contrabass trombone slide position chart

Pedal tones can be produced from E♭ 2 to A 1 but are seldom called for.

In good hands the range can extend as high as G 5. The tessitura of the E♭ alto trombone is A 2 to E♭ 5, although it rarely strays below E♭ 3 in classical repertoire. Pedals E♭ 2–A 1 are possible but seldom used. While a valve in B♭ extends range down to F 2 it is mainly useful to provide alternate positions for the middle register. Contemporary composers have written solo works for the alto trombone, including Eric Ewazen, Christian Lindberg, Torsten Nilsson, and Jan Sandström. While some first trombonists continued to use the alto trombone as indicated, it was unfashionable in orchestras until the late 20th century, when it began to enjoy something of a revival. Improvements in instruments and performance technique meant that tenor trombone players were increasingly able to play first trombone parts intended for alto, and the alto was regarded as an outmoded upper-register tool. In Italy and many other parts of Europe, valve trombones rapidly became the norm and displaced slide trombones, including the alto. By the 1840s the alto was nearly obsolete in France and England. Decline of use in the 19th century Carl Nielsen aged 14 in band uniform with bugle and valve alto trombone, Denmark, 1879.īerlioz was influential in the 19th century in the ascension of the tenor trombone and valved brass instruments in France. The Serenade joins these few works that remain from an era of alto trombone virtuosity. In addition to Leopold Mozart and Wagenseil, Michael Haydn's Serenade in D (1764) with its extended range, trills, technique, and endurance demands contributes to this idea that there was perhaps a golden age of the alto trombone between 17 and was this piece was also most likely written for Thomas Gschladt. Gschladt was very close to Leopold Mozart who wrote a Serenade especially to be performed only by him-when Gschladt was unavailable Mozart preferred using a viola soloist instead. Like Bach's trumpet soloist Gottfried Reiche and Mozart's horn soloist, Joseph Leutgeb, Gschladt represented the best of contemporary trombone soloists. New information regarding Gschladt demonstrates that music of this difficulty was written for the alto trombone during the mid-to-late 18th century and that music that was previously thought impossible on the instrument was playable. Due to the advanced technique (particularly lip trills) required in this concerto, it was considered too difficult for the trombone and musicologists concluded that it was most likely written for the French horn. Shortly after this recording was released, another concerto, written by Leopold Mozart was discovered. In the 1960s an incomplete concerto by Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777) was recorded by conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt: this concerto demands advanced technique from the performer and is the first known concerto for the trombone. The recent discovery of new repertoire and information regarding the Austrian alto trombone virtuoso Thomas Gschladt demonstrates that the alto trombone enjoyed a period of popularity between 17. Until recently, little was known about trombone repertoire from the 18th century. Although the parts were notated in alto, tenor and bass clefs, historically the clef has not always been a reliable indicator of which type of trombone was actually used in performance. The alto trombone appears in the earliest written music for trombone, where composers wrote alto, tenor, and bass parts to bolster the corresponding voices in church liturgical music. The earliest surviving alto dates from around 1652 and is held by Bazylika Mariacka, Gdańsk. The first documented mentions of an alto trombone are in 1590 in Aurelio Virgiliano's Il Dolcimelo, and in Syntagma Musicum (1614-20) by Michael Praetorius, which includes an illustration of an alto trombone in volume II, De Organographia. Trombones in Syntagma Musicum (1614-20), by Michael Praetorius, including an alto trombone.Īlthough the trombone first appeared in its earliest sackbut form in the 15th century, the exact origin of the smaller alto sized instrument is unclear. For broader coverage of this topic, see Trombone § History.

Contrabass trombone slide position chart