Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
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3.7 * f /V ', t A SHORT HISTORY OF THE TROMBONE WITH EMPHASIS ON CONSTRUCTION INNOVATIONS AND PERFORMANCE MODIFICATIONS FROM 1945 TO 1970 THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF MUSIC By Ashley Hollis Alexander, B. M. E. Denton, Texas May, 1971 PREFACE For all of recorded history music and the instruments of music have been a source of fascination and curiosity. Through a major portion of this time one instrument, the trombone, has evolved with a unique design, character, and history. Mendelssohn frankly stated that this instrument was too sacred to be used except upon the rarest of occasions. Berlioz protested against the indiscriminate use of the trom bone, saying,". to impoverish, to degrade a magnificent individuality . is to make a hero into a slave and a buffoon." 1 Berlioz further characterized the instrument with this statement from his monumental work, Modern Instrumenta tion and Orchestration: The trombone is--in my opinion--the true chief of that race of wind instruments which I have desig nated as epic instruments. It possesses, in an eminent degree, both nobleness and grandeur; it has all the deep and powerful accents of high musical poetry--from the religious accent, calm and imposing, to the wild clamours of the orgy. It depends on the composer to make it by turn chant like a choir of priests; threaten, lament, ring a funeral knell, raise a hymn of glory, break forth into frantic cries, or sound its 1H. W. Schwartz, The Story of Musical Instruments (Elkhart, Ind., 1938), p. 219. i Ii dread flourish to awaken the dead or to doom the living. .2 There is one technical resource that gives this instrument the ability to be truly the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of the musical world: it can perform to the highest degree of accuracy the glissando or "smear." This musical necessity can set moods, create comic situations, and perform many needed tasks in the orchestra as it is known today. The trombone can scream; it can moan; it can seduce; it can laugh like a hyena. It has an inherent advantage over the valve-brass instruments in that it is not dependent in its classical form upon an imperfect mechanism, but can produce an accurate pitch through a minute adjustment of the slide, just as a string player can adjust his instrument by the smallest of adjustments of the hand on the string.3 When Gabriel's awful trumpet announced the Day of Judgment in Berlioz's Requiem, it was not a trumpet that the score indicated. The composer called for sixteen trombones. 2 Hector Berlioz, A Treatise on Modern Instrumentation and Orchestration, trans. Mary Cowden Clarke, (London, 1882), p. 154. 3 Richard Highfill, "The History of the Trombone from the Renaissance to the Early Romantic Period," unpublished master's thesis, School of Music, North Texas State College, Denton, Texas, 1952, p. 4. 4 Schwartz, op. cit., p. 219. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS . Page PREFACE . LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . vi Chapter I. EVOLUTION OF THE TROMBONE . .I Early Etymology The Sackbut Construction Performance Techniques Use of the Sackbut II. THE MODERN TROMBONE TO 1900......... 6 Construction and Performance Techniques Use of the Modern Trombone Church Opera Symphony Military Band III. THE TROMBONE FROM 1900 TO 1945 . 25 Construction Differences Uses in the Twentieth Century Symphony Orchestras Jazz Recording Chamber Music Solo Literature Military Band IV. THE TROMBONE FROM 1945 TO 1970.-...... 33 The Bass Trombone and Construction Innovations Performance Modifications V. CONCLUSIONS . 49 BIBLIOGRAPHY...................... 53 V LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass Trombones from Praetorius..... ........ 11 2. Contrabass Trombone, Praetorius . ........ 13 3. Trombone with Removable Crook, from Mersenne. 15 4. Bach Bb-F tenor-bass trombone, bell section, with single valve ....................... 26 5. Conn Bb-F-E bass trombone, bell section, with optional second valve, (1961)..........37 6. Reynolds double valve Bb-F-Eb bass trombone, bell section, (1962)....... ........ ..... 37 7. Bach double valve Bb-F-Eb bass trombone, bell section, (1965).................0......39 8. The Overtone Series.*............. ........... 43 9. Trombone Positioning Reference Chart for Multi-Trigger Trombone............ ........ 