Chapter 1: The Trombone as Art Music Instrument in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century

Speer and Fröhlich

In his excellent book “The Trombone” (2006) trombonist and historian Trevor Herbert hails the slide trombone as “one of the truly great inventions in the history of music.[1]” The trombone was indeed the very first brass instrument capable of playing chromatically over virtually its entire compass, and since its appearance in the fifteenth century (the earliest written reference to the word trombone, literally “big trumpet” in Italian, appears in 1439)[2]; it has undergone very little change in its basic design. Indeed, of all the wind instruments in the modern orchestra it is the one that a time-travelling Renaissance musician would instantly recognize.

It is not the purpose of this study however, to present a broad overview of the trombone from its emergence in the sixteenth century. The instrument's long, varied and often glorious history are more than adequately covered by several books, of which Herbert’s “The Trombone” is by far the most factually accurate and well researched. And in the ten years since Herbert’s publication considerably more information has been added to the pantheon of trombone research. However, one part of the instrument’s history is of particular pertinence to the present paper; that being the general decline of the trombone’s popularity in the late 17^th and most of the 18^th centuries, before its re-emergence in operatic and liturgical settings, in the latter half of the 18^th century. One could even speak of a period of obsolescence for the trombone as a concert instrument in certain areas of Europe during this time period. Of course the instrument did survive and indeed thrive, even as a solo instrument, in a small number of places (most notably Austria, and some parts of Germany and Bohemia).  A very good source of information on this particular period of trombone history is to be found in David Guion’s excellent “The Trombone- It’s History and Music 1697-1811”. The dates that Guion chose for the parameters of his study might appear arbitrary to the casual reader, but in documentation of the history of the trombone they are most significant, being the dates of publication of two very detailed treatises dealing with the trombone; its musical voice and utilisation, nomenclature and pedagogy.

The first of these publications is Daniel Speer’s grandly titled “Grundrichtiger kurtz- leicht- und nöthiger Unterricht der musicalischen Kunst” first published in Ulm in 1687 and revised and expanded in 1697. This book is a general music tutor written by a practicing musician. Speer had experience as a member of the Stuttgart town band (the so-called Stadtpfeifer), but at the time of publication was a teacher and cantor in Göppingen. It contains the most detailed description of the trombone and instruction of how to play the instrument. It is important to remember that most knowledge of instrumental technique in the day was passed down from master to apprentice and the skills were closely guarded by those who possessed them. Being a member of a town band or travelling musician was indeed a lucrative profession, and the musicians' guilds attempted to keep the techniques and skills of wind instrument playing a trade secret[3]. Therefore Speer’s treatise was unusual in providing a basic technical description both of the instrument and the playing thereof.

The second date of Guion’s title (1811) is, in the context of this study at least, of even greater significance. Joseph Fröhlich’s Vollständige theoretisch- pracktische Musikschule published by Simrock in Bonn[4] contains the first description, in theoretical writings at least[5], of the trombone as we know it today with the seven chromatic slide positions in place of the four diatonic positions described by Speer and his contemporaries and immediate successors- a system that had not yet at the time completely lapsed, as Fröhlich acknowledges. He also describes the closed slide position of the tenor trombone as sounding B flat (instead of A), as well as descriptions of how to hold the trombone, various illustrations of instruments, and mouthpiece construction. Furthermore the treatise contains information about the different sizes of trombone, information that is curiously inconsistent, particularly in regard to the alto trombone. Of great interest to me is Fröhlich’s preamble in which he describes the aesthetic character of the trombone in, for the period, typically florid terms.

“Das der Trompete sowohl in Hinsicht des Alterthums als der Behandlungsweise nächste Instrumente ist die Posaune, von den Italiänern desswegen Trombone genannt. Der volle feyerliche Ton derselben, und die grössere Ausdehnung, welche dieses Instrument durch die beÿ demselben anzubringenden verschiedenen Züge erhält, wodurch man auch in den Stand gesetzt wird, aus allen Tonarten in ihrem ganzen Umfange spielen zu können, erheben es zu einem besonders brauchbaren musik- Werkzeuge. Der in ihm liegende volle klangreiche Ton befähigt der Spieler zum Ausdruck aller erhabenen eingreifenden Emfindungen, zur Darstellung und zur Unterhaltung der feÿerlichsten Gemüthstimmungen. Daher es auch in den älteren Zeiten gewöhnlich zur Erhebung der Singstimmen in den Kirchenmusiken gesetzt wurde, und allerdings zur Erweckung der Andacht und Erbauung Vieles beÿtragen musste. Sein Gebrauch schien in den neueren Zeiten im Allgemeinen ziemlich abgekommen zu seyn, als Mozart, welcher so trefflich den Charakter aller Instrumente zu seiner Darstellung zu benutzen wusste, dieses würdige Instrument in mehreren seiner Werke anwand, damit die vortrefflichsten Wirkungen hervorbrachte, und so das Meiste zu seiner Wiedereinführung beÿtrug“.

