The Alto Trombone in the Orchestra: 1800-2000

Dedicated to my mentor and friend Professor Jarmil Burghauser, 1921-1997

By Ken Shifrin, Former Principal Trombonist, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Foreword

Maybe it’s all those mind-boggling measures-rest we get, I don’t know, but something seems to compel us trombonists, the so-called cerebral members of the brass section, to ponder and seek out “deeper meanings” beyond the printed part. Like most of those who I imagine (and hope!) will purchase this book, I consider myself a performer more so than a musicologist (that means you can trust me, right?), and like most of you, I imagine, my knowledge of the trombone’s orchestral history, prior to undertaking this study, consisted of a hodge-podge of “facts” pronounced by the icons of the trombone world: grand old scholars (especially those with English accents), big-time players from big-time orchestras and of course authors of articles in the Journal of the International Trombone Association. (Hey man, if it’s in the ITA Journal it’s gotta be true, right?) Along my journey to a better understanding of the orchestral trombone, I started to come across things that seemed to cast doubt on what the experts had declared. Initially, desperate to cling on to my anchor, I tried hard to reconcile incontrovertible positions so that my experts could still be right, and everything could remain hunky-dory. My inability to do so led me to realise that much that I had taken as gospel, especially about the orchestral alto trombone, was about as ungospelish as you could get.

The findings of this research are not exhaustive, but rather the first, timid steps towards the de-gospelisation of some of our most cherished folklore, and it is my hope that it will encourage others to delve further. I fully realise that I have set myself up to be knocked down by those that follow. (And right now I can already envision three or four reviewers eyeing up my text, with pupils dilated, hands gleefully rubbed together, and salivary glands kicked into over-drive, all the time thinking LUNCH!). However, if this should aid in a better understanding of our beloved instrument, then I shall welcome it. Besides, they will have to buy the book first.

Ken Shifrin
Oxford, England
May 2000

Preface

For today’s orchestral trombone player, great difficulty often exists in determining when the alto trombone is the ‘right’ instrument for the first part, particularly in the works of Bruckner, Brahms and Dvořák. Scholarly editions and modern publications are often misleading; today’s experts are frequently inconsistent, contradictory and highly subjective. To a certain degree this may be attributable to ambiguity on the part of music authorities contemporaneous with these composers, perhaps owing to the fact that the second half of the nineteenth century was a period of great flux, with divergent performance practices often dependent on geography. Ascertaining whether the composer meant the light-timbred alto or the heavier, more robust tenor to lead the section is crucially relevant to performances today, since the choice will influence the sound and style not only of the trombone group, but also that of the entire brass section which, with its powerful voice, can affect the colour of the orchestra. By examining the orchestral repertoire from Beethoven until the end of the nineteenth century I hope to dispel some of the ambiguity.

In Chapter 1 I will examine several works by Beethoven, Weber, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Schumann in order to illustrate the development of orchestral alto trombone writing and the contributions each composer made to it. Except for the extreme demands Beethoven often made on the alto trombone’s upper register, his scoring for the trombone section was unremarkable, primarily reserved for adding weight to orchestral fortissimos. Weber used the trombones somewhat more imaginatively, occasionally featuring them in pianissimo chordal passages; while Schubert took the development of the section a major step further by assigning it thematic material in both forte and piano unisons. With the exception of the latter’s masses, neither composer posed serious tessitura challenges for the alto trombonist, rarely writing above a’, whereas Mendelssohn and Schumann featured the instrument’s uppermost register in prominent passages.

Berlioz is the focal point of Chapter 2, in much the same way he was central to sweeping changes which affected trombone writing during the nineteenth century in France: the ascension of the tenor trombone and the utilisation of valved instruments, along with the concomitant alterations taking place in orchestral harmonies and tone colour.

By around 1840 the tenor trombone had rendered the alto nearly obsolete in France, with England and Italy following suit. Even first trombone parts that had been originally intended for the alto were now played on the tenor – often a valved tenor – or, if too high, by a flugelhorn or trumpet. Moreover, as tenor trombonists developed greater facility in the higher tessitura, the alto was increasingly dismissed as an outmoded upper-register tool.

Discussed in Part I are the concepts of trombone range, nomenclature, clefs, score and part-writing, and the significance of primary sources such as the erste Abschriftstimme, or first handwritten part – the tools which I will use in Part II to determine the type of trombone intended for the first desk of the section by Bruckner, Brahms and Dvořák, who composed during the last stages of the transition from alto to tenor, when the standard orchestral trombone section was becoming firmly established as two tenors and a bass, and the goal of good ‘section blend’ coming to mean the production of well-matched, weighty sounds, replacing the earlier concept of a balanced mix of three distinct tone colours. Although during the early part of the twentieth century a few composers, notably Schoenberg and Berg, specified the alto trombone in some works, it was used more as an upper-register aid than for its unique tone colour.

To attempt to discern a composer’s intention with respect to the use of the alto or tenor trombone from the context of even the autograph score can be highly unreliable. I intend to examine this issue on the basis of historical context and function, contemporaneous instrumentation texts and most importantly, when available, the first handwritten part – frequently the earliest and most specific indicator of a composer’s requirements. Because the alto joined the orchestra on the backs of the tenor and bass trombone, composers prior to Wagner did not so much choose between the alto and tenor for the sake of tone colour, but were stuck with the ATB combination. Similarly, during the nineteenth century, French composers who scored for a tenor-led trombone section (the sound and power of which had so impressed Wagner) were obliged to write in this manner due to the acute shortage of alto trombonists in Paris.

The instrumentation texts by the following nineteenth century authorities are pivotal to my thesis. Not only do they chronicle the then current orchestral alto trombone-writing practices, but they provide us with a clear insight into what was considered suitable writing for the trombone, given the capabilities of the performers at the time.

Berlioz: Grand Traité d’Instrumentation et d’Orchestration;
Bussler: Instrumentation und Orchestersatz;
Corder: The Orchestra and How to write for It;
Dieppo: Méthode Complète pour le Trombone;
Gevaert: Nouveau Traité d’Instrumentation, Traité Général d’Instrumentation, Cours Méthodique d’Orchestration;
Jadassohn: Musikalischen Kompositionslehre;
Kastner: Traité Général d’Instrumentation (first and second editions), Méthode Elémentaire pour le Trombone;
Lobe: Lehrbuch der musikalischen Composition, Lehrbuch der musikalischen Composition, ed. Kretzmar;
Marx: Die Lehre von der musikalischen Komposition, Allgemeine Musiklehre;
Sundelin: Die Instrumentierung.

Of far less use for the purposes of this study was the present-day literature on the orchestral trombone. Although there are a number of studies dealing with the eighteenth- century alto trombone as a solo and obbligato instrument, very little has been written about its orchestral role and none, of which I am aware, that deals specifically with the topic of examining the first trombone part from the standpoint of determining whether a composer intended the alto or tenor instrument. Mark Hartman’s DMA dissertation, The Use of the Alto Trombone in Symphonic and Operatic Literature (Arizona State University, 1985), surveys of that which is popularly assumed to be the most significant liturgical, operatic and symphonic repertoire for the alto trombone from the eighteenth through to the twentieth century. According to the bibliographical sources, the only other thesis that deals with the orchestral alto trombone is David Mathie’s 1993 DMA dissertation, The Alto Trombone: Current Use and Performance Trends (University of Georgia), which includes the responses to a questionnaire about the alto trombone submitted to all professional tenor trombonists and University/Conservatoire trombone instructors in the USA. The respondents were asked to state whether they played the alto trombone and to indicate in which orchestral works, to identify their preferred make and model of alto trombone and to recommend alto trombone method books. The survey is most revealing in the near-unanimous agreement of the players regarding works assumed originally to have been written for a first tenor trombone (for which the alto was therefore deemed inappropriate). I will show in my thesis that it was in fact the alto instrument that had actually been intended by the composer.

Robin Gregory’s The Trombone (Oxford University Press, 1973) can be very useful as background material, provided one does not accept all his statements uncritically. The difficulty lies in separating insights from inaccuracies. Unfortunately, his discussion of the orchestral alto trombone contains several errors with regard to range, Gluck, Thomas and Bruckner, errors that have been further propagated by others.

As noted in the Coda section of my thesis, during the late 1960s there was a resurgence of interest in the alto trombone as a concertante instrument, spawned by new discoveries of eighteenth-century manuscripts from the Austrian empire (for which we are particularly indebted to Richard Raum and Kenneth Hanlon) as well as by the soloistic use of the alto by contemporary composers such as Britten. The alto trombone increasingly has begun to reappear in the symphony orchestra as players endeavour to ascertain which works require the instrument.

In contrast to the ophicleide or serpent, the alto trombone stands alone as the only instrument to return to the orchestral mainstream after having virtually disappeared. In this thesis I intend to consider the physical structure of today’s instrument, as well as performers’ attitudes towards it, as keys to assessing the extent to which the alto trombone has really been resurrected, and to what degree its traditional usage changed in order to bring about this re-birth.

Part I: The Alto-Tenor-Bass Trombone Trio

Introduction

Although the trombone was the first of all modern wind instruments to come into existence, it was the last to join the ranks of the concert orchestra. It seems curious that while throughout history the trombone could be so favoured in tower music, in the church and for royalty, it did not become an established fixture in most orchestras until the 1820s.¹Whilst the trombone may have existed as early as 1430,²it was not until the sixteenth century that the concept of a trombone ‘section’ began to develop, with the alto trombone as the uppermost voice followed by the gemeine rechte (tenor) trombone, the quart or quint (bass) trombone and the octav (contrabass) trombone, as described by Praetorius.³Composers have historically tended to treat the alto trombone as the most treble member⁴of the trombone group, rather than as the soloist of the section. Therefore much of the alto’s history is inseparable from that of the section as a whole, and I will review it in this context. According to Kunitz, during the sixteenth century the trombone section was consistently employed by Palestrina, Lasso, Giovanni Gabrieli and Monteverdi ‘als selbständiger, homogener Klangfaktor’.⁵Being fully chromatic, trombones were able to participate in many forms of music of the time, but their soft, sombre sounds were considered to be particularly suited to the accompaniment of voices. Perhaps most important was their use in liturgical music, stemming from Biblical associations as well as the playing of Abblasen by members of the German Stadtpfeiffer as part of their civic duties. In Monteverdi’s Orfeo, which employs a section of five trombones (two altos, two tenors and a bass), another significant function of the trombones can be observed: that is, their usefulness to composers of dramatic music in depicting infernal and supernatural elements. The first half of the seventeenth century witnessed a growing popularity of the alto-tenor-bass trombone trio with composers, and curiously the only exception to the instrument’s otherwise widespread use appears to be its almost total absence from the opera orchestra. A high point in trombone writing was reached in the works of Heinrich Schütz: he exploited the trombone’s tone colour to bring out the emotions behind the texts of his religious compositions, such as Fili mi Absalom and Meine Seele erhebt, through techniques learned from Giovanni Gabrieli and Monteverdi. But around the middle of the century a drastic change in the trombone’s fortunes was brought about by a shift in musical taste throughout Europe, which now preferred the Italian violin ensemble and the tremendously popular French bassoon-oboe consort: this soon made the shawm obsolete and the Zink passé, and left the trombone bereft of its traditional music partners. Most likely the trombone survived this period of musical upheaval because of its proven usefulness as a support for voices, and its ongoing association with sacred music. Apparently only the Stadtpfeiffer played the instrument by now; they became the sole source of trombonists, albeit often of lacklustre ability. While Bach used trombones sparingly and unimaginatively, in part due to the dearth of skilled players,⁶Fux and others in Vienna, influenced by immigrant Italian composers who favoured the instrument, and encouraged by a succession of musical monarchs, used the trombones not only colla voce⁷with the voices but featured the alto trombone as a solo obbligato instrument in a new, creative and exciting manner. Ironically, a century that began full of promise for the trombone ended with its use dramatically reduced to the area known today as Austria, Bohemia, Moravia and Southern Germany. The near-obsolescence of its traditional partner, the Zink, was just one contributing factor to the trombone’s continuing decline. Its image as a symbol of Christian divinity that should not be profaned by use in secular music – an opinion held at the time by a number of influential music critics and composers – probably helped keep it out of the concert orchestra. Some viewed the trombone as an instrument of limited technical capability, suitable solely for the doubling of voices; the bassoon and horn, both capable of playing in the tenor-alto register, were seen as preferable in the orchestra. The decline of the German Stadtpfeiffer paralleled the decline of the trombone in that country. In the Austrian Empire, however, the standard of trombone playing continued to rise and leading composers such as Leopold Mozart, Michael Haydn, Georg Christoph Wagenseil and Johann Georg Albrechtsberger⁸had a choice of virtuoso alto trombonists for whom they wrote concertos and serenades, as well as solo obbligato parts in liturgical works. That composers of the stature of Handel and Gluck scored for the ATB trombone section in a number of important dramatic works, while significant, did not in itself bring about the revival of the trombone. Very likely it was military band music, the popularity of which soared during the French Revolution and spread throughout Europe in the wake of Napoleon’s conquering armies, that paved the way for the ‘resurrection’ of the trombone section. Bandmasters, searching for more colour and carrying-power for outdoor performances ‘discovered’ the trombone just as they had previously unearthed the serpent. The key to this revivification was the construction by trombone makers of flared bells and wider bores in response to the insistence of bandmasters for yet louder and more robust sound. Thanks to military music the trombone developed a new, second personality – although the diminutive alto struggled to keep pace with the tenor and bass – that soon had repercussions in civic music. Opera composers, with the French in the vanguard, sought instruments of varied colour to underscore action on stage, and latched onto the trombone as a dramatic resource. In French opera⁹the trombone section was no longer restricted to scenes of death and the supernatural, although in Vienna Mozart still employed the ATB trio in the tradition of Monteverdi, Cesti and Gluck with great success. By the end of the eighteenth century the trombone section had become established in military and civic music in France, Italy, Germany and England. The demand from composers for the instrument grew, and the stage was set for the introduction of the alto-tenor-bass trombone trio into the concert orchestra. Although Beethoven is generally credited with the introduction of the ATB trombone trio to the concert orchestra in 1808 in his Fifth Symphony, he was not the first orchestral composer to score for it, nor even the first to include the section in a symphony. According to Robin Gregory, Franz Beck (1723-1809), born and trained in Mannheim, was the first composer to include the trio of alto, tenor and bass trombone in a symphony:

Trombones had been used earlier [than Beethoven] in some of the ‘battle’ symphonies popular at the time; their earliest symphonic appearance was in Franz Beck’s Symphony in E flat, circa 1760.¹⁰

In 1990 Sarah Gordon, writing in The Trombonist, described a Beck symphony ‘in the key of E flat, written in 1760, for two oboes, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones and a full string section’.¹¹The Sinfonie in Es Dur, composed between the years 1760 and 1762, consists of three relatively short movements: Allegro con brio/Andante/ Funèbre – Menuett 1 and 2 – Funèbre. Beck does not use the trumpets until the beginning of the final Funèbre section, and the trombones do not appear until the ninth bar from the end (see Ex. I.1). It seems more than likely that these players would have doubled on other instruments until the last movement. Another composer who appears to have used trombones in a symphony prior to Beethoven was the Salzburger Joseph Krottendorfer. According to T. Donley Thomas, a 1768 work scored for two oboes, eight trumpets, two trombones and strings is ‘akin… to Beethoven’s Finale [of the Fifth Symphony]’.¹²Neither the Beck nor the Krottendorfer symphonies is part of today’s standard repertoire and, according to Guion, it is doubtful whether either was ‘ever widely performed even during the lifetime of the composers’.¹³ According to Carse and Schreiber, a few concert orchestras engaged a trombone section prior to 1800: the Kaiserliche Hofmusik Kapelle, Wien in 1782,¹⁴the Kurfürstliche Hofkapelle of Mainz in 1782¹⁵and 1790,¹⁶the Königliche Kapelle of Berlin in 1787,¹⁷and the Royal Stockholm Orchestra in 1790.¹⁸In orchestras that employed a section of trombones either permanently or from time to time, much music with trombone parts must have consisted either of overtures and extracts from operas and oratorios, as these were popular concert items at this time,¹⁹or of religious music.²⁰Thus the importance of theatre music to the development of the orchestral trombone section can be seen as a crucial link in the chain which led to its eventual inclusion in symphonies and other types of purely orchestral music. Thought to have been written in 1791, three symphonies with trombone parts were composed by Ignace Pleyel for London’s Professional Concerts.²¹However, these works were all scored for a single trombone. This raises the question of what was considered the optimum number of players of which a trombone section should consist. Whereas the French composer and music critic François Henri Joseph Blaze (1784-1857) felt that one (the bass trombone) was sufficient, and that three (alto, tenor, bass) were needed only when the string section was unusually large,²²Berlioz contended that:

… un seul trombone dans un orchestre semble toujours plus ou moins déplacé. Cet instrument a besoin de l’harmonie, ou tout au moins, de l’unison des autres membres de la famille, pour que ses aptitudes diverses puissent se manifester complètement. Beethoven l’a employé quelque fois par paires, comme les Trompettes; mais l’usage consacré de les écrire à trois parties me pârait préférable.²³

Hermann Zopff (1826-83), a German music critic, teacher and composer, agreed that a trombone section ideally consisted of three players; as far as a fourth trombone was concerned, more was definitely not better:

Die Gewalt des Posaunensatzes liegt zum Theil gerade in seiner Dreistimmigkeit, in der Macht des einfachen Drei-Klanges. Eine vierte Posaune bedeckt das ehrern Durchbringende des Tons schon durch überfüllung.²⁴

According to Adolph Marx:

Gewöhnlich werden zu vierstimmigem Posaunensatze zwei Bassposaunen genommen, das scheint uns der überwältigenden Macht und Schwere diesen Instruments nicht angemessen. Gegen zwei Bassposaunen sind eine Tenor – und eine Altposaune zu schwach, wohl aber ist eine Bassposaune gegen zwei Tenorposaunen und eine Altposaune stark genug. Auch ist eine Bassposaune als Mittelstimme zu schwer und ausser Verhältniss mit der vom Tenor besetzten andern Mittelstimme.²⁵

Although somewhat difficult to read, the autograph score of the 1807 Symphony in E flat Major (Ex. I.2) by the Swedish composer Joachim Eggert (1779-1813) reveals a section of alto, tenor and bass trombones that pre-dates Beethoven’s use of the section in the Fifth Symphony. While for much of the time Eggert’s trombones functioned as harmonic filler, he did employ the section in ways that were quite novel for the time. For example, in the ‘Fugue’ (Ex. I.3), the alto, tenor and bass have been given separate entries and the parts are rhythmically independent of each other. Additionally, at times the individual members of the section are assigned different articulations. While there is much doubling of the trombones by the woodwinds, Eggert does give the section independent, thematic material, albeit of no great length. The alto’s range is a comfortable f to c″. The 1800s may have ushered in an age of trombones,²⁶but not without a chorus of critics who decried the craze. ‘Posaunen, Posaunen – diese sind für unsere neusten Komponisten das Herrlichste, gerade wie Trommeln für die Kinder’,²⁷lamented a Paris correspondent in 1802. These critics, performers and composers among them, found the new, boisterous sound of the trombone objectionable. Joseph Fröhlich, who felt the trombone’s most important role to be vocal accompaniment,²⁸argued, like Mersenne nearly two centuries earlier, that:

Der Charakter des Instrumentes, besonders geeignet zum Ausdruck des Erhabnen, Feyerlichen, welchem auf der andern Seite das Sanfte Ruhige entspricht, so wie die gewöhnliche Bestimung desselben, jene der Begleitung von Singstimmen erfordert es, dass der Vortrag auf demselben gehalten, gesangvoll, und ja nicht zu grell seyn dörfe, um so die möglichste Annäherung an diejenige Stimme zu bewirken, welche jede dieser Posaunen im Satze begleitet, oder vorstellt, der Alt-Posaune an die Alt, der Tenor an die Tenor, und der Bass-Posaune an die Bass-Stimme. Soviele Wirkung eine schöne Harmonien folge auf diesen Instrumenten mit Seele und einem verhältnissmässig modificirten Ansatze vorgetragen immer hat, und haben muss, so wiederlich, und allen guten Eindruck verderbend ist es, wenn Posaunen mit einem wilden schmetterden Tone geblasen werden.²⁹

Fröhlich, who as a respected trombonist and educator had intended his remarks for students and performers, might have been influential in putting the brakes on the development of the powerful new trombone sound; or perhaps he was influential in curbing its excesses. Echoing the words of Schubart in the previous century, the correspondent of the Morgenblatt lamented the sorry state of the trombone in 1819:

‘Der Berichterstatter aus Paris im Morgenblatte Nr. 150, v.J. führt bey der Beschreibung der ländlichen Vergnügungen der Pariser an, dass dort bey den meisten Tanz-Orchestern die Posaune gebraucht werde, deren ernsthafter Basston, wie sehr treffend bemerkt wird, das übrige Geräusch durchdringe, und damit sonderbar contrastire.’ Alle in dieser Gebrauch, oder richtiger Missbrauch eines ernsten, feyerlichen Instruments, das nach der biblischen Sage die letzten Dinge zu verkündigen bestimmt ist, und dazu unter allen Instrumenten am besten gewählt zu seyn scheint, ist nicht bloss in der Nähe der Glanz- und Prachtstadt des französischen Königreiches Sitte, sondern durch die französische Kriegsmusik, und die nach ihr gemodelte kriegerische Musik der heutigen deutschen, seit den Jahren der französischen Herrschaft, durch ganz Deutschland verbreitet worden, so dass z.B. in der Nähe von Leipzig fast überall kein Tanz ohne Posaunen-Bass gespielt und gehüpft werden kann.³⁰

John Marsh, a violinist, organist, composer and conductor, cautioned composers to follow Handel’s example and use the trombones ‘sparingly’.³¹According to Marsh, trombones and percussion ‘degenerate into continued noise and clatter, with which the audience frequently becomes fatigued before the performance is over’.³²Especially offensive to some critics was the seemingly ubiquitous presence of the trombones. Around 1805 Burney complained that:

Tromboni and double-drums are now so frequently used at the opera, oratorios and in symphonies that they are become a nuisance to lovers of pure harmony and refined tones; for, in fact, the vibrations of these instruments produce noise, not musical sounds.³³

Albrechtsberger, who would live to hear the momentous entrance of the trombone section in the Fifth Symphony (as well as the Sixth) of his former pupil, Beethoven, lamented the abuse of the trombones at the hands of most composers at the turn of the century:

Gluck und Mozart haben sie auch mit wunderbar herrlichem Erfolge in das musicalische Drama verpflanzt; die Nachkommen haben ihrer Nature sie entwürdigt; sie müssen gegenwärtig zu Allem herhalten, und fortwährend verstärken, gleich den übrigen Blechmassen, in ernsten und Komischen Opern, bey Regiments-Banden und Tanzmusiken, woselbst ein obligates Posaunen-Solo in einem Walzer oder Galopp so recht wie sarcastische Ironie sich ausnimmt.³⁴

The sight of a trombonist experiencing ‘the horrors of apoplexy [with] swollen veins and starting eyes’,³⁵the ‘sheer ridiculousness of the trombone as a virtuoso instrument’³⁶– something comically novel about the instrument thoroughly captured the public’s imagination. Indeed, ‘the demand for trombones had reached such a degree in some places that no work could be performed without them, even if it did not provide for them in the original instrumentation’.³⁷Protesting the addition of the trombones to a performance of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony at Halle, the correspondent of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung wrote:

Doch gar manche schöne Stellen durch den gewaltigen Posaunenton fast erdrückt… Wir leben freylich im Posaunenzeitalten. Aber, fragen muss doch: kann denn gar kein Tonwerk mehr ohne Posaunen Wirkung haben?³⁸

Chapter 1: From Beethoven to Schumann

1:1 Beethoven

Although Beethoven was not responsible for introducing the trombone section into the concert orchestra, he was the earliest composer of stature whose symphonies contained trombone parts.

Chez Beethoven les trombones remplissent un rôle plutôt décoratif; ils sont destinés à augmenter la quantité sonore, à entourer de tout l’éclat imaginable une composition grandiose ou pittoresque. Ils n’apparaissent sur le champ de bataille instrumental que vers la fin de l’action, en guise de réserve, afin d’appuyer un effort suprème, de frapper le coup définitif.¹

In the Fifth Symphony, Beethoven holds the trombones in reserve until the opening of the Finale which Berlioz described as a ‘coup de foudre’ (a ‘thunderbolt’):²

Tout l’orchestre, aidé des trombones qui n’ont point encore paru, éclat alors dans le mode majeur sur un thème de march triomphale…³

Montagu finds it curious that Beethoven should have waited until this point in the symphony (when it changes from C minor to C major) before bringing in the trombones, since the fully chromatic trombones, unlike the natural horns and trumpets, were the only brass instruments capable at that time of playing the minor third, E flat.⁴He concludes that ‘it was presumably for the sake of their weight and tone colour at the moment of blazing triumph that he wanted the trombone’.⁵In a letter to Graf Oppersdorf, Beethoven explained his decision to use the trombone section:

Das letzte Stück der Sinfonie ist mit 3 Posaunen und flautino – zwar nicht 3 Pauken, wird aber mehr Lärm als 6 Pauken und zwar bettern Lärm machen.⁶

The alto trombonist must enter ‘cold’ on a c″ at fortissimo after sitting tacet through the first three movements.⁷Indeed, the alto’s tessitura during the entire movement is extreme, with a range of a♭ to f″. Many of the notes are easily ‘split’ (and often are). By scoring an f″ for the first trombone at bars 453-54, Beethoven assured himself an infamous place in history as far as future generations of trombonists would be concerned.⁸Of the entire standard orchestral repertoire, this would prove to be the first and (so far) the last f″ required of the first trombonist – the highest note that would ever be demanded. Curiously, his teacher Albrechtsberger had cautioned writing above c″ for the alto trombone.⁹One notes that Fröhlich¹⁰in 1811, like Albrechtsberger¹¹, cites e♭″ as the highest note attainable on the E♭ alto trombone. Indeed, Prout in 1898 also gives e♭″ as the highest possible note on the E♭ alto,¹²and Forsyth writes in 1914 that ‘the four semi-tones above e♭″ are for all intents and purposes unplayable’.¹³This would have meant that Beethoven’s f″ for the E♭ alto trombone, as well as the e″ at bars 803-5, were, technically speaking, a practical impossibility.¹⁴Beethoven’s first trombonist may have played this symphony on an F alto, if one existed.¹⁵As the f″ is in unison with the piccolo, oboes and clarinet, one cannot discount the possibility that it was omitted and ‘cause[d] many a fine first trombonist to shake his head’.¹⁶Ironically, Widor held that Beethoven composed for the trombones ‘dans leur vrai register’,¹⁷and that in this respect he and Weber were similar.¹⁸However, as we shall see, Beethoven and Weber in fact wrote for the first trombone in very different registers. Rhythmically, throughout the Finale of the Fifth Symphony, the trombones generally do not play the up-beats that are otherwise played by the full orchestra. They function mainly as harmonic reinforcement and are limited to simple rhythms. In only one tutti passage – the third bar of the opening theme with a rare up-beat – are they given anything shorter than crotchets to play.

1:1:1 The uncompleted orchestral brass choir

Gevaert states that:

Le grand symphoniste oppose le trio des trombones au deuxième groupe, accru des trompettes, de la même manière que celui-ci est opposé au quatuor, c’est à dire comme un organisme doué d’une mobilité moindre. Il lui assigne en conséquence des rythmes et des formes mélodiques plus simples qu’aux autres instruments à vent, lesquels, à leur tour, reçoivent une figuration moins abondante que les instruments à archet.¹⁹

Beethoven’s inclusion of the trombone trio did not, as some might contend, establish the orchestral brass choir, as the trumpets, horns and trombones seldom function as a unit. According to Gevaert, the addition of the trombones to the orchestra:

… a pour résultat de constituer les cuivres éclatants en choeur à cinq voix: aux deux dessus viennent se joindre la haute-contre, la taille et la basse. Par la prépondérance de cet ensemble puissant, le champ d’activité des voix individuelles se trouve forcément rétréci: les nuances délicates s’évanouissent quand de violents contrastes entrent en jeu… Bien que ces instruments appartiennent légitimement à la famille des trompettes, Beethoven (à l’exemple de Gluck) les traite presque toujours comme un groupe spécial contenant en lui-même une harmonie plus ou moins complète.²⁰

Often the trombone parts have more in common with those of the woodwinds than with those of the trumpets and horns. As shown in Ex. 1.1(a, b, c), the passage from bars 7 to 15 in the last movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, is interesting, for although the trombones, bassoons and clarinets function together, Beethoven curiously assigns the trombones different note-values from the woodwinds. In bar 7, for example, the first trombone and bass trombone double the first clarinet and contrabassoon respectively, but the trombones play dotted crotchets versus the woodwind’s minims. It appears that Beethoven was taking into account the tendency of trombones to lag behind due to the distance of their position at the back of the orchestra.²¹This would also seem to account for the dotted crotchet rest in bar 8 – clearing the trombones a quaver early so they would not intrude upon the three-quaver pick-ups played by the upper woodwinds, horns and first violins. But in bar 9, which is identical to bar 7, Beethoven this time gives the trombones the same note-values as the clarinet and contra-bassoon; in bar 11 we are back to dotted crotchets against minims. Bar 10 is also perplexing. This is the same material as that of bar 8, but now the bass trombone plays a dotted crotchet E against the alto and tenor’s minim tied to a quaver. In bar 12, ironically, Beethoven demands a staccato fourth crotchet from the clarinets and bassoons but not from the trombones, who with their heavy voice would have a tendency to sound longer than the lighter woodwinds. In bar 13, while the bass trombone doubles the contra exactly in minims, the first two trombones double the clarinets and bassoons but with shorter notes. This means they are also playing shorter notes than the third trombone of the section. The same occurs in bar 15. Inevitably, bars 10, 13 and 15 can feel wrong to the trombone section. While some of these inconsistencies may be attributed to a copyist’s error – certainly this could be the case for bar 12, for the staccato marking does not appear in the recapitulation – one wonders whether the scoring of the trombones came as an afterthought to Beethoven, who perhaps sketched their parts in rather hastily.²² With regard to modern performance practice, today’s trombone section will scrupulously distinguish between bars 7, 9 and 11, and it is open to speculation whether this is what Beethoven intended. As Gevaert points out:

D’habitude les trois trombones marchent réunis; de loin en loin seulement une partie du groupe agit seule (p.e. le troisième pour renforcer une basse importante; l’alto, le ténor, pour faire entendre un chant en grosses notes). Selon l’effet à produire, les accords retentissants du trio sont tantôt serrés, tantôt très larges (au temps de Beethoven on se servait des trois variétés de l’instrument); parfois leurs sons s’étalent longuement, en d’autres moments des coups brefs marquent les accents rythmiques les plus saillants.²³

In bars 112-118 (Ex. 1.2), Beethoven assigns a significant passage to the alto and tenor trombone in unison (doubled by the bassoons) – ‘leurs sons s’étalent longuement’. Although Beethoven has not indicated on the part that this passage should be brought out, it needs to be played soloistically. These bars are followed by ‘coups brefs’ punctuating the rhythm.

