Trombone

Posted on March 23rd, 2009 | Mail a friend

Mendelssohn is quoted as saying that the trombones “are too sacred to use often.” They have, indeed, a majesty and nobility all their own, and the lowest use to which they can be put is to furnish a flaring and noisy harmony in an orchestral tutti. They are marvellously expressive instruments, and without a peer in the whole instrumental company when a solemn and spiritually uplifting effect is to be attained. They can also be made to sound menacing and lugubrious, devout and mocking, pompously heroic, majestic, and lofty. They are often the heralds of the orchestra, and make sonorous proclamations.

The classic composers always seemed to approach the trombones with marked respect, but nowadays it requires a very big blue pencil in the hands of a very uncompromising conservatory professor to prevent a student engaged on his Opus 1 from keeping his trombones going half the time at least. It is an old story how Mozart keeps the instruments silent through three-fourths of his immortal “Don Giovanni,” so that they may enter with overwhelming impressiveness along with the ghostly visitor of the concluding scene.

As a rule, there are three trombones in the modern orchestra–two tenors and a bass. Formerly there were four kinds, bearing the names of the voices to which they were supposed to be nearest in tone-quality and compass–soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. Full four-part harmony is now performed by the three trombones and the tuba. The latter instrument, which, despite its gigantic size, is exceedingly tractable can “roar you as gently as any sucking dove.” Far-away and strangely mysterious tones are got out of the brass instruments, chiefly the cornet and horn, by almost wholly closing the bell.

From: H. Krehbiel’s, How to Listen to Music; excerpts, edited by Musicon