 “The trombone (Posaune) is the instrument that is closest to the trumpet in regard of its ancestors as well as in the way it is handled, and which the Italians call “trombone” (i.e. big trumpet). It’s full, solemn tone (and the greater extension that it receives through its ability to play all kinds of notes over its entire range) exalt it to an especially useful musical tool. Its inherently full and sonorous tone enables the player to express all noble and gripping sentiments for the revelation and enjoyment of the most solemn states of mind. Therefore it was usually played in the olden days for the exaltation of singing in church music, and certainly must have contributed to the inspiration of prayer and thanksgiving. In modern times its use seemed to have fallen in disuse when Mozart, who knew how to take such excellent advantage of the character of all instruments in his compositions, used this worthy instrument in many of his works, with which he brought forth the most excellent effects, and so contributed the most to its re-introduction.”[6]

Two aspects of Fröhlich’s handing of the trombone are worthy of note. Firstly Fröhlich mentions (almost in passing) that the three sorts of trombone, alto, tenor, and bass are (in some places) built in the same pitch, namely B flat. Although he then goes on to contradict himself in the musical examples by giving slide positions and tessitura commensurate with the higher pitch of E flat for the alto. It is worth remembering that Fröhlich’s comprehensive treatise covers all orchestral instruments as well as the art of singing over four large volumes, so small inconsistencies may be excused. This can also be seen as an indication that he was writing in a period of great transition and change in orchestral and other musical practices. It should also be noted that Fröhlich was not an active practitioner of brass instruments, but rather a theorist and academic who collected the various theoretical writings known at the time.  No doubt the old style of trombone section, with it’s clear differentiation between alto trombone in E flat or D, tenor trombone in B flat or A and bass (Quart or Quintposaune) in low F, E, E flat or D, was in the process of becoming obsolete in many musical centres. Several causes could be proposed for this trend.. Certainly the tenor trombone had always been the most common of the family during its entire history. According to Praetorius[7] it was actually known as the “common, or ordinary trombone” (Gemeine Recht -Posaune). Possessing a standard chromatic range of more than two and a half octaves from low e2 at the bottom of the bass staff to B flat4 in the middle of the treble clef (which has indeed become much expanded over the centuries due to the improvements in instrument building and also the technical advances in playing), the tenor trombone could easily cover large areas of the bass and alto trombones’ tessitura. The large bass trombone also was much more difficult to play in many aspects, not only in regard to the technique required to manipulate the long slide that requires a handle to reach the lowest positions, but also in the requirement of very strong lung capacity and technical prowess to deal with passage work in the low register (take the fugal writing in Mozart’s Requiem as an example). The tenor trombone in B flat was certainly capable of playing most of the colla parte bass trombone writing in most choral works, since it is rare that composers would write very much below e2 in choral bass lines. (E2 being the lowest note possible on a B flat tenor trombone without resort to the fundamental partials). The tenor trombone was also capable of playing into the alto trombone register, and in combination with a shallower trumpet like mouthpiece could have theoretically (but unlikely in the day) been played up to f5 (Beethoven’s fifth symphony contains an F5). It has thus always been the most flexible of the family of trombones, and thus always the most commonly available to composers. The extent to which the alto trombone had become obsolete by the early nineteenth century has been the subject of much (sometimes passionate) debate in H.I.P. (abbr. Historically Informed Performance Practice) brass circles[8]. That the alto trombone survived in various places (certainly in Saxony) cannot be doubted, but we may also be sure that in many other areas (such as France and England) it was rarely if ever to be found after the eighteenth century. Certainly Berlioz in his famous orchestration treatise regretted the fact that “the alto trombone is to found in very few of our French orchestras”[9]