1:1:2 The limited solo capabilities of the alto trombone; unthematic trombone parts

Referring to bars 112-118, Guion asserts that this ‘moment of prominence, [on] any other instrument… would have been a solo’,²⁴suggesting Beethoven’s reluctance to assign a prominent solo to a single trombonist. According to Guion:

such was Beethoven’s influence that the trombone, alone among the ordinary instruments of the orchestra, had no soloistic role in symphonic music until the end of the century… leaving it to Mahler and later generations to discover what the trombone could add to symphonic work.²⁵

Although Guion fails to take into account the trombone solos in Berlioz’s Symphonie funèbre et triomphale (1840), Halévy’s Le Juif Errant (1852), Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet (1868), Saint-Saens’ Symphony No. 3²⁶(1886) and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Overture and Scheherazade (1888), most later composers who wrote thematically for the trombones did so in chorale fashion (e.g. Schubert, Schumann, Bruckner, Brahms, Dvořák) or in section unison, as Wagner did in his Overture to Tannhäuser (1845) and Prelude to Act III in Lohengrin (1850). However, a solo alto trombone in the upper register, especially against the backdrop of a full symphony orchestra, has a tendency to sound thin and weak, and would have sounded even more so on the narrower-bore alto of Beethoven’s day. Very likely Beethoven scored the passage in this manner in order to achieve weight and breadth of sound; and in adding the bassoons also provided for the possibility of a future performance, without trombones. There is one other ‘moment of prominence’ in the Fifth Symphony for the alto trombone. Most conductors will ask the alto trombonist to bring out the a′ at bar 293, as the alto is the only instrument in the orchestra which moves in that bar and the only one to play the minor third of the f♯ diminished seventh chord.²⁷ Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, also first performed in 1808, is unique in being the only symphony in the standard repertoire that calls for just two trombones.²⁸‘L’usage de deux trombones (au lieu de trois) [est un] procédé exclusivement propre à Beethoven’.²⁹ Scored for alto and tenor trombone, reminiscent of the works of the Viennese Fux, Gevaert felt that in the capable hands of Beethoven the two trombones created the most intense effects, depicting the great clap of thunder during the storm scene.³⁰ Gevaert felt that in the capable hands of Beethoven the alto and tenor trombone created the most intense effects, depicting the great clap of thunder during the storm scene.³¹ Beethoven reserves the trombones for the climactic moment. At the peak of the storm, in ‘Gewitter, Sturm’, on the last beat of bar 106, the alto trombonist is once again required to enter fortissimo on c″, without preparation, and must sustain the note for five bars. However, Beethoven wisely had the first trumpet double this entrance. Berlioz describes the effect of this entrance:

Alors les trombones éclatent, le tonnerre des timbales redoubles de violence: ce n’est plus de la pluie, du vent. C’est un cataclysm épouvantable, le déluge universel, la fin du monde.³²

Nonetheless, the trombone’s role is, once again, primarily to add harmonic support. As with the Fifth Symphony, Beethoven omits from the trombone parts the quaver anacrusis that is played by all the other instruments throughout the symphony. The absence of the up-beat makes a difficult passage for the alto even more perilous. Without the quaver preparation, the c″ and d″ in bars 54-55 of the last movement (Ex. 1.3) become especially dangerous, particularly as some conductors prefer to stretch this phrase out. However, the first trombone is in unison with the clarinets and first trumpet in bar 54. In bar 55 the alto trombone actually plays higher than the first trumpet; the d″ is again in unison with the clarinets and doubled at the octave by the second flute and first violins. Though not nearly as high as the Fifth Symphony, the tessitura is very demanding and great stamina is required. Also scored for two trombones, tenor and bass, is the overture to Beethoven’s opera Fidelio, op.72, (1815). This is probably the earliest instance in the standard repertoire in which the tenor trombone replaced the alto on the first part. (Ex. 1.4). Utilising the trombones in their traditional role of vocal support, Beethoven scored for an ATB trio in his Ninth Symphony (1824).³³Gevaert writes that:

Par réminiscence de l’exécution traditionnelle du choral luthérien, Beethoven fait aussi intervenir les trombones dans un chant de haute allure religieuse (Seid umschlungen, Millionen) au final de la IX^e.³⁴

In the double fugue section of the last movement of the Choral Symphony (see Ex. 1.5), Beethoven writes for the first trombone with discretion and caution, despite the fact that the part is merely supporting the altos of the chorus. In a very deliberate and obvious manner, Beethoven scrupulously avoids taking the alto trombone above c♯″. For example, the altos open the fugue on an exposed d″; Beethoven does not entrust this crucial entry to the alto trombone, even though the clarinets and violas are already doubling the voices, but assigns it to the second D trumpet, on which it will be more secure. Only once the section is under way does Beethoven bring in the first trombone on a semitone lower in the second full bar. The first six bars of the second trumpet part, with its intermittent entrances, seem rather peculiar, as it is not serving to emphasise particular words in the alto’s text, and many a second trumpet player has looked at his part quizzically. It is only when this part is viewed in conjunction with the alto trombone part that it becomes clear that it was probably intended to steer the first trombone around its first dangerous upper-harmonic entrances. In bars 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11 the horn and bassoon double the first trombone part. Finally, from bar 12 onwards, the alto trombonist is entrusted with the playing of his part unaided, and the notes here are significantly lower and safer. In bar 22 Beethoven omits the technically somewhat difficult passage from the first trombone, having the clarinet double the voice. In bars 25, 26, 31, 37, 38, 50, 53, 56, 57, 60, 61 and 62 one can see vividly how Beethoven draws the alto trombone’s upper register ‘ceiling’ at c♯″. Most significantly, Beethoven has the alto trombone descend a major 7th in the last bar to a safe d′ rather than move step-wise with the alto voices to the logical d″.³⁵

1:1:3 The difficulty in assembling a full trombone section

It is open to speculation why Beethoven should have written rather pedestrian and unthematic trombone parts in his symphonies.³⁶Guion, who suggests the Viennese trombonists were ‘experts’,³⁷Konzert in 1769 and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, it appears that no alto trombone concerto was written, perhaps due to a decline in the quality of the Viennese alto trombonists.³⁹The Use of the Trombone in Schubert’s Mature Symphonies and Symphonic Fragments, Indiana University Dissertation, 1992, p. 49.While we can conjecture that there was at least one competent tenor trombonist in Vienna around 1791 to enable Mozart to compose the difficult ‘Tuba Mirum’ trombone obbligato in his Requiem, we should recall that the Vienna production of Don Giovanni (1787) contained no trombone parts.⁴⁰Early Music 20, no. 1 (Feb. 1992), p.68.Similarly, in the first printed edition of Don Giovanni as well as Haydn’s The Seasons, the trombone parts were assigned to an appendix, suggesting that the instruments were not always used.⁴¹Musical Times 80 (1939), p.794. Carse relates the difficulty some orchestras had mustering a complete trombone section:

This short supply of trombone players no doubt accounts for the absence of those instruments in some orchestras, and also for the fact that composers often treated them as ad libitum instruments and omitted the parts in their full scores, adding them only as supplementary parts which were not indispensable. In some early 19th century scores the trombone parts are not embodied in the full score, but appear only in an appendix at the end of the score.⁴²

For example, in the manuscript score of ‘The Choral Symphony’ belonging to the Royal Philharmonic Society and revised by Beethoven himself, the trombones were also relegated to an appendix.⁴³ Of the three symphonies Beethoven wrote that included trombones, only one crucial note for the trombone is not doubled: the a′ played by the alto trombonist in bar 293 of the last movement of the Fifth Symphony. Otherwise, anything of relative prominence for the trombones is covered by other instruments, while the rest is harmonic padding and – with very few exceptions – the parts are not exposed.⁴⁴Significantly, the trombone parts could be omitted without causing great upset to a performance. This even applies to the extreme tessitura sections for the alto trombone. Rather than viewing these passages as anomalies among otherwise simple parts, we cannot discount the possibility that, since Beethoven used the trombones primarily to reinforce the other lines and to add volume, rather than to ‘serve a programmatic function’,⁴⁵he was indifferent to the severe upper register demands he set. Neither can we discount the possibility that Beethoven overestimated the alto trombonist’s ability, particularly in the Fifth Symphony. In any case, Beethoven never again wrote as high for the first trombone. For example, in the 1812 Drei Equali ⁴⁶ written for alto, two tenors and bass trombone in choral fashion – a rather pedestrian composition that would probably attract little attention were it not for the fact that it was written by Beethoven⁴⁷– the highest note scored for the alto trombone is a single c″, which occurs five bars from the end in the last movement; otherwise the first trombone plays mostly in the secure range from d′ to a′,⁴⁸as illustrated in the second movement (Ex. 1.6). Whether the Viennese trombonists were ‘experts’, as Guion asserts, remains to be seen. The point is that Vienna could assemble a trombone section at this time while other cities could not. Moreover, those orchestras that could gather three trombonists could not, it seems, count on an assured degree of competency. Around 1805 in Berlin, for example, Die Zauberflöte had to be performed without a trombone section for lack of quality players,⁴⁹and a solo horn played the obligato in ‘Tuba Mirum’ in the Mozart Requiem in place of the tenor trombone, although there was a full trombone section present.⁵⁰Thus by writing trombone parts in this manner, Beethoven ensured himself future performances by orchestras that may have lacked three, two, or even one competent trombonist; for the ideal number of trombonists that made up a Beethoven trombone section may have been any number that was available.⁵¹

1:2 Weber

According to Ebenezer Prout, ‘it was Weber who first introduced the trombones as regular constituents of the orchestr.⁵²The overtures and extracts from Weber’s operas, in particular Der Freischütz (1821), Euryanthe (1823) and Oberon (1826) are considered standard repertoire in many symphony orchestras today. It is interesting to consider Weber’s trombone writing in the light of the contemporaneous publication of Sundelin’s Die Instrumentierung. Weber’s writing for the trombone, while differing from Beethoven’s in a number of aspects, reflected a chiefly cautious and pragmatic approach. Similarly to Beethoven, Weber’s primary use of the trombones was to ’emphasise detached chords’⁵³and to ‘build up and enhance a climax’;⁵⁴by the end of the first quarter of the century, ‘that the trombones should add the weight of their tone to any loud chord or tutti was now more or less a convention’.⁵⁵ Nevertheless, Weber’s trombone parts are not as mundane as Beethoven’s. Weber appears to be the first major composer to score pianissimo chords and chorales for the ATB trio, a style of writing admired by Kastner, (‘Solos en forme de chorale pour les trois espèces font un effect admirable’⁵⁶), and recommended by Sundelin – provided these passages were ‘nicht zu lange’.⁵⁷ According to Carse:

It was… a distinct advantage that they were no longer considered to be fit only for loud effects. The value of the effect of soft harmony on trombones was appreciated by, and exploited by, practically all composers during the period immediately following the time of Weber, and probably owes that appreciation largely to his example.⁵⁸

Like his operatic predecessors,⁵⁹ Weber used the trombones in sustained chords to portray damnation and the supernatural. Frequently, he would feature the section in this role independently of the voices. In Ex. 1.7 the trombones introduce the ‘Choir of the Invisible Ghosts’⁶⁰ with a soft f♯ minor chord in second-inversion, close-position, in the low-to-middle range. This creates a sense of gloom and produces, according to Jadassohn, ‘einen unheimlichen Eindruck hervor’,⁶¹or what Gevaert calls ‘caractère satanique’⁶²and which Lobe refers to as ‘a most sinister effect (or, as we say, a feeling akin to terror creeps over us)’.⁶³In Act III, no. 23, of Euryanthe (Ex. 1.8), soft octaves in the trombone accompany the word schweigen (‘silence’), but also serve to portend the schreckliche Licht (‘the terrible light’) and Wahnsinn (‘delirium’) that follows. Similarly, Weber’s use of the soft trombones in octaves in the Freischütz overture (Ex. 1.9) creates a hollow, ominous mood, a foretaste of ‘der Hölle Netz hat dich umgarnt’ (‘Hell’s Net has ensnared you’). However, according to Cecil Forsyth it produced ‘an abominable circusy effect’.⁶⁴He further contends (with which the present author disagrees) that:

Piano octaves of two trombones always need caution in treatment. The sound of the instrument is naturally so full of a certain threatening purpose that the slightest variation from the serious, the majestic and the pompous becomes vulgarised almost to the level of a personal insult.⁶⁵

1:2:1 Sundelin: Die Instrumentierung

In many respects Weber’s trombone writing is consistent with the advice given by Sundelin in his Die Instrumentierung of 1828. For example, Sundelin stated that ‘schnellen Figuren eigenen sich nicht für die Alto Posaune, sondern mehr aus gehaltene, und kurz abgestossenen Akkorde’.⁶⁶ Georges Kastner also felt that notes of long or short duration (‘sons prolongés et coupés’) were better suited to the alto than technical passages (‘figures rapides’).⁶⁷Although Weber’s technical demands were rather modest, Widor overstates the case that Weber, like Beethoven, ‘n’écrivent jamais que par Rondes, Blanches, [et] Noires’.⁶⁸The passage from the Finale to Act III of Euryanthe quoted in Ex. 1.10, illustrates the extent of Weber’s technical requirements for the trombones, which, although minimal, were more exacting than those demanded by Beethoven. Moreover, Weber did not share Beethoven’s apparent aversion to writing quaver anacruse for the trombone; the Euryanthe trombone parts are peppered with the dotted quaver semiquaver rhythms, as illustrated in Exx. 1.11 and 1.12. Beethoven might have approached this passage, which Jadassohn called ‘prächtig und glänzend’,⁶⁹more cautiously, thus robbing it of much of the effect (Ex. 1.12a). Sundelin held that forzandi are well-suited to the alto trombone.⁷⁰While in general an accent does not require as much force of attack as the sforzando, they are similar in the sense that neither requires ‘follow-through’, a more difficult, sustained kind of playing. Furthermore, the alto’s relative lack of body is less noticeable in this forte-subito-piano type of attack. The difference in the explosiveness of the attack between fz, sfz and > is one of degree and depends largely on context and compositional style. For example, Beethoven’s sfz in fortissimo for the trombones in the ‘Choral Symphony’, where they are doubling the voices, would require far less force of attack than the accents Weber uses in his overtures. Nevertheless, the symphonic player must bear in mind that since Weber’s works were written for a pit orchestra, in which seating was arranged to dampen down the sound of the trombone and other so-called noisy instruments,⁷¹forte and fortissimo indications must be ‘mentally marked down’ for performance in the concert hall.⁷² Sundelin advised composers not to score interval leaps of more than a seventh for the alto trombone.⁷³In general Weber’s writing seems in accord with this suggestion. A notable exception appears near the end of the Overture to Oberon (Ex. 1.13), where there is a risk of over- or under-shooting the wide interval of the minor tenth. Sundelin recommended that composers should write for the alto trombone chiefly in the middle register, from c to a′/b′ (‘bei der Alt-Posaune in den Mitteltönen aufzuhalten… von c der kleinen Oktave bis zum ein-gestrichenen a bis zum höchstens h′⁷⁴), as shown in Fig. 1.1. In the three works discussed, the highest note Weber writes for the alto is c♯″ which occurs twice in the ‘Wedding March’ of Euryanthe and is played by the trombonist in the Bühneorchester (stage orchestra). On both occasions the c♯″ is approached by a major third, not exposed, and in unison with the second clarinet, while doubled at the octave by the first flute and first clarinet. Occasionally one will come across a c″ in the first trombone part, but generally Weber stays within the range described by Sundelin. As this is well within the range of today’s orchestral tenor trombonist, Weber’s first parts are often mistakenly played on that instrument, the assumption being made that these parts were written too low for an alto to have been intended.

Figure 1.1: Sundelin, Die Instrumentierung⁷⁵

Widor states that after Beethoven composed the Fifth Symphony:

Beethoven adoptera l’écriture sur un même ligne, les deux premiers trombones n’excédent pas les limites du Ténor. Et Weber et ses successeurs en useront ainsi.⁷⁶

However, at this time the d″ in the alto trombone part of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony and the c♯″ in the Ninth were not considered within the range of the tenor trombone. Sundelin, for example, gives the highest note on the tenor as g′.⁷⁷ Sundelin maintained that the alto should never be used on its own (‘Die Alt-Posaune wird nie allein… angewendet’⁷⁸), but rather always in conjunction with other instruments, especially the other trombones. Moreover, Sundelin felt it was unwise to assign a solo to any of the trombones:

[Es] ist nicht rathsam weil diese Instrumente kein zuverlässiges Mittel haben, woran sie ihren anzugebenden Ton abmessen könnten, und aus diesem Grunde fällt solcher Satz immer unrein aus.⁷⁹

On the other hand, when the trombone plays with other instruments, including other members of the section, the full purity of the sound can be assured:

[Die Posaunen] spielen… noch andere Instrumente mit, so man alsdann vollkommene Reinheit voraussetzen.⁸⁰

Accordingly, on the infrequent occasion when Weber would engage the trombone as a melodic instrument, it was not used on its own, but in conjunction with other winds or tutti orchestra. For example, in the molto vivace of the Freischütz Ouverture (Ex. 1.14), Weber gives the second trombone the same line as the first flute for two bars, the next two doubling first flute and first trombone. When this thematic material reappears in the Finale to Act II, the stage directions describe a terrifying thunderstorm: ‘Der ganze Himmel wird schwarze Nacht. Die Gewitter treffen furchtbar zusammen. Flammen schlagen aus [sic] der Erde’.⁸¹However, these examples of melodic usage are more the exception than the rule.

1:2:2 The limitations of trombonists as a decisive factor in Weber’s trombone writing

It is probably no coincidence that Sundelin’s precepts, although intended for use by composers for military band, are reflected in the trombone writing of Weber. To a very large degree, what Sundelin believed to be possible or desirable for the trombone must have had less to do with the instrument’s supposed intrinsic limitations than with the abilities of the players with whom he was familiar. Weber’s trombonists were in many cases drawn from the ranks of the military band, for by the 1820s the supply of trombone players for the concert orchestras:

seemed to have improved… The players appear to have been drawn… almost entirely from the wind and military bands, which by that time were able to provide a fairly plentiful supply. In this way… the trombones began to find their way into the scores of symphonies and other orchestral works.⁸²

According to Karl-Heinz Weber: ‘die Militärmusiker gaben nicht nur eigene Konzerte… sondern sie spielen auch als Aushilfs oder Verstärkungsmusiker in Theater und in den Konzerten’.⁸³Around 1825, conductor/composer Sir George Smart attended a concert in Kassel and observed that ‘this is the first time that I have seen persons in uniform playing in the orchestr.⁸⁴ Additionally, up to the middle of the nineteenth century the orchestras continued to draw players from the Stadtpfeiffer:

The old corps of town musicians survived long enough to ensure a supply of players in Germany, [and] at the same time trombonists were becoming regular constituents of opera and concert orchestras… In South Germany, Bavaria and Austria the old civic organisations… [the] Stadtmusiker, remained… a valuable source from which orchestras could draw their trombone players.⁸⁵

The music education provided by the guilds was frequently carried out in an atmosphere of moral squalor. At best the tuition was irregular; at worst it was not much better than enforced serfdom. However, before the establishment of music conservatories, these civic musical organisations provided the only training, even for many of those who made up the more important orchestras. There was no orchestra in Germany, up until the end of the last century, that did not include in its ranks some players who had graduated as Stadtmusiker… even Liszt’s orchestra at Weimar in 1850 had to draw on the town band for some of [its] players.⁸⁶ Although there were exceptions, many players were those ‘whose skill and qualifications were far below the best standard’.⁸⁷Indeed, in 1804, a journalist for the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung went as far as to suggest that the trombone was one of those instruments that preferably should not be exposed:

Mehrere Instrumente, z.B…. Posaunen… sind öfters von Spielern besetz, die mit der besten Willen, durch üble Angewohnheit oder aus Mangel an Geschicklichkeit nicht in Stande sind, sich zu mässigen. Diesem übeln Umstande kann nur dadurch einigermässen abgeholfen werden, wenn man diese Subjekte mit ihren Instrumenten so viel als möglich in einem Winkel zu verstecken sucht.⁸⁸

Berlioz paid tribute to Weber as one of those who had:

compris toute l’importance du rôle des trombones… appliqué avec un intelligence parfaite humaine à la peinture des passions humaines, à la reproduction des bruits de la nature, les caractères divers de ce noble instrument… [et] en conséquence, conserve sa puissance, sa dignité, et sa poésie.⁸⁹

To accomplish this with the players he apparently had at his disposal is indeed a testimony to Weber’s skill as a composer.

1:3 Schubert

It is indeed unfortunate that Schubert’s ‘Great C Major’ symphony of 1826 had to wait until 1839 for its first performance, as his writing for trombones represented a major milestone in the section’s orchestral development. In Symphony No. 9, Schubert not only distanced himself from the cliché of using the section merely to enhance climaxes and provide reinforcement, but he was also apparently the first orchestral composer to demand soft, delicate playing in melodic passages as well as in chorale sections. To be sure, Schubert utilised the section to provide harmonic filler at times, but in the ‘Great C Major’ he distinguished himself by the significant amount of thematic material that is assigned to the trombones. According to Lewis Coerne:

No composer before [Schubert] had elicited from the trombone such impressive utterance as is to be found, for instance, in the first movement of the Symphony in C [D.944] where the trombones, pianissimo, intone the melody. The first innovation consisted, therefore, of employing the trombones freely as solo instruments, or again as independent factors in three part harmony, pianissimo, or in unison forte.⁹⁰

The solemn, majestic entrance of the trombones with strings in the introductory Andante of the first movement (Ex. 1.15), which Jadassohn calls ‘Eine grossartige Wirkung’,⁹¹is described by Forsyth as a ‘wonderful solo passage for the three trombones in unison’.⁹²Gevaert, on the other hand, found Schubert’s use of the trombone ‘banal’ and unnecessarily heavy.⁹³ It is noteworthy that Schubert has marked the passage fortissimo with accents. Perhaps the players still needed notational encouragement to ‘play out’,⁹⁴despite the fact that he had intended these parts for the trombonists of the well-known Wiener Musikgesellschaft Orchester.⁹⁵ As a correspondent for the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung reminds us, during the 1800s it was not customary to assign solo passages to the trombone:

Als Soloinstrument war es bis dahin noch gar nicht benutzt worden, etwa mit Ausnahme des Tuba mirum in Mozarts Requiem, wo aber gewöhnlich die Posaunenstimme dem Fagott zugetheilt wurde.⁹⁶

In any case, the dynamic and accents should not be taken too literally by trombonists, lest the strings be completely overwhelmed, for what Schubert seems to have been indicating is that the passage should be played soloistically and with a full sound. As J. Drew states, Schubert ‘gives the trombones a most prominent place at the beginning of the slow introduction… in which the strings are subservient and only provide harmonic interest’.⁹⁷ Schubert assigns melodic material for the trombones throughout the first movement. The passage at bar 102 (Ex. 1.16) with violas and lower strings must be played delicately and leggiero against the counter-theme in the violins. At bar 195 (Ex. 1.17), Schubert entrusts the extended theme to the trombones alone; the scoring for unison trombones in pianissimo producing a misterioso effect. As illustrated in Ex. 1.18, the trombone section, in fortissimo (bar 320), leads the orchestra to the first climax in movement one. The fz (see Ex. 1.19) should be thought of as meaning even more weight and stress than the notes with accent marks, but never with a hard attack. A true fff would be overpowering and out of character for a work of this period. As seen in Ex. 1.19, the unison trombones, again unsupported by any other instruments, are assigned the theme of the second half of the movement. The alto trombonist must be very vigilant with the intonation, since the low register requires long shifts of the slide between notes. Also, the first note of the theme, e♭, can be of very poor quality (Fröhlich’s Posaunenschule, published only fifteen years earlier, gave f as the alto’s lowest note⁹⁸). On the very narrow bore alto of Schubert’s time the e♭, especially at a substantial dynamic, could sound almost comical. Fortunately the note is doubled by the tenor and bass so that the first player can ‘ghost’ it if necessary. Bar 145 in the second movement (Ex. 1.20), is a deceptively perilous entry for the alto trombone. The woodwinds and strings play gently together during the trombones’ twelve-bar rest. In the last bar, as the strings, playing alone, make a diminuendo to a nearly inaudible piano quaver on an (unwritten) ‘hairpin’, the alto trombone must enter pianissimo on an a′. Intonation is especially critical for the first trombone – with the added risk of splitting the a′ – which the bass trombonist,⁹⁹playing an f, a tenth below, would be well advised to keep in mind. In bar 321 (Ex. 1.21), Schubert scores another solo-chorale for the trombones. It should be noted that the chorale begins pianissimo and proceeds to diminuendo in the fourth bar, where the horns enter. Although conductors tend to ask the trombones for a very soft entrance, if they start too piano the diminuendo may be minimal, thus spoiling the effect. The accents here are not to be thought of as sharp attacks. Schubert is indicating precise, separate entrances, with a slight lift between notes; otherwise the repeated notes have a tendency to sound like a single, sustained tone. In the third movement, Schubert requires extensive, gentle and lithe playing from the alto trombone – a style employed, it appears, for the first time in the orchestral context. Apparently there were those, such as Nicholas Bessaraboff, who objected to this type of trombone writing:

Although asked sometimes to display the agility of a youth, the trombone prefers a more dignified mode of expression. The trombone is like a man who has reached an age of discretion and concentrated power: its utterances have weight, and it cannot engage in five-o’clock tea talk. The trombone is primarily a masculine instrument and should not be made to sound like a frivolous dandy.¹⁰⁰

Schubert writes two exquisite obbligato passages for the trombones in the Trio of the third movement (Ex. 1.22a, b). His use of the alto with the woodwinds achieves an exquisite mingling of timbres, when played with a soft, delicate, lilting style. Unfortunately, this is all too frequently performed on the tenor trombone, whose large, dark sound tends to dominate and engulf the woodwinds.

1:3:1 Tessitura, score notation and the erste Abschriftstimme

Dr Glendening demonstrates the inherent risk of error in relying solely on tessitura to determine whether the first trombone part in Schubert’s works was intended for alto or tenor trombone, when he asserts that:

the use of the alto trombone is less [than] certain. The registers employed are conservative for the alto trombone and quite reasonable for the tenor trombone.¹⁰¹

For example, regarding the first trombone part of Schubert’s Ninth Symphony (D.944) he writes:

The range suggests that the first part may or may not have been for the alto trombone… [but] the number of unison passages in D.944 does favour the use of the tenor trombone for the first part.¹⁰²

Of Schubert’s sketch of Symphony No. 7 (D.729) he maintains that ‘the ranges appear to be most consistent with two tenors and a bass’,¹⁰³and on this basis considers it a contradiction that in the Kalmus-Belwin score (n.d.) of Symphony No. 8 the first trombone part is labelled alto, ‘in spite of the range [being] consistent with that of D.729’.¹⁰⁴ The highest note that Schubert demands of the alto trombone in his symphonic works is a c″ which occurs twice during the fourth movement of Symphony No. 9 in identical, unexposed phrases, doubled by the trumpet and second horn. The tessitura, though not quite as ‘tame’ as Weber’s, is rather modest by modern standards and well within the range of today’s tenor trombonist.¹⁰⁵On the other hand, the alto trombone parts of Schubert’s masses, which ‘contain a good deal of vocal accompaniment in the good, old-fashioned German way’¹⁰⁶are extremely taxing, demanding an excellent upper register as well as great stamina. According to Del Mar:

the custom… of doubling [the] voice parts in sacred works with trombones throughout… is to be found reflected in Schubert’s masses, during which the trombones are playing with the vocal parts for pages on end. In practice this is not only unthinkable on grounds of sheer endurance but musically intolerable, and it is barely credible that the trombonists of Schubert’s day played all the notes as they appear on the score.¹⁰⁷

This is especially true for the alto trombone part. In Schubert’s first edition of the Mass in A♭ Major an e″ is required of the first trombone (Ex. 1.23); the second edition demands ‘only’ a d♯”. Following Glendening’s reasoning to its logical conclusion, one would deduce that Schubert scored for an ATB section in his masses, but used a tenor-led section for his symphonic works. However, this is not the case: One must not lose sight of the fact that music scholars at this time, such as Sundelin¹⁰⁸and Marx,¹⁰⁹considered g′ as the extent of the tenor’s upper register. Causing further confusion is the fact that published editions of Schubert’s orchestral works often present the first trombone part in tenor clef, even though it was intended to be played on the alto trombone. According to Finke-Hecklinger:

Schubert notiert die drei Posaunenstimmen, wenn sie auf einem System geschrieben sind, in Tenorschlüssel, wenn auf zwei Systemen, in Altschlüssel für die Alt- und Tenorposaune, im Baßschlüssel für die Baßposaune.¹¹⁰

On the autograph score of his Ninth Symphony, for example, Schubert has put all the trombone parts on one stave in tenor clef. This might have been a matter of convenience – perhaps it avoided having to use ledger lines – or it could have been determined by the number of staves he had on his score paper. Kastner explains:

Dans les partitions nouvelles où quelquefois l’espace est très restreint, et où les trois trombones réunis ne donnent que des accords, ils [les trombones] sont notés l’un au dessus de l’autre sur une même portée. D’autres fois on note ensemble sur une seule portée les trombones alto et ténor sur la clef d’ut, 4me ligne.¹¹¹

Lobe suggests that ‘the most practical manner of arranging the score, is to write… the first and second trombones, the third trombone and tuba, each [pair] on one system’,¹¹²and Marx confirms this point:

Gesetzt werden die drei oder vier Posaunen nach ihrer Eintheilung auf drei oder vier Systemen in den jeder Art gebührenden Schlüsseln… Fehlt es an Raum, oder ist die Stimmführung einfach genug es zu erlauben, so kann man sich an zwei Systemen genügen lassen und Tenor– und Altposaune mit Tenorschlüssel notiren. Oder man kann sich selbst auf eine einzige Linie… beschränken und für alle drei Arten den F – Schlüssel – oder die höherer Tonlage den Tenorschlüssel anwenden.¹¹³

However, the original hand-copied first trombone part (‘erste Abschriftstimme’ ) to the Ninth Symphony is written in alto clef because, as Sundelin points out:

Wenn der Raum der Partitur sehr beschränkt ist, so setzt man, aber nur im höchsten Nothfall, die Alt- und die Tenorposaune auf ein Liniensystem, und schreibt die Noten für beide in den Tenorschlüssel. Beim Ausschreiben muß aber immer die Altposaunenstimme alsdann auch in den Altschlüssel transponirt werden, weil dieses Instrument nach keinem andern bläßt.¹¹⁴

Echoing the words of Sundelin, as well as Berlioz¹¹⁵and Adolph Marx,¹¹⁶Gevaert writes that the alto trombone part is always written in alto clef (‘toujours écrit sur la clef d’ut, 3e ligne’.¹¹⁷) If the composer does not use the corresponding clef for each species of trombone in his score, Gevaert continues, ‘quant aux clefs employées dans la notation de ces instruments, une assez grande confusion règne à cet égard…’¹¹⁸and it is left ‘au copiste ou au graveur le soin de transcrire chaque partie separée dans sa clef normale’.¹¹⁹This important point is demonstrated by Schubert’s copyist, whose first handwritten alto and tenor trombone parts of Symphony in C Major are shown in Examples 1.24 and 1.25.

1:4 Mendelssohn

According to Gevaert:

De tous les successeurs de Beethoven dans le genre symphonique, Mendelssohn est resté le plus fidèle aux traditions techniques du Maître.¹²⁰

However, with regard to the treatment of the trombones, the two composers were very different.¹²¹Whereas Beethoven, as we have seen, confined the section to harmonic support and added weight, Mendelssohn used the trombones thematically and dramatically. Although not all of the first trombone parts to his works demanded exceptional upper-register facility, a number of his compositions, including the Overture in C Major, Symphony in D Minor, the Overture ‘Ruy Blas’ and ‘Lobgesang’, feature the alto trombone in prominent passages in the highest tessitura of the instrument. One of Mendelssohn’s earliest orchestral works, the Overture in C Major, op. 101 (Ex. 1.26a, b), was first performed on 2 November 1826. In unison with the first horn and first trumpet, it requires the alto trombonist to play the forte passage, cited in the example, a total of five times, with a fermata on the e″ in the final bar of the piece. Perhaps even more difficult, the first trombonist must also play this passage in pianissimo. Symphony in D Minor, composed to commemorate the Reformation, was Mendelssohn’s only symphony to include trombone parts.¹²² According to Gevaert, the solemn sonority of the trombones was demanded ‘par le caractère en quelque sorte liturgique de l’oeuvre’.¹²³ Mendelssohn uses the trombones as part of the wind choir at the beginning (Ex. 1.27a, b) and conclusion (Ex. 1.28) of the symphony to establish and confirm the ceremonial mood. In the well-known Overture ‘Ruy Blas’ (completed in 1839), Mendelssohn scores a very demanding passage for the alto trombone (Ex. 1.29): Though doubled by the first horn, the alto has the more difficult part, having to approach the e♭″ from a fourth below. With the flutes, trumpets and strings tacet in this fanfare-chorale, the precarious note is particularly exposed. In bars 243-246 of the Allegro that follows, the first trombonist has a deceptively difficult run from a♭ to e♭. One must be attentive to the intonation as the first two trombones are in unison while the bass trombone plays an octave lower; moreover the alto trombonist may have tendency to play the e sharp for fear of losing the slide as well as to minimize the ‘snap’ from seventh position to first-position e♭. (See also n. 4, Chapter 2)

1:4:1 Range (Marx)

A few years later, perhaps implicitly criticizing Mendelssohn, Marx would write:

dass die Posaune in ihren hohen Tönen an Karakter und Macht, verliert, daher wir rathen, so weit es nur möglich, die Alt-posaune nicht höher als bis zum zweigestrichnen c (schon diese Ton klingt gezwängt)’.¹²⁴

In the Overture ‘Ruy Blas’, bar 364 to the end requires great stamina on the part of the alto trombonist, as Mendelssohn requires the first trombonist to play continuously in the upper register for a total of fifty-one successive bars at forte and fortissimo. Sixteen bars from the end the alto ascends higher than the first trumpet¹²⁵and then proceeds to play nineteen consecutive high c″s before finishing with a fermata on a g′. In ‘Lobgesang’ Mendelssohn used all the trombones thematically, featuring them in solo and unison statements throughout the work. The majestic sound of unaccompanied trombones solemnly introduces the theme, thus setting the mood with great effect. According to Sir Charles Groves, Queisser, the famed trombonist of the Gewandhaus Orchester which premiered the work in 1840, is ‘still remembered by the story of his introducing a turn into the opening phrase of Mendelssohn’s ‘Hymn of Praise’ at the first rehearsal’, to Mendelssohn’s immense amusement: ‘Se non è vero, e ben trovato’¹²⁶(see Ex. 1.30). As illustrated in Ex. 1.31(a, b), the trombone’s pronouncements continue unaccompanied through bar 12. Bar 6 descends uncomfortably low for the small-bore alto trombone to d, a note that Berlioz would describe four years later in his Grand Traité as being of poor quality (‘d’un mauvais timbre’)¹²⁷on the alto; however, Mendelssohn masks the sound by doubling the alto with the tenor and bass. A short passage with the kernel of the motiv for the first trombone in bars 7-8 of No. 2 (‘Allegro moderato maestoso’) in Ex. 1.32, is very likely the first solo statement written for the alto trombone in the standard orchestral repertoire.¹²⁸ Two very high passages for the alto trombone occur while doubling the soprano, as shown in Exx. 1.33 and 1.34. It might be appropriate at this juncture to point out that the alto trombone, while providing a tone colour distinctly brighter and less heavy than the tenor, aids not so much in accuracy as in sustaining notes in this tessitura.

1:4:2 Belcke and Queisser

According to Mendelssohn, although there were few skilled musicians in German orchestras, the bass trombonist¹²⁹– not the first trombonist – was invariably one of the most proficient players:

… dass [war] eben Elend in Deutschland, dass die Bassposaune und der Pauker und der Contrabass vortrefflich sind, und alle übrigen höchst niedrigträchtig.¹³⁰

Two of the most celebrated bass trombonists of this period were the famed virtuosi Friedrich Belcke (1795-1874) of Berlin – once described as the ‘premier trombone du roi du Prusse’¹³¹– and Carl Traugott Queisser (1800-1846) of Leipzig, whom Schumann described as ‘Queisser der Posaunengott’,¹³²both of whom rose from the ranks of the Stadtpfeiffer.¹³³ Edward Holmes wrote:

[of] the famous trombonist H. Queisser I have heard nothing so soft, round and deep as the tone of this extraordinary player who has, at the age of twenty seven, attained the most surprising mastery.¹³⁴

Queisser was eulogised by the correspondent of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung as a virtuoso, unsurpassed by any trombonist in the world (‘an Virtuosität in den Passagen übertraf ihn wohl kein Posaunist Deutschlands, d. h. der Welt, da anerkanntermassen die Instrumentalmusik in Deutschland am Höchsten steht’¹³⁵). Baines maintains that while Belcke was a bass trombonist, Queisser performed solo works on the tenor trombone and played alto trombone in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester.¹³⁶According to Rasmussen:

Both Belcke and Queisser are usually referred to as bass trombone players. Just what kind of instrument they played is difficult to determine, but it seems safe to suggest that they played a variety of instruments during the course of their careers, including a wide-bore B♭ tenor trombone, a wide-bore B♭ tenor trombone with Quartventil, and perhaps even an old-fashioned bass trombone in F.¹³⁷

Moreover, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung’s obituary of Queisser remembers him as a bass trombonist:

Zu welcher staunenswerthen Meisterschaft er es auf diesem schwierigen Instrumente – der Bassposaune – gebracht, weisst die ganze musikalische Welt.¹³⁸

Given Mendelssohn’s opinion of German bass trombone playing, and that Queisser – whose career in the Gewandhaus spanned the years 1827-46 – was a member of the orchestra during Mendelssohn’s term as Chief Conductor, as well as the fact that the bass trombonist was customarily paid more than the other members of the section, it seems likely that the Leipzig virtuoso did play bass trombone, at least some of the time, in the Gewandhaus orchestra. However, for an instrumentalist of his apparent skill, it is not impossible that Queisser played both alto and bass trombone in the orchestra, as we have seen that it was not uncommon at that time for orchestral players to double on an array of brass instruments. Today an alto-bass double would be considered extremely unusual due to the major differences in the use of one’s embouchure and air. On the other hand, it is very common for a first trombonist to double on alto and on a ‘wide-bore B♭ tenor trombone with Quartventil’, and perhaps this is the type of bass trombone Queisser used in the orchestra. In any case, the fact that players of the calibre of Belcke and Queisser chose not the alto as the vehicle to demonstrate their virtuosity perhaps suggests a shifting of musical tastes away from the heretofore most prominent species of the section.

1:5 Schumann

A hallmark of Schumann’s writing for the trombones is the use of the section in soft solo chorale passages. By far the most significant is the solemn chorale with which Schumann begins the fourth movement of the Third Symphony (Ex. 1.35). Max Alberti writes that:

to the usual four movements an additional movement was inserted between the Andante and the Finale, inspired by the Cologne Cathedral and the festivities on the occasion of the Archbishop von Greissel’s elevation to the Cardinalate. It is a slow and solemn movement, hence, contrary to the other movements, the full orchestral apparatus including trombones was used… The fourth movement was originally inscribed ‘Im Character der Begleitung einer feierlichen Zeremonie’.¹³⁹

This chorale is one of the most difficult – if not the most difficult – passages written for the alto trombone. It is insightful to appraise Schumann’s style of trombone scoring in light of the remarks made by contemporary and contemporaneous writers. For example, Del Mar describes it as ‘a cruel entry’,¹⁴⁰ as the trombonist must enter ‘cold’ after three tacet movements. The fact that it is in unison with the first horn does not minimise the difficulty, as the line is very exposed and any slip is immediately apparent to all listeners. Under very nerve-wracking conditions, great lip flexibility and a relaxed embouchure is required to span an interval of an eleventh, up to a sustained e♭″, within the space of three bars. This is just the opposite of what Widor contended was required: ‘l’extrême tension des lèvres’.¹⁴¹Firm support of the diaphragm is absolutely essential to produce a smooth legato in pianissimo in this range. Gevaert maintained that legato passages such as these could not be performed adequately on the slide trombone – a style of writing seen only in German music.

