequently of greater difficulty than others.
The harmonic series is the same as that of the Horn and other cupped instruments. The lowest tones or fundamentals are somewhat difficult to produce, and, owing to the long distance of an octave which separates them from the first upper partial tone, are usually termed pedal notes. The available scale therefore commences with the first upper partial, runs without break to the sixth, omits the dissonant seventh harmonic, and may be considered to end with the eighth, though some higher notes are possible, especially on the longer positions.
There is one case, however, where even the harmonic seventh may be employed with wonderful effect, and that is in an unaccompanied quartet of Trombones (reinforced if necessary in the bass or in the octave below by an instrument of fixed pitch, such as a Bass Tuba or Bombardon). This combination, however, is so rare that the writer knows of no ​instance of it, although it is the only way in which wind instruments can produce perfect harmony free from the errors of temperament. It is obvious from theory that the planting of a fixed or pedal bass, and the building up on it flexible chords, is far more consistent with the harmonic law than the ordinary method. The writer of this article was requested to lead the singing of hymns and chants in the open air some years ago, at the laying of the foundation-stone of a new church; he used a quartet consisting of Slide Trumpet, Alto and Tenor Trombones, with Euphonium and Contrafagotto in octaves for the positive bass. With good players the result was striking, and is perhaps deserving of imitation. In the older music the Trombones were often thus used; and indeed did much of the work more recently assigned to the French Horn. The effect survives in Mozart's Requiem, and the solemn, peculiar tone-colour of that great work is usually spoiled by transposing the Corni di bassetto parts, and by employing Tenor Trombones to the exclusion of the Alto and Bass. Even the fine and characteristic Trombone Solo of the 'Tuba Mirum' is often handed over to the Bassoon. Of the three Trombones, the Tenor, though the most noisy and self-assertive, is decidedly the least musical, and its present predominance is much to be regretted.
It is to be noted that the Trombone is not usually played from transposed parts, as the Clarinet, Horn, and other instruments are, the real notes being written. The Alto clef is generally used for the Trombone of that name, and the Tenor clef for the corresponding instrument: but the practice of different writers varies somewhat in this respect.
A band composed exclusively of Trombones has indeed been formed, and is stated to have been extremely fine. It was attached to the elder Wombwell's show of wild beasts.
As regards the musical use of this instrument, there is little more to be added. It flourished under Bach and Handel—whose trombone parts to 'Israel in Egypt,' not contained in the autograph score at Buckingham Palace, escaped Mendelssohn's attention and were first printed by Chrysander in the German Händel-Gesellschaft edition. It then became forgotten, as Dr. Burney records. Perhaps it was pushed aside by the improved French Horn. Gluck however uses it in 'Alceste,' and Mozart, who seems to have known the capabilities of every instrument better than any musician that ever lived, fully appreciated it, as the great chords which occur in the overture and the opera (between the Priests' March and Sarastro's solo) and form the only direct link between the two, amply show. In 'Don Giovanni' he reserved them for the statue scene; but so little is this reticence understood that a favourite modern conductor introduced them even into the overture. In the Requiem he has employed it to represent the Trump of Doom (in 'Tuba Mirum'), and it is a proof of the disuse of the Trombone just mentioned that until recently the passage was given to the Bassoon. The passionate and dramatic genius of Weber did full justice to the instrument.
Beethoven has employed Trombones to perfection. When at Linz in 1812, he wrote three Equali for four Trombones, two of which were adapted to words from the Miserere by Seyfried, and performed at Beethoven's funeral. The third (still in MS.) was replaced by a composition of Seyfried's own. As a later instance we may quote the Benedictus in the Mass in D, where the effect of the trombone chords pianissimo is astonishingly beautiful, and so original that the eminent modern conductor just mentioned, in the performances by the Sacred Harmonic Society, is said to have indignantly erased them from the score. Another instance of its use by Beethoven is the high D given by the Bass Trombone ff, at the beginning of the Trio in the 9th Symphony. In an interesting letter signed Σ, in the 'Harmonicon' for Jan. 1824, Beethoven is described as having seized on a Trombone-player who visited him, and eagerly enquired as to the upward compass of the instrument. The day in question was Sept. 23, 1823. At that time he was finishing the 9th Symphony, in the Finale of which Trombones are much used. In vol. ii, p. 331b of this Dictionary we have quoted a droll note for Trombones from a letter of the great composer's.
Schubert was attached to the instrument at a very early period. In his juvenile overture to the 'Teufels Lustschloss' (May 1814) the three Trombones are used in a very remarkable way. His early Symphonies all afford interesting examples of their use, and in his great Symphony in C (No. 10) there is not a movement which does not contain some immortal passage for them. His Masses are full of instances of their masterly use. But on the other hand, in the Fugues, they accompany the three lower voices in unison with an effect which is often very monotonous.
Mendelssohn gives the instrument one of the grandest phrases he ever wrote, the opening and closing sentences of the 'Hymn of Praise.' [See Queisser, vol. iii. p. 60b]. Its effect in the overture to 'Ruy Blas,' contrasted with the delicate tracery of the strings, lingers in every musician's memory. He had very distinct ideas as to its use. It is too solemn an instrument, he said once, to be used except on very special occasions; and in a letter written during the composition of 'St. Paul' he says 'if I proceed slowly it is at least without Trombones.'
[ W. H. S. ]
* ↑ By the late Edward Schulz.
* ↑ We gladly refer our readers for these to Mr. Prout's admirable analyses of the Masses in the 'Monthly Musical Record' for 1870. The wind parts are shamefully inaccurate in the score of the Mass in A♭.
* ↑ To Mr. Horsley, 'Goethe and Mendelssohn.' Letter 6.