Trombone Instruments
Trombone Instruments Fast Facts
Of all the modern orchestral brass instruments only the trombone arrived on the scene fully equipped to do justice to all the notes of the chromatic scale. It had inherited from its immediate ancestor, the sackbut, the principle of the telescopic slide, which enabled the player to adjust to any length of tube quickly and efficiently. And yet the trombone was not taken into the concert orchestra immediately, simply because its voice had become associated with the solemnity of church music. Trombones are made of metal, with a cylindrical tube that becomes conical at the bell end, widening to about 7 inches (17.8cm) across. The mouthpiece is cupshaped and about twice as deep as the trumpet's.
A Brief History of the Trombone Instruments
The name is the augmentative of tromba and the trombone
is the largest instrument in this family. Earlier it was called the sackbut,
sometimes written saggbutt. The etymological derivation of this
earlier name is in doubt. One early 18th century dictionary charmingly
but inaccurately explains that it is ‘sacabuche – to fetch the
Breath from the bottom of the Belly because it requires strong Breath’
– which of course it does. But the word could come from a Spanish root
describing a type of pump, or, most probably, from the French sacqueboute,
a lance with a hook used to unseat riders in battle (Old French saquier,
to draw out, and bouter, to push.)
The sackbut was well known in the early 14th century. In appearance it
differs little from the modern trombone and the technique of playing has
therefore remained unchanged, although quicker slide technique has been
developed.
The sackbut was a popular member of the bands of
kings and princes and was played at all manner of rituals, ceremonials
and feasts. Then it was often played in consort with the cornet – a small
curved horn pierced with finger holes whose sound was appreciated for
its wonderful resemblance to that of the human voice. The sackbut was
written for by Gabrieli (1557-1612) and Monteverdi (1567-1643), but its
full potential as a chromatic instrument was not exploited until later.
Neither sackbuts nor trombones – as they were soon called – were written
for as solo instruments but always in groups of four to eight. ‘A single
trombone seems out of place. The instrument needs harmony…’ wrote Berlioz,
although Mozart included an obbligato in his Requiem. Today the
normal complement of the symphony orchestra is two tenors and a bass.
The timbre as well as the role of the sackbut was different
in the 15th and 16th centuries. It had thicker walls and a narrower bore;
the bell was less flared and the mouthpiece was shallower. The result
was a softer voice and, at the risk of over-emphasizing this characteristic
of early instruments, it had a more human sound. It was much used to support
plainsong in churches, its ability to sound microtones being ideal where
subtle church modes were concerned. This role of supporting vocal music
continued down the centuries from Monteverdi Mozart and Dvorak and was
not unknown in church choirs in England at the end of the last century.
Both Bach and Handel used the trombone to double the vocal line.
It might seem obvious that an instrument of such simple and ideal acoustical
design would need no improving, but when the day of the piston valve arrived
in the early 19th century, it was inevitable that attempts should be made
to apply it to the trombone. These were a failure. The first valves were
applied in about 1820, but it was discovered that wrapping a long, narrow
cylindrical tube into too many tight loops altered the timbre of the instrument
too drastically. In an article of 1889 in Grove’s Dictionary of Music
and Musicians, the author, a trombonist, doesn’t mention the valve
trombone at all. (He does however compensate by offering the following
passage of memorable historical information: ‘A band composed exclusively
of Trombones has been formed, and it is stated to have been particularly
fine. It was attached to the elder Wombwell’s show of wild beasts.’)
Trombonists did in fact change to the valve system when it was introduced,
but soon changed back to the slide. The only alterations that can be said
to have been made to the instrument over the centuries are in the configuration
of the mouthpiece, from conical to cup-like, and in an improvement in
the slide mechanism by the use of different metals less affected by friction.
Some models have spring buffers to take the shock when the slide is returned
smartly to the closed position. Today trombones are made to three different
bore specifications: narrow for the French, medium for the English and
wide for Americans and Germans.
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