Le chant lié ne peut s’exécuter d’une manière satisfiante sur le trombone à coulisse, seul usité en Allemagne… ¹⁴²

The author further reasons that glissandi are inevitable on the trombone:

… lorsque les intonations liés proviennent de positions différentes, à cause des intervalles intermédiares que le glissement de la coulisse produit inévitablement.¹⁴³

Unfortunately, Gevaert is unclear whether ‘le chant lié’ was in fact performed satisfactorily by German trombonists. He goes on to say that this style of writing for trombones was even uncommon in Germany (‘mais ce cas est assez rare’.¹⁴⁴)According to Gevaert:

En général les maîtres allemands ont traité le trombone à coulisse à manière d’une voix chorale, ne lui donnant que de grosses notes ou de courtes phrases d’un vigoureux dessin rythmique, et ne séparant jamais le ténor de ses deux compagnons.¹⁴⁵

One notes that the prevailing opinion of what constituted suitable trombone writing had remained relatively unchanged from Sundelin’s day. Gevaert’s explanation that slide trombonists would play a slurred passage simply as sustained notes (‘à l’exécution il se convertit en un simple sostenuto’¹⁴⁶) suggests that trombonists at this time, or at least the ones whom Gevaert observed, were not adept at legato-tongue technique or supporting with the diaphragm. Indeed, in order to mask this deficiency, according to Gevaert composers would frequently double legato phrases for the trombone with other low-pitched instruments:

Comme la plupart des traits chantants des trombones sont doublés par d’autres instruments graves, le compositeur n’a pas scrupule de mettre des liaisons illusoires, comptant sur l’effect de la masse pour couvrir les défaillances individuelles.¹⁴⁷

Thus it appears that the assumption made during J. S. Bach’s time – that the trombone was an instrument with inherent deficiencies which were virtually impossible to overcome – had prevailed almost into the twentieth century. According to Gevaert, ‘cet instrument, on le voit, offrait d’assez maigres resources techniques à la virtuosité individuelle’.¹⁴⁸ Widor, not very helpfully, describes Schumann’s writing for trombones as ‘tantôt trop haut, tantôt trop bas’;¹⁴⁹presumably he felt this was an example of the former. Although the first horn plays bars 1-8 of Ex. 1.35 in unison with the alto trombone, the part is not quite as difficult. Not only is the first horn accustomed to seeing even higher notes, it has the advantage of valves for producing a smooth legato. Moreover, the third horn doubles the first horn at times, thus enabling the latter to breathe undetected during the phrase and to re-set his embouchure for the upper register. Robert Sheldon, musical instrument curator at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, adds:

I doubt that the horn-trombone doubling on the theme was a kind of safety factor but rather for an assured sustained effect due to staggered breathing possibilities to be worked out between the players if necessary.¹⁵⁰

Additionally, one should note that when the theme is re-introduced in the 3/2 section, (Ex. 1.35, bars 30-58), the trombones play the chorale unsupported as the alto trombone soars above the horns and trumpets. Widor, who mistakenly believed this passage was intended for a section with two (if not three) tenors, as was the custom in France at that time, wrote that:

Schumann se sert encore de la clef d’Alto pour ses deux premiers Trombones; il les écrit d’ailleurs comme si c’étaient des Trombones-Altos, témoin… de sa III^e Symphonie… C’est là, certainement, un example d’écriture dangereuse… Soyons sages, n’écrivons pas si haut.¹⁵¹

Kunitz, in pointing out Widor’s mistake, compounds the error by asserting that Schumann had intended both the first and the second part to be played on the alto trombone: ‘Schumann hat hier tatsächlich Altposaunen verlangt’.¹⁵²According to Del Mar, such confusion arose from Schumann’s unorthodox score notation, which placed the first two trombones on a single stave of alto clef:

written without regard to the actual instruments playing the lines… thus producing the anomaly that the instruments… will not be at all two altos… but one.¹⁵³

Although Gevaert described this chorale as: ‘cette phrase religieuse, d’allure austère et imposant’,¹⁵⁴he contended that ‘evidemment Schumann, à cet endroit, a voulu rendre par les trombones un effet de cors’.¹⁵⁵However, it seems more likely that Schumann turned to the sound of the trombones to express the feeling of solemnity and enhanced the sound with the addition of the similar-timbred horns to capture the sense of serene majesty. As Robert Sheldon asserts, ‘the theme and its treatment is very much in a trombone chorale style’.¹⁵⁶ Gevaert argued that Schumann, like Schubert:

… [a] montré un goût moins pur. Trop souvent un grossier placage de trombones alourdit l’instrumentation de leurs symphonies et rappelle les formules banales de l’orchestre rossinien.¹⁵⁷

Sheldon disagrees, maintaining that:

Schumann is, for my taste, wrongfully and too often over-criticized for poor orchestration and over-doubling. For me the 4th movement opening is an example of beautifully effective doubling, the three trombones, two bassoons, and three of the four horns working together as a fine octet of relatively dark sounding timbres. The only constant doubling throughout those measures in the brass is the melody line. It could have been done instead with the two upper horns (1st and 3rd) which then might have put the 1st trombone somewhere in the middle harmony lines, and… played on an alto… would have risked lightening the effect [as] the approach to horn playing (and this is ditto for the long trumpets in E-flat and F) [was] probably very laid back and carefully applied, never forced, little edge, and rather dark and poopy sounding – especially considering the very funnel-shaped horn mouthpieces of the period, often made of sheet metal with a rolled-over solder-on rim and therefore with no modern back bore… Compared to such horn timbre, trombones have (had) a more defined sound, and that opening just screams out (to me) to have the alto on the lead voice whether or not doubled by the horn. It really is trombone music, emotionally speaking, and Schumann’s voicing has the three trombones covering lead, principal bass, and an inner voice with the horns and bassoons just filling it out… Considering the period equipment, Schumann got the best effect as an orchestrator. Robert Russell Bennett could not have done it better for my tastes.¹⁵⁸

Also known as the ‘Rhenish Symphony’, it was written for the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra which was, according to Carse, a second-echelon orchestra during the mid-1800s.¹⁵⁹In 1835, Mendelssohn gave this scathing description of the orchestra:

[In Düsseldorf] ist so durchaus gar keine Musik zu hören und zu machen, dass ich mich wieder nach einem bessern Orchester sehne… Wenn Du mich einmal dies Orchester dirigieren hörtest, Dich trächten vier Pferde nicht zum zweiten Male hin.¹⁶⁰

But according to Ferdinand Hiller, only a short time later, by the time Schumann took over as director, the orchestra had improved greatly:

Als ich gegen das Ende des Jahres 1847 als Dirigent nach Düsseldorf gekommen, fand ich die Musik dort auf einer ganz anderen Stufe stehend. Ferdinand Rietz hatte nicht vergeblich dort eine zwölfjahre Wirksamkeit enthaltet. Bei meiner übersiedlung nach Köln, 1850, vermittelte ich die Besetzung der Stelle durch Robert Schumann.¹⁶¹

Orchestral writing for the ATB trio reaches its peak with Schumann’s Fourth Symphony, which marks his most creative use of the trombones. Exploiting several facets of their tone colour, Schumann uses the trombones in prominent chorales (Ex. 1.36) and in dramatic unisons and octaves, both solemn (Exx. 1.37, 1.38) and ominous (Ex. 1.39).

Chapter 2: The Ascent of the Tenor Trombone

2:1 Berlioz

At the epicenter of the changes occurring in the mid-nineteenth century stood Berlioz, whose writings, both musical and literary, are central to this thesis. Despite his overall preference for the tenor trombone,¹ Berlioz regretted that: ‘le trombone alto soit, à cette heure, banni de tous nos orchestres parisiens’.² This oft-quoted lament, first made in 1842 and repeated in his Traité of 1844, reflected Berlioz’s despair over the absence of the alto trombone due to the loss of the notes b′ – f″ (‘les sons hauts, tels que Si, Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, peuvent être fort utiles…’³), giving us a clear indication of what he considered the uppermost useable range on the tenor trombone. Kastner concurred:

Le Trombone Alto qui est d’un usage général en Allemagne, ne se rencontre en France que dans fort peu d’Orchestres, ce qui est très malheureux, car le Trombone Ténor destiné à le footnotepléer ne peut pas monter aussi haut, et le compositeur se trouve privé d’employer les notes dont il pourrait tirer grand parti.⁴

On the other hand, Berlioz found the alto’s sound somewhat unpleasant; and that the low notes d down to A were of particularly poor quality (‘d’un mauvais timbre’⁵) and best to be avoided, especially since they were excellent on the tenor trombone:

Son timbre est un peu grêle, comparitivement à celui des Trombones plus graves. Ses notes inférieures sonnent assez mal; il est d’autant plus raisonnable de les éviter en général, que ces mêmes notes sont excellents sur le Trombone Ténor.⁶

Nevertheless, Berlioz’s opinions of the alto, expressed in 1842 and again in 1844, give the clear impression that despite its limitations he felt there was a definite place for the alto trombone in the orchestra, basically as an upper-register aid. Indeed, on the autograph score of the Symphonie Fantastique (1830), Berlioz wrote by the first trombone part: ‘Il ne faut pas comme on le fait souvent en France jouer le trombone alto sur un grand trombone, je demande un véritable alto’⁷ (Figs. 2.1, 2.1a).

Figure 2.1: Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique, autograph score page 1⁸

Figure 2.1a: Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique, autograph score page 1, inset, shows an enlargement of the relevant passage.

‘Je demande un véritable trombone alto’

However, in a letter to Louise Bertin, singer/pianist and daughter of the editor of the Paris Journal des Débats, written three months prior to publication of the Traité and nearly a year after submitting the manuscript for publication,⁹ Berlioz expressed a less well-known opinion which at first blush appears to contradict his previous statements about the alto trombone. Based on his conducting experiences in Berlin, he wrote:

Observations réiterées, faites à Berlin, m’ont conduit à penser que la meilleure manière de grouper les trombones dans les théâtres, est, après tout, celle qu’on a adoptée à l’Opéra de Paris, et qui consiste à employer ensemble trois trombones ténors. Le timbre du petit trombone (l’alto) est grêle, et ses notes hautes ne présentent que peu d’utilité. Je voterais donc aussi pour son exclusion dans les théâtres.¹⁰

Dr David Mathie contends that there is ‘no contradiction [between the two opinions because] Berlioz only refers to the opera and theatre orchestras, not the symphony orchestr.¹¹ However, as Guion points out, in France:

after 1791 it appears that most public concert music was performed in theatres by theatre orchestras. Perhaps for this reason, trombone parts in French concert music did not differ significantly from those in theatre music.¹²

Moreover, whether a trombone section plays upon or below the stage, the concept of ensemble and blend are essentially the same. In truth, Berlioz’s two opinions are not difficult to reconcile, for what he appears to be saying in his letter to Mademoiselle Bertin is that, provided there is no loss of the notes b′ – f″, for reasons of sonority, balance and section blend it is best to replace the alto trombone with a tenor. He also advocated using the bass trombone only in section with the three tenors.¹³ Kastner differed with Berlioz:

… le Trombone-Alto, le Trombone-Basse très répondu en Allemagne est presque inusité en France: on comprend que ce sont là un grand désavantage pour nos compositeurs… Quelques professeurs semblent s’en applaudir, en disant que l’unité de timbre d’une harmonie si flatteuse, dans les orchestres ne peut s’obtenir que par des instruments égaux: nous ne partageons aucunement leur opinion à cet égard, et nous voyons avec pein les compositeurs Français adoptir presqu’exclusivement l’usage d’écrire les presqu’ trois parties de Trombones pour le Trombone tenor… Nous pensons que c’est un grant tort de n’avoir point conservé les trois timbres différents du Trombone Basse, Ténor et Alto dont la diversité nous parait fort utile et fort désirable.¹⁴

Gevaert also lamented the ‘malencontreuse transformation’¹⁵ of the trombone trio into a section of three tenors:

Par cette innovation regrettable le troupe des trombones a vu son étendu s’amoindrir d’une octave entière. Ses qualités sonores et techniques en ont reçu une atteinte non moins sensible: en effect, le trombone ténor manque d’aisance et d’éclat dans le haut; au-dessous d’ut2 il n’a guère de puissance et aucune mobilité.¹⁶

According to Macdonald, ‘Berlioz wrote for the alto trombone in his early music with the upper trombone part notated in the alto clef, at least through the composition of Harold en Italie (1834)’.¹⁷ This includes the Messe solennelle – the part reaches e♭″¹⁸ – Scène héroique, La Mort d’Orphée, the overtures Les Francs-Juges, Waverley and Roi-Lear, Cléopâtre¹⁹ and the 1832 version of Lélio.²⁰ With regard to Harold, the first trombone part is not particularly high by today’s standards, and it is doubtful that many professional trombonists are aware that Berlioz had intended the first part to be played on an alto. As Hans Bartenstein states:

Auch die 1. Pos. des ‘Harold en Italie’ ist noch im Altschlüssel notiert und geht mehrmals bis h′, was laut Gr. tr. schon fast über der Umfangsgrenze der Tenor-Pos liegt, aber tatsächlich von ihr ausführbar ist.²¹

The alto trombone was also used, according to Julian Rushton, in early performances in Germany of the ‘Marche Hongroise’ from Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust (1846). The first trombone was taken by an alto instrument; the manuscript part contains several alterations to accommodate it, sometimes a change of octave, sometimes simply a passage into the alto clef.²²

A late alto trombone curiosity appears in the 1847 published first trombone part of Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliet. Composed in 1839 (Ex. 2.1), the first part was intended for tenor trombone. However, in the edition that was published eight years later, the bracketed bars in the example above were written an octave higher in the part²³ (but not the score),²⁴ which would surely have necessitated the use of the alto trombone, given that Berlioz considered a c♯″, a semitone lower to be essentially only a theoretical note on the tenor.²⁵

Regarding the 1849 Te Deum, Denis McCaldin writes that:

it is from the autograph score that Berlioz originally planned the uppermost trombone part for the alto instrument [but] changed his mind and was obliged to alter… the bars of the ‘Judex, Crederis’ in order to accommodate the lower range of the tenor trombone.²⁶

By changing the designation of the first trombone part from alto to tenor and rewriting passages lower (Ex. 2.2), it is apparent that by 1849 Berlioz was ‘acquiescing to the inevitable’,²⁷ since with the previous abandonment of the bass trombone ‘le trombone alto n’avait plus guère de raisons d’exister’.²⁸ By 1863 Gevaert could write that in orchestral trombone sections, ‘trois ténors [sont] les seuls… [qu’]on connaisse en France’.²⁹ Anthony Baines suggests that:

In settling on one single species players had merely bowed to a new professional logic. The instruments were no longer a set of three owned by a municipality. Players provided their own, as they have done since, and the tenor, on which any part, whether a single part or one of three, could be dealt with somehow was the obvious choice, particularly when serpent or ophicleide became subjoined as a bass voice below the trio.³⁰

Given his preference for the tenor trombone, it seems that it was not so much for reasons of tone colour that Berlioz designated an alto trombone for the first part, but because he thought the register was beyond a tenor trombonist’s capability.³¹

2:1:1 Nomenclature and the primacy of the tenor trombone

It appears that beginning with the 1835 version of Le Cinq Mai, Berlioz designated the tenor trombone for the first part and ‘wrote his three trombone parts on tenor and bass staves and presumed that all the players would use tenor trombones’.³² Although Berlioz advocated a section of three tenors, he felt that to use the tenor trombone when an alto (or bass) had been intended by a composer was:

admettre en général une pareille latitude dans l’interprétation des volontés du compositeur [et] ouvrir la porte à toute les infidélités, à tous les abus.³³

Kastner maintained that this practice led to nomenclature problems:

En général, les compositeurs français ne se servent que du Trombone-Tenor qu’ils écrivent, à trois parties, mais qu’ils continuent souvent d’indiquer par les dénominations de: Alto, Ténor et Basse, ce qui, a l’étranger donne lieu à de singuliers embarras³⁴

However, while he preferred the bigger and more powerful tenor trombone with its ‘sonorité fort et pleine’, Koury maintains that ‘it would be a mistake to conclude that Berlioz liked a lot of noise’.³⁵ According to Berlioz it was up to the conductor to ensure that with its powerful voice, the trombone’s majesty did not degenerate into raucousness:

Le préjugé vulgaire appelle bruyants les grands orchestres: s’ils sont bien composés, bien exercés et bien dirigés; et s’ils exécutent de la vraie musique, c’est puissants qu’il faut dire: et, certes, rien n’est plus dissemblable que le sens de ces deux expressions… Trois trombones mal placés, paraitront bruyants, infootnoteportables, et l’instant d’après dans la même salle douze Trombones étonneront le public par leur noble et puissante harmonie.³⁶

The composer shares equal responsibility with the conductor, continued Berlioz. Echoing the words of Albrechtsberger³⁷ he heaped scorn on ‘la foule des compositeurs’³⁸ who vulgarized this noble and dignified instrument, so capable of depicting ‘passions humaines’.³⁹

Le son du Trombone est tellement caracterisé, qu’il ne doit jamais être entendu que pour produire un effet spécial… [Il] possède en effet au footnoterême degré la noblesse et grandeur; il a tous les accents graves ou forts de la haute poésie musicale, depuis l’accent religieuse, imposant et calme, jusqu’aux clameurs forcenées de l’orgie. Il depend du compositeur de la faire tour à chanter comme un choeur de prêtres, menacer, gémir, sourdement, murmure un glas funèbre, étonner un hymne de gloire, éclater en horrible cris, ou sonner sa redoutable fanfare pour le réveil des morts ou la mort des vivants… Mais le contraindre… à hurler dans credo des phrases brutales moins dignes du temple saint que de la taverne… [ou] à meler sa voix olympienne à la mesquine melodie d’un vaudeville… c’est dégrader une individualité magnifique; c’est faire d’un héros un esclave et un buffon; c’est décolorer l’orchestre…; c’est volontairement faire acte de vandalisme, ou prouver une absence de sentiment de l’expression qui approche de la stupidité.⁴⁰

The tenor trombone solo from the ‘Oraison Funèbre’ of Berlioz’s Grande Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale of 1840 (Ex. 2.3) is the first major solo for an orchestral trombonist to appear in the standard repertoire. Of grand proportion, only the trombone solo in Mahler’s Third Symphony can rival it in magnitude and stature. The trombone was no doubt selected by Berlioz for its funeral associations and solemn tone. A strenuous solo, it requires great expressive ability and a broad, sustained, cantabile sound. Moreover, as the soloist is called upon a number of times to play b′, a note we recall Berlioz considered to be in the alto register, an alternate solo part for alto valve-trombone was provided by the composer. Berlioz wrote in the manuscript: ‘A defaut d’un Trombone ténor assez habile pour bien rendre la partie recitante de ce morceau, on peut l’exécuter sur un Trombone alto à pistons en F.⁴¹

2:2 The Alto Valve-Trombone

The alto valve-trombone is described by Berlioz in his Grand Traité as basically the same instrument as the valve cornet but ‘avec un peu plus de sonorité’.⁴² Pitched in the same keys (E♭ and F), both written in treble clef and both probably using very similar mouthpieces,⁴³ there seems very little to distinguish one from the other.⁴⁴ More than likely it was a logical double for cornetists. Thus, when we are told that on February 12 1848, in a concert at Drury Lane with Berlioz conducting, Koenig, one of England’s foremost cornet virtuosos at the time,⁴⁵ performed the ‘Funeral Oration’ from the Sinfonie Funèbre on alto trombone, it is likely that the instrument meant was an alto valve-trombone.⁴⁶ The alto valve-trombone appears to have been used in French orchestras more as a solo instrument than as a member of the trombone section. Moreover, according to Berlioz:

on écrit souvent pour le Trombone alto à pistons des solos chantants. Bien phrasée, une melodie peut avoir ainsi beaucoup de charme.⁴⁷

Del Mar states that:

cantabile solos are a rarity [for trombone] in symphonic literature and become a major feature when they do occur, as in the slow movement of Berlioz’s Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale.⁴⁸

Legato playing on the slide trombone is especially difficult in the upper register, requiring a strong embouchure, footnoteported by a well-developed diaphragm. It is perhaps indicative of how difficult this solo⁴⁹ was considered at the time that Cioffi, one of England’s leading trombone soloists and a member of Berlioz’s 1848 Drury Lane orchestra, did not perform the solo part.⁵⁰ Contrary to received opinion, Berlioz was not the first composer to score for the alto valve-trombone. In 1838, two years earlier, Halévy scored for a valved ‘trombone soprano’ in his opera Guido et Ginévra (see Ex. 2.4, 2.5, 2.6) which seems to be the same instrument Kastner and Berlioz refer to as an ‘alto à piston’ in their respective Traités. According to Kastner:

Plusiers maîtres, entr’autres Halévy, ont écrit des très jolis solos pour le trombone alto à pistons. Il faut naturellement que ces solos offrent un chant large et une mélodie distinguée.⁵¹

Berlioz enthusiastically describes the first appearance of this instrument in Halévy’s opera thus:

‘cet instrument nouveau, trés bien joué par M. Schlitz, a un son large et ample tout-à-fait différent du cornet à piston on a tant abusé. Il monte facilement, et conserve dans tout son étendue le timbre qui lui est propre’.⁵²

Halévy’s new instrument functions as the most treble instrument in a brass group consisting of itself, two valved trumpets pitched in C and two valved horns in F (Ex. 2.4a, b). In the same opera, Halévy also assigned to a trombone soprano à piston en Mi a solo which in 1925 Flandrin described as ‘peut-etre le plus haut et le plus dramatique solo de trombone qu’existe’.⁵³ (Exx. 2.5a, b, c; 2.6a, b) Robin Gregory misleads us when he writes that ‘Thomas appears to have had a particular affection for this instrument [i.e. the alto], for he gave it an important solo in the Overture to Le Compte de Carmagnola (1841)’.⁵⁴ Flandrin also misleads us when he states that the part was intended for an ‘alto en mi’⁵⁵ by failing to distinguish between the slide and valved species, as shown in the autograph score (Ex. 2.7a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l). According to the autograph score, Thomas assigned the solo to a valved alto trombone in E, a separate instrument apart from the three-member trombone section. Moreover, as one would expect, the alto valve-trombone part in Thomas’s manuscript of Carmagnola is written in treble clef.

2:3 The Tenor Valve-Trombone

Almost concurrent with the alto being phased out in France, was the introduction of the tenor valve-trombone. Although Friedrich Blühmel’s 1818 patent foresaw the invention of the three-valved tenor trombone,⁵⁶ it appears that this instrument was not built until the mid 1820s by other instrument-makers in Prague or Vienna. In 1836, Jacques Christoph Labbaye patented the first French three-piston tenor trombone.⁵⁷ Although the tenor valve-trombone (and to a slightly lesser extent, the bass valve-trombone) enjoyed widespread, albeit relatively short-lived⁵⁸ usage⁵⁹ throughout Europe during the mid-1800s, French composers in particular embraced the instrument, not only for its technical capabilities (see Ex. 2.8, 2.9) but especially for the lyrical, legato qualities it offered. (See Ex. 2.10, 2.11). Norman Del Mar contends that the slide:

makes a sentimental portamento (or worse still, glissando) very hard to avoid in legato phrases. No doubt it was on this account that the valve [tenor] trombone made a brief appearance.⁶⁰

Recalling Gevaert’s statement that ‘le chant lié ne peut s’éxécuter d’une manière satisfaisante sur le trombone à coulisse, seul usité en Allemagne’⁶¹ and the 1846 Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung’s smug assertion that it was generally acknowledged that the standard of German instrumental music was the highest in the world (‘da anerkanntermaassen die Instrumentalmusik in Deutschland am Höchsten steht’⁶²), it may be that French trombonists were less proficient in legato playing than their German counterparts. Indeed, in Kastner’s Méthode Elémentaire pour le Trombone he instructs the pupil to place minute silences between slurred notes in order to avoid glissandi.⁶³ Berlioz also scored for the tenor valve-trombone in the 1846, Damnation of Faust (Ex. 2.9), discussed above. Rushton states that:

a fourth trombone is specified in the ‘Marche Hongroise’ from bar 96 to the end. It does not play elsewhere and no separate part has been found; it is wholly in unison with trombone 1. It is not clear why Berlioz here specified the unusual tenor trombone a pistons.⁶⁴

The explanation that eludes Rushton is obvious to almost any trombonist. The very important first nine bars shown in the Ex. 2.9, played in unison by all three players, while technically awkward for the slide trombonist⁶⁵ present no such problem for the valve trombonist. Moreover, if the first trombonist were to use an alto, the bracketed notes would be very weak. Finally, the last sixty bars, which should be very prominent, are very taxing for the first trombonist and doubling would help ‘zur Verstärkung der 1. Posaune für den Höhe Punkt’.⁶⁶ Kunitz and Gregory both cite a solo passage that occurs in the first trombone part during Act 1 of Ambroise Thomas’s 1868 opera Hamlet, as a ‘curiously late example of the use of the alto trombone’⁶⁷ in French music. According to Kunitz, ‘dieser Fall ist um so bemerkenswerter, als in den französischen Orchestern bereits seit 1830 keine Altposaune mehr verwendet wurden’.⁶⁸ However, despite the unusually high tessitura of the solo, the contention that Thomas specified an alto trombone seems to be without foundation as the autograph score specifically states ‘1st Trombone Tenor Solo’, as shown in Ex. 2.10(a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o). Moreover, on the score of the first printed edition published by Heugel (Ex. 2.11), it is suggested that ‘ce solo [est] mieux exécuté sur un trombone à pistons’.⁶⁹ In his Nouveau Traité Gevaert confirms that Thomas intended the solo to be played on a tenor valve-trombone and informs us that originally it was performed at the Opéra on Sax’s six-valve model⁷⁰ (see Fig. 2.2), which according to Flandrin, from about 1866 to 1873 became obligatory in the Opéra, causing ‘a cette époque la presque disparition du trombone à coulisse’.⁷¹ During this time Dieppo, under pressure from Général Mellinet, Inspecteur des Musique Regimentaires, was compelled to teach the Sax valve-trombone at the Gymnase Militaire to the exclusion of the slide trombone.⁷² French B♭ tenor trombone with six independent valves, Adolphe Sax, Paris, ca. 1852. Gevaert states that in France:

Le système des pistons n’est appliqué jusqu’à ce jour qu’au trombone ténor… Aujourd’hui… l’usage général de trombone à pistons permet sans aucune restrictions de lier tous les sons entre eux.⁷³

He specifically cites the Hamlet solo as an example of how composers could write more expressively for the tenor trombone as a result of the application of the valved mechanism.⁷⁴ Significantly, Gevaert writes in his Nouveau Traité d’Instrumentation of 1885, nearly two decades after Hamlet had first been performed, that although

le trombone-alto possède plus de mobilité, plus de souplesse que le ténor; à l’orchestre néanmoins il n’a jamais été traité, que je sache, en instrument solo.⁷⁵

Unfortunately the original parts, which might provide further confirmation, no longer exist.⁷⁶ Nevertheless, there appears to be no evidence to footnoteport the contention that the Hamlet solo was intended for the alto (slide) trombone. According to Gevaert, from around 1850 tenor valve-trombones were prevalent not only in France but throughout Europe, as military brass bands customarily included three tenor valve-trombones.⁷⁷ Moreover, composers were accustomed to viewing the tenor valve-trombone as a solo instrument, as it often assumed this role in the Fanfare ensemble.

Même que la première trompette, mais moins souvent, le premier trombone est un des organes mélodiques de la Fanfare: une puissante voix de ténor aux accents tour à tour héroïques, onctueux ou terribles.⁷⁸

For example, given the range and extensive legato playing that is demanded, a tenor valve-trombone would have been considered ideal for the lyrical first trombone solo⁷⁹ in Halévy’s opera, Le Juif Errant (Ex. 2.12) composed in 1852, the same year that Sax brought out his six-valve instrument.⁸⁰ In 1873, thanks largely to the efforts of Dieppo’s former student Paul Delisse, ‘non moins brilliant instrumentaliste’,⁸¹ study of the slide trombone was restored in France.⁸²

2:3:1 Rossini’s Guillaume Tell

Bate makes the dubious assertion that:

such men as Rossini began to write bravura trombone parts which even today are not easy to realise except on the valved instrument… He is perhaps the most important of the composers who were beguiled by this feature, and we can think of passages in l’Italiana in Algeri for example, which probably terrified contemporary slide trombonists.⁸³

Contrary to what Bate maintains, not only are there no trombone parts in the 1813 L’Italiana, but Rossini’s most prolific years as a composer pre-date the advent of the valve trombone.⁸⁴ A popular concert item assumed by many trombonists to have been written for valve trombones, Rossini’s overture to the opera Guillaume Tell, (Ex. 2.13) was premièred at the Paris Opera in 1829. The overture stands out from among Rossini’s compositions as containing his most technically demanding trombone parts.⁸⁵ According to Bartenstein, Berlioz would never have written anything as difficult for the slide trombone.

Schwierige Gänge in rascher Bewegung wie etwa die auf der Zug-posaune kaum ausführbaren donnernden Passagen im 1. Allegro (Sturm) von Rossinis ‘Tell’ Ouv. vermeidet Berlioz durchweg.⁸⁶

It seems rather ironic that the dramatic storm scene, with its rapid, ascending and descending scales, which would have made the perfect vehicle to show off the technical advantages of a newly invented valve trombone, was not in fact intended for this instrument. Although Bartenstein states that the 1829 Rossini opera made use of the new cornet à pistons in the Paris Opéra for the first time,⁸⁷ according to Bartlett, no such use was made of the valve trombone.⁸⁸ However, this does not preclude the possibility that valve trombones may have been used in later performances, throughout the continent.⁸⁹

Kastner cautioned composers ‘si on désire de la nettetée de la justesse il faut craindre de donner des figures trop compliquées ou trop rapides aux trombones’.⁹⁰ Similarly, Berlioz advised composers to avoid writing passages for trombones that involved large position changes with abrupt shifts in slide direction.⁹¹ With regard to the Guillaume Tell Overture, Gevaert criticized Rossini for having ‘imposé à l’executant une tâche audessus de ses forces’.⁹² According to Gevaert, ‘un instrument à pistons est seul capable de jouer distinctement tant de notes’⁹³ and he cautioned that ‘ceux de nos contemporains qui continuent à donner la préférence aux trombones à coulisse feront donc bien de s’abstenir de pareils passages’,⁹⁴ a warning they appeared to heed. Given the great technical demands of the Rossini overture, one wonders how the trombone section of the Paris Opera⁹⁵ coped with what Jadassohn considered ‘der äussersten Grad von Geschwindigkeit, welchen man der Posaune zumuthen kann’.⁹⁶ Moreover, according to Jadassohn, long phrases were inappropriate for the trombone:

Ebensowenig darf man die Posaunen andauernd beschäftigen, da sie sehr viel Athem erfordern. Der Bläser braucht Zeit, um die Lungenkraft wieder zu gewinnen.⁹⁷

It is not inconceivable that the three trombonists staggered the passage, dividing the unison scales into simplified alternating phrases. Jadassohn maintains that Rossini, by scoring the overture for tenor trombones in unison: verdient den Vorzug, weil die drei Instrumente gleichen Klang, gleiche Kraft wie gleiche Stimmung haben, und deren Behandlung die gleiche ist.⁹⁸ Clearly the ‘division of labour’ in the Rossini could not be brought off convincingly with the three different timbres of alto, tenor and bass trombones. Nevertheless, Jadassohn asserts that this section would be ‘für die kleinere Altposaune leichter und weniger ermüdend als für die grössere Tenor- un Bassposaune’,⁹⁹ although he provides no explanation for a statement that is not altogether valid. The reader, presumably, is to take for granted that since the alto is smaller it is thus easier to play. While in general these notes might be marginally more responsive on an alto, in order to balance the fortissimo of the other members of the section – what Jadassohn calls ‘von erschütternder Gewalt’¹⁰⁰ – a great effort would be required. The resulting unflattering, over-blown sound would not justify the effort expended. Additionally, while manipulation of the lighter, shorter alto slide has its advantages, certain position changes between notes, which would not be difficult on the tenor, can be problematic on the alto. For example, the succession d – d♯ – e, which occurs four times, is simply the positions 4 – 3 – 2 on the tenor; on the E♭ alto it would be a perilous 2 – 1 – 7 with the risk of losing the slide on the fast shift down to e. Similarly, the last four quavers of the eighteenth bar, e – d♯ – f♯ – d♯ – [b] would be far clumsier on the alto (positions 7 – 1 – 5 – 1 – [5]) than on the tenor (positions 2 – 3 – 5 – 3 – [4]). Indeed, Kastner maintains that ‘beaucoup de diezes [et] figures rapides ne conveniennent pas au trombone alto’.¹⁰¹ According to Elizabeth Bartlett, an acknowledged Rossini expert, when Guillaume Tell was performed in Paris, the ‘three trombones [were] called “alto”, “tenor”, “bass” ’,¹⁰² although it is unlikely, given the modest compass of the section, that three different species of trombone were used: all three parts could have been handled on a B♭ tenor trombone. Bartlett states that ‘Rossini notated the parts on a single line of bass clef… for Rossini primarily conceived of the trombone as a bass instrument’.¹⁰³

2:4 English Orchestral Trombone Playing

In England, loud, bombastic trombone playing seemed to be the order of the day. For example, in 1848 it was said of the orchestra of Her Majesty’s Theatre ‘that the trombones were noisy’.¹⁰⁴ According to Joseph Bennett, leading conductor Sir Michael Costa ‘remained to the end a noisy musician, and the trombones were more dear to him than any other instruments in the orchestr.¹⁰⁵ Thus, Bate’s assertion that in England, ‘the alto seems to have disappeared quite early, yielding place to a second tenor trombone playing mainly in the upper part of its compass’,¹⁰⁶ seems quite plausible. However, the lament by English music scholar Ebenezer Prout that in 1897 ‘the tenor trombone… is the only one to be found in the orchestras of France and Italy… [and] it is to be regretted that [the alto] is not always to be found in our orchestras’¹⁰⁷ is an indication that the alto trombone had not completely disappeared from English soil. Carse refers to at least one London orchestra – the King’s Theatre – which employed an alto trombonist, Smithies (or Smithers), as late as 1850, the other members of the section being Schloengen and Mariotti, playing second and bass, respectively.¹⁰⁸ Yet it appears that the trombones could at times become too raucous even for Sir Michael. Baines quotes the description of the London Philharmonic trombone section by music critic Samuel Wesley as ‘a disgusting interruption and disturbance of the harmony’,¹⁰⁹ and thus Costa had them try bell-over–the-shoulder models which directed the sound behind them.¹¹⁰ In 1852 an anonymous English writer stated that the Paris Societé des Concerts trombone section was ‘so footnoteerior to our ear-splitting Bartlemy-Fair bulls of Basham as can be conceived’.¹¹¹ George Bernard Shaw wrote in 1885 that in a London perfomance by Richter, ‘the Tannhäuser overture was spoiled by the trombones. The three gentlemen in charge of these instruments confidently delivered the ‘Pilgrims’ Chorus’ with all possible coarseness, flat throughout’.¹¹² Shaw goes on to make this scathing assessment of London trombone playing:

The gravity of [the trombone’s] tones, and the habitual solemnity of feature which its embouchure produces in the player, contrasted with the laughable action of the slide, have a serio-comic effect which has made it the butt of much unenlightened ridicule… It is not ordinarily believed that the trombone has been called the king of instruments… or that the trombone player may claim a position of the first dignity in the orchestra. He certainly enjoys – and frequently abuses – a greater power of spoiling an otherwise excellent performance than any other player can pretend to… The noisy vulgarity which our experience… has led us to associate with that instrument… and that brain-splitting bark which detaches itself from the rest of the orchestra, asserting itself rowdily and intrusively in your ear, prevent[s] you from hearing the music, and make[s] you wonder, if you accept the hideous din as inevitable, how Berlioz could ever call such an ignobly noisy instrument ‘Olympian’… Mr George Case the well known trombone player… protested earnestly… that trombone players are often blamed by critics for disagreeable effects due to the composers’ ignorance of the instrument’s peculiarities. Such cases probably occur some times, though far oftener the injustice is done to the composer, who is blamed for the coarseness due to the deficiencies of taste or skill in the player. But there is no doubt that [the] recommendation to composers to treat trombone players as gentlemen, pathetically insisted on by Mr Case, has been disregarded by the majority of composers. Mozart would certainly regard a fortissimo passage for three trombones in unison in a serious work as an attack on public decency – [yet] no matter how many fortissimo marks the composers writes there is no use in forcing the tone of the trombone. I am not going to be tromboned out of my senses. The trombone is like the little girl in the nursery rhyme. When it is good, it is very, very good, but when it is bad it is horrid.¹¹³

2:5 Rimsky-Korsakov

Norman Del Mar would have us believe that the alto trombone was used for the first trombone part as late as 1888 by Rimsky-Korsakov in Scheherazade and the Russian Easter Festival Overture:

The little alto, pitched in E♭, is regularly to be found in classical and early romantic scores. Even a composer as late as Rimsky-Korsakov can be found giving all the trombone solos to the second of the three players in his Scheherazade and the Russian Easter Festival Overture in order to specify that they should be played on a tenor and not an alto trombone.¹¹⁴

With regard to Scheherazade, in which the highest note written for the first trombone is a′, Del Mar has apparently concluded that since Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the first trombone part in alto clef in the score, ipso facto he intended an alto trombone. It is risky to make assumptions about the clefs that composers used for the trombones in their manuscripts during the late 1800s, a period of transition from the alto to the tenor on the first trombone part. As we have seen, the choice of clef in the autograph score could have had more to do with convenience than instrument specification. Del Mar himself alludes to this fact earlier in his text:

It would be convenient to be able to say that the alto, tenor and bass trombones are notated each in their corresponding clef; but although all three clefs are in fact used, so that there is indeed an element of truth in this, it is needless to say by no means the whole story.¹¹⁵

On the manuscript score of Scheherazade both first and second trombones are on the same stave in alto clef. ¹¹⁶ Del Mar appears to contradict a statement he makes about the Russian style of score notation during this period. According to Del Mar, Rimsky-Korsakov was one of a group of four Russian composers, along with Cui, Borodin and Musorgsky, who were influenced by Balakirev and adopted his predilection for:

writing for the 1st and 2nd trombones together on one stave and using the alto clef – thus producing the anomaly that the instruments actually used whilst reading in this clef will be not at all two altos but at least one and most probably two tenor trombones.¹¹⁷

Regarding scores in which the first and second trombones share the same stave, Piston adds that first trombone parts, traditionally played by the alto trombone:

were written ordinarily in the alto clef, and this is probably one reason for the use of alto clef for first and second trombones seen in some scores even when no alto trombone is intended. This practice is common among Russian composers.¹¹⁸

As far as the Russian Easter Festival Overture is concerned, the first performance of which was also in 1888, all three trombone parts are written in bass clef in the manuscript score.¹¹⁹ Thus Del Mar’s assumption that the first part was played by an alto trombone is very unlikely, especially as the highest note called for is only a b♭‘. ¹²⁰ One further factor that casts doubt on Del Mar’s assertion is that in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Principles of Orchestration, while he discusses the various pitched trumpets, cornets and horns, the composer makes no mention of different species of trombone; as far as Rimsky-Korsakov is concerned there appears to be only the tenor trombone with an F-valve attachment.¹²¹ (See Fig. 2.3).