46 vi Li Alexander, Ashley., A Short History of the Trombone with Emphasis on Construction Innovations and Performance Modifications from 1945 to 1970. Master of Music (Performance, Trombone), May, 1971, 55 pp., 9 illustrations, bibliography, 35 titles. For all of recorded history musical instruments have been a source of fascination and curiosity for man. Through a major portion of this time one instrument, the trombone, has evolved with a unique design, character, and history. The earliest trombones, called sackbuts, originally had a sliding mechanism located near the mouthpiece. In the sixteenth century this was improved by the addition of the "U-turn" which facilitated holding and playing. This con struction innovation was the last major change in trombone design; the trombone of 1600 was essentially the same as the trombone of today. Although seventeenth century trombones were commonly built in four sizes, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass, efforts were made to produce a contrabass instrument through the addition of removable crooks and through the manufacture of double-sized tenor instruments. These larger instruments were tiring to hold and to play and were largely unsuccessful. 1 2 The nineteenth century saw renewed interest in the trombone and it became an established color in orchestral forces in that period. Because the treble members of the brass choir had become chromatic through the invention of valves, new attempts were made to improve the compass and facility. Some scoring was done for the valved trombone, but this instrument was generally considered less successful than the traditional slide trombone. The tenor-bass trom bone in Bb-F was introduced by Adolphe Sax in order to bridge the gap between the pedal tones of the instrument and the true tones of the instrument. This instrument had a single valve in addition to the slide which covered the missing tones. In the twentieth century, the trombonist was called upon to perform with accuracy passages that were technically very difficult to manipulate. This nurtured unique attitudes in trombone players--to play in tune, to play anything needed, and to play the impossible. These attitudes still exist. Composers have given less and less consideration to the mechanical difficulties involved in the performing duties required of the trombone. Passing from one note to another might demand an enormous change in the position of the slide. With this extreme movement of the performer's arm, certain 3 slide combinations became most difficult to play at a fast tempo or an extremely slow tempo. Therefore, the trombonist sought a trombone that maintained the characteristics of the slide yet had the ability to move at a greater rate of speed and remove certain unreachable slide position combina tions. Modern instrument design has tried to fulfill this need with the modern multi-trigger instrument of recent years. Since 1945 it has become more and more difficult for a player to master the techniques required to play both the tenor and bass trombones. The design of the trombone at this point tends to surpass the ability of most players. When concentrated in depth efforts are made to perform on the bass trombone, the multi-valved trombone must be carefully considered as a special member of the trombone family with advantages and disadvantages all its own. In this day of automation and technical knowledge, one puts himself at a disadvantage if he does not grasp the opportunity to avail himself of any mechanical asset that will improve his per forming quality. CHAPTER I EVOLUTION OF THE TROMBONE There have been many attempts to construct the perfect trombone. The earliest of these date from the earliest of man's recorded history. Early Etymology One of the earliest traceable names given to the pre decessors of the trombone was of Greek derivation. Sambuca, sambuka, sambyke, sebekha, or sebeka represented a wind 1 instrument with sliding wooden tubes. Another very early example is the mythical Roman trombone tuba ductilis (685 B.C.). The Latin name means "made of metal," in which the tube was "drawn or hammered out," instead of being cast in a mold.2 There was a trombone found at Herculaneum from 79 A. D. (excavated in 1738) with a tube of bronze and a mouthpiece of gold.3 1Beatrice Edgerly, From the Hunter's Bow (New York, 1942), p. 145. 2 Francis W. Galpin, A Textbook of European Musical Instruments (London, 1937), p. 240. 3 Ibid. 1 2 The Spanish used the name sacbuche, which means "drawn tube,"A but literally translates "ship's pump." Germany retained the ancient title of the progenitor of the trombone, 5 the long and straight busine or pusine. The French name followed very closely that of the Spanish, saguebute, (push pull).6 Finally, the English had their own versions of the word: shakbusse, sagbut, and eventually sackbut. To simplify matters, the term sackbut will be used throughout the remainder of this investigation. The Sackbut Construction The method of constructing the slide of the early sackbut is obscure. The wooden slide or tube seems to be the earliest construction design for the instrument. In the fourteenth century it is doubtful whether the tubes were "drawn" as they are today; much of the metal work in that period was hammered, rather than cast, of bronze or brass. The soft metals used 4Willi Apel, "Trombone," Harvard Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, Mass., 1969), p. 870. 5Ibid. 6 Karl Geiringer, Musical Instruments (New York, 1945), p. 109.