A trombone is a brass wind instrument which consists of a tube bent double, varied notes being obtained by an inner sliding tube.
Usual sizes of a trombone are alto, tenor, bass and contra-bass.
Tyrtaeus, a seventh century BC ancient Greek lyric poet from Sparta, is credited with first introducing the slide, or the principle of elongating a brass instrument by tubes within tubes.
In the late 14th century the medieval trumpet had its straight shape folded into the curves of an S, and this shape suggested an instrument that became known as the trombone.
The word trombone is derived from Italian tromba (trumpet) and -one (a suffix meaning "large"), so the name means "large trumpet".
The earliest record of a trombone dates to the early 15th century. In Braunschweig, Germany, city records for 1403 indicate a salary payment of "2 shawms and a trombone." (2 piperen unde enen bassuner).
The first diagrammatic depiction of a trombone is Aurelio Virgiliano's Il dolcimelo (1600).
Early trombones were regularly used in groups with trumpets, where they were the lowest voice in the instrumental consort.
The 17th-century trombone was built in slightly smaller dimensions than modern trombones, and had a bell that was more conical and less flared.
A tradition of music for these instruments continued into the 17th century, when music for trombones or sackbuts as they were known until c.1700, was internationally popular with such eminent composers as Giovanni Gabrieli, Heinrich Schutz, and Henry Purcell.
In the 18th century the trombone was often used for coloristic effects suggestive of majesty in church music and for supernatural scenes in opera. Mozart offered examples of such writing in his Requiem and in his opera Don Giovanni.
In the 19th and 20th centuries the trombone became a regular member of the symphony orchestra. The first instance that a trombone was used in a concert symphony was in 1807 when the Swedish composer Joachim Nicolas Eggert specified trombones for his Symphony in E-flat major. The last movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony which followed a year later also features a trombone.
Virtuoso passages for trombone occur in Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Niebelungen, and Dimitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5.
There are just a few notable trombone soloists from the 19th century. The group includes Germans C.T. Queisser and F.A. Belcke, and A.G. Dieppo from France.
American big band leaders Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey were probably the most famous trombonists from the 20th century. Miller's mother worried about him playing the trombone so much. She said "Pop and I used to wonder if he'd ever amount to anything."
Frank Sinatra copied when singing Tommy Dorsey's breathing style when playing the trombone in order to hold notes for longer.
Today, trombones are prominent in orchestras, concert bands, marching bands, brass bands, big bands, swing bands and jazz ensembles.
German trombones from the late 19th and the early 20th centuries often carried a traditional mark of a pair of snakes dancing across the bell bow. These snakes are called, "Schlangenverzierungen."
The trombone is rarely heard as a solo instrument, apart from in some jazz music.
The trombone is the only brass instrument that uses a slide to alter pitches, rather than a valve.
Sources Blog-oup, Europress Family Encyclopedia, Compton's Encyclopedia
Usual sizes of a trombone are alto, tenor, bass and contra-bass.
 |
| Pixabay |
HISTORY
Tyrtaeus, a seventh century BC ancient Greek lyric poet from Sparta, is credited with first introducing the slide, or the principle of elongating a brass instrument by tubes within tubes.
In the late 14th century the medieval trumpet had its straight shape folded into the curves of an S, and this shape suggested an instrument that became known as the trombone.
The word trombone is derived from Italian tromba (trumpet) and -one (a suffix meaning "large"), so the name means "large trumpet".
The earliest record of a trombone dates to the early 15th century. In Braunschweig, Germany, city records for 1403 indicate a salary payment of "2 shawms and a trombone." (2 piperen unde enen bassuner).
The first diagrammatic depiction of a trombone is Aurelio Virgiliano's Il dolcimelo (1600).
Early trombones were regularly used in groups with trumpets, where they were the lowest voice in the instrumental consort.
The 17th-century trombone was built in slightly smaller dimensions than modern trombones, and had a bell that was more conical and less flared.
A tradition of music for these instruments continued into the 17th century, when music for trombones or sackbuts as they were known until c.1700, was internationally popular with such eminent composers as Giovanni Gabrieli, Heinrich Schutz, and Henry Purcell.
 |
| Four sackbutts: tenor, alto, tenor, bass by Multimann |
In the 18th century the trombone was often used for coloristic effects suggestive of majesty in church music and for supernatural scenes in opera. Mozart offered examples of such writing in his Requiem and in his opera Don Giovanni.
In the 19th and 20th centuries the trombone became a regular member of the symphony orchestra. The first instance that a trombone was used in a concert symphony was in 1807 when the Swedish composer Joachim Nicolas Eggert specified trombones for his Symphony in E-flat major. The last movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony which followed a year later also features a trombone.
Virtuoso passages for trombone occur in Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Niebelungen, and Dimitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5.
There are just a few notable trombone soloists from the 19th century. The group includes Germans C.T. Queisser and F.A. Belcke, and A.G. Dieppo from France.
American big band leaders Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey were probably the most famous trombonists from the 20th century. Miller's mother worried about him playing the trombone so much. She said "Pop and I used to wonder if he'd ever amount to anything."
 |
| Glenn Miller |
Frank Sinatra copied when singing Tommy Dorsey's breathing style when playing the trombone in order to hold notes for longer.
Today, trombones are prominent in orchestras, concert bands, marching bands, brass bands, big bands, swing bands and jazz ensembles.
FUN TROMBONE FACTS
German trombones from the late 19th and the early 20th centuries often carried a traditional mark of a pair of snakes dancing across the bell bow. These snakes are called, "Schlangenverzierungen."
The trombone is rarely heard as a solo instrument, apart from in some jazz music.
The trombone is the only brass instrument that uses a slide to alter pitches, rather than a valve.
Sources Blog-oup, Europress Family Encyclopedia, Compton's Encyclopedia
No comments:
Post a Comment