Bass trombone
The bass trombone is the bass instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. Modern instruments are pitched in the same B♭ as the tenor trombone but with a larger bore, bell and mouthpiece to facilitate low register playing, and usually two valves to fill in the missing range immediately above the pedal notes. History. The earliest bass trombones were the bass sackbuts, usually pitched in G, F, or E♭ below the B♭ tenor. They had a smaller bore and less flared bell than modern instruments, and a longer slide with an attached handle to  allow slide positions otherwise beyond the reach of a fully outstretched arm. The earliest known surviving specimen is an F instrument built in Germany in 1593, and matches descriptions and illustrations by Praetorius from his 1614–20 "Syntagma Musicum". These bass sackbuts were sometimes called , , and (Old German, , referring to intervals below B♭), though sometimes "quartposaune" was used generally to refer to any of these. The in B♭ refers to a very large and unwieldy predecessor of the contrabass trombone, a full octave below the tenor. Bass sackbuts were used in Europe during the Renaissance and early Baroque periods . By the 18th century the F and E♭ bass trombones were used in Germany, Austria and Sweden, and the E♭ bass trombone in France. The "tenorbass" trombone. In 1839 Sattler invented the (), a valve attachment for a B♭ tenor trombone to lower the instrument a fourth into F. Initially intended to extend the range of the tenor trombone, it was adopted by bass trombone players particularly in Germany, where it was known as a (). These instruments in B♭/F gradually replaced the larger bass trombones in F and E♭ over the course of the 19th  and early 20th centuries. The bass trombone in Britain. The bass trombone in G enjoyed a period of extended popularity in France and Britain from the second half of the nineteenth century. From the early twentieth century they were also built with a rotary valve attachment lowering the instrument into D or C, and used in British orchestras until the 1950s. It lingered on in some parts of Britain and former British colonies into the 1980s, particularly in brass bands and period instrument orchestras. Construction. The modern bass trombone uses the same length of tubing as the tenor trombone, but  with a wider bore, a larger bell, and a larger mouthpiece which facilitate playing in the low register. Typical specifications are a bore size of in the slide with a bell from in diameter. Dependent and independent valves. The bass trombone has one or (more typically) two valves that lower the pitch of the instrument when engaged, to facilitate the register between the B♭ pedal in first position and the E second partial in seventh. The first valve lowers the key of the instrument a fourth to F. The second (when engaged with the first) will lower the instrument  to E♭ or (more commonly) D. The second valve can be configured in one of two ways, referred to as either "dependent" or "independent" (sometimes also called "in-line"). In a dependent system, the second valve is fitted to the tubing of the first valve, and can only be engaged in combination with the first. In an independent system, the second valve is fitted to the main tubing next to the first valve, and can be used independently. The second independent valve typically lowers the instrument to G or (more commonly) G♭, and when engaged in tandem with  the first valve will result in lowering the instrument to E♭ or D, respectively. Single valve instruments. The low B note immediately above the pedal range is unobtainable on a standard trombone slide with a single valve in F. Bass trombones from the 19th- and early 20th-century were sometimes made with a valve attachment in E rather than F, or with an alternative tuning slide to lower the pitch to E♭. Today, single valve bass trombones have a tuning slide on the valve section that is long enough to enable access to the low B by lowering  the pitch from F to E. Range. The range of the modern bass trombone is fully chromatic from the lowest fundamental with the valve attachment tubing deployed. A bass trombone with the second valve in G♭ is capable of playing from a B♭ (or even A with valve slides extended), up to C. Many professionals can extend the range even higher, though such demands may be taxing to the player and/or unreliable. Older or more conservative compositions often shy away from extremes, and will infrequently stray above a G or below a B♭. Contemporary orchestral and solo  classical pieces, as well as modern jazz arrangements, will often further exploit the wide tonal range of the bass trombone. Repertoire. There is usually one bass trombone in a standard symphony orchestra performing works in the Romantic period or later. It is also seen in military bands, brass bands, jazz bands, wind ensembles, and a variety of brass groups; the bass trombone is usually played by the third trombonist in a symphony orchestra trombone section, the first two parts usually being played by tenor trombones. In jazz, the most notable uses of the bass trombone are in two of pianist  Herbie Hancock's recordings, "Speak Like a Child" (1968) and "The Prisoner" (1969), which employed the instrument for purely voicing purposes.