Figure 2.3: From Rimsky-Korsakov’s Principles of Orchestration¹²²

It is worth noting that he cites b♭‘ as the highest note for the trombone with g′ as the practical upper limit.

2:6 Wagner

While Alan Lumsden implies that Wagner never wrote for the alto trombone,¹²³ Flandrin states that Wagner wrote in ‘deux manières, pour les trombones classiques et pour trois ténors’.¹²⁴ In the former, Flandrin adds, Wagner demonstrates the usefulness of the alto-trombone.¹²⁵ The following list (Fig. 2.4), provided courtesy of Dr Egon Voss, Chief Editor of the Richard Wagner-Gesamtausgabe, shows Wagner’s specification of trombones in his early works according to the autograph scores.

Figure 2.4 Specification of Trombones in Wagner’s Early Works (according to Wagner’s autograph scores) ¹²⁶

Konzertouvertüre Nr 2 C dur WWV 27	1832	Alto, Tenore, Basso
Symphonie C-Dur WWV 29	1832	manuscript lost
Die Feen WWV 32	1833/4	manuscript lost
Festspiel ‘Beim Antritt des neuen Jahres 1835’ WWV 36	1834	Alto, Tenore, Basso
Overture ‘Columbus’ WWV 37	1834/35	manuscript lost
Das Liebesverbot WWV 38	1835/36	Alto, Tenore, Basso
Ouvertüre ‘Polonia’ WWV 39	1836	Alto, Tenore, Basso
Ouvertüre ‘Rule Britannia’ WWV 42	1837	Alto, Tenore, Basso
Volks-Hymne ‘Nicolay’ WWV 44	1837	Alto, Tenore, Basso
Rossini: Li marinari (Instrumentation) WWV 47	1838	3 Tromboni
Rienzi WWV 49	1838-40	manuscript lost
‘Norma il predisse’. Arie für Bellinis ‘Norma’ WWV 52	1839	3 Tromboni
Ouvertüre ‘Faust’ WWV 59 1. Fassung	1839/40	3 Tromboni
Der fliegende Holländer WWV 63	1840/41	3 Tromboni
‘Descendons gaiment la courtille’ für das Vaudeville ‘La descente de la courtille’ WWV 65	1841	3 Trombones
Festgesang ‘Der tag erscheint’ WWV 68B	1843	manuscript lost (copyist’s score: Alto, Tenore, Basso)
Das Liebsmahl der Apostel WWV 69	1843	3 Tromboni
Tannhäuser WWV 70	1843-45	3 Posaunen

Recalling that, according to Berlioz among others, the highest note thought practical on the tenor until at least 1840 was b♭‘,¹²⁷ it seems possible that at least two works on the list could well have been intended for alto trombone: Konzertouvertüre Nr 2 C-Dur (1832) and the overture Rule Britannia (1837). In the former, Wagner writes for a brass section of three trombones, designated as ‘alto’, ‘tenor’ and ‘bass’ with natural trumpets and horns in C, making the first trombone the most treble, chromatic brass instrument. In classical and pre-classical works the alto trombone frequently doubled the oboe and violin.¹²⁸ In Example 2.14 from the Konzertouverture, in which Wagner takes the first trombone up to d″, it plays in unison with the second oboe and in octaves with the first violin, first oboe and first flute. In the overture Rule Britannia (1837), the first trombone, designated ‘alto’, plays the passage shown in Example 2.15, which at that time was clearly in the alto register. According to Karl-Heinz Weber (formerly Principal Trombone with the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra), in Lohengrin: ‘Wagner hat zwar für die Bühnenmusik zwei Altposaunen vorgeschrieben.¹²⁹ Weber also contends that Wagner intended an alto trombone in the first version of Der fliegende Holländer (1841), which version was customarily performed in Bayreuth:

Der fliegende Holländer ist eindeutig für Altposaune geschrieben [und] ist traditionell in Altschlüssel geschrieben. In der ersten Fassung… die erste Posaune ging bus zum d″ hinauf. Die Ouverture hat Wagner sicher nachträglich für den Konzertgebrauch bearbeitet. Daher der Tenorschlüssel für die erste Posaune.¹³⁰

Hausmann specifically cites Wagner’s Rienzi as a work that was scored for alto trombone.¹³¹ Moreover, conductor and composer Herman Scherchen also maintained that Wagner had indeed intended an alto trombone for the first trombone part of Rienzi:

Auf jeden fall sollte sich bei den Orchestern je eine Altposaune befinden, diese ist noch heute [1929] unentbehrlich für Mendelssohn: Ruy Blas Ouvertüre, Schumann: Es-Dur Sinfonie [und] Wagner: Rienzi.¹³²

The lithography of the first printed edition of Rienzi (1838–40) is believed to have been done by Wagner himself, according to a receipt of the Fürstenau and Co. printing firm dated 25 July 1844: twenty five copies were made by Wagner’s ‘als Manuscript autographiert’.¹³³ Unfortunately this cannot be verified, since the Stichvorlag (printer’s copy) is lost.¹³⁴ However, even if we were to consider the first printed score as a kind of autograph, as we have observed, the fact that the first trombone part is designated ‘alto’ does not necessarily indicate that Wagner wrote this part for an alto trombone.¹³⁵ Designating trombone parts numerically, according to Bartlett, was a fairly modern concept and the terms ‘alto’, ‘tenor’ and ‘bass’ were used increasingly to indicate range rather than type of instrument.¹³⁶ As late as 1885, Gevaert points out that some composers still clung to the traditional names of the three separate trombones¹³⁷ long after the section came to consist of three tenors:

… l’habitude traditionnelle d’écrire trois parties de trombones à l’imitation d’un trio vocal s’est maintenu jusqu’ à nos jours… Quelque fois on se contentait d’indiquer ‘trombones I II III’.¹³⁸

Nor is the fact that in the score Wagner wrote the first part in alto clef a reliable indication of the type of trombone intended:

… nunmehr dass die Tenorposaune die höchste Stimme in der Posaunengruppe ausfürtre wenn man auch gewohnheitsmäßig vielfach die bisherige Notierung der Posaunenstimmen im Alt-, Tenor- und Baßschlüssel beibehielt.¹³⁹

2:6:1 Wagner’s disenchantment with the alto trombone

Influenced by leading French composers such as Meyerbeer, Berlioz and Halévy,¹⁴⁰ Wagner became increasingly disenchanted with the alto trombone and enamoured of the tenor trombone with its greater range and richer, more robust sound. In his Reform Plan for the Royal Dresden Orchestra, from March 1, 1846, Wagner applied for the acquisition of a tenor trombone for the following reasons:

Die Unschaffung noch einer Tenor-Posaune ist notwendig, weil für die meisten neuern Opern, zumal für die französischen (in welche nur für Tenor-Posaunen geschrieben ist) die Alt-Posaune ihrem Umfange nach nicht zureicht, und der Alt-Posaune daher genöthigt ist, oft ganz Stellen auszulassen oder sie um eine Ottave höher zu spielen. Dem Alt-Posaunisten muss daher ausser einem gewöhlichen Instrumente noch eine Tenor-Posaune zugestellt werden.¹⁴¹

Although Wagner’s Reformentwurf (Reform Plan) was rejected,¹⁴² Werner Berger states that:

Damit hatte der heute in allen Orchester bestehende Posaunensatz, also 1. und 2. Tenorposaune und Baßposaune seinen festen Platz in der Kapelle gefunden.¹⁴³

2:7 The Decline of the Alto Trombone

It is frequently stated that the advent in the mid 1820s of fully-chromatic valved trumpets sounded the death knell for the alto trombone. According to Widor:

Aujourd’hui, le premier de ces trois instruments, quoique de timbre magnifique (il sonne comme une Trompette en fa) est quelque peu délaissé précisément parce qu’il est à peu près du même étendue que cette magnifique Trompette, car il monte au fa, au sol, voire même en la, et fait par conséquence double emploi avec elle.¹⁴⁴

Upon examination, however, we find a number of discrepancies in Widor’s argument. Although valve trumpets had been utilised in German cavalry bands as early as 1824,¹⁴⁵ ‘extremely conservative’¹⁴⁶ trumpeters resisted abandoning their natural trumpets and not until the 1840s did the use of rotary-valve trumpets become widespread in Germany.¹⁴⁷ If Widor’s contention is valid we should logically expect to find that as the F valve-trumpet became more commonplace, the upper register of the first trombone parts would become less extreme as the alto was replaced by the tenor on the first part. Yet in 1840 Mendelssohn required an e″ from the alto trombone in the ‘Lobgesang’ (Ex 1.34), and in 1846 in Elijah a d″. In the 1850s Schumann was writing d″s and e♭″s for the alto trombone; in the 1860s Bruckner (in his F Minor Mass) and Dvořák (in his Symphony No. 1) demanded d″ and e♭″ respectively; and Brahms wrote d″s for the first trombone in his Second Symphony (1876). Even at the end of the century, we find Strauss scoring a d″ in Also sprach Zarathustra, as did Elgar in Froissart (1890) and the Enigma Variations (1899). Moreover, regarding the status of the F trumpet, the sound of which was ‘près du même étendu’ to that of the alto, according to Baines, ‘it seems fairly certain that by the 1850s the higher instrument [the B♭ trumpet] had largely found its way in and became… the ordinary trumpet in Germany’.¹⁴⁸ In France, on the other hand, where as late as 1875 valve trumpets had not yet caught on,¹⁴⁹ the alto trombone had already virtually disappeared nearly three decades earlier.¹⁵⁰ Kunitz points out:

daß es mit den Naturtrompeten und mit dem corno da caccia wie auch mit dem nach 1753 umgestalteten Naturhorn durchaus möglich und auch üblich war, im Hauptaktionsgebiet der Alt- (und der Sopran-) posaune… diatonische, ja sogar chromatische Bewegungen auszuführen. Es wäre also schon in jener Zeit ohne weiteres möglich gewesen, die Alt- und die Sopranposaunenstimmen mit der Trompete bzw. dem corno da caccia auszuführen, zumal diese Instrumente damals technisch sogar noch viel anspruchsvoller als die Posaunen eingesetzt wurden. [Der] Standpunkt… die Verwendung der hohen Posaunen sie nur auf ihre chromatischen Fähigkeiten zurückzuführen und daher mit der Erfindung der Ventiltrompete hinfällig geworden, ist also bereits aus diesem Grunde durchaus irrig.¹⁵¹

What seems a more plausible explanation for the widespread demise of the alto trombone is that composers, eager to exploit the harmonic possibilities of the new, fully chromatic trumpet and horn, took advantage of the ‘practically free choice of notes [which] resulted in a much richer and more flexible brass-voiced harmony’;¹⁵² the new combination of trumpets, horns and trombones in a unified brass section created a new timbral function for the trombone. Kunitz adds:

daß die Komponisten nach der Erfindung der Ventiltrompete (also gegen Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts) von deren außerordentlichen spieltechnischen Erleichterungen sofort weitestgehenden Gebrauch machten… Maßgebend war nunmehr bei allen satztechnischen Erwägungen die Tatsache, daß nunmehr die gesamte Tonskala der ‘scharfen’ Blechblasinstrumente, also der Posaunen und der Trompeten, vollchromatisch geworden war, so daß man dazu überging… deren Gruppen sowohl in thematischer Hinsicht als auch im Akkordsatz miteinander zu verschmelzen und als eine einheitliche Gruppe zu behandeln. Damit zugleich erfolgte auch eine engere Verbindung der Posaunen mit den nun ebenfalls chromatischen Hörnern, die infolge der gleichen Spieltechnik (d.h. der ‘Naturtechnik’) bisher satztechnisch mit den Trompeten verbunden waren. Dieses Verfahren stellte eine ganz erhebliche, ja grundlegende Veränderung des orchestralen Satzes und seiner spezifischen Klangfaktoren dar, die auch heute noch allgemein gültig ist. Es hatte vor allem zur Folge, daß die Komponisten von dieser Zeit, also von etwa Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts an, die Altposaune nicht mehr einsetzten.¹⁵³

As usual the opera orchestra, eager to enhance its timbral palette, took the lead in incorporating the valved brass. Gevaert states that after 1830:

l’orchestre de théâtre, s’appropriant les cuivres chromatiques, nouvellement inventés, et exhibent des timbres spéciaux, s’est créé un cadre à lui et a réalisé des combinaisons sonores auparavant inconnues. Cette révolution musicale inaugurée en France par Meyerbeer, Berlioz, Halévy, eut en Allemagne son aboutissement provisoire dans les plus anciens opéras de Richard Wagner… Peu à peu le nouveau programme s’est répandu par toute l’Europe, et depuis une vingtaine d’années il est devenu celui de l’orchestre ordinaire de théâtre et de concert.¹⁵⁴

A change of colour was taking place in the orchestral sound. It was becoming darker and weightier, and as the demands of the larger, louder romantic orchestras grew, the demise of the alto trombone was hastened.¹⁵⁵ The diminutive alto, according to Lobe ‘etwas greller als der Bass- und Tenor-posaune und in den tiefsten Tönen schlecht’,¹⁵⁶ was simply no match for the rest of the trombone section and ‘deshalb man diese lieber der Tenor-posaune überträgt’.¹⁵⁷ Marx maintained that each facet of the trombone’s character – ‘erschütternde Macht, strenge Würde und Feierlichkeit… tritt stärker entwickelt hervor in den tiefen Posaunenarten, am stärkesten also in Bassposaune, am wenigsten entschieden in der Altposaune’.¹⁵⁸ Flandrin added that ‘la disgrâce du trombone alto fait… motivée par la médiocre qualité de son qu’il donnait; objet de tentatives d’améliorations, il fait construit, tour à tour, sur fa, mi et réb, sans résultats appréciables, car la structure générale de l’instrument était seule fautive.’¹⁵⁹ The celebrity of trombone soloists such as Belcke and Queisser,¹⁶⁰ gave added prominence to the larger-bored instruments of the section at the expense of the alto. Solo trombone pieces, heretofore almost exclusively for the alto,¹⁶¹ were now being written for the tenor and bass trombone,¹⁶² paving the way for the emergence of other (non-alto) trombone soloists.¹⁶³ The increase in the size of the concert halls built in the nineteenth century to provide for the growing number of concert-goers may have also contributed to the alto’s demise. Daniel Koury states that:

it can be strongly argued that the increase in orchestra size in the nineteenth century is directly related to the… increasingly large size [of the halls] in order to accommodate a growing middle-class audience.¹⁶⁴

But the increase in the size of concert halls may also have been related to the need to accommodate a larger orchestral sound.¹⁶⁵ According to Koury, ‘figures confirm that tremendous growth took place in romantic orchestras such as Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Leipzig and London during the nineteenth century’.¹⁶⁶ As orchestras grew in size they would naturally have grown in volume, a factor that would have highlighted the alto’s shortcomings. Robert Sheldon advances another possible reason for the decline of the alto trombone: In the 19th Century orchestra the alto’s decline and disappearance can be similarly attributed to the ever increasing development of valve horns and the interest in the (compared to trombones) then relatively recent romantic sound of the horn. A woodwind history parallel would be that of increasing interest in the also relatively recent romantic sound of the clarinet. That can certainly explain the 19th Century diminished interest in the oboe as a chamber music treble woodwind participant.¹⁶⁷ Nicholas Bessaraboff states that the widespread demise of the alto led:

trombonists to ask for instruments that would produce the tones of the upper register with greater ease. This meant a smaller bore and smaller bell, a development which eventually resulted in the ‘pea-shooter’, a miserable sounding, effeminate caricature.¹⁶⁸

Around 1850 Adolph Bernard Marx summed up the status of the alto trombone in Germany:

Die Altposaune, die in der tiefern Lage nicht die Klangfülle der Tenorposaune hat, in der Höhe gepresst und leicht schreiend wird scheint weniger geeignet, ist aber gleichwohl nicht immer zu entbehren.¹⁶⁹

For the time being the alto trombone lingered on, mainly in those parts of Germany and the Austrian Empire where a more traditional style prevailed, ‘making its final surrender only in the last quarter of the century’.¹⁷⁰ In the next chapter we will attempt to determine when and where that final surrender took place.

Part II: ‘The Alto Trombone is Rarer Than it Was’

Determining the Type of
Instrument used as First
Trombone by Bruckner,
Brahms and Dvořák

Introduction

Thus¹² during the second half of the nineteenth century, the alto trombone had all but vanished from the orchestras in France, Italy and England. As their military counterparts³ had done previously, orchestral composers increasingly abandoned the alto and replaced it with the tenor trombone – ‘le meilleur de tous sans contredit⁴ – inevitably bowing to the advice given by Praetorius more than two centuries earlier: ‘Alt-Posaune, die Harmonie in solchem kleinem Corpore nicht so gut, als wenn auf der rechten gemeinen Posaune’.⁵ Led by Wagner’s example, even the composers of Germany and the Austrian Monarchy, ‘the former guardians of the traditional [ATB] trio’⁶ would abandon the alto.

Of all the major orchestral composers who wrote for the trombone, the works of Bruckner, Brahms and Dvořák are the most perplexing with regard to whether the alto or tenor instrument was intended for the first part. Scholarly editions and modern publications are often misleading; today’s experts are frequently inconsistent and contradictory. To a certain degree this is due to ambiguity on the part of music authorities contemporaneous with these composers, perhaps owing to the fact that this was a period of great flux, with divergent performance practice often dependent on locale. For example, whereas both Kastner (c.1840) and Adolph Marx (1847) concur that the alto was a commonplace fixture in German orchestras,⁷ the latter adds that the tenor trombone would replace the alto ‘in the foreseeable future’.⁸ In 1850 Lobe stated that the orchestral trombone section could include either an alto or tenor on the first part.⁹ In 1863, although Gevaert informs us that the alto trombone ‘est peu usité hors l’Allemagne’,¹⁰ he is unclear whether German composers were still writing for the alto at that time.

On the other hand, around 1880 Ludwig Bussler reported that ‘die Alt-Posaune findet sich noch in den meisten deutschen Orchestern’.¹¹ According to Kunitz, ‘spätestens von dieser Zeit an begann man jedoch, die Altposaunestimmen, soweit technisch möglich, mit der Tenorposaune auszuführen’.¹² Montagu states that in German orchestras in which the alto had been replaced, the trombone section used tenor instruments of three different bore sizes: the narrowest bore was used by the first player, and the second player used a smaller version of the B flat/F used by the third.¹³ Although first trombone parts originally intended for the alto trombone could be managed on a small-bore tenor, the composer’s intention with respect to sound, colour and balance was lost, for it was not so much the tessitura of the first part that demanded the alto but its brighter, lighter sound.

[D]och ist stets zu bedenken, daß diese Stimmen früher in jedem Falle mit der etwas heller und leichter klingenden Altposaune ausgeführt worden sind, und daß die Komponisten diesen Klang bewußt eingesetzt haben… Wenn jedoch das höchste Register der Tenorposaune zur Ausführung der Altposaunenstimme verwendet werden muß, ergibt sich eine Klangwirkung, die mit der Notwendigkeit einer werkgetreuen Wiedergabe nicht vereinbar ist. Die höchsten Töne der Tenorposaune haben das Klangmerkmal einer enormen Spannung und Intensität und lassen erkennen, daß hier der Klang des schweren und ernsten Instrumentes bis in die äußerste Höhe getrieben worden ist, während die gleichhohen Töne der Altposaune selbstverständlicher, freier und auch heller klingen.¹⁴

Walter Piston remarked that ‘occasionally notes for the alto trombone that are too high to be played on the tenor are most often given to the trumpet’,¹⁵ and cited the opening of the fourth movement of Schumann’s Rhenish Symphony as an example.¹⁶ Hausmann agreed, stating that instead of the intended alto trombone ‘wird meistens die Tenorposaune – in Ausnahmefälle auch eine F-Ventil Trompete – verwendet’.¹⁷ Similarly, Schweitzer wrote that ‘in den Mottetenchören die von Bläsern begleitet werden, wird man Sopran- und Alt-posaune wohl am besten durch Flügelhorn ersetzen’.¹⁸ However, Del Mar asserted that this was ‘absolutely not the case anywhere in Europe’.¹⁹ In any event, Kunitz argued that this would be an unsatisfactory solution due to the difference in the sound produced by an instrument with valves as opposed to the slide:

[E]ine Ausführung der Alt- (und auch der Sopran-) posaunenstimmen mit einem Flügelhorn ist natürlich völlig abzulehnen, ebenso wie die Ausführung mit einer Trompete… Zusammenfassend ist nach alledem hierzu folgendes zu sagen: Der Klang der Altposaune entspricht nicht dem Klang der Trompete und ist durch diesen nicht zu ersetzen… [E]ine Klanggleichheit zwischen der hohen Posaune und diesen Instrumenten im übrigen auch infolge der nicht Verschiedenheit der Rohrform, der Mensur und der Bohrung des Mundstückes nicht möglich ist.²⁰

The statements by Piston, Schweitzer and Hausmann seem to indicate that with the ascendancy of the tenor, few trombonists doubled on the alto. Noting that violinists are rarely expected to double on viola, Kunitz maintained that trombonists:

immer mehr von der Altposaune abwandten und ihre Verwendung bisweilen sogar ablehnten, so liegt der Grund hierfür in der steigenden Spezialisierung der Instrumentalisten auf ein bestimmtes Instrument infolge der immer größeren spieltechnischen Anforderungen durch die Komponisten.²¹

According to Jadassohn, by 1889 ‘die Altposaune wird immerseltener’,²² and ‘Man wolle nicht auf drei verschiedene Instrumente, Alt-, Tenor- und Bass-Posaune, rechnen’.²³ Frederick Corder concurred, writing with regard to the orchestral trombone section that ‘until recently it was supposed to exist in three sizes called Alto, Tenor and Bass’,²⁴ and that for all intents and purposes it had become ‘the imaginary trombone trio’.²⁵ Finally, in 1900 Felix Weingartner concluded ‘daß die Tenorposaune überall an der Stelle der Altposaune getreten ist, die gar nicht mehr vorkommt’.²⁶

A common fallacy in assessing whether the first trombone part in works of these composers was intended for an alto or tenor is the tendency to evaluate the upper register by today’s standards. The inherent risk of error has already been demon-strated by Dr Glendening with the first parts by Schubert.²⁷ While there was not complete agreement among authorities during the second half of the nineteenth century as to the recommended range of the tenor trombone, the practical upper-most limit of the instrument was clearly thought to be considerably lower than it is today. We recall Kastner’s advice to composers around 1840 that, although ‘quelques artistes’ were capable of playing notes higher than g, ‘même Si♭‘, that:

on ne pas s’en servir parce que d’ordinaire l’exécutant ne serait pas à même de les donner.²⁸

Berlioz wrote in 1844²⁹ that it was inadvisable to take the tenor trombone beyond b♭′, yet he himself had taken the first (tenor) trombone to a b′ in the overture Le Carnaval Romain in the same year. In 1847, Marx argued that it was best to write for the tenor trombone between B and g′.³⁰ Since Wagner had already scored a′ for the second trombone in Lohengrin four years earlier, Marx may have been overly cautious – or he may have heard performances in which the players struggled to reach these notes.³¹ Lobe stated in 1859, somewhat more realistically, that the tenor’s range extended from E to as high as d″, ‘doch thut man wohl, sie nie höher als bis b zu schreiben’.³² Similarly, Gevaert asserted that ‘le trombone ténor donc parcourir toute l’échelle chromatique comprise entre Mi and Si♭‘.³³ Yet almost a decade later Bussler wrote that the orchestral tenor trombone was capable of playing from F to a♭′ ‘in gleichmässigen edelsten Klang’.³⁴ Curiously, he described the dance-band trombonist’s range as being from E to b♭′, but with the ‘bevorzugte Lage’ (preferred range) of F to g′.³⁵ Very conservatively, Jadassohn judged in 1889 that since:

die hohen Töne der Posaune besser durch die Ventiltrompete, die tiefen durch die Tuba erlangen kann, so wird man gut thun, sich im Satze für die Posaunen auf die Tonreihe vom grossen G (allenfalls auch F) bis zum eingestrichenen a zu beschränken.³⁶

Near the turn of the century, shortly before Strauss would require a d″ in Zarathustra, Kappey cited the tenor’s range as B♭ to c″.³⁷

In attempting to discern the species of first trombone for which Bruckner, Brahms and Dvořák wrote, it is important to bear in mind that, as Berlioz and Gevaert pointed out, the use of the term ‘alto trombone’, or the employment of an alto clef in the composer’s score is an unreliable indication of his intention. The most dependable and earliest source which can be traced directly to the composer is the first handwritten part. It is also worth recalling the words of Marx, who reaffirmed the statements of Sundelin, Kastner, Berlioz and Gevaert, and whose text Bruckner used as a student:³⁸ ‘Die Alt-Posaune [ist] in Altschlüssel notiert’.³⁹ In the absence of an erste Abschriftstimme (first hand-copied part), we must turn to the first trombone part from the earliest printed edition and seek out substantiating evidence, if possible, to arrive at an informed judgement.

Chapter 3: Bruckner

Among contemporary authorities there seems to be a consensus that Bruckner intended an alto for the first trombone in his works. Robin Gregory writes:

The alto trombone practically disappeared from the orchestral scene, though Bruckner specified the instrument in his symphonies for parts which are comfortably within the range of the tenor and are nowadays usually played on that instrument without, perhaps, quite fulfilling the composer’s intentions with regard to tone colour.¹

Eric Crees, Co-Principal Trombone of the London Symphony Orchestra, comments that:

It is interesting to consider whether Bruckner’s conception of tone colour is ever correctly realised today as the first trombone part, designated to an alto instrument, is invariably played on a tenor.²

Karl-Heinz Weber, Principal Trombone of the Gürzenich Orchester (Köln) and Principal Trombone, Bayreuth Orchester, is more emphatic:

Ich kann nicht denken, dass Bruckner bei der Instrumentation seiner Messen bewusst an eine Tenorposaune (für die 1. Posaune) gedacht hat. Ich glaube vielmehr, dass er so geschrieben hat, wie er es für die Posaunen gewohnt war, nämlich vokaliter in den Stimmenlagen Alt, Tenor, Bass.³

And William Runyan:

It must be admitted that the utilization of the alto trombone in the nineteenth century may have been due more to tradition than to any feelings that its timbre was a necessity; yet, having chosen to use it… Bruckner certainly wrote parts that are uniquely suitable.⁴

Thus speak today’s authorities.⁵ We shall examine their statements in the light of the existing evidence. (For a summary of Bruckner’s most significant works that include trombones, and the type of trombone used for the first part, see Table 3.1, p. 118.)

3:1 1845-1855: St Florian

From 1845 to 1855, one of Bruckner’s responsibilities as organist of the Stift of St Florian was to provide music for the Catholic church services. According to Nowak, ‘die erste Anregung zu eigenem kompositorischen Schaffen erhielt Anton Bruckner von der Kirchenmusik’.⁶ Derek Watson adds that Bruckner was:

attracted to music of the Baroque era, and his love for it is echoed in the primitive lustre of his brass writing… The rich splendour of his symphonic brass writing is clearly a development of his early predilection for brass instrumentation. Something of the magnificence of antiphonal brass writing associated with St Mark’s Cathedral in Venice in the Renaissance era lives on in Bruckner’s early music.⁷

As one might expect, Bruckner’s liturgical works often utilised trombones. Having received virtually no formal instruction, Bruckner would have studied the examples of the old masters⁸ who, if they wrote for the trombone at all, scored for the ATB trio. According to Howie, Bruckner was also influenced by Schubert and Schumann,⁹ both of whom wrote for the alto trombone; the latter, we recall, was at this time assigning the alto prominent thematic material in his symphonies. During this period it appears that Bruckner also intended an alto as the first trombone in his compositions. Bruckner’s earliest extant choral works to include trombone parts are the ‘Kyrie’ movements from his incomplete Masses in G Minor and E♭ Major, composed in 1846 and 1848 respectively. There are no surviving handwritten parts: only the autograph scores exist. In the 1846 ‘Kyrie’, orchestrated for SATB chorus, trombones and organ, Bruckner has included a blank stave for the ‘tromboni’. In the later work, similarly, the oboe, string, organ and ‘cello staves seem to have been completed, whereas by the trombone parts, named ‘Alt’, ‘Tenor’ and ‘Bass’ with their corresponding clef signs, there are three blank staves, possibly suggesting that the trombones were to be used colla voce. According to P. Benedikt Wagner, the Seitenstetten Stiftsarchivar,¹⁰Bruckner composed two Aequale for three trombones around 1847. Written in the style of Beethoven’s similarly entitled work,

dieses weniger der Trauer als dem Trost und der Hoffnung Ausdruck gebende Begräbnisstück mit seiner stellenweise weichlichen Sexten-Melodik ist eines jener damals beliebten Stücke, die in St. Florian beim äußeren Stiftstore, wo die Leichen abgesetzt wurden, erklangen, bis der Priester die Einsegnung vornahm.¹¹

The three handwritten parts of the first Aequale specify ‘Alto’, ‘Tenor’ and ‘Bass’ written in their respective clefs. The compass of the alto trombone part extends from a to b♭‘. In the second Aequale (Ex. 3.1 and 3.2), the first two trombone parts are inscribed as in the former; the bass trombone part has been lost. Bruckner required a very modest range of g to g′ for the alto trombone. Bruckner’s first major work for chorus with orchestra was the 1849 Requiem in D minor. Although the original parts apparently no longer exist, the compass and function of the first trombone strongly suggests an alto trombone. The trombones are used in the traditional manner of vocal support; the same can be said of Psalm 114 of 1852 (Ex. 3.3) and the Libera Me in F minor of 1854 (Ex. 3.4, 3.5, 3.6). The first trombone erste Abschriftstimme of the latter work (Ex. 3.4) is written in alto clef, and specifies ‘Alt Trombone’. In Bruckner’s 1854 Missa Solemnis in B♭¹² considered by many his most important early work, the trombone parts double the voices, though less slavishly than in the previous works and rather more in the style of Handel or Mendelssohn. The first trombone part ascends to e♭” and falls within the range in which, according to Gevaert, the alto sounded best: ‘les deux octaves comprises entre mib4 and mib2’.¹³ During the mid-1850s Bruckner was often called upon to write dedicatory works, Gebrauchsmusik, in honour of the Prelates. The choral accompaniment was invariably scored for brass ensemble, the absence of strings suggesting these works were performed outdoors. One such composition, ‘Vor Arneths Grab’ (1854), was written for Männerchor with three accompanying trombones. According to the Göllerich score of 1928,¹⁴ the first trombone functions as support for the first tenor and might have been intended for a tenor trombone. The 1855 ‘Auf Brüder auf die Saiten zur Hand’ from the Kantate für Prälat Meyer (Ex. 3.7) – scored for chorus, three horns, two clarini trumpets, bassoon and three trombones – is somewhat ambiguous in regard to the species of the first trombone. Although in the autograph score the first trombone is written in alto clef, the copyist Schimatschek¹⁵ has transposed the part to bass clef, as seen in Ex. 3.8(a, b). Moreover, in the opening section of the piece, the first trombone supports the first tenor voice of the all-male chorus. It thus seems logical that Bruckner would have intended a tenor trombone for the part, as the evidence suggests. However, in the Schlusschor the men are joined by the women’s chorus and the first trombone now supports the altos in a tessitura that on one occasion reaches c♯″. There are a number of possible explanations for this ambiguity. Perhaps Bruckner had wanted to use four trombones (ATTB) but another player was unavailable, and he judged that of the two sections of the chorus the tenors required the stronger reinforcement; or it may be that the tenor trombonist was to change to an alto for the Schlusschor, although there is no such indication. Despite the fact that the part is written in bass clef and that it would have been highly unusual, it is not inconceivable that an alto trombonist could have played from this clef. However, in light of the close working relationship between Bruckner and his copyist Schimatschek, whom Nowak described as an ‘ausgezeichneter und genauer Kopist’,¹⁶ it seems unlikely that he would have erred with a clef sign¹⁷ or conveyed an instrumentation contrary to Bruckner’s intention. According to Hawkshaw:

a large number of Schimatschek’s copies contain entries in Bruckner’s hand. In some sources the collaboration between the two was so close that their handwriting is evenly distributed throughout. In view of this intimate relationship, Schimatschek’s copies must be considered among the most important sources for Bruckner’s compositions.¹⁸

Thus if the trombone part was intended for a tenor, as it indeed seems to be, it is apparently the first time Bruckner used the instrument as his first trombone with a mixed choir. Moreover, the c♯″ is probably the highest note that had been demanded of a tenor trombone at that date, although one must remain sceptical about the fulfilment of the extreme upper register demands placed on the first trombone when doubling the vocal line, as noted earlier for the works of Bach, Schubert, Mendelssohn and others.¹⁹

3:2 1855-1863: Studies with Sechter and Kitzler

In November 1855, around the time Bruckner took up the position of Linz Cathedral organist, he began a period of intense study with Simon Sechter that would last until 1861. During these years Bruckner composed very little ‘other than exercises’.²⁰ One possible exception is the rather mysterious work Psalm 146. According to Paul Hawkshaw:

When it was written, for whom and why are all unanswered questions… Stylistically the Psalm’s cantata-like structure and compositional references to Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Bach are consistent with other Bruckner works of the 1840s and 1850s… [Yet] difficult to reconcile with a St Florian date are the enormous dimensions of the work and the breadth of the fugal Finale. Would Bruckner have undertaken the latter without at least some influence from Simon Sechter? Some, if not all, work on the Psalm may well date from the early Linz years, 1856-58.²¹

Psalm 146 is scored for double chorus with full orchestral accompaniment, including four trombones, which according to Hawkshaw consisted of an alto, tenor and two basses.²² The trombones chiefly double the voices – though not always strictly colla voce; otherwise their role is to fill out the harmonies. An exceptional use of the trombones occurs in the Recitative iia (Ex. 3.9). Afferentur Regi (Ex. 3.10), written at the conclusion of Bruckner’s studies with Sechter, is scored for chorus and trombones. According to Nowak, Bruckner’s first sketch contained no trombone parts:

Es muss dahingestellt bleiben, ob Bruckner sein Afferentur zuerst als a-capella Chor gedacht hatte und die Posaune nachträglich hinzusezte oder ob er die Posaune fehlender Linien wegen nicht an der Entwurf schreib.²³