The trombone in Leipzig in the Seventeenth Century

One of the more important roles that trombonists have historically fulfilled is to perform in wind bands of all types. In particular the bands that most European cities and towns employed over many centuries, were a major factor in the development of many and varied wind instruments. Known in Italy as “Alta Cappella”, in France as “ alte Musique”, in England as “Waits” and in Germany as “Stadtpfeifer”, these town bands functioned as providers of music for civic, festive and ceremonial occasions, and also provided support to worship in religious services at the leading churches. The Stadtpfeifer were trained as multi instrumentalists, not only upon wind instruments but were also expected to be proficient on string instruments. The Stadtpfeifer were the premier professional musicians of the age, even though Charles Burney noted in his Musical Tour (1772) that…

“The variety of instruments with which an apprentice Kunstpfeifer is plagued keeps many a musical genius from achieving real excellence on one.”[10]

This must have been especially true in regard to the trombone, since the instrument was hardly to be found in the emerging German orchestras or Kapelle until the nineteenth century. But as Guion notes, the decline in the influence of the Stadtpfeifers guilds in monopolizing professional music making meant that by the beginning of the nineteenth century, many civic musicians began to specialize in one or two instruments only; in particular the trombone[11].

In any case, the trombone’s survival in Germany the eighteenth century is very much connected to its role within the Stadtpfeifer tradition. That the trombone retained its considerable importance in the late seventeenth century, can be ascertained from the publication of  Stadtpfeifer Johann Pezel’s large collections of five part wind music, Hora decimal musicorum (1670 Leipzig) and Fünff-stimmige blasende Musik (1685, Bautzen), both of which strongly suggest the use of wooden cornets, and all three usual species of trombones (alto, tenor and bass).[12] The Leipzig town band had been in existence since 1479, when a certain Hans Nagel and his two sons were invested with the duties of providing musical services to the city.[13]

That there were still trombonists among the Leipzig city musicians was confirmed by J.S. Bach’s predecessor at the Thomaskirche, Johann Kuhnau, who “complained about the lamentable execution of finely written works”[14] by the surviving eight Stadtpfeifer in Leipzig. Bach himself included the trombones in fifteen of his two hundred and nine surviving cantatas, fourteen for Leipzig and one (BVW 21) for Halle. but only within a short period between 1723 and 1725. Some of the cantatas were older works rescored with “colla parte” trombones, and others were newly written works. Perhaps Bach’s reluctance to compose more for the trombones (which were certainly available to him in Leipzig) could be put down both to the reputedly poor state of the city instruments, which had already been noted by Kuhnau as early as 1704[15], and the general poor state of the playing. That both Kuhnau and Bach failed to convince the Leipzig city council to upgrade the instrument collection, meant that Bach’s trombonists were probably struggling to perform at all adequately, quite apart from their own instrumental competence.

Centres of trombone survival

There is no doubt that the greatest centres of trombone related activity in the eighteenth century were Austria and Bohemia under the Hapsburg rule. I refer once more to the books of Trevor Herbert and David Guion for a detailed description of the situation for trombonists in this area. Not only were there trombonists employed at the Viennese court throughout the century, but also many churches maintained trombonists for the performance of liturgical music[16]. Also in Salzburg, one trombonist could be found in the court of the prince-archbishop. It is of interest to note that while Viennese court composers such as Ziani, Fux, and Reutter usually wrote for two trombones (alto and tenor) in their liturgical and occasionally in secular music, which was the number of players in the permanent strength of the court orchestra after the Emperor Joseph had reduced the size of the court musicians, composers in Salzburg (including most significantly W.A. Mozart) almost always wrote for the established trio of alto, tenor and bass trombones usually doubling those voices colla parte in liturgical music.[17] Herbert states that the trombonists who performed in the Salzburg cathedral were certainly members of the town band rather than permanent employees of the court. That a high level of expertise was prevalent among the Viennese and Salzburg trombonists may be deduced from the prevalence of exposed and technically challenging writing that Mozart and his contemporaries provided. The survival of two concertos (both written for the “alto” trombone, although according to Howard Weiner probably intended for and played on a tenor[18]) by Johan Georg Albrechtsberger and Georg Christoph Wagenseil, as well as several works both sacred and secular featuring obbligato trombone solos (for both the tenor and alto trombones) by such composers as Fux, Ziani, Michael Haydn, and Leopold Mozart, attests to a singular flourishing of the trombone in Austria during this period.