The original trombone parts are designated ‘Alto’(Ex. 3.11), ‘Tenor’, ‘Bass’, are written in the appropriate clefs, and reinforce the voices, though not strictly colla voce. In 1862, soon after commencing composition and form studies under Otto Kitzler, Bruckner composed the Festkantate.²⁴ As with the ‘Auf Brüder auf die Saiten zur Hand’, but far less ambiguously, Bruckner almost certainly intended a tenor trombone for the first part. The unreliable nomenclature used for the trombones in the score is once more demonstrated, for although the first trombone in the autograph is called ‘Alt’ (but written in bass clef), its function and compass suggest a tenor trombone was intended. The Festkantate was composed for men’s chorus, and the first trombone, when it does not function independently, acts primarily to double the first tenor voice. Moreover, its range of d to a′ is well within that of the tenor trombone as prescribed by Berlioz, Lobe and Gevaert (among others). The tenor thus seems the most appropriate instrument for the first part. Unfortunately, conclusive evidence eludes us as there are no extant original parts.²⁵ With perhaps one notable exception,²⁶ Festkantate appears to mark the beginning of Bruckner’s use of the TTB trio that would remain his standard section throughout his career. Bruckner’s period of study with Otto Kitzler (1862-63) was instrumental to his formation as a professional composer. It was Kitzler, the Linz Theater Kapellmeister and adherent of Wagner, who introduced Bruckner to ‘modern scores and more up-to-date ways of writing for the trombone’.²⁷ In Linz, Bruckner also met Ignaz Dorn, the second Kapellmeister, another admirer of Wagner as well as of Berlioz and Liszt. According to Manfred Wagner, Dorn gave Bruckner a further ‘Schaffenschub’ in this direction.²⁸ Bruckner’s composition lessons culminated in the writing of his three most important student works: the Overture in G Minor, Symphony in F Minor and Psalm 112. In the autograph score of the G Minor Overture (see Ex. 3.12), for which there are no original parts,²⁹ Bruckner designates the trombone section simply as ‘tromboni’, in bass clef. There is no indication that an alto trombone was intended. As with most of the symphonies he would later write, Bruckner called for a b′ from the first trombone, which occurs in the last bar of the first version.³⁰ The opinions of some experts notwithstanding, by 1863 this would hardly have been an extreme demand. During a period when many tenor trombonists were having to cope with former alto parts, it is inevitable that the erstwhile ‘ceiling’ on the tenor’s upper register would be pushed constantly upwards and re-defined, as notes once thought of as solely within the domain of ‘quelques artistes’ became increasingly commonplace. Already, more than a decade earlier, Robert Schumann had required a b′ from the second trombone in his Fourth Symphony. In the autograph score of Bruckner’s ‘student’ Symphony in F Minor (Ex. 3.13), the trombone section is once again referred to as ‘tromboni’ Apparently no parts were ever copied out by hand.³¹ As with the Overture, Bruckner does not specify an alto trombone. Stylistically, the trombone writing is also very similar³² – Bruckner again calls for an enharmonic b′ from the first trombone – and indeed the part is a fairly typical (if somewhat uninspired) example of Bruckner’s symphonic trombone writing. According to the autograph score of Bruckner’s final assignment for Kitzler, a setting of Psalm 112 for double chorus and orchestra (Ex. 3.14a, b), the ‘tromboni’ are assigned to one stave of bass clef with no differentiation of trombone types.³³ The first trombone, with a range from e♭ to an occasional a′, is largely independent and rarely doubles the alto voice. When it does double a vocal part – usually in unison with the tenors or in octaves with the sopranos – it is to emphasise the most important part in the chorus. Two minor compositions, Drei Orchesterstücke (Ex. 3.15) and Marsch in D moll (Ex. 3.16a, b, c, d, e) were also set as exercises for Bruckner by Kitzler. In the former a single ‘trombone’ is used as the bass to the wind group of two flutes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns and two trumpets. With a range of E to c′ the part is suitable for either a bass trombone or tenor trombone. In the latter, a march for full orchestra, Bruckner wrote for three ‘tromboni’ which are notated for the most part on one system of bass clef (there are four bars in which they appear on a single system in tenor clef). The first trombone part has a range of a to c″. Germanenzug, composed in July 1863, marked the beginning of Bruckner’s career as a professional composer.³⁴ Written for the first Oberösterreichisches Sängerfest composition contest in Linz,³⁵ which specified that the entries be scored for the male chorus of the Linzer Singakademie Fröhsinn with band accompaniment,³⁶ it uses the trombones in similar fashion to the Festkantate. The first trombone part, with a range of d to b♭‘, when not functioning independently, usually doubles the first tenor voice. It was probably intended, like that of the Festkantate, for the tenor instrument, despite the misleading score designations of ‘Alt’, ‘Ten’ and ‘Bass’ trombones on separate staves of bass clef, as shown in Example 3.17. (According to Hawkshaw, a set of parts listed in the St Florian catalogue cannot be located).³⁷ Bruckner describes the instrumentation of the military band for which he had to write:

Der Chor ist (für Germanenzug) Militärsmusik zu instrumentieren. Ich habe bei meinem Chore Sopran Cornet in Es-Sopran Cornet in B (weil hier kein Alt Cornet vorhanden ist), Tenorhorn in Bassschlüssel, 2 Horn in F, 2 Horn in D, 2 Trompetten in B (haben aber die in Es hier in Linz lieber), 3 Posaunen sämtlich im Baßschlüssel, Basstuba.³⁸

3:3 The Three Great Masses

From 1864 to 1868, ‘the volcanic eruption of Bruckner’s creative energy’³⁹ in the form of his three great Masses in D, E and F minor, coinciding with his Symphony No. 1 (the ‘Linzer’), signalled Bruckner’s breakthrough into his own stylistic terrain: The three ‘symphonic’ masses… became the very sub-soil out of which the three ‘mass-symphonies’ I, II and III of 1865-78 were to grow.⁴⁰ Nowak adds that with the D Minor Mass, Bruckner’s development as a composer ‘gelangte damit an die Schwelle der Meisterschaft’.⁴¹ The 1864 D Minor Mass was first performed under the composer’s direction the same year in the Linz Cathedral. According to Dr Gunter Brosche, Bruckner used the traditional term ‘alto’ for the first trombone in the autograph score,⁴² although it appears that he intended it to be played by a tenor trombone. The original trombone part, copied by Schimatschek,⁴³ is in the bass clef, has a tenor trombone range of B to a′, and is designated ‘1mo Trombone (alto)’. We may recall that sequential numbering of parts was fairly new at this time, and the use of the traditional term in brackets seems to bear this out.⁴⁴ As with Psalm 112, the function of the trombones in the D Minor Mass (Ex. 3.18, 3.19, 3.20a, b) differs significantly from that of the two St Florian masses, the Requiem and the Missa Solemnis. Except for sections of the ‘Kyrie’, this ‘symphonic’ mass, ‘revolutionary in the use of a descriptive orchestr,⁴⁵ contains material for the trombones which is of a weighty, orchestral nature, with rhythms and voicings characteristic of Bruckner’s symphonic works (Ex. 3.19). The trombones are also used independently of the voices (see Ex. 3.19, 3.20). The Mass in E Minor, composed in 1866 and first performed, with Bruckner conducting, at the dedication ceremony of the new votive chapel in Linz in 1869, was scored for full chorus with a wind ensemble accompaniment, consisting of two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets and three trombones. The wind players were drawn from members of the military band of the 14th infantry regiment of Ernst Ludwig, Grossherzog von Hessen und bei Rhein, Nr 14.⁴⁶ We are reminded by Kastner that already by the mid-1800s the alto appears to have been excluded from military bands:

‘Dans la musique militaire, on emploie rarement cet instrument’.⁴⁷

In 1850 Lobe observed that infantry bands are ‘of the fullest arrangement [and] the employment of the instruments of military bands in Austria and Germany are pretty much the same in regard to number, kind and nature’.⁴⁸ According to research by Egg and Pfaundler, between 1850 and 1852:

erfolgte die grosse Reform der österreichischen Militärmusik durch den Armee-Kapellmeister Andreas Leonhardt… Die Leonhardtsche Reform legte die Stärke und Besetzung der Militärkapellen grundsätzlich für die folgenden Jahrzehnte und eigentlich bis in die Gegenwart fest.⁴⁹

Included in the military instrumentation were two tenors and a bass trombone, but no alto trombone.⁵⁰ Austrian military band specialist Dr Eugen Brixel adds that by the time of Bruckner’s E Minor Mass, ‘traditionally military bands included no alto trombones’.⁵¹ With the inclusion of a valved Alt-Flügelhorn in E flat,⁵² there would be no need for the less practical, less efficient alto trombone. Bruckner’s prior experience writing for a Linzer military band included the Festkantate (1862), Germanenzug (1863) and Marsch in Es Dur (1865)⁵³ (Ex. 3.21a, b, c, d), all of which used a tenor on the first trombone part. The last, composed for the Militär-Kapelle der Jäger-Truppe in Linz,⁵⁴ had a low-brass section consisting of two tenor ‘tromboni’ of which the range of the first part extends from B♭ to g′, and ‘Basso’.⁵⁵ Bruckner’s description of the make-up of the band’s trombone section for Germanenzug (see p. 105) – with three bass-clef trombones – suggests that there was no alto trombonist in the ensemble. There is no indication that an alto trombone was intended on either the Niederschrift (see Ex. 3.22a, b, c, d, e) or Widmungspartitur (Ex. 3.23) of the 1866 first version of the E Minor Mass. Unfortunately the original handwritten parts to this version appear to be lost. However, two sets of handwritten parts exist for the 1882 version: in one set the first trombone is labelled ‘Trombone 1mo (Alto)’ and in the other it is called ‘Trombone Alt’. According to Hawkshaw, it has not been possible to ascertain which of the two sets were the original hand-copied parts.⁵⁶ Both first trombone parts were written in bass clef. With few exceptions, the first trombone parts in the 1866 and 1882 versions are the same. Neither the function nor the tessitura has been altered. What few changes there are occur chiefly in the ‘Credo’: in the second version some of the awkward voice-leading that appears in the original Et Incarnatus has been eliminated, as well as some of the heavier accompanying figures in the Allegro. As far as new material is concerned, Bruckner introduces a B-diminished seventh arpeggio in the first trombone part of the 1882 ‘Credo’ (Ex. 3.24), and the last four bars of the Adagio from the 1866 ‘Credo’ (Ex. 3.25) are developed into a solo chorale in the 1882 version (Ex. 3.26). As in the D Minor Mass, the trombone writing includes elements of traditional doubling as well as independent usage. On the one hand, the first trombone serves at times to reinforce the alto voices, particularly in the ‘Glori and ‘Agnus Dei’. However, in the ‘Kyrie’, ‘Credo’ and ‘Sanctus’ the treatment is very symphonic in nature – except at those times when it is doubling the tenors. The ‘Benedictus’ combines both roles. With the exception of a single excursion up to c″ (which is in unison with the alto voices), the tessitura of the first part is otherwise within the limitations of an 1860 tenor trombonist, including those passages in unison with the altos. Indeed, even the b′ at the end of its initial entrance in the ‘Kyrie’ is in aid of the tenor voices. Similarly, the frequently low tessitura of the first trombone in the 1866 version suggests a part for the tenor rather than the alto (see Ex. 3.27). Perhaps Bruckner felt that by using a tenor on the first part he could get support for his altos at essential moments and still have the darker sound available for the more orchestral passages.⁵⁷ It is intriguing that Bruckner intended an alto trombone in the F Minor Mass, but it is readily apparent from the first trombone erste Abschriftstimme that this is so. Composed between 1867 and 1868, the first performance was not given until 1872, in Vienns St Augustine’s Church. It is important to note that although the original first trombone part specifies ‘Trombone Alto’ (Ex. 3.28a, b, c) and is written in alto clef, in the autograph score (Ex. 3.29, 3.30), according to Hofrat Brosche, Bruckner ‘lediglich “Tromboni” vorschreibt, die in Bass-Schlüssel notiert werden’.⁵⁸ Redlich contends that the F Minor Mass,

a work of stylistic transition… fall[s] between two stools. Taking the Missa Solemnis type of the Vienna classics as a model… [it] employed a full orchestra, enlivened by the harmonic audacities of Wagnerian Romanticism.⁵⁹

This is clearly demonstrated in the writing for the first trombone, in which Bruckner attempts to extract two very different timbres from a single instrument. In the Gloria and Credo, in which the trombones generally reinforce the voices, the writing is well-suited to an alto trombone;⁶⁰ surely the choice of an alto was dictated as much by the Viennese classicism of the Mass as by the upper-register demands, which included d″ and c♯″. Indeed, not since the 1854 Mass in B♭ had Bruckner written so high for the first trombone.⁶¹ Moreover, the fact that the first performance employed a choir of eighteen with an orchestra that was accordingly small,⁶² ‘as were most of the performances during Bruckner’s lifetime, [which] were in the smaller setting of the Hofburgkapelle’,⁶³ may also have made the alto a preferable choice. On the other hand, the ‘audacious’ Romantic harmonies of many of the purely instrumental passages, particularly the soli chorales – a foretaste of those which would adorn his symphonies – call out for the tenor. According to Redlich, the perilous entrance in the ‘Credo’ (Example 3.31) was not doubled by the horns in the first version; they were only added in the second version (fourth revision) of 1881. He suggests (and the author concurs) that ‘when the trombones are of first-rate quality the horns can still remain silent’.⁶⁴ Throughout his career, Bruckner would continue to write high parts for the first trombone – his works are among the most strenuous in the orchestral repertoire – but never again as high as in the F Minor Mass, for this appears to be the last time Bruckner would call for the alto trombone, Bruckner’s offertorium Inveni David⁶⁵(Ex. 3.32a, b, c), written during the same time as the F Minor Mass, appears to be scored for a trombone section of two tenors and a bass: The first trombone, with a highest note of a′, supports the first tenor voice throughout.

3:4 The Symphonies

Coinciding more or less with the three great masses was Bruckner’s first mature symphony the ‘Linzer’ of 1866, which calls for a tenor trombone: the first trombone erste Abschriftstimme used in the 1868 Linz première is written in bass clef and labelled ‘Trombone 1mo (Alt)’ as seen in Ex. 3.33(a, b). In 1891, Bruckner reworked the symphony and dedicated the ‘Wiener’ version to the Vienna Philharmonic.⁶⁶ The first trombone erste Abschriftstimme (Ex. 3.34a, b) is also unequivocally for a tenor trombone. It is written in tenor clef and has the appellation ‘Trombone 1mo’.⁶⁷ The content of the original hand-copied ‘Wiener’ and ‘Linzer’ first trombone parts is essentially the same. Paradoxically, according to Brosche, Bruckner uses the word ‘Alt’ on the later score (Ex. 3.36), whereas on the earlier ‘Linzer’ he does not⁶⁸ (Ex. 3.35). This makes it abundantly clear that Bruckner’s use of the term cannot be taken at face value.⁶⁹ One observes that in both versions the first trombonist is required to play a low A, which is the lowest (non-pedal) note attainable on the alto. We are reminded how Berlioz and Kastner cautioned composers to avoid writing for the alto below e♭ due to the poor quality of the sound,⁷⁰ and especially of the advice given by Kastner and Marx regarding the problems associated with seventh position on the alto.⁷¹ Significantly, Bruckner writes a c″ for the first trombone in 1866, the highest note he had yet demanded from a tenor trombonist in a major non-choral work.⁷² With regard to modern publications of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 1, which label the first part ‘Alto Trombone’, one notes that on the score of the first printed edition, by Doblinger, which was published in 1892, the term ‘alto’ does not appear.⁷³ At one time believed to have been composed in 1864, the Symphony in D Minor (the ‘Nullte’) is now known to have been written in 1869, following the ‘Linzer’. According to Nowak, the score of the symphony, which was withdrawn (hence nullified) by the composer, indicated ATB trombones.⁷⁴ However, Bruckner could hardly have meant that an alto be used, for not only does he require A from the first trombone but F and G♯ as well (Ex. 3.39), notes which are unplayable on the alto but possible on the tenor. The original hand-copied part states ‘Trombone 1mo (Alto)’ (Ex. 3.38). Completed in 1872, the original autograph score of the Second Symphony does not designate ATB trombones but refers simply to ‘tromboni’.⁷⁵ Similarly, the first publication of the score (of the second version⁷⁶) by Doblinger, in 1892, calls for ‘Trombones 1, 2, 3’. According to Doblinger and the Austrian National Library, the original printed first trombone part and the erste Abschrift no longer exist. Dr Mark Hartman suggests that an alto trombone might have been intended in the Third Symphony because, he states erroneously, Bruckner ‘wr[o]te the first trombone part in alto clef’.⁷⁷ In fact, in the original autograph score the first trombone part is written in bass and tenor clefs. Nor does the first trombone appear in alto clef in Rättig’s first printed edition of the score of 1878, or the second publication of 1890⁷⁸ (Ex. 3.39). Most importantly, the first handwritten part, which according to Otto Biba was used by the Vienna Philharmonic in the debut performance of 1877, is designated ‘Trombone 1mo’ and written in bass clef⁷⁹ (Ex. 3.40a, b). As in the ‘Nullte’, it is logical to assume that the first trombone part of the Fourth Symphony was intended for a tenor trombone, for in bar 297 of the Finale Bruckner requires an A♭ in triple forte, a note unplayable on the alto, and shown in Ex. 3.41. The 1874 autograph score refers to the section both as ‘alto, tenor, bass’ and ‘tromboni’. The first printed score by Gutmann in 1889 lists the trombones as ‘1e, 2e, 3e’. Apparently the erste Abschriften and first printed parts no longer exist. Bruckner is inconsistent in his use of trombone nomenclature in the 1876 autograph score of the Fifth Symphony, alternating between ‘alt, tenor, bass’ and ‘Tr[ombones]’. Although there are no extant original parts, the original printed part by Doblinger calls for ‘1. Posaune’ in tenor clef. Throughout his 1881 autograph score of Symphony No. 6 Bruckner refers to the first trombone as ‘Alt’. This symphony also marks the first time that the part in a Bruckner first printed edition (Doblinger, 1899) is called ‘Alt Posaune’. There is no apparent need for an alto trombone – indeed the part is written in tenor, not alto, clef. As far as range (B to b′) and style are concerned, Bruckner’s treatment of the first trombone is virtually the same as in his previous symphonies. According to Nowak, the first publication of the Sixth Symphony contained many errors and contradictions, due to the fact that Bruckner died prior to publication and did not therefore participate in any way in the actual publication process:

Leider liessen die nachfolgenden Ausgaben bis zur Neurevision durch J.V. v. Wöss (Vienna 1927) die einander widersprechenden Verhältnisse bestehen, ja vermehrten gelegentlich noch die Fehlerzahl.⁸⁰

Further evidence that a tenor was intended for the first trombone part is seen in the score used by Franz Schalk (Ex. 3.42a, b) when conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. Schalk, a former pupil, close friend and early champion of Bruckner, amended the first trombone part in places to provide added weight and strength in the middle to low register, which would have been illogical if the part were being played by an alto. It seems clear that Doblinger used the term ‘alto’ in the conventional sense of ‘high’ voice; unfortunately the original handwritten part, which could provide confirmation, no longer exists. The first printed edition of the score of the Seventh Symphony, produced by Gutmann in 1885, came soon after the completion of the composition in 1883 and its first performance in Leipzig in 1884, which tends to give one increased confidence in its reliability and authenticity. There are no extant original printed or handwritten parts. However, the Gutmann score calls for ‘3 Posaunen’, without indicating separate species, in what was Bruckner’s heaviest, most ‘Wagnerian’ orchestra to date. The autograph score uses the terms ‘Alt’, ‘Tenor’ and ‘Bass’, but surely as ‘convention rather than deliberate choice’.⁸¹ Although the first trombone part is very taxing, Bruckner does not take it as high as in either the First or the Second Symphony. Like its immediate predecessor, Symphony No. 8 calls for a large, ‘Wagnerian’ orchestra in which the breadth and weight of a tenor trombone would be required on the first part. In the autograph score Bruckner once again calls the first and second trombones by the conventional names of ‘Alt’ and ‘Tenor’ respectively, while writing for them in the tenor clef on the same stave. According to Dr Clemens Hellsburg,⁸² the Vienna Philharmonic’s Archivar, the first publication of the Symphony by Carl Tobias Haslinger was used by the Orchestra in the first public performance in 1892. Most unusually, in what appears to have been a cost-saving measure, both first and second trombone parts are printed in the same part, with Bruckner’s score notation reproduced. Displaying stylistic links to his last two symphonies as well as the D minor third symphony, and emerging from the same spiritual context, Bruckner uses a similarly large orchestra in his Symphony No. 9 in D Minor to depict the characteristic mix of Weltschmerz, devotion to God and the anxious disquietude brought on by the uncertainty of the hereafter. The trombones are used predominantly and powerfully to convey Bruckner’s dark moods of anguish and weighty despair, rather than the elevated moments of the devout God-seeker. As with the third, seventh and eighth symphonies, the tenor is better suited than the alto for the role. Further evidence in favour of of the use of the tenor trombone comes from the fact that Bruckner requires a low A in fortissimo from the first trombone, which would sound extremely poor on the alto.⁸³ (See Ex. 3.43). Crawford Howie adds:

It seems that right up to the end, Bruckner still wrote his first trombone part for the ‘alto trombone’ without necessarily expecting that an alto trombone would play it… I have no doubt… the tenor trombone is the instrument for the symphonies.⁸⁴

Chordal passages in close harmony, a hallmark of Bruckner’s trombone writing, recall Adolph Bernard Marx’s textbook, Die Lehre von der musikalische Komposition, praktisch theoretisch:⁸⁵

In enger Lage und im Forte wirken sie mit schmetternder Gewalt; die einzelnen Töne des Akkords dröhnen in einander zu härtestem Klang, und zwar um so heftiger, je höher und enger die Stimmen treten.⁸⁶ (See bars 121-124 of Ex. 3.44).

Marx continues: In close position, piano, the trombones produce an ‘unheimlicher Ausdruck’⁸⁷ (See bars 125-128 of Ex. 3.44). To conclude this chapter the following table illustrates Bruckner’s use of the trombone section. It can be seen that during Bruckner’s early stage as a composer he favoured the ATB trio. Following a transitional period, from 1854 to about 1858, he came to rely almost exclusively on the tenor-led section, the exception being the surprising use of the alto trombone in the Mass in F Minor in 1868.

Table 3.1 Major Works of Bruckner with Trombone Parts

Year of composition	Type of first completion*	Trombone
1846	‘Kyrie’ from Mass in G minor	Alto?
1847	Aequale I	Alto
1847	Aequale II	Alto
1848	‘Kyrie’ from Mass in Eb Major	Alto?
1849	Requiem in D	Alto
1852	Psalm 114	Alto
1854	Missa Solemnis	Alto
	Libera Me	Alto
	‘Vor Arneths Grab’	Tenor
1855	‘Auf Brüder auf die Saiten zur Hand’ from Kantate für Prälat Meyer	Tenor
1856	Afferentur Regi	Alto
1858(?)	Psalm 146	Alto
1862	Festkantate	Tenor
	Drei Orchesterstücke	Tenor or Bass**
	March in D Minor	Tenor
1863	Overture in G Minor	Tenor
	Symphony in F Minor	Tenor
	Psalm 112	Tenor
	Germanenzug	Tenor
1864	Mass in D Minor	Tenor
1865	March in Eb Major	Tenor
1866	Mass in E Minor	Tenor
1866	Symphony No. 1 (‘Linzer’)	Tenor
1868	Mass in F Minor	Alto
1868	‘Inveni David’	Tenor
1869	Symphony in D Minor (‘Nullte’)	Tenor
1872	Symphony No. 2	Tenor
1873	Symphony No. 3	Tenor
1874	Symphony No. 4	Tenor
1876	Symphony No. 5	Tenor
1881	Symphony No. 6	Tenor
1883	Symphony No. 7	Tenor
1883	Te Deum	Tenor
1885	Ecce Sacerdos	Tenor
1887	Symphony No. 8	Tenor
1891	Symphony No. 1 (‘Wiener’)	Tenor
1893	Helgoland	Tenor
1894	Symphony No. 9	Tenor

* refers to year of first version where applicable
** one trombone only

Chapter 4: Brahms

The German repertoire normally calls for one each of alto, tenor and bass trombone… a tradition which lasted until Wagner.¹ (Alan Lumsden)

The Brahms Requiem is… a piece which works extremely well on the alto trombone.² (Donald Appert)

Brahms… used three trombones (none of which was an alto)… The trio of trombones, two tenors and a bass, was a combination which [was] eventually standardized during the period of Brahms and Chaikovsky.³ (John Drew)

The large bore [tenor] does beyond doubt tend to a more solid tone… For such works as the symphonies of Brahms… wide-bored instruments [are] those for which the parts were originally conceived.⁴ (Philip Bate)

Johannes Brahms… used the three clefs in [his] scores and in most instances did not intend the alto to play the parts. Most composers made a special note or indication in the score if they required the alto trombone to play the first part.⁵ (Mark Hartman)

The use of large-bore tenors, which are virtually tenor trombones built with the bore and bell of an F bass trombone, is post 1850 and began in military bands. It was for large-bore instruments that Brahms wrote, and out of consideration for this, leading English players of the early part of the twentieth century, notably Jesse Stamp and Arthur Falkner [BBC Symphony, first and second trombone respectively], though normally playing narrow-bore trombones, used to change to instruments of wider bore for the performance of works by Brahms, Richard Strauss and the later works of Wagner.⁶ (Anthony Baines)

As can be seen from the quotes above, the alto trombone is rarely associated with Brahms’ orchestral works. However, a re-examination of the existing evidence reveals a rather different picture in which the alto features prominently. One of the difficulties in assessing the make-up of Brahms’ trombone section is that, in contrast to Bruckner, no original hand-copied parts exist.⁷ Fortunately, the first published editions of his works appeared shortly after the completion of composition – invariably no more than a year later – and Brahms was critically involved in the publication process. According to Margit McCorkle:

From the start of his career Brahms composed for eventual publication. With this end in view, he put his works through rigorous paces, normally progressing through three distinct stages. He first solicited the reactions of his trusted musical confidants. Then he sought opportunities for test performances… Moreover, he repeatedly insisted to his eager publishers that the release of his works must wait until he had had sufficient opportunity to hear them performed and make his final revisions… From the Violin Concerto on, all trial performances were played from ‘printed’ string parts (that is, pulled proofs); Simrock was willing to print these, even though Brahms reserved the right to make whatever changes might be necessary once he had heard the compositions… Orchestras testing the work would purchase the performing materials (parts other than those for the strings were still usually hand-written); these would at some point, according to circumstances, be returned either to the composer or the publisher and in due course were replaced with the published parts. When the last concert of a season was over, Brahms would collect the performing materials and revise, correct and refine the full score, based on his experience of conducting and hearing the pieces… Finally, when he was satisfied with the results of these semi-private (or even public) trial performances, he released the revised score, parts and other relevant manuscripts… to the publisher, together with appropriate instructions for editing and engraving.⁸

4:1 Brahms and the Trial Performances of his Orchestral Works

To evaluate his compositions adequately, Brahms would insist on as many test performances as possible (‘Für die Herausgabe muss ich eine vollständige gute Aufführung hinter mir haben’⁹) and as many rehearsals as he required (‘Das Wichtigste an der Aufführung ist nur: so viel und oft probieren können, wie ich mag’). (See Table 4.1 for a list of trial performance of Brahms’ large-scale works.)¹⁰ For example, for the premiere of the Second Symphony Brahms was allocated three ‘pre-rehearsals’, a Korrect-Probe (proof-reading session) and one full, regular rehearsal plus dress rehearsal.¹¹ After Vienna the piece was tested in performances in Leipzig, Amsterdam, The Hague, Dresden and Düsseldorf before it went to the printer.¹² Brahms developed a special relationship with the Court Orchestra of Meiningen, which was conducted by his friend Bülow and where his compositions were often tested;¹³ thus Brahms could be assured that his pieces would be prepared exactly as he wished¹⁴:

Es war nämlich immer ein heimlich lieber Gedanke, das Ding zuerst in der kleinen Stadt, die einen guten Freund, guten Capellmeister und gutes Orchester, zu hören.¹⁵

With regard to the Requiem, his colleague Joachim recommended that it be tested in Bremen because ‘die Mittel wären in Bremen herrlich, die Kirche von wunderbarer Akustik’, and, most importantly, ‘Fleiss würde dem Dirigenten jedenfalls nich fehlen, er wäre sehr hingenommen von deiner Partitur’.¹⁶ Brahms was concerned not only that the work should be well rehearsed, but also that the musicians should be competent:

Mein Werk ist doch schwer und in Bremen geht man doch bedächtiger zum hohen a hinauf als in Wien… Ich schicke hierbei die Partitur der ersten Sätze, da ich herzlich wünsche und hoffe, Sie lassen das Streichquartett sich beteilen an den Singproben; es wäre sehr schön, wenn die Geiger hernach die Sache kennten. Sind wohl die Stimmen der übrigen Sätze fertig und recht korrekt?¹⁷

Brahms’ process for testing his compositions was painstakingly meticulous, and the slow ‘deliberate pace with which Brahms’ works progressed towards publication’¹⁸ must have severely tried the patience of his publisher Simrock. When Simrock beseeched Brahms to send the manuscript and parts of his First Symphony after the Vienna performance, it having already been performed in Karlsruhe, Mannheim and Munich, Brahms adamantly demanded further trial performances in Leipzig, Cambridge and London.¹⁹ Even after the release of the publication, Brahms corrected it three more times by letter.²⁰ An example of Brahms’ ‘deliberate pace’ and attention to detail is demonstrated in his detailed pre-publication plan for the Third Symphony, as described to Simrock:

Nun habe ich aber noch die Grosse Bitte, das Sie mir für Pest neue Bratschen und erste und zweite Violinen abziehen lassen… Am 2ten April ist die Symphonie in Pest. Dann schicke Ihnen Partitur und Stimmen… Von Pest werde ich Ihnen den ganzen Ballast zuschicken. Die Stimmen müssen natürlich nach der Partitur revidiert werden… Das Überklebte in den ersten Quartettstimmen gilt nicht – ich werde es inder Partitur korrigieren.²¹

Brahms’ critical involvement in the supervision of the printing of the first editions is typified by the following letter to Simrock. After the penultimate trial performance in Dresden of the Second Symphony, Brahms had the parts sent to Simrock with these instructions:

Ich wollte Ihnen die Stimmen schön korrigieren, sehe aber, dass sie doch, ehe sie zum Stecher gehen, von kundigen Augen besehn werden mussen… lassen Sie mich ja eine Korrektur der Stimmen lesen.²²

During the rehearsals in Düsseldorf for the final test performance, Brahms hurriedly contacted Simrock, who was then in the process of a second printing for this performance, and urged him to desist because more mistakes had been found in the parts and score:²³ ‘Es sind allerwärts sehr böse Fehler’.²⁴ Yet even after the Düsseldorf concert Brahms requested a small pre-publication printing to allow him to check for more mistakes:²⁵ ‘Sie lassen wohl die Symphonie möglichst wenig drücken – das man noch Fehler finden darf’.²⁶ Brahms’ perfectionism is summed up in his statement regarding the printing of the Triumphlied:

Ich muss durchaus die Erlaubnis haben, nachher alles Mögliche in den Platten ändern zu lassen! Das wird nun zwar wahrscheinlich nicht gefährlich sein, aber möglich ist es.²⁷

The ‘expert eyes’ to which Brahms refers were most assuredly those of Simrock’s ‘valued house editor’,²⁸ Robert Keller, known for his scrupulous attention to detail. As critical and meticulous as Brahms was, he could also rely on Keller’s superb proof-reading skills, and he paid tribute:

to Keller’s acute eye and systematic expertise as a corrector. [Keller] identified errors of all kinds, comment[ed] on suspected mistakes, and ma[d]e suggestions of his own for improvement… Keller’s method of work was to note discrepancies within the score and the parts.²⁹

Pascall adds that it was customary for the parts used in the trial performances ‘rather than the score, to be used as engravers’ Exemplaren for the printing of the set of parts’.³⁰

Table 4.1 Brahms: Chronology of Orchestral and Large Choral Works³¹

Work, Opus	Publication Publisher/Date	Performance prior to publication Date, Place/Conductor, Soloist
Ein deutsches Requiem, Op. 45	Rieter-Biedermann/ Oct. 1868 (choral parts) Nov. 1868 (score) Dec. 1868 (piano-vocal score) Jan. 1869 (orch. parts) Before Mar. 1871 (organ part)	Mvts 1-3: 1 Dec. 1867, Vienna/J. Herbeck, R. Panzer Mvts 1-4, 6, 7: 10 Apr. 1868, Bremen/Brahms, J. Stockhausen; also 27 Apr. 1868, Bremen/K. Reinthaler, F. Krolop (Brahms was present as a listener) Mvt. 5: 17 Sept. 1868, Zurich/F. Hegar, I. Suter-Weber
Rinaldo, Op. 50	N. Simrock/Aug. 1869 (score, parts, piano-vocal score)	28 Feb. 1869, Vienna/Brahms, G. Walter
Schicksalslied, Op. 54	N. Simrock/Dec. 1871 (score, parts, piano-vocal score)	18 Oct. 1871, Karlsruhe/Brahms
Triumphlied, Op. 55	N. Simrock/Nov. 1872 (score, parts, piano-vocal score)	Mvt. 1: 7 Apr. 1871, Bremen/Brahms Complete work: 5 June 1872, Karlsruhe/H. Levi, J. Stockhausen
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68	N. Simrock/Oct. 1877 (score, parts, piano four-hand arrangements)	4 Nov. 1876, Karlsruhe/O. Dessoff 8 performances between 7 Nov. 1876 and 16 Apr. 1877 in Mannheim, Munich, Vienna, Leipzig, Breslau, Cambridge, London/Brahms or J. Joachim; A. Manns and W. Cusins (in England)
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73	N. Simrock/Aug. 1878 (score, parts, piano four-hand arrangement)	30 Dec. 1877, Vienna/H. Richter 6 performances between 10 Jan. and mid-June 1878 in Leipzig, Amsterdam, The Hague, Dresden, Düsseldorf/Brahms, F. Wüllner (Dresden) and J. Joachim (Düsseldorf)
Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80	N. Simrock/July 1881 (score, parts, piano four-hand arrangement)	Test performance: 6 Dec. 1880, Berlin/J. Joachim or Brahms(?) directed the Hochschule orchestra 4 Jan. 1881, Breslau/Brahms 7 Performances between 13 Jan. and 20 Mar. 1881 in Leipzig, Münster, Krefeld, Vienna/Brahms; H. Richter (Vienna)
Tragic Overture, Op. 81	N. Simrock/July 1881 (score, parts, piano four-hand arrangement)	Test performance: same as Op. 80 26 Dec. 1880, Vienna/H. Richter From Breslau to Haarlem same as Op. 80
Nänie, Op. 82	C. F. Peters/Dec. 1881 (score, parts, piano-vocal score)	Test performance: 19 Oxt. 1881, Meiningen/Brahms or H. von Bülow? (without chorus) 6 Dec. 1881, Zurich/Brahms
Gesang der Parzen, Op. 89	N. Simrock/Feb. 1883 (score, parts, piano-vocal score)	10 Dec. 1882, Basel/Brahms 7 performances between 17 Dec. 1882 and 18 Feb. 1883 in Zurich, Strasbourg, Bonn, Krefeld, Oldenburg, Schwerin, Vienna/Brahms
Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90	N. Simrock/May 1884 (score and parts, two-piano arr.)	2 Dec. 1883, Vienna/H. Richter 13 performances between 4 Jan. and 2 Apr. 1884 in Berlin, Wiesbaden, Meiningen, Leipzig, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Bremen, Amsterdam, Dresden, Frankfurt a. M., Budapest/J. Joachim (1st Berlin performance), Brahms
Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98	N. Simrock/May 1886 (two-piano arr.) Oct. 1886 (score and parts)	25 Oct. 1885, Meiningen/Brahms 23 performances between 1 Nov. and mid-June 1886 in Meiningen, Frankfurt a. M., Essen, Elberfeld, Utrecht, Amsterdam, The Hague, Krefeld, Cologne, Wiesbaden, Mannheim, Vienna, Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Hamburg, Hanover, Breslau, London/Brahms, H. von. Bülow (Meiningen), J. Joachim (1st Berlin performance), H. Richter (Vienna and London), F. Wüllner (3rd Cologne performance)

4:2 Brahms and Tone Colour

In his Third Symphony, Brahms demonstrated his awareness of the various nuances of tone colour that different species of the same instrument could provide. According to McCorkle, if one compares the conductor’s score used for the first performance in Vienna in December 1883 with Simrock’s first printed edition, there is a change from B♭ to the more lyrical A clarinets³² in the second theme of the first movement, and ‘the addition or elimination of certain instruments, thus subtly influencing the coloration of various passages’.³³ Similarly in the fourth movement of the First Symphony Brahms expressed his preference for (what some consider) the more majestic sounding B♭ clarinet over the A clarinet: ‘Damit es nun mit der Confusion nicht weiter gehe muss Hr F. auch in der Part[itur] die Clarinetten nach B transponieren’.³⁴ An example of Brahms’ use of trombone tone colour to convey a particular mood is shown in the section’s first chordal entry in the Second Symphony. Despite the protestations in August 1879,³⁵ of his colleague Vincenz Lachner who argued that the introduction of the trombones, with their ‘düstern, lugubrigen Töne’³⁶ spoiled what was otherwise an ‘idyllisch heitere’³⁷ symphony (Ex. 4.1), Brahms refused to delete the passage. According to Lachner:

Überhaupt möchte ich aus diesem Satz Pos[aunen] u. Tuba ausgeschlossen sehen, die mir zur Grundstimmung desselben nicht nöthig scheinen u. der Kraftfülle, wo sie in der Conzentrierung aller Tonmittel auftritt, kein wesentliches Element zuführen. Damit würden auch die Stellen wegfallen, wo diese Instrumente imitatorisch das Motiv des Basses (1ter Takt) in befremdlicher Weise aufgreifen und plötzlich eine Tonqualität blosstellen, die mit dem Adel der Umgebung kontrastirt, in ihrer gesteigerten Wiederholung aber bis zu einem grellen Ausbruch von Wuth u. Schmerz vorschreiten, der mein Ohr verletzt wenn auch mein Auge die thematische Verwendung des Motivs bewundert. Mit diesen Instrumenten, deren Intonation ja nie ganz reinlich, in dissonierender Übereinanderstellung so weit vorzugehen scheint mir verwegen, den Wohllaut schwer beeinträchtigend.³⁸

Brahms replied rather cryptically that:

Ebenso flüchtig sage ich, daß ich sehr gewunscht u. versucht habe in jenem ersten Satz ohne Posaunen auszukommen. (Die e-moll-Stelle hätte ich gern geopfert, wie ich sie Ihnen also jetzt opfere.) Aber ihr erster Eintritt, der gehört mir u. ihn u. also auch die Posaunen kann ich nicht entbehren. Sollte ich jene Stelle vertheidigen da müßte ich weitläufig sein. Ich müßte bekennen daß ich nebenbei ein schwer melancholischer Mensch bin, daß schwarze Fittiche beständig über uns rauschen, daß – vielleicht nicht so ganz ohne Absicht in m[einem] Werken – auf jene Sinfonie eine kleine Abhandlung über das große ‘Warum’ folgt. Wenn Sie die (Motette) nicht kennen so schicke ich sie Ihnen. Sie wirft den nöthigen Schlagschatten auf die heitre Sinfonie u. erklärt vielleicht jene Pauken u. Posaunen.³⁹

According to Reinhold Brinkmann, the profound sadness expressed in the Motet, ‘Warum ist das Licht gegeben den Mühseligen’ (No. 1 from Opus 74), which Brahms was working on concurrently with the Second Symphony, ‘die hier nicht nur zeitlich, sondern auch als innerer Kontrapost zur “heitren” sinfonie trit’,⁴⁰ casts a ‘Schlagschatten’⁴¹ upon it. The initial entry of the trombones in the symphony produces a similar effect:

Geprägt vom Ausdruckscharacter der verminderten Septakkorde… bilden… den dunklen Gegenpol zur idyllischen Natursmetapher des Anfangs… ein nachdrückliches Infrage-Stellen der pastoralen Welt.⁴²

This creates a sense of underlying tension and unease from the outset.

‘Schwarze Fittiche beständig über uns rauschen’: Aus diesem Geist sind die Posaunen-akkorde… [und] ‘die Partitur… mit Trauerrand’ geschaften.⁴³

It is worth noting that, according to the autograph score, Brahms originally intended to use a fourth trombone in the outer movements⁴⁴ (Ex. 4.2a, b), but decided to use a tuba instead, which according to Brinkmann could have been due to the fact:

dass die Bass-Posaune, wenn sie nicht allein auf die Fundierung des Posaunenchores beschränkt bleiben, sich nicht gut mit den tiefen Streichern mischten, vor allem eine Parallelführung mit den Kontrabassen war ein Problem.⁴⁵

4:3 Brahms’ Problematic Use of Trombone Nomenclature and Clef in his Scores

Like Bruckner, Brahms’ use of nomenclature and clef in his scores is an unreliable means of determining the choice of instrument for the first trombone part of his works. For example, in the Tragic Overture (Ex. 4.3), all three trombone parts – labelled ‘3 Posaunen’ – are on a single stave of tenor clef. On the first page of the Academic Festival Overture, Brahms places ‘3 Posaunen’ and ‘Bass Tub together on the same stave of bass clef. But on page three of the autograph, while still in bass clef, he refers to the trombones as ‘Alt, Tenor, Bass’; by page 16 the trombones, now called ‘1, 2, 3’, are still on one stave but in tenor clef (See Ex. 4.4a, b, c). The first trombone in Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 starts out in alto clef but changes to tenor clef at the soli-chorale at letter [c] (See Ex. 4.5a, b, c). According to the musicologist Dr Michael Struck, on the first page of the autograph score of the Schicksalslied the trombones are called ‘3 Posaunen’ and are written in tenor clef on a single system (Ex. 4.6a, b); yet on page six the trombones appear as ‘Alt-/Ten.-Pos.’ on the same stave in tenor clef, and ‘Bass-Posaune’ in the bass clef.⁴⁶ Hermann Levi’s Partiturabschrift (copy of the score), which also served as the Stichvorlage (engraver’s manuscript for the printing of the score), has the trombones labelled as ‘3 Posaunen’ in tenor and bass clef, and thus they appear in Simrock’s printed score.⁴⁷ Yet in Simrock’s printed parts:

lauten die drei separaten Stimmen: “Trombone Alto” + Altschlüssel, “Trombone Tenore” + Tenorschlüssel, und “Trombone Basso” + Baßschlüssel.⁴⁸

In the autograph score of the Requiem (Ex. 4.7), the first trombone changes clef several times: for instance, it is in bass clef in the second movement (Ex. 4.8), tenor clef in the third movement, and at Feierlich in the seventh movement it is in alto clef.⁴⁹ Anne Kathrin Mascus of Breitkopf & Härtel confirms that the first trombone part of their 1928 publication of the Requiem is designated ‘Alt-Posaune’, and is written in alto clef:

The original [printed] parts are still in our archive, and the orchestral material which is available on sale is almost identical to the original.⁵⁰

Robert Pascall cautions that some scholarly editions can also be misleading:

Because the vast majority of Brahms’ works were published during his lifetime and with his close collaboration, it was widely assumed until recently that these published texts, unless revised or corrected in Brahms’ personal copies (the Handexemplare), represent the exact and final wishes of the composer. Indeed, the assumption lay behind the decision of Mandyczewski and Gál to base nearly all their editions for the Johannes Brahms Sämtliche Werke on the Handexamplare and to place little value on readings in the other primary sources – autographs, copyists’ manuscripts and other contemporaneous editions. Studies in textual criticism undertaken during the last few years… have shown this view to be erroneous for a number of Brahms’ compositions… However, issues from original plates of around 1897 should play an important part in establishing the definitive text of a Brahms work, since they should have picked up all the corrections Brahms made by letter (assuming that Simrock or Röder heeded Brahms’ requests, as in general they did).⁵¹

The most typical kinds of errors are also those which happen to be of the greatest interest to performers: omission of performance signs; confusion over which stave performance signs apply to, over similar signs such as sf, rf, or staccato and accent; inaccurate extension of crescendo, decrescendo and slur marks (a most characteristic engraver’s error); inaccurate placement (including notes by the interval of a third); and inaccurate standardisation.⁵²

4:4 Brahms and the Publication Process

Given Brahms’ critical involvement in the publication process and his demonstrated awareness of instrumental colour, the parts from the first printed editions can, according to Michael Struck,⁵³ be relied upon to indicate the make-up of his trombone section. George Bozarth concurs: ‘the score notation is a simplification and the parts leave no doubt about which instruments play what’.⁵⁴ The conclusions reached by the present author as to whether Brahms intended an alto or a tenor for the first trombone part in his works are based on first-hand observation of both the first-printed parts and the later-issued parts cited by Pascall.⁵⁵

4:5 Brahms’ Vocal Works with Trombone Parts

The small choral work, Begräbnisgesang (Ex. 4.9a, b), composed in 1858, is apparently the first composition in which Brahms used a trombone section. The accompaniment also includes two oboes, two clarinets, two bass bassoons, two horns, tuba and tympani.⁵⁶ In the first printed edition by J. Rieter-Biedermann (Ex. 4.10a, b, c), the first trombone part is labelled ‘Alt-Posaune’. Although I have found no evidence of trial performances of Begräbnisgesang to suggest Brahms’ involvement in its publication as with his later works, one could surmise that it was written for the alto trombone as it is the most treble voice of the six-part brass choir and is frequently used to double the alto voice. Moreover, in the first printed edition of the Deutsches Requiem, of which there is ample evidence of Brahms’ central role in the publication process⁵⁷ and which he started to compose during the same period as the Begräbnisgesang (considered by many to be its precursor⁵⁸), the parts for the low brass are specified as alto, tenor, bass and tuba. In Begräbnisgesang, Brahms also features the alto trombone in melodic passages. In bars 17-24 the alto, in harmony with the tenor trombone, plays an obbligato in contrary motion to the horn solo before joining the alto voices in unison in bars 25-34 on ‘er und… von Erden wieder aufstehn, wenn Gottes Posaun’ wird angehn’⁵⁹ (See Ex. 4.11a, b, c). Soli-chorales, a hallmark of Brahms’ trombone writing, are used to create a sense of solemnity as well as dark moods of gloom and despair (Ex. 4.12); a soft, berceuse-type chorale of soulful resignation precedes the final melancholy coda in c minor, ‘nun lassen wir uns schlafen’⁶⁰ (Ex. 4.13). The listener is immediately struck by the similarities of mood and colour between this work and the Requiem; as in the Begräbnisgesang, the tuba in the Requiem helps Brahms achieve the dark Klangcharacter, especially in the second movement (‘Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras’⁶¹) as shown in Example 4.14. Although in the Requiem the alto trombone frequently fulfills its ‘traditional’ role of vocal support (Ex. 4.15, 4.16, 4.17), Brahms also uses it in ways where a less conservative composer might have used a tenor trombone as shown in Ex. 4.14, 4.18. Another atypical use for an alto trombone occurs in the third movement, in which Brahms assigns a D/d pedal point to the trombones and tuba which they sustain for thirty-five bars (Ex. 4.18). According to Dr Michael Struck, Brahms employed the alto not so much because it was needed to reinforce the alto vocal line, but simply because the instrument was part of the Brahms orchestra.⁶² Those who attribute to Brahms the use of a trombone section composed of two tenors and a bass demonstrate the tendency of contemporary musicians to mistakenly associate the more classical Brahms – ‘criticised in his lifetime for being a dry reactionary’⁶³ – with the heavy romanticism of Wagner, post-Linz Bruckner, and Richard Strauss. Ron Barron, Principal Trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, states that many conductors feel that the alto trombone has the appropriate timbre for first trombone parts only for works composed ‘before 1840 or so’.⁶⁴ According to Pascall:

Brahms had his share of… conservative inclinations. For instance, [although] horns had had valves added from 1815 on… Brahms continued to write for valveless horns, and in this he was more conservative than his predecessor and friend Robert Schumann… As pianist too, Brahms preferred conservative-sounding instruments for his private use… Although there was a general tendency for the romantic orchestra to increase in size during Brahms’ time… there are however some clear indications that Brahms preferred smaller orchestras.⁶⁵

As choruses in Germany and Austria also became larger during this time, the need for different timbred trombones to support their vocal counterparts became superfluous. Pascall writes that ‘in the nineteenth century the choir would characteristically outnumber the orchestra, and this represented a change from the eighteenth century practice’.⁶⁶ In Vienna, for example, the Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, which Brahms conducted for a short time, had 122 members in 1859; in 1869, around the time of the first Vienna performances of the Requiem, it had 297 members; by 1878 it had 360.⁶⁷ Significantly, Pascall adds that ‘the choir, in common with many others then… had problems with its tenor section’,⁶⁸ the tenors being too weak to balance the other voices. As Rober Sheldon states:

Brahms is relatively late stuff and his sporadic chorus-trombone doubling seems to be just orchestration for beauty’s sake and not due to any practical need of any sort⁶⁹

Brahms the traditionalist seems to have intended an alto trombone in his choral works, including Schicksalslied (1871), Triumphlied (1872), Nänie (1881) and Gesang der Parzen (1883), Ex. 4.6, 4.19(a, b, c), 4.20(a, b), 4.21, respectively. Only in Rinaldo (1869) in which the first trombone part of the first printed edition is in bass clef and labelled ‘Trombone 1’, does Brahms not designate an alto as the first trombone. Scored for men’s chorus and orchestra, the work employs trombones which operate largely independently of the voices. Appropriately, Brahms used the first trombone a number of times to double the first tenors (See Ex. 4.22a, b, c, d, e).

4:6 Alto or Tenor Trombone?

Thus according to the parts from the respective first printed editions and confirmed by the later issues published around the time of his death in 1897, with the exception of Rinaldo noted above, it appears that Brahms was writing for an alto in all of his large orchestral works that used a trombone section. In all of these compositions, from the German Requiem in 1869⁷⁰ through to the Fourth Symphony in 1886 (Ex. 4.23), which appears to be the last major work in the nineteenth-century standard symphonic repertoire that specifically demands the ATB trio, the trombone parts are called ‘Alt-Posaune’ (in alto clef), ‘Tenor-Posaune’ (in tenor clef) and ‘Bass-Posaune’ (in bass clef).⁷¹ Using the score to decipher Brahms’ intentions regarding the use of the alto or tenor trombone for the first trombone part is inherently unreliable. For example, based on the range of the first trombone (g-) in Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 and the integration of the trombone section with the trumpets and horns to create a brass choir (see Ex. 4.24), one might argue that a tenor trombone was intended for the first desk. Likewise, one might deduce that Brahms had a first tenor trombone in mind for his large choral works, given the not particularly demanding tessitura of the first parts and the fact that the first trombone is frequently independent of its would-be vocal counterpart, especially in the Requiem, Triumphlied and Gesang der Parzen, in all of which the alto would seem to be an unlikely choice to balance the tuba. However, it remains to be seen whether Brahms’ wishes regarding the alto were always respected, even during his lifetime, for this was a period in which the tenor trombone was rapidly and conclusively eclipsing the alto. Surely, more often than he would have preferred, Brahms was compelled to accept the fact that the number of trombonists who could play or even owned an alto was rapidly dwindling, and resign himself to making do with the resources at hand. Indeed, even in Vienna, it appears Brahms could not always count on getting the trombone section he intended: Archival material strongly suggests that in the first performances of Symphony No. 1 and Symphony No. 2, the trombonists used valved instruments.⁷²

Chapter 5: Dvořák

Trombones¹… are made in several sizes… Dvořák usually had two altos and a bass.² (Annie O. Warburton)

Dvořák used the alto trombone in his Ninth Symphony.³ (Jiří Kratochvíl)

In Bruckner symphonies… Dvořák’s New World, and other pieces where a large volume of sound is now required, the alto trombone tends to be swamped and is less satisfactory.⁴ (Ralph Sauer, Principal Trombone, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra)

We recently performed Dvořák’s Symphony No. 6 in D Major. The conducting interpretation was classical, and we were encouraged to be more seen than heard. Partly with that in mind, I chose to use the alto on first.⁵ (Ron Barron, Principal Trombone, Boston Symphony Orchestra)

I would definitely use the alto [trombone] for a performance of the Dvořák Symphony No. 1.⁶ (Milt Stevens, Principal Trombone, National Symphony Orchestra, Washington DC)

The above statements represent the received wisdom regarding the use of the alto trombone by Dvořák. In this chapter I wish to reassess this view and explore the hypothesis that Dvořák was writing for valve trombones. In contrast to Bruckner’s case, the original handwritten parts to Dvořák’s works no longer exist;⁷ nor did Dvořák enjoy the control over the publication process of his works that Brahms did.⁸ Nonetheless, one may still conclude, on the basis of other evidence, that Dvořák did not write for the alto trombone. For not only did Czech trombonists forego the alto in the early part of the nineteenth century, in part due to the difficulty in playing it in tune,⁹ but according to my research during Dvořák’s lifetime valve trombones, tenor and bass, were used almost exclusively in Bohemia.

5:1 Music Education and the Valve Trombone in Bohemia

According to Jan Branberger, slide trombones were not used in Bohemia from 1826 to 1861.¹⁰ In 1826, the Prague Conservatoire of Music dismissed its professor of slide trombone, František Weiss, and replaced him with Josef Kail, a staunch advocate of the valve trombone¹¹ and considered by some the inventor of the valve mechanism.¹² According to Bohuslav Čížek, Curator of Musical Instruments at the Museum of Czech Music, Kail, in whose self interest was the study of valve trombone, ‘constantly found important benefactors’ and had great influence on musical opinion in Prague.¹³ Weiss attempted to establish his own school for slide trombonists ‘but could not attract any pupils’.¹⁴ The valve trombone offered not only enhanced technical capacity, but proponents such as Červený, a leading Czech instrument-maker, also maintained that ‘the intrinsic sound was no different from the slide trombone’.¹⁵ Study of the slide trombone continued to languish despite the efforts of the Conservatoire’s Director Kittl, who argued correctly, in the author’s opinion, that ‘only the slide trombone kept the true sound of the trombone’, and that valve trombones were ‘degenerate, just like big trumpets’.¹⁶ However, in 1860, and over the strenuous protests of Kail and his supporters, Director Kittl ‘imported’ the Berliner August Bolze from the Krakow Theatre Orchestra to teach slide trombone to a few of the valve-trombone pupils. Nonetheless, the slide trombone remained unpopular, and according to Jaroslav Ušák, the renowned Czech trombonist and pedagogue, ‘the introduction of the slide trombone was not accepted favourably by the whole of our music public’.¹⁷ The following year, the new Deputy Director discouraged the teaching of the instrument, which he considered ‘too strenuous for the pupils’.¹⁸

Following Bolze’s suicide in 1863, slide trombone instruction was placed in the hands of a second-year student, František Haužvic. Kail retired in 1867, after forty years’ service, and Václav Smita, bass trombonist with the German Estates Theatre Orchestra in Prague and a former student of Kail’s, was appointed to teach both valve and slide trombone¹⁹ (see Table 5.1). However, according to Ušák, Smita was primarily a valve trombonist.²⁰ Finally in 1903²¹ the Conservatoire trombone class was taken over by a proper slide trombonist, Josef Hilmer, who abolished the study of valve trombone altogether,²² and whom Karel Hoffmeister, Rektor of the Conservatoire, recognised as having distinguished himself by the fact that he did not play valve trombone, which up to that time was the standard instrument in the country.²³

Table 5.1 Professors of Trombone at the Prague Conservatoire of Music, 1826-present²⁴

Name	Type of trombone taught	Years taught
Josef KAIL	valve trombone	1826-1867
August BOLZE	slide trombone	1860-1863
Aruosl TESKE	slide trombone	1864-1874
Václav SMITA	valve and slide trombone	1874-1903
Josef HILMER	slide trombone only	1903-1934
Antonín KOULA	slide trombone	1934-1938
Jaroslav SIMSA	slide trombone	1938-1950/1952
Jaroslav UŠÁK	slide trombone	1940-1956
Miloslav HEJDA	slide trombone	1956-1986
Josef STÁDNÍK	slide trombone	[Unknown]
Jaroslav VÍTEK	slide trombone	[Unknown]
Joleník PULEC	slide trombone	[Unknown]
Jaronín HAVEL	slide trombone	1986-1989
Mastinvic PELC	slide trombone	[Unknown]
Jin JANDÍK	slide trombone	1988-1989
Jon SAILER	slide trombone	[Unknown]
Josef ŠIMEK	slide trombone	1986-
Václav FEREBAUER	slide trombone	1990-

In 1911, Branberger wrote that Kail’s valve system had been ‘used for a long time at the Prague Conservatoire, and such instruments were produced in Prague until recent times’.²⁵ Thus, according to Jaroslav Tachovsky, Principal Trombonist of the Czech Philharmonic:

Dvořák wrote for valve trombones which were played in his time. Slide trombones were first introduced in Prague in 1919 at the National Theatre at the insistence of the Chief Conductor Kovařovic.²⁶

Burghauser feels the date is more likely to have been closer to 1900,²⁷ while Hejda writes that slide trombones were introduced into the Czech Philharmonic around 1896.²⁸ According to Hejda, towards the latter part of Dvořák’s compositional career, the Czech Philharmonic trombone section could have consisted of both slide and valve players²⁹. Yet generally speaking, with the exception of a few bars from the Eighth Symphony and Te Deum, some passages in the Rhapsodies and Symphonic Variations which at that time would have been considered technically difficult, and a number of exposed soft entrances involving slurred notes without natural ‘breaks’ in slow, step-wise motion,³⁰ Dvořák’s writing does not appear unduly influenced by the fact that, in the main, only valve-trombones were available to him in Prague and is today considered well-suited to the slide trombone. The clearest evidence of Dvořák’s apparent use of the valve trombone occurs in the Finale of his 1889 Symphony Number Eight in G Major (Ex. 5.1) and in the fourth movement of the 1892 Te Deum (Ex. 5.2). Ironically, by this stage in his career Dvořák had conducted his works abroad on a number of occasions and must therefore have been well aware of the use of the slide trombone outside his homeland. For example, Stabat Mater, the D Major Symphony and the D Minor Symphony were all conducted by Dvořák in Britain during the years 1884-85, the latter being composed for the Philharmonic Society of London.

5:2 Survey of Trombones

The oldest inventory of the Prague Conservatoire’s musical instruments, compiled by František Tadeás Blatt in 1843, includes a tenor valve-trombone in B♭ (Fig. 5.1) and a three-valve bass trombone in F, both built by the Prague instrument-maker Václáv Šamal (also known as Wenzel Schamal)³¹ in 1834. The Brno brass instrument manufacturer, Lídl, also produced valve trombones, certainly of the tenor and bass type, but there is no documentation of an alto valve-trombone,³² in contrast to the Leipzig firm of J.H. Zimmermann, with agencies in St Petersburg, Moscow, Riga and London³³ (see Fig. 5.3), which was manufacturing two different models of alto valve-trombone, at least as late as 1899. Neither Čížek, Pavel Szturc,³⁴ (chief instrument restorer at the Museum of Czech Music), nor Hejda,³⁵ know of any such instrument ever being used in Bohemia, with the exception of what is catalogued as an ‘Army Alto Trombone in E♭‘ (Fig. 5.2), which they unequivocally state was never used in Czech orchestras.

Figure 5.1: Kail’s valve trombone (tenor)³⁶

Figure 5.2: Červený’s Armée Alto Posaune in Es³⁷

Figure 5.3: pages from Zimmermann’s 1899 Musik Instrument Katalog³⁸

5:3 The Trombone in Dvořák’s Orchestral Works

The e♭” for the first trombone which Dvořák calls for in the Scherzo of the 1865 Symphony No. 1 in C Minor (Ex. 5.3) – a note one would customarily see only in an alto trombone part – appears to the present writer also to be one of the ‘traces… of the author’s lack of experience’.³⁹ Dvořák entered the manuscript (Ex. 5.4, 5.5), his first attempt at writing a symphony, in a German competition, after which he never saw it again. He did not return to the C Minor Symphony, and thus it was never performed in his lifetime.⁴⁰ The fact that Dvořák did not include the C Minor Symphony, amongst his symphonies shown on the list pictured in Fig. 5.4, indicates that he apparently did not consider it a proper work of professional merit.

Figure 5.4: List of Dvořák’s symphonies, written in his own hand (with the C Minor Symphony omitted)⁴¹

Dvořák’s Second Symphony of 1865, which he commenced almost immediately upon completing the C Minor, also appears to bear ‘traces… of the author’s lack of experience’.⁴² Before submitting it to Simrock for consideration in 1887 – at which time the publisher rejected the work – Dvořák ‘carried out a new and thorough revision of the work’,⁴³ and in 1888, during rehearsals for the first performance, ‘once again Dvořák went through the work [and] made various changes’.⁴⁴ Whether Dvořák originally made as severe upper-register demands on the first trombonist as those of his C Minor Symphony is difficult to ascertain because:

a complete reconstruction of the original text is impossible owing, on the one hand, to the loss of manuscript material (sheets removed from the original score and, today, no longer extant) and, on the other, to the fact that it is not possible in many cases to discover the original version even from the autograph as it was usually carefully scratched out.⁴⁵

Nonetheless, it is possible to discern from the autograph score that Dvořák originally included a number of very taxing passages for the first trombone that were eventually modified or eliminated in the final published form (see Ex. 5.6).

5:3:1 Dvořák’s score writing

In examining the notation of the trombone parts in the scores of Dvořák’s symphonic works, a pattern appears to emerge. In his first five symphonies, between 1865 and 1875, Dvořák uses three staves, indicating ‘alto’, ‘tenor’ and ‘basso’ with their corresponding clefs;⁴⁶ this occurs as well in his first four operas and the first version of Patriotic Hymn.⁴⁷ Burghauser writes that:

separately stands his 1874 Rhapsody in A Minor in which the trombones, coupled with the tuba for the first time in his output, are written on two staves, the upper one for ‘tromboni I, II’ in the tenor clef.⁴⁸

However, any evidence one might wish to find of a difference in the style of trombone writing in the Rhapsody, or of a lower tessitura for the first trombone, is not present. Beginning with the 1877 Stabat Mater⁴⁹(Ex. 5.7, 5.8) and continuing with his Symphony No. Six in 1880 (Ex. 5.9) through to 1885, Dvořák, in common with a number of Russian composers, (see n. 117, Chapter 2), uses two-stave writing for the trombones, scoring the ‘alto’ and ‘tenor’ on a single stave of alto clef ⁵⁰ (for instance, see Hutsiská, autograph score, Ex. 5.10). Exceptions to this manner of notation occur in the 1878 Slavonic Dances (Dvořák refers to the section merely as ‘3 Posaunen’ as shown in Example 5.11a, b, c), and the minor 1879 work, Polonaise in E♭ (all three trombones are placed on one staff of bass clef.⁵¹) As with the Rhapsody in A Minor mentioned above, the changes of nomenclature and clef are not reflected by any variance in the style of writing. The first symphony in which Dvořák does not designate the trombones by their traditional names is No. 8 in G Major of 1889, but with trombones ‘1’ and ‘2’ still sharing a stave in alto clef.⁵² Although in his Ninth Symphony (1893) Dvořák again refers to the trombones by numeral (Ex. 5.12), the first-printed edition by Simrock calls them ‘alto’, ‘tenor’ and ‘bass’.⁵³ The fact that Dvořák did not proof-read the galleys but left this up to Brahms and Simrock may account for this,⁵⁴ as well as for the fact that in the Simrock edition the tuba joins the trombones in the chorale at the end of the second movement. In the autograph this is not indicated (see Ex. 5.13); the original, handwritten first trombone part is in alto clef but labelled ‘trombone 1’ (see Ex. 5.14a, b, c). In all of Dvořák’s post-1893 autograph scores that were available to view, comprising the Carnival Overture, the Wild Dove (Ex. 5.15) and his last work, Armida (Ex. 5.16), the trombones continue to be designated sequentially⁵⁵ – the first two trombones sharing a stave in alto clef – with no divergence in the style of trombone writing. Perhaps it is this score notation that led Warburton erroneously to assert that Dvořák wrote for two alto trombones.⁵⁶

5:4 Dvořák: The Historical Context

Nor does it appear that Dvořák, as often contended by leading orchestral trombonists, ever wrote for a single alto trombone. Historical evidence points to the conclusion that Dvořák composed for a trombone section consisting of two B♭ tenor valve-trombones and a bass valve-trombone, probably pitched in F. Given the lack of surviving erste Abschriftstimmen, the value of examining a composer and his works in a historical context to arrive at an understanding of his writing is aptly demonstrated above. Without this perspective one might assume that the young Dvořák, who knew only valved tenor and bass trombones, and given the lack of extensive brass-choir writing and the tessitura demanded of the first trombone, composed the C Minor Symphony with an alto (slide) trombone in mind. Moreover, because Dvořák’s trombone writing does not in general reflect an obvious bias towards valves, it would not be readily apparent to someone unaware of the enormous advances made in trombone technique and especially legato playing during the last century that Dvořák was in fact writing for the valve trombone. As with Bruckner and Brahms, the nomenclature and clefs Dvořák used in his manuscripts, as well as the manner in which he wrote, are too often unreliable indicators of the type of first trombone for which he composed.

Coda: The Orchestral Alto Trombone in the Twentieth Century

Generally speaking, after Brahms’s Fourth Symphony the alto trombone seems to have disappeared rapidly from view. It would still see service in the Church in the Posaunenchor or as a Kirchenchorzugposaune, but as far as the symphony orchestra was concerned, by 1914 Cecil Forsyth would declare the alto trombone ‘obsolete’, placing it in the same category as the serpent, tenoroon and Zink.¹ Yet only a year earlier Schoenberg had included an alto trombone part in the première of his massive tone-poem Gurrelieder,² as well as in Pelleas und Melisande which had received performances in Vienna³ and Berlin⁴ in 1905 and 1907 respectively. Around the same time, Mahler had suggested the alto trombone be used in passages of his Sixth and Seventh Symphonies, and in 1911 Bartók employed no fewer than four altos in the stage band for his opera Bluebeard’s Castle⁵ (Ex. C.13). Most likely influenced by Schoenberg, Alban Berg⁶ also called for an alto trombone in his Fünf Orchesterlieder nach Ansichtskartentexten von Peter Altenberg (completed in 1912) in the original 1914 version of Drei Orchesterstücke (Ex. C.1, C.3) and in his 1925 opera Wozzeck (Ex. C.5). The manner in which these composers employed the alto, however, was a clear departure from the way it had been used in the past. Berg, for example, used the instrument not so much for its tone colour but, taking up where Berlioz left off, as a means of extending the trombone section’s upper range. The statement by the former Universal Edition editor H. E. Apostel that appears in the score of the 1929 version of Drei Orchesterstücke (Ex. C.2, C.4), reveals that for Berg the alto was merely one of two options in this regard:

Die 1. Posaune war ursprünglich im Alt-Schlüssel notiert. Aus technischen Gründen und mit Einverständnis des Autors wurde die 1. Posaunenstimme nachträglich in den Tenorschlüssel transponiert. Die mitunter exorbitante Höhenlage erfordert daher die Hinzuziehung einer Alt-Posaune oder einer Trompete in tief Es.⁷

Moreover, in Berg’s Wozzeck (Ex. C.5), although the autograph⁸ and the Universal Edition score⁹ specify that the first trombone is to be played on an alto, most of the part is better suited to the tenor; indeed the composer has written some notes that are too low to be played on the alto.¹⁰ Nonetheless, this appears to be the last time in the standard orchestral repertoire that the alto instrument is specifically indicated. Oddly, there is no indication on the trombone part itself (‘1. Posaune’) that an alto is required. Lulu, composed more than a decade later, includes similar upper-range parts for the first trombone, yet significantly the autograph does not specify an alto trombone.¹¹ Notwithstanding this, the instrument is frequently used by modern performers in at least the two passages shown in Ex. C.6. As in Wozzeck, Berg combines both extremities of the trombone range within the same passage, thus technically precluding the use of the alto.¹² Unlike in Wozzeck, however, the highest sections of Lulu are either doubled by the trumpets or cued into their parts ‘falls für 1. Posaune unspielbar’,¹³ because ‘die 1. Posaune die Höhe nicht hat’¹⁴ (see Examples C.5 and C.6). Paradoxically, in the Altenberg Lieder (op. 4), which do not ascend as high as Lulu, Berg did specify an alto trombone, although there are discrepancies between the autograph score and the Universal Edition publication regarding its usage. According to Dr Regina Busch of the Alban Berg Institute, Berg specifies four trombones, ATTB, in the general Besetzungsliste of the autograph.¹⁵ The Universal Edition score it is simply ‘4 Posaunen’. Moreover, the alto trombone in the published score is indicated on only two occasions: in Lied II (bars 6-7 and presumably 9, as shown in Ex. C.7) and in Lied IV (at bar 12, ending at bar 22, in Ex. C.8). According to Dr Busch, however, Berg calls for the alto trombone in all movements on the autograph score. In the fifth Lied of the UE edition (Ex. C.9), the F and A♭ in the first trombone part of bar 24 are bracketed, meaning that they can be omitted. As these notes are impossible (i.e. too low) to play on an alto, this seems to imply that the alto trombone, though not specified for this movement, was nevertheless intended. The autograph is equally ambiguous.¹⁶ Designating the first trombone ‘Alt (Tenor)’ in the fifth Lied, Berg brackets the F and A♭ in bar 24 and thus seems to suggest that if an alto is used rather than a tenor, the first two notes should be omitted. Yet a trombonist would hardly choose to perform this passage on an alto as it ascends only to the note e and is far more practical for a tenor trombone.¹⁷ Indeed, the same can be said for all but five bars of the entire piece, including passages in the second and fourth movements. Since much of the trombone part is either muted or in a nearly inaudible pianissimo, it seems unlikely that Berg was utilising the instrument for the sake of its tone colour. Berg’s curious scoring for the alto in this, his earliest work for large orchestra, suggests perhaps that he was uncertain whether a trombonist could be asked to double on the alto and tenor during the same work.¹⁸ Moreover, according to Kunitz:

Ganz allgemein ist zu beachten, daß heute kein Spieler mehr ausschließlich auf die Alt-posaune spezialisiert ist. Die Altposaune wird vielmehr nur im Bedarfsfälle von den Tenorposaunisten übernommen, wobei sich diese jedesmal auf die kürzeren Positionsabstände der Altposaune umstellen müssen. Welche technischen Ansprüche hierbei an die Posaunisten gestellt werden, zeigt sinngemäß die Tatsache, daß nur sehr selten ein Spieler zwischen der Violine und der Bratsche alterniert.¹⁹

Kunitz’s opinion notwithstanding, the statement by Del Mar in regard to the first trombone part of the Drei Orchestertücke that ‘the player… will use either the alto or tenor according to range’²⁰ is equally applicable to other works by Berg. One might regard with surprise Dr Mark Hartman’s contention that ‘there is no indication in the score’²¹ of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony of the use of an alto trombone, since Mahler specifically wrote in the autograph score that a four-bar ‘sehr weich geblasen’²² passage in the first movement could be played ‘eventuell auf Alt Posaune’.²³ In the present author’s opinion, this suggestion was thought by the composer to facilitate soft, delicately legato playing in the upper register²⁴ (see Ex. C.10). The following passage, occurring at bar 146 in the last movement of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, includes the rather curious instruction ‘auf Alt-Posaune zu blasen’,²⁵ presumably to facilitate reaching the a′ in pianissimo, although Mahler required higher notes from the tenor trombone in this and earlier symphonies. Moreover, since the trombone part is played in octaves with the first trumpet, both con sordino, one does not feel the composer was using the alto in order to exploit its unique timbre (Ex. C.11). A number of professional trombonists oppose using the alto as an upper-register aid. Glen Dodson, former Principal Trombonist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, is one. Dr Hartman reported that Dodson: believes that trombonists many times use it because it makes notes in the high register easier. Some trombonists have difficulty, and they resort to the alto trombone. He maintains that this is not a good reason for the use of the alto trombone.²⁶ Schoenberg, on the other hand, used the alto trombone primarily to add to the panoply of orchestral tone colours. Yet the powerful dynamics that he frequently demanded of the alto trombone within a large orchestral context – a function for which the instrument was not designed – often leads to a forced shrillness, resulting in a distortion and loss of its unique timbre (Ex. C.12, C.13, C.14).²⁷ Similarly, one must question Bartók’s call for four alto trombones in Bluebeard’s Castle, not only in a register but in a dynamic more suited to tenor trombones,²⁸ as seen in Ex. C.15. The slide technique and the instinctive familiarity with alternate positions that Schoenberg requires – unlike anything previously written for the alto²⁹ – calls for a virtuoso command of the instrument. Given the disuse into which the alto had fallen,³⁰ one wonders whether first trombonists originally performed these parts entirely on an alto, or whether the instrument was reserved for the occasional high note.³¹ However, the following passage from Gurrelieder (Ex. C.16) could not be played on a tenor trombone, as Schoenberg clearly realised, because a glissando between e♭‘ and a is only possible on the E♭ instrument. Schoenberg explains in the score:

Glissando der Posaunen wird folgendermassen ausgeführt: das Es wird als Oktav des ‘geschlossenen Zuges’ mit den Lippen fixiert und dann das Rohr ausgezogen respektive wieder zusammengeschoben.³²

In Pelleas und Melisande (composed 1902-1903) Schoenberg used the alto rather curiously, rarely assigning it passages in the upper register, its distinct tone colour further obscured by frequent doublings. Robin Gregory states that Schoenberg used the alto trombone in Pelleas und Melisande ‘as if uncertain of its capabilities… It is not clear why it is used’³³ (Ex. C.17). Thanks to the creative use of the instrument in chamber works, such as Stravinsky’s Threni (1957-58) and The Flood (1961-62), Benjamin Britten’s Burning Fiery Furnace³⁴ (1966) especially and to the growing appeal of the eighteenth century solo repertoire (not to mention orchestral doubling fees), the alto trombone has experienced a resurgence of interest on both sides of the Atlantic. The past decade or so has witnessed increasing use of the alto in those orchestral works which are perceived to have been written for it.³⁵

Modern Performance Practice

Eric Carlsen, Philadelphia Orchestra:

I like the alto very much in a small orchestra or choral setting. In a good 95+ piece orchestra, though, the sound is out of place.³⁶

One of the factors most often cited by orchestral trombonists as a consideration in their choice of alto trombone is how well it blends with the rest of the section. Since the abandonment of the alto, and especially since the adoption of similar large-bore tenor trombones on the first and second parts, the concept of good section blend has come to mean matching sounds that produce a single, homogeneous, dark tone-colour, the complete antithesis of its original meaning, i.e. a balance among the three distinct trombone timbres of alto, tenor and bass, ‘bringing forth full harmony’.³⁷ Thus when today’s player speaks of an alto trombone that ‘blends well with the section’, one might consider this a contradiction in terms. The modern concept of orchestral alto trombone sound, as described by Ralph Sauer, Principal Trombonist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is fairly typical:

The sound I try to produce is closer to the small bore tenor trombone than that which was probably traditional for the alto of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.³⁸

Amongst his reasons is the fact that ‘the second and bass trombones are larger than their earlier counterparts’.³⁹ In order to produce this sound – a sound that matches the tenor and bass of the section – players look for large-bore alto trombones. According to Miles Anderson, ‘the alto trombones generally used today are larger than my tenor trombone in bore size. I was never interested in a 0.500″ bore alto. That’s a tenor in E♭‘.⁴⁰ Thus John Kitzman, Principal Trombonist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, quite logically decides that ‘on piece[s] for which many would use an alto, I choose to use a Bach 36B [small bore] tenor trombone’,⁴¹ for, as Larry Campbell of the Baton Rouge Symphony contends, today ‘a small-bore tenor with a small mouthpiece almost equals an alto’.⁴² One can only agree with Kunitz that:

da die klassischen Werke heute stets mit stärkerer Streicherbesetzung als zu ihrer Zeit aufgeführt werden… es ist auch an dieser Stelle darauf hinzuweisen, dass die Altposaune heute weiter mensuiert sein muss als in der vorklassischen und klassischen Zeit.⁴³

However, one wonders if he imagined the alto would assume the overall dimensions which it has today,⁴⁴ with its trend towards ever greater proportions. Even when a player prefers a smaller sound for the alto, the choice may not be his, for the final decision is often left with the conductor. According to Richard Meyers, ‘most of the conductors that I have played for in thirty-five years seem to prefer the sound of the tenor over the alto’.⁴⁵ Kevin Price, Principal Trombonist of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, relates how a conductor once requested he play tenor trombone rather than the authentically appropriate alto for Mendelssohn’s Elijah.⁴⁶ On one occasion the author was requested by Sir Simon Rattle to use a small-bore tenor trombone rather than an alto for Brahms’s Schicksalslied. Instead, unbeknown to Sir Simon, I used the new prototype Yamaha large-bore alto and Sir Simon praised my ‘small-bore tenor sound’. The requirement that the alto should ‘fit in’ with the rest of the section is nowhere more evident than in the common practice of employing smaller-bore tenor and bass trombones in conjunction with the alto,⁴⁷ due to the fact that ‘the second and bass trombones are larger than their earlier counterparts’, but losing sight of the fact that today’s alto is also larger than its predecessors. The result can be a further minimizing and blurring of the alto trombone’s timbral distinctiveness. The following statement by Schweitzer demonstrates that the proportional relationship maintained between the individual trombones is analogous to the size of the choirs which they traditionally accompany:

Zu bemerken ist, das die damaligen Posaunen, weil sie enger mensuriert waren, nicht so stark, dafür aber heller klangen als die unsrigen da unsere Chöre auch bedeutend stärker sind als die Bachschen, so ist die Proportion dennach gewahrt.⁴⁸

We appear to be at a pivotal juncture in the alto trombone’s history. On the one hand, the use of the alto is more widespread than at any time previously, as composers such as Britten have successfully maintained the essence of its traditional character while at the same time introducing it to contemporary innovations. On the other hand, instrument manufacturers, responding to the demands of players and conductors, are producing alto trombones with increasingly larger dimensions and are thus departing significantly from the historical concept of alto trombone sound. In this respect, it seems we have come full circle. At one time, non-alto-playing trombonists frequently used a small-bore tenor trombone to facilitate the upper register demands of works of earlier composers and to approximate the sound of the alto. Now players appear to be turning to large-bore alto trombones that sound like small-bore tenors and using them as an upper-register aid in pieces by contemporary composers. Moreover, the intrinsic beauty of the alto trombone sound is frequently forfeited when the instrument is played as part of large orchestrations, in immense concert halls and at the dynamic levels demanded by some twentieth-century composers. Having nearly slipped into obsolescence through disuse, it would indeed be ironic if the resurgence of interest enjoyed by the alto trombone today led to its eventual extinction as a perceptibly distinct timbral entity.

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Music

Bartók, Béla, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, Universal Edition, Vienna, 1925.

Beck, Franz, Sinfonie in Es dur from Aus den Jahren 1760-1762, ed. Robert Sondheimer, Bernouilli Verlag, Berlin, 1927.

Beethoven, Ludwig van, ‘Der Glorreiche Augenblick’, op. 136 in Beethoven Werke, Gesamtausgabe (ed. Ernst Herttrich), Abteiling x, Band I, Kantaten, Munich (G. Henle Verlag), 1996.
⸻ Beethoven Werke, Gesamtausgabe (ed. Ernst Herttrich), Abteiling x, vol i, Kantaten, Munich (G. Henle Verlag), 1996.
⸻ Symphony No.9 in D Minor, Eulenburg, London [no date given].
⸻ Drei Aequale, Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart, 1978.
⸻ Symphony No. 5 in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Werke: vollständige kritisch durchgesehene überall berechtigte Ausgabe, mit Genehmigung aller Originalverleger, Series 1, vol. 5, Leipzig (Breitkopf & Härtel) [no date given].
⸻ Symphony No.6 in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Werke: vollständige kritisch durchgesehene überall berechtigte Ausgabe, mit Genehmigung aller Originalverleger, Series 1, vol. 6, Leipzig (Breitkopf & Härtel) [no date given].

Berg, Alban, Wozzeck, Oper in 3 Akten (1926), revised by H. E. Apostel, Universal Edition, Vienna, 1955.
⸻ Altenberg Lieder, op. 4, Universal Edition, © 1953, Vienna.

Berlioz, Hector, Roméo etJuliette in D. Kern Holoman (ed.), New Edition of Complete Works (Bärenreiter) vol. 18, Kassel, 1990.
⸻ Grande Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale in Hugh Macdonald (ed.), New Edition of the Complete Works, vol. 19, 1967.
⸻ Messe Solonnelle in Hugh Macdonald (ed.), New Edition of the Complete Works, vol. 23, 1967.
⸻ La Damnation de Faust in J. Rushton (ed.), New Edition of the Complete Works, vol. 8b, Kassel, 1986.
⸻ Te Deum in Denis McCaldin (ed.) Hector Berlioz: New Edition of the Complete, vol. 21, 1967.
⸻ Symphonie Fantastique in Nicholas Temperly, (ed.) Hector Berlioz: New Edition of the Complete Works series 1, Kassel, 1972.
⸻ Malherbe, Charles, and Felix Weingartner (eds), Hector Berlioz Werke, ‘Sinfonien’, Bande i, Leipzig, 1900.

Brahms, Johannes, 4. Symphonie in E-moll, op. 98, Facsimile Edition, Adliswil-Zwich, Eulenburg, 1974.
⸻ Sämtliche Werke, Chorwerke mit Orchester II, Band 18, Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig, 1949.
⸻ Sämtliche Werke, Chorwerke mit Orchester III, Band 19, Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig, 1949.

Britten, Benjamin, Building of the House: Overture with or without Chorus, op. 79, Faber Music Ltd, London, 1968.
⸻ Burning Fiery Furnace, Faber Music Ltd, London, 1966.

Bruckner, Anton, Kleine Kirchenwerke 1835-1882, Revisionsbericht, ed. Leopold Nowak, Vienna, 1984.
⸻ Messe D-moll, Bruckner Gesamtausgabe, ed. Leopold Nowak, Vienna, 1957.
⸻ Marsch D-moll, Drei Sätze für Orchester, Sonderdruck aus Band XII der Bruckner Gesamtausgabe, ed. Hans Jancik (Doblinger), Vienna, 1974.
⸻ Sämtliche Werke Band III/1, Symphonie D-moll, Fassung von 1873, ed. Leopold Nowak, Vienna, 1977.
⸻ Sämtliche Werke Band III/2, Symphonie D-moll, Fassung von 1889, vorgelegt von Leopold Nowak, Vienna, 1981.
⸻ Sämtliche Werke Band III/3, Symphonie D-moll, Fassung von 1889, vorgelegt von Leopold Nowak, Vienna, 1959.
⸻ Gesamtausgabe, Missa Solemnis in B, ed. Leopold Nowak, Vienna, 1975.
⸻ Gesamtausgabe, Symphonie F-moll (1863), Revisionsbericht, ed. Leopold Nowak, Vienna, 1982.
⸻ Sämtliche Werke, Symphonie F-Moll (1873), Revisionsbericht, ed. Leopold Nowak, Band 10, Vienna, 1982.
⸻ Overture in G Minor, ed. Arthur D. Walker, London, 1971.
⸻ Sämtliche Werke, Symphonie Nr. 9, Vienna, 1951.

Dvořák, Antonín, Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Complete Edition, Prague, 1961.
⸻ Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’ [Editio Supraphon], Prague, 1986.
⸻ Souborné Vydání, Stabat Mater, Prague, 1956 [no vol. no. given].

Eggert, Joachim, Symphony in E♭ Major, The Symphony 1720-1840, ed. Barry S. Brook, Series F, vol. 3, score 14, Garland Publishing Inc, New York, 1983.

Halévy, Guido et Ginévra, Opéra en cinq Actes, paroles de M. E. Scribe, Partition, Maurice Schlesinger, Paris, 1838.
⸻ Le Juif Errant, Opéra en cinq Actes, paroles de Mr E. Scribe et de St Georges, Brandus et C^ie, Paris, 1852.

Mahler, Gustav, Facsimile Edition of the Seventh Symphony, Amsterdam: Rosbeek, 1995.

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix, Lobgesang, Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig [no date given].
⸻ Reformation Symphony, Simrock, Bonn, [no date given].

Rimsky Korsakov, Andrey Nikolayevich, Russian Easter Festival Overture, op. 36, in The Complete Works of Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Conductor’s Score, facsimile, Belwin Mills, 1981.
⸻ Scheherazade, in The Complete Works of Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Conductor’s Score, facsimile, Belwin Mills, 1981.

Rossini, Gioacchino, Guillaume Tell in Elizabeth Bartlet (ed.), Editione Critica della Opere de Gioacchino Rossini, series i., vol. 39, 1992.
⸻ La Gazza Ladra in Alberta Zedda (ed.) Editione Critica della Opere de Gioacchino Rossini, series i., vol. 21, 1979.
⸻ La Coruna d’Italia, in Carl Boosé (ed.), Military Journal, series 46, no. 2, Bossey & Co., London, 1880.

Schoenberg, Arnold, Gurrelieder, Universal Edition, Vienna, 1920.

Schubert, Franz, Des Teufels Lustschloss in Franz Schubert’s Werke: Kritische durchgesehene Gesamtausgabe: Dramatische Musik, Serie 15, erster Band, Leipzig, 1888.
⸻ Messe in As. Erste Fassung in Doris Finke-Hecklinger (ed.), Franz Schubert, Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke, Serie 1, Kirchenmusik, Band 3: Teil a, Kassel, 1980.
⸻ Messe in As. ZweiteFassung in Doris Finke-Hecklinger (ed.), Franz Schubert, Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke, Serie 1, Kirchenmusik, Band 3: Teil b, Kassel, 1980.
⸻ Symphony No. 9 in Roger Fiske (ed.), Symphony No. 9, C-Dur, D.944 by Franz Schubert, London (Eulenburg), 1984.
⸻ C Major Symphony in Franz Schuberts Werke Kritische durchgesehene Gesamtausgabe: Symphonien für Orchester, Serie 1, zweiter Band, Leipzig, 1885.

Schumann, Robert, Symphonien für Orchester, Partituren, Serie I, Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig, 1967.

Shifrin, Ken (ed.), The Orchestral Doubler’s Handbook: Alto Trombone Orchestral Excerpts, Nottingham: Virgo Music Publishers, 1987.

Thomas, Ambroise, Hamlet, Opéra en cinq actes, Paris: Heugel, 1869.

von Weber, C. M., Der Freischütz, Romantische Oper in drei Aufzügen, Broude Bros, New York [no date given].
⸻ Euryanthe, Grosse Romantische Oper in 3 Akten, Breitkopf & Härtel, Berlin, 1866.
⸻ Oberon, Romantische Oper in drei Akten, Breitkopf & Härtel, Berlin [no date given].

Wagner, Richard, Rienzi der letzte der Tribunen in Reinhard Strohm and Egon Voss (eds), Sämtliche Werke, Band 3, v, 1991; Band 3, ii, 1975; Band 3, ii, 1976; Band 3, iv, 1977, Mainz.
⸻ Rule Britannia, erste Ausgabe, Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig, 1908.
⸻ Konzert-Ouverture in C Dur, erste Ausgabe, Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig, 1926.

Manuscript Sources

Chapter 1

[Sweden] Stockholm, Kungliga Musikaliska Akademiens Bibliotek, Eggert, Symphony in E♭ Major, autograph score.

[Austria] Vienna, courtesy of Mag. Ingrid Lies of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, Schubert, C Major Symphony, original handwritten alto and tenor trombone parts.

Chapter 2

[France] Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Opéra de Paris, MS.3968[I], Thomas, Hamlet (1868), autograph score.

[France] Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Opéra de Paris, A.531.a[I], Thomas, Ouverture du Compte de Carmagnola, 1841, autograph score.

[France] Paris, courtesy of Bibliothèque de l’Opéra de Paris, Halévy: Guido et Ginévra, 1838, autograph score.

[France] Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Opéra de Paris, MAT.19, Halévy, Le Juif Errant, 1852, original handwritten part.

Chapter 3

[Austria] St Florian, courtesy of Dr. Buchmeyer, Librarian, Stift St. Florian Archives, Bruckner, E♭ Messe Kyrie.

[Austria] St Florian, courtesy of Stift Seitensletten Archivist, P. Wagner, Bruckner, Aequale, autograph score.

[Austria] St Florian, Stift St. Florian Archives (20/26), Bruckner, Aequale, original handwritten trombone parts.

[Germany] Regensburg, Bruckner, Psalm 114, autograph, in August Göllerich and Max Auer, Anton Bruckner: Ein Lebens- und Schaffens-Bild, Band II, 2 Teil, 1928.

[Austria] St Florian, Stift St. Florian Archives (20/34), Bruckner, Libera Me, original handwritten trombone parts.

[Austria] St Florian, Stift St. Florian Archives (19/8), Bruckner, ‘Auf Brüder auf die Saiten zur Hand’ from the Kantate für Prälat Meyer, autograph score.

[Austria] St Florian, Stift St. Florian Archives (19/8), Bruckner, ‘Auf Brüder auf die Saiten zur Hand’ from the Kantate für Prälat Meyer, original first trombone part.

[Austria] St Florian, Stift St. Florian Archives (20/52), Bruckner, Afferentur Regi, autograph score.

[Austria] St Florian, Stift St. Florian Archives (20/52), Bruckner, Afferentur Regi, original alto trombone part.

[Austria] Vienna, courtesy of the Wiener Stadtbibliothek, Bruckner, Overture in G Minor, Abschrift of score.

[Austria] Stift Kremsmünster Archives [c. 56.7], Bruckner, Symphony in F Minor, autograph score.

[Austria] Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek [MUS Hs 3156], Bruckner, Psalm 112, autograph.

[Austria] Stift Kremsmünster Archives [c. 56.6], Bruckner, Germanenzug, autograph score.

[Austria] Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek [MUS Hs 6074(97)], Bruckner, D Minor Mass, original alto trombone part.

[Austria] Vienna, courtesy of the Wiener Stadtbibliothek, Bruckner, Drei Orchestersätze, ‘Nr 3’ 1862, autograph score.

[Austria] Vienna, Wiener Stadtbibliothek [MH3794/c], Bruckner, Marsch in D moll, 1862, autograph score.

[Austria] Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek [MUS Hs 3168], Bruckner, Marsch in Es dur, 1865, autograph score.

[Austria] Linz, courtesy of Prälat Gottfried Schicklberger, Domdechant u. Ordinariatskanzler, Maria Empfängnis Dom in Linz, Bruckner, E Minor Mass, 1882 version, manuscript score.

[Austria] Linz, courtesy of Prälat GottfriedS chicklberger, Domdechant u. Ordinariatskanzler, Maria Empfängnis Dom in Linz, Bruckner, E Minor Mass (Niederschrift), 1866 version, manuscript score.

[Austria] Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek [MUS Hs 2106], Bruckner, E Minor Mass, 1866 version, autograph score.

[Austria] Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek [s.m. 6075], Bruckner, E Minor Mass, 1866 version, original alto trombone part.

[Austria] St Florian, courtesy of Dr Buchmeyer, Librarian, Stift St. Florian Archives, Bruckner, Inveni David.

[Austria] Vienna, Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien Archiv [XIII 38029], Bruckner, Sinfonie Nr. 1, ‘Linzer’, 1866 version, original handwritten first trombone part.

[Austria] Vienna, Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien Archiv [XIII 45.468], Bruckner, Sinfonie Nr. 1, ‘Wiener’, 1891 version, original handwritten first trombone part.

[Austria] Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, [MUS Hs 40.400], Bruckner, Sinfonie Nr. 1, ‘Linzer’, 1866 version, autograph score.

[Austria] Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, [MUS Hs 19.473], Bruckner, Sinfonie Nr. 1, ‘Wiener’, 1891 version, autograph score.

[Austria] Vienna, courtesy of Dr Clemens Hellsberg, Vienna Philharmonic archivist and librarian, Bruckner, Symphonie No 1, ‘Wiener’, 1891 version, dedication score.

[Austria] Vienna, courtesy of Mag. Ingrid Lies of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, Bruckner, Symphony in D Minor, ‘Nullte’, original, first trombone part.

[Austria] Vienna, Gesellschäft der Musikfreunde in Wien Archiv [III 26428], Bruckner, Symphonie No 3, original first trombone part.

[Austria] Vienna, courtesy of Dr Clemens Hellsberg, Vienna Philharmonic archivist and librarian, Bruckner, Symphonie No 3, 1890.

[Austria] Vienna, courtesy of Dr Clemens Hellsberg, Vienna Philharmonic archivist and librarian, Bruckner, Symphony No.4.

Chapter 4

[Austria] Vienna, courtesy of Dr Clemens Hellsberg, Vienna Philharmonic archivist and librarian, Bruckner, Symphony No 6.

[USA] New York, courtesy of J. Rigbie Turner, Mary Flagler Cary, Curator of Music Manuscripts and Books of the Pierpont Morgan Library, Brahms, Symphony No. 2.

[Austria] Vienna, courtesy of Dr Otto Biba, Archivdirektor, Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem, autograph score.

[USA] New York, courtesy of J. Rigbie Turner, Pierpont Morgan Library, Brahms, Symphony No. 1.

[Germany] Berlin, courtesy of Stadtbibliothek zu Berlin, Brahms, Akademische Festouvertüre, autograph score.

[USA] Standford CA, courtesy of Eleanore Stewart, Department of Special Collections, The Stanford University Libraries, Brahms, Tragische Ouvertüre, autograph score.

[USA] Washington DC, Library of Congress [ML30,8bCase], Brahms, Begräbnisgesang, autograph score.

[USA] Washington DC, Library of Congress [ML96.B68 Case], Brahms, Schicksalslied, autograph score.

[Germany] Krefeld, courtesy of Stadtarchivardirektor Schalte, Stadtarchiv Krefield, Brahms, Parzengesang, autograph score.

[Switzerland] Zürich, Johannes Brahms, 4. Symphonie in E-moll, op. 98, Facsimile (Edition Eulenberg), Adliswil-Zürich, 1974, autograph score.

Chapter 5

[Czech Republic] Prague, courtesy of Dr Hallová, Director, Dvořák Museum, Dvořák, Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, autograph score.

[Czech Republic] Prague, Dvořák Museum, [8232], Dvořák, Stabat Mater, autograph score.

[Czech Republic] Prague, Dvořák Museum, [8786], Dvořák, Slavonic Dances, autograph score.

[Czech Republic] Prague, courtesy of Dr Hallová, Director, Dvořák Museum, Dvořák, Symphony No. 6 in D Major, autograph score.

[Czech Republic] Prague, courtesy of Dr Hallová, Director, Dvořák Museum, Dvořák, Husitská, autograph score.

[Czech Republic] Prague, courtesy of Dr Hallová, Director, Dvořák Museum, Dvořák, New World Symphony, autograph score.

[USA] New York, courtesy of Richard Wandel, Project Archivist, New York Philharmonic, Dvořák, New World Symphony, original handwritten first trombone part.

Coda

[Austria] Vienna, Lehmann Collection, courtesy of Regina Busch, Alban Berg Gesamtausgabe, Berg, Drei Orchesterstücke, original autograph (1913).

[Austria] Vienna, Universal Edition, courtesy of Claudia Patsch, Berg, Drei Orchesterstücke, edited version (1923).

[Netherlands] Amsterdam, Mahler, Facsimile Edition of the Seventh Symphony, Rosbeek, 1995.

Appendix 1

Benjamin Britten: The Burning Fiery Furnace

Humphrey Carpenter describes Britten’s use of the alto in his parable for church performance thus:

Melodrak, the heathen image raised up by the Babylonians, is musically characterised by glissandi, which sounds especially gross because Britten has added, to the instruments used in Curlew River, an alto trombone representing the ‘sackbut’ mentioned in the biblical text. It slides about the notes grotesquely in the Melodrak music and also emphasises the pomposity of the ‘Empire’ passages.¹

Example A.1.1: Britten, The Burning Fiery Furnace, alto trombone extracts, Faber²

In the following correspondence, Britten discusses with Roger Brenner (the trombonist who was to première the work) the glissandi, pedal tones, and other facets of the work that the composer was in the process of developing.

Figure A1.1

Figure A1.2

Appendix 2

I. Alto Trombone Technical Innovations: Gadgets, Gimmicks and Gizmos?

In 1925 M. G. Flandrin wrote that since the E♭ alto had inherent structural defects that had existed since its inception¹, it had become necessary to construct a new model pitched in D♭.² The new alto was equipped with a semi-conical bore, a longer slide and ‘un pavaillon plus en rapport avec l’instrument’³, the D♭ alto never enjoyed widespread popularity even in France.⁴

Among the recent innovations in E♭ alto trombone design, the most significant has been the introduction of the valve attachment⁵. This was developed by Thein at the end of the 1970s for the eminent trombonist Armin Rosin, the author’s colleague in the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra. I had an opportunity to test this instrument in its prototype phase. Fitted with two valves (one of which is detachable), it enables the performer to execute all the major and minor second trills that regularly appear in the alto trombone solo compositions of Leopold Mozart, Eberlin, Reutter, Wagenseil, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Albrechtsberger, among others. According to Thein:

wenn es sich hierbei auch nicht um eine instrumentenbauerische Lösung im Sinne der historischen Aufführungspraxis handelt, so entspricht diese Lösung der musikalischen Auffassung moderner Solo- und Orchesterposaunisten… sehr.⁶

Utilising just the fixed valve enables the player to lower the trombone’s pitch from E♭ to A♭, which, although extending the range down to E♭, requires the player to learn an entire new set of positions and is thus of rather dubious benefit.

II.1 The Yamaha YSL673 alto trombone with detachable B♭ valve

In 1994 I had the opportunity to test the prototype of this instrument. The following is extracted from the report I submitted.

To: Matthew Pollack and Fuji Ozawa, Yamaha Music Atelier, Research and Development, London

From: Ken Shifrin, Principal Trombone, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Date: 27 February 1994

Re: Preliminary evaluation report of the Yamaha Alto Trombone prototype YSL673 with detachable B♭ valve.

The Yamaha YSL673 has a warm, full-bodied sound that matches well with the tenor and bass trombone of the orchestral section. It has the mellifluous, rich tone generally associated with the tenor trombone – indeed it has a tendency to sound somewhat like a small-bore tenor – which should make it attractive to many conductors. The YSL673’s lovely timbre makes it an excellent choice as a solo instrument. However, whether an alto soloist is looking for a brighter, smaller (more ‘authentic’?) sound is naturally subjective.

As far as the B♭ valve is concerned, I have sketched out a number of examples from the orchestral repertoire that are less awkward (and probably better in tune) when the B♭ valve is utilised. As one can observe, the main reason to use the B♭ valve is to avoid 7th position e on the E♭ alto, by providing alternative Trigger 2 (T2)⁷. However, this note is relatively low for the alto register and does not often occur in the alto solo or orchestral repertoire. In this respect the YSL is superior to the non-detachable B♭ valve of its counterpart, the Conn alto trombone, for although the B♭ valve renders a good number of orchestral passages more fluid (and indeed some passages, as from Berg’s Lulu, are not even playable without it as the notes descend below the E♭‘s register), it is an option that I feel many players will want but will not need most of the time.

As I have remarked previously, of more obvious value is the double-valve trill mechanism which permits one to trill minor and major seconds. (I mentioned that in Stuttgart I tried such an alto while it was being developed for Armin Rosin.) Even a single valve that enabled one to trill a half-step would be keenly sought, as it is the one interval that is impossible to produce by lip-trilling.

However, the exception to this statement is the fact that the B♭ valve apparently enables the player to execute virtually all major and minor 2nd trills – either by availing oneself of alternative slide positions with the B♭ horn and lip-trilling, or by using the B♭ valve as a piston, thus filling the gap that exists on the E♭ horn. (A chart is enclosed.) Problematic trills in the Albrechtsberger Concerto, the Wagenseil Concerto, the Leopold Mozart Concerto and Wolfgang Mozart’s ‘Jener Donnerworte Kraft’ – mainstays of the alto trombone solo repertoire – are thus rendered properly playable, where even the most masterful lip-triller was previously forced to ‘disguise’ them. (And bear in mind that there are a lot more less-than-masterful lip-trillers than there are masters!)

Analogous to the F horn on the B♭/F tenor trombone, the B♭ valve on the E♭ alto trombone provides only six positions as each succeeding position on the B♭ horn is progressively longer than its E♭ horn counterpart. Therefore, the lowest note available (non-pedal tone, that is) with the B♭ valve is F in long-6th position or Trigger 6 (T6).

The low E in the passage from Berg’s Lulu should be playable in T6 by retuning the B♭ valve to A, simply by fully extending the B♭ tuning slide. Presently, however, the B♭ tuning-slide is not long enough to lower the pitch a full half tone. Also, the ‘authentic’ execution of several trills – including the famous opening a′ to b♭′ trill in the Albrechtsberger – requires the tuning-slide of the B♭ horn to be lowered a semi-tone. Compared to the comparable Conn alto trombone, I found more resistance with the Yamaha in the crucial upper-register.

Therefore, since we are dealing with a prototype, I suggest you consider the following possibilities.

The B♭ valve tubing be made open-wrap.

A Thayer-type valve be installed in order to reduce resistance and produce a better match between B♭ horn and E♭ horn timbres. I am not convinced that such a valve would create too little resistance in the upper register. Recall that the YSL671 straight horn seems to have more upper-register stuffiness than the Conn with B♭ valve.

The valve mechanism is presently positioned too low. It digs uncomfortably into the player’s neck. The accompanying sketch shows one way the above suggestions 1 and 2 could be designed and implemented, thus eliminating stuffiness and discomfort and providing the option to retune the B♭ valve to A.

So that one can take full advantage of the trill option, I suggest that the valve beredesigned for maximum trilling speed and comfort: a French Horn type valve, with minimum distance to travel (like the Conn valve), that can be operated by one’s strongest left-hand finger (i.e. the first or second finger) and positioned as the E-valve on the Bach bass trombone. The present valve is rather clumsy, slow and impractical as a trilling mechanism, and is very uncomfortable on the hand and the wrist.

So that the crucial notes of e♭″ (e.g. Schumann III) and f″ (e.g. Beethoven V) are always available in first position (no matter how sharp one’s colleagues may be playing), I suggest extending first position to an auxiliary quarter position with spring bumpers.

A possible alternative for the attachment of the two separate ‘horns’ (the E♭ or straight horn and the B♭ horn) is to have them share the same tuning slide (I believe the Bach B♭/F tenor trombone is connected in a similar way). The valve would be positioned higher than it currently sits, thus preventing it from digging into the player’s neck. Space is available for open-wrap which would eliminate the stuffiness of the B♭-valve notes. And now space is provided for the superior Thayer-type valve system. Likewise, the open-wrap permits the attachment horn to have the same resistance as the straight horn. Also, the necessary tubing would now exist to enable the player to retune the B♭ horn to A when it is needed.

II.2 The trill valve for the Yamaha YSL-671/673: the Yamaha E♭ alto trombone with detachable D♭ valve.

First produced in 1995, this mechanism enables the alto trombonist to produce half-step trills which are otherwise impossible to produce by lip-trilling. It also allows one to trill intervals of a major second in the fourth and fifth harmonic series. For example:

e♭′ – f′ – e♭′ = fifth position

d′ – e′ – d′ = sixth position

d♭′ – e♭′ – d♭′ = seventh position

The major second trill on a♭′ was superior to the lip trill in third position, and a full-step trill starting on g′ no longer has to be produced by lip-trilling in seventh as one can use the valve in first position. The quality of sound of the ‘straight horn’ notes and valve notes was fairly equal. The biggest drawback is the inefficient and awkward trilling mechanism, unchanged from the E♭-B♭ prototype, which is counter-productive as it militates against achieving a good speed of trill. Also, major second trills on c′, common to so many eighteenth-century alto trombone solo and obbligato works, are still not possible to produce.

Figure A.6 Trill valve for the Yamaha YSL-671/673 alto trombones⁸

II.3 The Conn 38H Alto Trombone

This instrument, first manufactured about three years ago according to Kerry Long of the UK Conn distributor Rosetti⁹, is a large-dimensioned E♭ alto (178mm bell, dual bore, .491mm and .500mm) with a fixed B♭ valve. Although undetachable, the valve appears not to cause undue stiffness in the sound of the instrument. The valve action is far better than that of Yamaha’s, but a design in which the forefinger operated the trigger would probably be superior still. The question, as with the Yamaha E♭-B♭ model, is whether the B♭ valve is really necessary given its limited usefulness and application.

Appendix 3

In October 1994 the following survey was addressed to the Principal Trombonist of every professional symphony and opera orchestra in Great Britain¹. The same survey was also completed by Denis Wick, former London Symphony Orchestra Principal Trombone, and Jay Friedman and Michael Mulcahy of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in October 1996. The author wishes to express his gratitude to all those who responded for their assistance and their valued input.

Trombonist	Orchestra	Model of Alto Trombone	Alto Trombone Mouthpiece
(Principal unless otherwise stated)	(as of 1/10/94)
Dudley Bright (DB)	Philharmonia (London)	Bach 39 (1980)	Wick 6BS (old)
Eric Crees (EC)*	London Symphony Orchestra	Glassl Gold Bell (1983?)	From 6-10 size, larger for Brahms etc, smaller for classical repertoire
Mark Eager (ME)	BBC National Orchestra of Wales	Bach 39 (1981)	Most of the time I use a Bach 12C which gives a well-centered ‘lightish’ sound, but it needs to be treated with care or overblowing causes a harsh sound.
Lance Green (LG)	Royal Scottish National Orchestra	Yamaha YSL671 (1980)	Adjustable cup Hablowitch (from B. Free’s collection!)
Michael Hext (MH)	Royal Opera House, Covent Garden	Yamaha YSL671 (1980)	Bach 9. For me it works, but larger mouthpieces tend to make the alto sound like a large bore.
Chris Houlding (CH)	English Northern Philharmonia	Conn 38H (1991?)	Wick 9C
Kevin Morgan (KM)	Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra	Miraphone (19?)	I’m still experimenting and if I ever find a combination I’m happy with I’ll let you know. Currently a Wick 6.
Chris Mowat (CM)	BBC Symphony Orchestra (London)	Yamaha YSL671 (1982?)	Bach 6 1/2 AL or 1/4
Peter Oram (PO)	BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra	Lätzsch (1973)	Custom built
Anthony Parsons (AnP)*	BBC Symphony Orchestra (London)	Yamaha YSL671	Bach 6 3/4 C. Best of a haphazard selection tested.
Alan Pash (AP)	Orchestra of Scottish Opera	Lätzsch (1964)	Various depending on period of work and type of mix I want with other instruments. Generally Giardinelli 4M for early works, Bach 7, 6 1/2 AL, 5 and 4 for large romantic and 20th century works. All these mouthpieces have been personalised and are not standard.
Kevin Price (KP)	Royal Liverpool Philharmonic	Glassl 49 and Yamaha 671	Bach 6 1/2 AL. It’s the only one that my lips fit into! My high register becomes restricted by anything smaller.
Bryan Raby (BR)	Welsh National Opera	Pfitzner	Schilke 47
Paul Reynolds (PR)	BBC Philharmonic (Manchester)	Whatever I can borrow	Whatever works at the time
Ken Shifrin (KS)	City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra	Yamaha YSL (large bore) 673 with detachable Bb valve. Bach 39 for concerto work	Bach 12C with my tenor mouthpiece rim
Warwick Tyrell (WT)	London Philharmonic	Bach small bore, Glassl medium bore.	I consider mouthpiece change a major factor in getting the required sound for a particular style. I use 4 different mouthpieces on my 2 altos, depending on what I’m doing, solo or concerto. An old Besson (very small) gives a beautiful crisp bright sound. Brahms 1 I would use a Denis Wick 5 for a larger fuller sound.
M Wilson (MW)	Ulster Symphony Orchestra	Bach 39	Bach 11 (slightly large but it suits me)
Denis Wick (DW)		Yamaha Custom	My own mouthpiece that was developed specifically for that instrument.
Jay Friedman (JF)	Chicago Symphony Orchestra	Lätzsch (1966) and Glassl (1992)	Similar to a 6 1/2 AL

Question 1: What factors determine your use of the alto trombone?

DB Basically tessitura + blend + general strength of orchestration. My alto has too bright a voice to play anything too heavy – it (or I) sound like a trumpet and doesn’t blend with the section!

EC Blend of sound. Much alto writing is above 2nd trumpet. Many pieces all of a sudden sound ‘right’ when the alto is used. Heavyweight Bruckner symphonies sometimes feel underweight.

ME Using the alto is determined by a number of things, mainly period, texture within the orchestra and whether or not any ‘cutting through’ is required in heavily orchestrated passages. I personally feel it is vital when doubling an alto part in a choral piece – this is both logical and sensible. I would also advocate using both tenor and alto in the same piece whenever necessary. I would stress however that it would not be to facilitate an easier top register but mainly for reasons of sound and clarity (this is quite rare of course). Sometimes the alto is used as a ‘3rd Trumpet’ playing a middle part between top and bottom and thus if played on the tenor would be the wrong sound.

LG (1) Timbre (2) Composer’s intention (3) Historical correctness, i.e. I think the alto was played for the majority of the classical period.

MH Usually a combination of composer’s intent and ease of high register. Blend depends on the composer being played.

CH I try and use the alto as often as possible when requested. Only when the tessitura goes too low to be practical do I choose to use the tenor throughout. Certainly a section of medium bore on 2nd and ordinary large bore tenor on bass makes a suitable blend for Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.

KM Primarily by composer’s intent but depending on my personal preference for blending with the section – e.g. Bruckner would be played on the tenor. Having said this, I have quite often tried something different if the section has requested it. Symphonie Fantastique I have tried with alto but have since only used the tenor – the alto just created more tuning problems, while the top E♭ in ‘March to the Scaffold’ is more often than not covered by the second trumpet anyway.

CM Mainly reliability and stamina in high register, but in classical works to give a lighter sound especially when doubling voices.

PO (a) When lightness and clarity in high register is necessary. (b) Most classical works simply ‘feel’ better.

AnP Musical suitability and technical safety factor.

AP I weigh up all the above but particularly blend of sound and colour. Many works are played on too large a scale (too many strings) and the alto doesn’t always cope with weight of sound without overblowing, which is why I often use the tenor at a quieter dynamic, but will use a 4 with shank.

KP Timbre mainly – always when doubling vocal parts or when scoring is especially light. Sound is my only reason for ever using the alto – I use it whenever it helps to bridge the gap between trumpets and trombones as well as to fulfil a similar role between choir and orchestra.

BR Variety.

PR Only when extremely desperate

KS Composer’s intent

WT I try to keep in mind the composer’s intent as the basis on what instrument to play. I use two altos and two tenors as Principal of the LPO. I would use my Bach alto (small bore) for Mozart, but my Glassl (large bore) for Schubert. There are so many factors involved – size of the orchestra, style of the orchestra (90 LPO players play differently to 90 baroque players), what the trumpets use, composer’s intent, conductor’s wishes, etc., etc., etc. This also applies for my tenor equipment.

MW I don’t play the alto when the part is printed in the tenor clef! Also I use it when I think it’s authentic.

JF Composer’s intent.

DW Sound quality and texture; ease of register (e.g. Berg op. 6).

MM Composer’s intent.

Question 2: What role (if any) does the conductor play in your use of the alto?

DB Harnoncourt – Beethoven! Authenticity.

EC Most are ignorant. Abbado asked me to use the alto in Beethoven 9 when I was actually already using it! When I used the alto in the Fantastic Symphony he asked me why I was using it. I showed him the title page where Berlioz specifically asks for an alto (‘I do not want a large instrument’). Presumably he now goes round the world insisting that the alto is used in it. Most don’t seem to notice. I have never been asked specifically.

ME If I felt the piece needed an alto I would choose it myself before the conductor needed to request it.

LG No. If requested, will use.

MH I’ve never been asked by a conductor. I think that most of them wouldn’t know the difference!

CH Nobody has ever requested either tenor or alto. I have always made my own decision.

KM No.

CM No.

PO In a symphony by Berwald I was requested by Norman del Mar to use alto: music in the style of Mendelssohn.

AnP Never.

AP –

KP Conductor asked for alto and small bore tenor/bass in Beethoven symphony recording (Mackerras), wanting a very bright sound.

BR –

PR No.

KS Maurice Perez: Schubert’s 9th Symphony; some German conductor in Stuttgart : Schubert’s Unfinished.

WT I have never had a conductor specifically request a particular instrument, alto or tenor, in eleven years in the profession.

MW Conductors don’t seem to mind which instrument is used.

DW Rarely. They usually left it for me to decide.

JF Only Szell – he even requested the make (Lätszch).

MM –

Question 3: In your opinion should the second and bass trombonists use trombones of narrower dimensions when playing in conjunction with the alto?

DB Depending on the conductor in earlier works.

EC It can be nice for the second to use a medium bore and the bass a B♭/F tenor, but they usually ‘lighten up’ naturally if they are intelligent players.

ME Not always. On most occasions they will naturally lighten up the sound, on others the alto can be played to match their bigger instruments.

LG Sort of, if they feel happy to, i.e. bass trombonist could use a Conn 88H, second trombone a medium bore such as Bach 36. These would sound good, but intonation can be suspect.

MH Occasionally, for Mozart, second on medium bore, bass on large bore [tenor] (88H or 42B) perhaps.

CH Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. We all use smaller instruments for Bellini, Donizetti, Bizet and Massenet, etc.

KM Depends upon the composer and the wish to experiment. We recently did Beethoven Nine with alto, peashooter and ‘G’, although I’m not sure anyone noticed the difference! It’s nice, however, to play and listen to well developed, well-made modern trombones.

CM Yes.

PO No.

AnP In some cases yes. But ideally extra section practice is needed, and usually there’s not time or enthusiasm for this. Players in general do not like swapping instruments. If I use alto, second and bass assume it’s to make me feel safer and more comfortable. They carry on as usual.

AP Yes. But I feel this in general that bass trombonists are trying to sound like tubas. The section should be a much lighter sound. We use a smaller bore mouthpiece on second with 8H to match, and single plug Bach (New York) on bass.

KP Depends what you are playing. Smaller instruments worked well in the Mackerras Beethoven recordings but Haydn Creation (for example) worked better on larger instruments. Vocal pieces are dictated by the nature of the choir – you have to match their sound.

BR Yes. Medium bore for second, 88H type for bass trombone.

PR Could try Conn 88H and a Bach 36.

KS Tends to defeat the purpose, as the alto is larger than yesteryear’s. Perhaps if the bass trombonist customarily uses a humungous model he should use something slightly smaller.

WT It very much depends on the work being played and the orchestra. For Mozart I would use Bach alto, small bore tenor, large bore tenor. However for Brahms’ First maybe large bore alto, large tenor and F bass trombone.

MW Yes. Bach 36B or even Conn 6H on second.

DW Sometimes – in lightly scored pieces (e.g. Mozart); in Berlioz “Symphonie Fantastique”, with ff levels predominating, normal instruments worked better.

JF Generally speaking no.

MM The Glassl alto we use has a warm sound that blends well with modern tenors and basses.

Question 4: Do you agree that over the past decade or so there has been a resurgence of interest in the alto trombone? If yes, to what do you attribute this?

DB I have too much difficulty playing one instrument properly to play another more than occasionally.

EC This needs a PhD! Essentially it is more musically appropriate. Trumpet players don’t use B♭ instruments for D parts, even though they might get the notes on the B♭. Twenty years ago there was a certain macho bias against the alto, implying that you can’t get the notes on the tenor. Thankfully through better teaching and availability of instruments this is no longer the case.

ME I’ve always been very keen on playing the alto whenever necessary and would never dream of playing anything else for Mozart/Beethoven. The quality of the instruments are excellent these days and apart from having the right sound for certain pieces it also makes life a lot easier.

LG Yes. I believe in correct sound, timbre etc. I feel it helps (1) me, (2) the section to get the right sound, and (3) the appearance for the audience.

MH I’m all for it. Yes, it has affected my use. I use it more now.

CH Yes. General quest for authentic performance, availability of instruments and doubling fees.

KS Yes. Influence of trumpet players who ‘specialise’, popularity of the 18th century solo repertoire, availability and choice.

WT I have always considered the use of the alto important so this increase has not affected my own usage of the instrument. I do agree that there is a resurgence of the alto – I feel it’s because more young players are getting into the swing of what composers wanted. Many older principals still do not use it.

MW The increased use is due to the demand for authentic-sounding performances.

DW Availability of better instruments (Lätsch, Yamaha, later Conn).

JF I’ve always played alto on appropriate literature (since 1966), now more than ever because of my own interest in musicology.

MM I’m happy this beautiful timbre has not been lost.

Question 5: Does your orchestra pay a special instrument or doubling fee for playing the alto trombone?

DB MYOB

EC No.

ME No.

LG Yes.

MH Yes.

CH Yes.

KM Included in salary.

CM –

PO No.

AnP No.

AP Bought out.

KP Built into contract.

BR Yes.

PR No.

KS Yes.

WT –

MW Yes.

DW Yes.

JF Yes.

MM Yes.

Question 6: Of the following repertoire please indicate

A: works you play on the alto trombone
A + T: works you play on either instrument
A/T: works in which you use the alto for some passages and the tenor for others
T: works you play on the tenor trombone

	A	A + T	A/T	T
Bach
Cantatas	DB, EC, ME, CH, CM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, KS, JF, MM
Beethoven
Leonora Overture no. 2	DB, EC, ME, LG, CH, KM, CM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, KS, WT, MW, DW, JF, MM			MH, PR
Leonora Overture no. 3	DB, EC, ME, LG, CH, KM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, KS, WT, MW, DW, JF, MM			MH, CM, PR
Missa Solemnis	DB, EC, ME, LG, CH, MH, KM, CM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, KS, WT, MW, DW, JF, MM			PR
Symphony no. 5	DB, EC, ME, LG, CH, MH, KM, CM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, PR, KS, WT, MW, DW, JF, MM
Symphony no. 6	DB, EC, ME, LG, CH, MH, KM, CM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, KS, WT, DW, JF, MM			PR, MW
Symphony no. 9	DB, EC, ME, LG, CH, MH, KM, CM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, KS, WT, DW, JF, MM			PR, MW
Berlioz
Symphony Fantastique	EC, LG, CH, AP, DW		ME, MM	DB, MH, KM, CM, PO KP, PR, KS, WT, MW, JF uses small-bore tenor
Les Francs Juges	EC, PO, JF, MM			DB, ME, LG, CH, KM, AnP, KP, PR, KS, WT
Berg
Wozzeck/Drei Bruchstücke		EC	EC, ME, MH, CM, KP, AnP, AP, KS, WT, DW	DB, JF, MM
Lulu/Lulu Suite			EC, ME, MH, AnP, AP, KP, BR, KS	DB, CH, KM, CM, WT, DW, JF, MM
Three Orchestral Pieces		EC	EC, ME, MH, AnP, KP, BR, PR, KS, WT, DW, JF, MM	DB, KM, CM
Brahms
Symphony no. 1	EC, LG, CH, WT, KS, JF, MM	CM		DB, ME, MH, KM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, PR, MW, DW
Symphony no. 2	LG, WT, JF	EC, ME, KS	EC, MM	DB, MH, CH, KM, CM,PO, AnP, AP, KP, PR, MW, DW
Symphony no. 3	LG, JF, MM			DB, EC, ME, MH, CH, KM, CM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, PR, WT, MW, DW
Symphony no. 4	LG, JF	KS	MM	DB, EC, ME, MH, CH, KM, CM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, PR, KS, WT, MW, DW
Requiem	EC, LG, CH, PO, KS, JF, MM	ME, CM		DB, MH, KM, AnP, AP, KP, WT
Britten
Building of the House	EC, KP, KS, DW			DB, ME, CM, AnP, WT
Bruckner
Mass in E Minor	PO, KS, MM	EC	EC	DB, ME, MH, CH, KM, CM, AnP, AP, KP, DW, JF
Mass in F Minor	EC, PO, KS, MM	WT		DB, ME, MH, CH, CM, CM, AnP, AP, KP, PR, DW
Symphonies				All respondents
Dvorák
Stabat Mater				All respondents
Te Deum				All respondents
Handel
Israel in Egypt	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, AnP, AP, KP, KS, WT, DW, JF, MM
Saul	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, AnP, AP, KP, WT, DW, JF, MM
Haydn
Creation	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, BR, KS, WT, MW, DW			CM
Seasons	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, PO, KP, KS, WT, MW, JF, MM		CM, AnP	DW
Mendelssohn
Elijah	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, KP, PO, BR, MW, KS, JF, MM	AP		AnP, PR
Midsummer Night’s Dream	DB, EC, LG, CH, KM, PO, KS, JF, MM	WT		ME, MH, KP, AnP, DW
Hymn of Praise	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, PO, KS, WT, JF, MM, DW			KP, AnP, PR
Overture ‘Ruy Blas’	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, CM, PO, AnP, AP, BR, PR, KS, MW, JF, MM, DW			KP, WT
Symphony no. 5 ‘Reformation’	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, PO, AnP, AP, KS, JF, MM, DW	WT		KP
Mozart
Davidde Penitente	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, CM, AnP, AP, KP, KS, WT, JF, MM
Don Giovanni	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, CM, AP, KP, BR, KS, WT, DW, JF, MM	DW		AnP
Idomeneo	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, CM, AP, KP, BR, KS, WT, DW, JF, MM	DW		AnP
Magic Flute	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, PO, AP, KP, BR, KS, WT, MW, DW, JF, MM	DW		CM, AnP, PR
Mass in C Major	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, AnP, AP, KP, BR, KS, WT, MW, DW, JF, MM			PR
Mass in C Minor	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, CM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, BR, KS, WT, MW, DW, JF, MM			PR
Requiem	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, CM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, BR, KS, WT, MW, JF, MM			PR
Vespers	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, CM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, BR, KS, WT, MW, DW, JF, MM			PR
‘Waisenhauskirche Mass’	DB, EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, AnP, AP, KP, BR, WT, DW, JF
Schoenberg
Gurrelieder	EC, ME, LG, CH, CM, AP, KS, JF, MM, DW	WT	AnP, KP
Pelleas und Mellisande	EC, ME, LG, CH, AP, KS, DW	WT	MH, KP	AnP, PR
Schubert
Mass No. 1	EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, CM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, WT, JF
Mass No. 5	EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, WT, DW, JF, MM
Mass No. 6	EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, PR, WT, DW, JF, MM
‘Unfinished’ Symphony	LG, KM, KS, MW, JF, MM			DB, EC, ME, MH, CH, CM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, PR, WT, DW
Symphony no. 9	LG, CH, KM, BR, KS	EC, ME	EC, MM	DB, MH, CM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, PR, WT, DW, MW, JF
Overture ‘Rosamunde’	EC, LG, CH, KM, CM, KS, JF, MM	ME, WT		DB, MH, PO, AnP, AP, KP, PR, DW
Overture ‘Zauberharfe’	EC, LG, KM, KS, JF, MM	ME, WT		MH, CH, PO, KP, PR, DW
Schumann
Symphony no. 1	ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, PO, KP, KS, WT, MW, JF, MM	EC	EC	DB, CM, AnP, AP, PR, DW
Symphony no. 2	EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, PO, KP, KS, WT, MW, JF, MM			DB, CM, AnP, AP, PR, DW
Symphony no. 3	EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, CM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, BR, KS, WT, DW, MW, MM		PR	DB, JF
Symphony no. 4	EC, ME, LG, MH, CH, KM, PO, AP, KP, KS, WT, MW, JF, MM	CM		DB, AnP, PR, DW
Richard Strauss
Die Frau ohne Schatten			ME, BR	DB, EC, MH, CH, AnP, KP, WT, JF, MM, DW
Stravinsky
The Flood	DW		EC, ME, CM, KP	WT
Weber
Overture ‘Euryanthe’	EC, LG, AP, KS, JF, MM	ME		DB, MH, CH, KM, CM, PO, AnP, KP, PR, WT, DW
Overture ‘Der Freischütz’	EC, LG, KS, JF, MM	ME		DB, MH, CH, KM, CM, PO, AnP, AP, KP, PR, WT, DW
Overture ‘Oberon’	EC, LG, AP, KS	ME		DB, MH, CH, KM, CM, PO, AnP, KP, PR, WT, DW

Music Examples

The printed edition of this thesis includes printed music examples. The following is a listing of the examples used.

Introduction

Ex. I.1 Franz Beck, Sinfonie in Es Dur, third movement: Funèbre; bars 1-30
Ex. I.2 Eggert, Symphony in E♭ Major, opening, autograph score; page 1
Ex. I.3 Eggert, Symphony in E♭ Major, ‘Fugue’ from rehearsal [69], Edition Bertil von Boehr: The Symphony in Sweden

Chapter 1

Ex. 1.1 Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, Finale; bars 1-16
Ex. 1.2 Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, Finale; bars 107-131
Ex. 1.3 Beethoven, Symphony No. 6, Finale; bars 52-56
Ex. 1.4 Beethoven, opening of Presto from Overture to Fidelio (Gevaert, Cours Méthodique d’Orchestration)
Ex. 1.5 Beethoven, ‘Choral Symphony’, fourth movement, allegro energico sempre ben marcato; bars 1-76
Ex. 1.6 Beethoven, Drei Equali, movements ii and iii in full
Ex. 1.7 Weber, Freischütz, Act II, Finale (pianissimo entry of trombones); bars 1-13
Ex. 1.8 Weber, Euryanthe, Act III, No. 23, scene v; bars 108-112
Ex. 1.9 Weber, Freischütz Ouvertüre; bars 196-200
Ex. 1.10 Weber, Euryanthe, Finale to Act III, No. 23, scene vii; bars 51-59 11
Ex. 1.11 Weber, Euryanthe, Act II, Finale, con tutto fuoco ed energia; bars 30-33 11
Ex. 1.12 Weber, Euryanthe Ouvertüre; bars 1-9
Ex. 1.12a Hypothetical Beethoven version of above example; bars 1-8.
Ex. 1.13 Weber, Overture to Oberon; bars 211-214
Ex. 1.14 Weber, Freischütz Ouvertüre, molto vivace; bars 170-174 12
Ex. 1.15 Schubert, C Major Symphony, first movement; bars 29-49
Ex. 1.16 Schubert, C Major Symphony, first movement; bars 102-109
Ex. 1.17 Schubert, C Major Symphony, first movement; bars 195-222
Ex. 1.18 Schubert, C Major Symphony, first movement; bars 319-332
Ex. 1.19 Schubert, C Major Symphony, first movement; bars 304-318
Ex. 1.20 Schubert, C Major Symphony, second movement; bars 144-146
Ex. 1.21 Schubert, C Major Symphony, second movement; bars 320-330
Ex. 1.22 Schubert, C Major Symphony, Trio; bars 335-361
Ex. 1.23 Schubert, Mass in A♭ Major: Gloria (first version); bars 422-434
Ex. 1.24 Schubert, C Major Symphony, erste Abschriftstimme: alto trombone
Ex. 1.25 Schubert, C Major Symphony, erste Abschriftstimme: tenor trombone
Ex. 1.26 Mendelssohn, Overture in C Major; bars 1-11
Ex. 1.27 Mendelssohn, Symphony in D Minor; bars 1-18
Ex. 1.28 Mendelssohn, Symphony in D Minor; conclusion, extracts for the alto trombone; bars 63-68; 87-92; 141-163; 229-239; 246-253; 306-326
Ex. 1.29 Mendelssohn, Overture ‘Ruy Blas’; alto trombone; bars 97-100 23
Ex. 1.30 Mendelssohn, ‘Hymn of Praise’; bars 1-3 as embellished by Queisser 24
Ex. 1.31 Mendelssohn, ‘Hymn of Praise’, opening; bars 1-15
Ex. 1.32 Mendelssohn, ‘Hymn of Praise’, No. 2, Allegro moderato maestoso, alto trombone; bars 5-8
Ex. 1.33 Mendelssohn, ‘Hymn of Praise’, No. 2; bars 128-132
Ex. 1.34 Mendelssohn, ‘Hymn of Praise’, No. 7; bars 25-32
Ex. 1.35 Schumann, Symphony No. 3, fourth movement; bars 1-8; 18-23; 30-54
Ex. 1.36 Schumann, Symphony No. 4, Romanza; bars 393-396
Ex. 1.37 Schumann, Symphony No. 4, fourth movement; bars 3-6
Ex. 1.38 Schumann, Symphony No. 4, first movement; bars 177-194
Ex. 1.39 Schumann, Symphony No. 4, fourth movement; bars 79-82

Chapter 2

Ex. 2.1 Berlioz, Roméo et Juliet, first trombone part from Fête chez Capulet, composed in 1839; bars 240-256
Ex. 2.2 Berlioz, Te Deum, ‘Judex Crederis; bars 155-157; 205-208. Transcript of autograph score by Ian Rumbold
Ex. 2.3 Berlioz: Oraison Funèbre, tenor trombone solo, complete
Ex. 2.4 Halévy: Guido et Ginévra (1838) Act II, No. 7, soprano trombone à piston en fa, first printed edition (Schlesinger)
Ex. 2.5 Halévy: Guido et Ginévra (1838) Act III, No. 14, solo for soprano trombone à pistons en Mi♭, autograph score
Ex. 2.5a Halévy: Guido et Ginévra (1838) Act III, No. 14, solo for soprano tromboneà piston en Mi♭, autograph score; inset of first page of Ex. 2.5
Ex. 2.6 Halévy: Guido et Ginévra (1838) Act III, No. 14, solo for soprano trombone à pistons en Mi♭, first printed edition (Schlesinger)
Ex. 2.7 Thomas, Ouverture du Compte de Carmagnola (1841), alto valve-trombone in E, autograph score; pp. 1, 15-25
Ex. 2.8 Meyerbeer: “Coronation March” from 1849 Paris Opera production of The Prophet, first trombone; bars 1-17
Ex. 2.9 Berlioz, Marche Hongroise, first trombone; bars 96-114
Ex. 2.10 Thomas, Hamlet (1868) Act 1, trombone solo, autograph score; pp. 7, 13-24, 30-31
Ex. 2.11 Thomas, Hamlet (1868) Act 1, tableau premier, trombone solo, first printed edition (Heugel); bars 1-10
Ex. 2.12 Halévy, Le Juif Errant (1852) Act 4, No. 20, trombone solo, original handwritten part
Ex. 2.13 Rossini, Overture to Guillaume Tell; bars 92-123
Ex. 2.14 Wagner: Konzertouvertüre Nr. 2, first printed edition (Breitkopf & Härtel)
Ex. 2.15 Wagner, Rule Britannia, first printed edition (Breitkopf & Härtel); last nine bars

Chapter 3

Ex. 3.1 Bruckner, Aequale, No. 2, original handwritten alto trombone part
Ex. 3.2 Bruckner, Aequale, No. 2, original handwritten tenor trombone part
Ex. 3.3 Bruckner, Psalm 114, opening, autograph score
Ex. 3.4 Bruckner, Libera Me, original handwritten alto trombone part
Ex. 3.5 Bruckner, Libera Me, original handwritten tenor trombone part
Ex. 3.6 Bruckner, Libera Me, original handwritten bass trombone part
Ex. 3.7 Bruckner, Auf Brüder auf die Saiten zur Hand from the Kantate für Prälat Meyer, autograph score; first and last pages
Ex. 3.8 Bruckner, Auf Brüder auf die Saiten zur Hand from the Kantate für Prälat Meyer, original first trombone erste Abschriftstimme
Ex. 3.9 Bruckner, Psalm 146, Recitative iia; bars 1-4
Ex. 3.10 Bruckner, Afferentur Regi, opening, autograph score
Ex. 3.11 Bruckner, Afferentur Regi, opening, original alto trombone part
Ex. 3.12 Bruckner, Overture in G Minor, Abschrift of score; page 1
Ex. 3.13 Bruckner, Symphony in F Minor, autograph score; page 1
Ex. 3.14 Bruckner, opening of Psalm 112 (Universal Edition)
Ex. 3.15 Bruckner, Drei Orchestersätze, ‘Nr. 3’ (1862), opening, autograph score
Ex. 3.16 Bruckner, Marsch in D moll (1862), complete, autograph score
Ex. 3.17 Bruckner, Germanenzug, autograph score; page 1
Ex. 3.18 Bruckner, D Minor Mass, original first trombone part; page 1
Ex. 3.19 Bruckner: D Minor Mass, Agnus Dei, trombones in unison; bars 107-111
Ex. 3.20 Bruckner: D Minor Mass, Credo (Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft)
Ex. 3.21 Bruckner, Marsch in Es dur (1865), autograph score; page 1
Ex. 3.22 Bruckner, E Minor Mass Niederschrift (1866 version); pages from manuscript score:
- (a) first page of Kyrie
- (b) last page of Credo
- (c) last page of Agnus Dei
- (d) first page of Benedictus
Ex. 3.23 Bruckner, E Minor Mass (1866 version), Kyrie, Widmungspartitur (Dedikationsexemplar), page 1
Ex. 3.24 Bruckner, E Minor Mass (1882 version), Credo; bars 138-142
Ex. 3.25 Bruckner, E Minor Mass (1866 version), Credo; bars 83-87
Ex. 3.26 Bruckner, E Minor Mass (1882 version), Credo‘; bars 89-93
Ex. 3.27 Bruckner, E Minor Mass (1866 version), Credo; bars 171-175
Ex. 3.28 Bruckner, F Minor Mass, Kyrie, original handwritten alto trombone part; title page and pp. 1-2
Ex. 3.29 Bruckner, F Minor Mass, Kyrie, autograph score; page 1
Ex. 3.30 Bruckner, F Minor Mass, Credo, autograph score
Ex. 3.31 Bruckner, F Minor Mass, Credo; bars 183-189
Ex. 3.32 Bruckner, extracts from Inveni David, autograph score; title page, pp. 1, 4-6
Ex. 3.33 Bruckner, Sinfonie Nr. 1, ‘Linzer’ (1866 version), original handwritten first trombone part; title page and page 1
Ex. 3.34 Bruckner, Sinfonie Nr. 1, ‘Wiener’ (1891 version), original handwritten first trombone part; title page and page 1
Ex. 3.35 Bruckner, Sinfonie Nr. 1, ‘Linzer’ (1866 version), autograph score; page 1
Ex. 3.36 Bruckner, Sinfonie Nr. 1, ‘Wiener’ (1891 version), autograph score; page 1
Ex. 3.37 Bruckner, Symphony in D Minor (‘Nullte’), extracts from Finale (Universal Edition)
Ex. 3.38 Bruckner, opening from Symphony in D Minor (‘Nullte), original handwritten first trombone part
Ex. 3.39 Bruckner, Symphony No. 3, 1890 publication, (Jos. Eberle & Co); page 1
Ex. 3.40 Bruckner, Symphony No 3, first trombone erste Abschriftstimme; title page and page 1
Ex. 3.41 Bruckner, Symphony No. 4, Finale, first trombone; bars 295-301
Ex. 3.42 Bruckner, Symphony No. 6, score used by Schalk with his notations; first movement
Ex. 3.43 Bruckner, Ninth Symphony, third movement: Langsam; bars 145-148
Ex. 3.44 Bruckner, Ninth Symphony, third movement; bars 121-128

Chapter 4

Ex. 4.1 Brahms, Symphony No. 2, first movement, trombone entry that Lachner advocated deleting; bars 33-45
Ex. 4.2 Brahms, Symphony No. 2, autograph score; first and last movements
Ex. 4.3 Brahms, Tragische Ouvertüre, autograph score; page 1
Ex. 4.4 Brahms, Akademische Festouvertüre, autograph score; pp. 1, 3, 16
Ex. 4.5 Brahms, Symphony No. 1, autograph score; pp. 1, 5, 7
Ex. 4.6 Brahms, Schicksalslied, autograph score; pp. 1, 12
Ex. 4.7 Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem, autograph score; page 1
Ex. 4.8 Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem, autograph score; second movement
Ex. 4.9 Brahms, Begräbnisgesang, autograph score; title page and page 1
Ex. 4.10 Brahms, Begräbnisgesang, first printed edition (Winterthur, J. Rieter-Biedermann), trombone parts
Ex. 4.11 Brahms, Begräbnisgesang, autograph score; bars 13-35
Ex. 4.12 Brahms, Begräbnisgesang, autograph score; p. 8
Ex. 4.13 Brahms, Begräbnisgesang, autograph score; pp. 14-15
Ex. 4.14 Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem, second movement, first trombone with basses; bars 54-65
Ex. 4.15 Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem, sixth movement, alto trombone in unison with altos; bars 99-104
Ex. 4.16 Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem, second movement, trombones doubling corresponding voices, nearly colla voce; bars 255-261
Ex. 4.17 Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem, sixth movement, trombones doubling voices; bars 341-344
Ex. 4.18 Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem, third movement; bars 173-208
Ex. 4.19 Brahms, Triumphlied; Part 1: bars 5-10; 128-133; Part 3: bars 6-13
Ex. 4.20 Brahms, Nänie (Johannes Brahms, Sämtliche Werke: Chorwerke mit Orchester, II)
Ex. 4.21 Brahms, Gesang der Parzen, autograph score
Ex. 4.22 Brahms, Rinaldo, first movement (Simrock)
Ex. 4.23 Brahms, Symphony No. 4, fourth movement, autograph score
Ex. 4.24 Brahms, Symphony No. 1, fourth movement; bars 407-416

Chapter 5

Ex. 5.1 Dvořák, Symphony No. 8, Finale; bars 360-364
Ex. 5.2 Dvořák, Te Deum (1892), fourth movement; bars 57-69
Ex. 5.3 Dvořák, Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Scherzo (Supraphon)
Ex. 5.4 Dvořák, Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, autograph score; page 1
Ex. 5.5 Dvořák, Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, autograph score; last page
Ex. 5.6 Dvořák, Symphony No. 2; bars 160-172, (a) original version, (b) as it appears in the Bartoš Collected Edition version
Ex. 5.7 Dvořák, Stabat Mater, opening, autograph score
Ex. 5.8 Dvořák, Stabat Mater, first movement (Souborné Vydáni Díla)
Ex. 5.9 Dvořák, Symphony No. 6 in D Major, autograph score; page 1
Ex. 5.10 Dvořák, Husitská (1883), opening, autograph score
Ex. 5.11 Dvořák, Slavonic Dances, autograph score; title pages and page 1
Ex. 5.12 Dvořák, New World Symphony, autograph score; page 1
Ex. 5.13 Dvořák, New World Symphony, autograph score, original ending of second movement without tuba
Ex. 5.14 Dvořák, New World Symphony, original handwritten first trombone part, first movement
Ex. 5.15 Dvořák, The Wild Dove, opening, autograph score
Ex. 5.16 Dvořák, Armida, opening, autograph score

Coda

Ex. C.1 Berg, Drei Orchesterstücke, 1913 autograph score; last page
Ex. C.2 Berg, Drei Orchesterstücke, edited, pre-publication proof copy of the 1929 published version; same passage as Ex. C.1
Ex. C.3 Berg, Drei Orchesterstücke, 1913 autograph score; bars 8-11
Ex. C.4 Berg, Drei Orchesterstücke, edited, pre-publication proof copy of the 1929 published version; bars 8-11
Ex. C.5 Berg, Wozzeck, Act III; bars 97-98
Ex. C.6 Berg,Lulu, Act II; bars 1109-1111; 1147-1150
Ex. C.7 Berg, Altenberg Lieder, Lied No. 2, first trombone in full (Universal Edition)
Ex. C.8 Berg, Altenberg Lieder, Lied No. 4, first trombone in full (Universal Edition)
Ex. C.9 Berg, Altenberg Lieder, Lied No. 5, first trombone (Universal Edition)
Ex. C.10 Mahler, Seventh Symphony, first movement, autograph score
Ex. C.11 Mahler, Sixth Symphony, first trombone, [146] (C.F. Kahnt)
Ex. C.12 Schoenberg, Gurrelieder, I. Teil, alto trombone; bars 419-420; 430-437
Ex. C.13 Schoenberg, Gurrelieder, II. Teil, alto trombone; bars 19-22
Ex. C.14 Schoenberg, Gurrelieder, III. Teil, alto trombone; bars 58-59
Ex. C.15 Bartók, Bluebeard’s Castle; bars 766-771; 782-787; 798-801
Ex. C.16 Schoenberg, Gurrelieder, III. Teil, alto trombone; bars 110-112
Ex. C.17 Schoenberg, Pelleas und Mellisande, alto trombone (Universal Edition)

Acknowledgements

This thesis would not have been possible without the assistance and encouragement of many individuals to whom a debt of gratitude is owed. While I have tried to acknowledge in the text all those who provided source material and shared their expertise, there are a number of individuals who deserve special recognition:

The eagle-eyed, razor-sharp John Wagstaff, my friend and head librarian of the Music Faculty, Oxford University, who led me out of the darkness;
the patient, understanding Dr Peter Franklin, without whose help the pages that follow would not have been written;
Professor Brian Trowell for believing in me and the inspiration I derived from that;
Jeremy Montagu, for not believing in me and the inspiration I derived from that;
Dr Hélène La Rue, my academic supervisor;
Bruckner expert Dr Crawford Howie from Manchester University;
Fiona White, for whom the small fortune she received was meagre recompense for her word-processing skill and advice;
graphic-artist Nigel Pennington;
calligrapher David Cunningham;
Dr Joanna Archibald for her meticulous proof-reading;
Robert Parker, music librarian of the British Library, who sang to me in Czech over the telephone;
Berlioz specialist, Dr Hugh MacDonald;
Andrew Knowles of Alfred A. Kalmus/Universal Edition (UK) who moved mountains to procure unprocurable autograph scores and first edition publications;
Wolfgang Penzias and Anna Azmi of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce who ran interference for me whenever I came up against Austrian bureaucratic red tape;
Helmut Braunlich who untangled some of the knottier German text and provided translations;
William McElheny and librarian Clement Hellsburg of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra;
Rudolph Buchmeyer, librarian of the St Florian Stift;
Klaus and Elisabeth of Thomi-Berg Musik Verlag in Munich;
Dr Michael Struck, Head of the Brahms Institute at Kiel University, for his time, patience, expertise and lunch;
the librarians and staff of the National Library and Gesellschaft Library in Vienna (especially Frauen Liess and Hrdlika);
Director Marketta Hallová of the Prague Dvořák Museum and her assistant ‘Mrs E’, so dubbed because her surname is unpronounceable even to her Czech colleagues;
Zuzana Petrášková, Music Librarian of the Czech National Library;
the British Academy of the Humanities, Linacre College and the Music Faculty for their generous financial assistance;
Edward Solomon, Webmaster of the British Trombone Society, for his constant encouragement and expertise, proofreading the French and German language extracts, consultative advice and inspiration for the title and ultimately publishing the current work on the Internet;
and above all my parents for their unstinting support and who still cannot get over the fact that someone could write an entire thesis just about the trombone. ❦

Tonkünstler-on-the-Bund thanks Laura Kirkham of University College, Oxford, for help with the illustrations.

contents

Foreword

Preface

Part I: The Alto-Tenor-Bass Trombone Trio

Introduction

Chapter 1: From Beethoven to Schumann

1:1 Beethoven

1:1:1 The uncompleted orchestral brass choir

1:1:2 The limited solo capabilities of the alto trombone; unthematic trombone parts

1:1:3 The difficulty in assembling a full trombone section

1:2 Weber

1:2:1 Sundelin: Die Instrumentierung

1:2:2 The limitations of trombonists as a decisive factor in Weber’s trombone writing

1:3 Schubert

1:3:1 Tessitura, score notation and the erste Abschriftstimme

1:4 Mendelssohn

1:4:1 Range (Marx)

1:4:2 Belcke and Queisser

1:5 Schumann

Chapter 2: The Ascent of the Tenor Trombone

2:1 Berlioz

2:1:1 Nomenclature and the primacy of the tenor trombone

2:2 The Alto Valve-Trombone

2:3 The Tenor Valve-Trombone

2:3:1 Rossini’s Guillaume Tell

2:4 English Orchestral Trombone Playing

2:5 Rimsky-Korsakov

2:6 Wagner

2:6:1 Wagner’s disenchantment with the alto trombone

2:7 The Decline of the Alto Trombone

Part II: ‘The Alto Trombone is Rarer Than it Was’

Introduction

Chapter 3: Bruckner

3:1 1845-1855: St Florian

3:2 1855-1863: Studies with Sechter and Kitzler

3:3 The Three Great Masses

3:4 The Symphonies

Chapter 4: Brahms

4:1 Brahms and the Trial Performances of his Orchestral Works

4:2 Brahms and Tone Colour

4:3 Brahms’ Problematic Use of Trombone Nomenclature and Clef in his Scores

4:4 Brahms and the Publication Process

4:5 Brahms’ Vocal Works with Trombone Parts

4:6 Alto or Tenor Trombone?

Chapter 5: Dvořák

5:1 Music Education and the Valve Trombone in Bohemia

5:2 Survey of Trombones

5:3 The Trombone in Dvořák’s Orchestral Works

5:3:1 Dvořák’s score writing

5:4 Dvořák: The Historical Context

Coda: The Orchestral Alto Trombone in the Twentieth Century

Modern Performance Practice

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Secondary Sources

Music

Manuscript Sources

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Coda

Appendix 1

Benjamin Britten: The Burning Fiery Furnace

Appendix 2

I. Alto Trombone Technical Innovations: Gadgets, Gimmicks and Gizmos?

II.1 The Yamaha YSL673 alto trombone with detachable B♭ valve

II.2 The trill valve for the Yamaha YSL-671/673: the Yamaha E♭ alto trombone with detachable D♭ valve.

II.3 The Conn 38H Alto Trombone

Appendix 3

Music Examples

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Coda

Acknowledgements