The use of the trombone by the more important composers of the later eighteenth century, Christoph Willibald Gluck, followed by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and finally Ludwig van Beethoven at the beginning of the nineteenth century is of course of huge importance in the establishment of the trombone as an integral instrument of the modern orchestra which began to be established on a more permanent basis at the end of the eighteenth century. Gluck used the trombone extensively in his operas and in fact could be seen as partly responsible for the export of the instrument to France (although he was not the first composer to use them in the Paris opera). The trombones feature in five of his operas, all written for performance in Paris. No doubt the cosmopolitan Gluck had learnt to appreciate trombones in Vienna, where he had settled in the 1750’s after much travel throughout Europe and Britain, and despite the French not having a strong trombone tradition at this time.

Franz Joseph Haydn also used two or three trombones in a handful of his works, and while it is notable that the trombones do not appear in any of his masses he did use them to considerable effect in four late works, Die sieben letzten Worte, Die Schöpfung, Te Deum, and Die Jahreszeiten. In all only eight works in Haydn’s enormous oeuvre contain trombone parts, which is certainly easily explained by the absence of trombonists among the Esterhazy court musicians. Guion notes that the absence of trombones in Haydn’s masses set him apart from almost all the other composers of Catholic liturgical music in Austria during this period[19].

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart however was the composer who most truly appreciated the trombone as an instrument of enormous expressive potential and to this day remains one of the most beloved composers of orchestral trombonists, alongside later figures as Schubert, Bruckner, Mahler, Stravinsky and Ravel. In total twenty two of Mozart’s works feature trombone parts, sixteen of which were written in Salzburg both during his father’s tenure and his own service to the Prince-Archbishop (1773-1777). Almost all the Salzburg works with the exception of a lost divertimento KV41a (which I would like to think may have included concertante writing for a solo trombone, in the manner of his father Leopold’s Serenade in D major). Also of particular interest is the singular work Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebotes, KV 35, written by the twelve year old composer in 1767, which contains a long alto trombone obbligato in one aria, “Jener Donnerworte Kraft”. Of course it is the later works of Mozart’s Vienna years which have truly entered the pantheon. Most notably the operas Don Giovanni, and Die Zauberflöte, the incomplete C minor Mass and Requiem, all of which feature highly idiomatic and challenging trombone writing. In particular Mozart appreciated the sound of the trombone to evoke supernatural or religious events in the two operas, such as the appearance of the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, or to accompany Sarastro’s main aria in Die Zauberflöte, and used them sparingly yet tellingly. Of course the most famous trombone moment in Mozart’s oeuvre is the tenor trombone solo in the Tuba Mirum of the Requiem, KV 626. 

Ludwig van Beethoven too also had access to trombonists in Vienna, and is historically given the credit for introducing the trombone into the concert orchestra. That this is possibly not the case is of minor relevance considering that none of the handful of symphonies that reputedly included trombones before Beethoven, by such composers as Joseph Krottendorfer, Anton Zimmermann, and Joachim Eggert have had any impact on the concert repertoire. In any case none of the handful of concert works including trombones preceding Beethoven’s Fifth and Sixth symphonies, (composed concurrently and first performed on the same evening of December 22^nd 1808), have entered the repertoire. The grand entrance of the trombones at the beginning of the finale of the fifth symphony remains one of the defining moments in trombone history and I shall delve further into the impact these symphonies had on trombone history in the next chapter.

Surviving trombones from the eighteenth century

One of the more interesting developments in the trombone’s history during the eighteenth century is the fact that the production of the instrument itself became somewhat decentralized from its birthplace of Nuremburg. Hannes Vereecke notes in his recently published “The Sixteenth Century Trombone”  that of the eleven surviving instruments from that century, only one was not built in Nuremburg, and of the ten instruments half of them carry the makers name Schnitzer[20]. The dominance of Nuremburg as a centre of brass instrument building continued well into the eighteenth century, but oddly enough by the beginning of the nineteenth, brass instrument manufacturing had shifted towards other areas such as Saxony (in particular Dresden, Leipzig, and Neukirchen), Silesia, and also Bohemia (around Karlsbad, now Karlovy Vary), as well Vienna, Stockholm, Verona and a few other centres, usually in  close proximity to the availability of raw materials copper, zinc, lead,  gold and silver. The city of Leipzig produced several very skilled and innovative brass instrument  builders. In fact the brass instrument builder Johann August Crone (1727-1804) produced a set of trombones dated around 1780 (preserved in the Museum of Shipping in Riga), that already point to enlargement of the standard classical bore and bell sizes. These instruments (which I have unfortunately yet not been able to examine), were perhaps atypical for the period in which they were built, but could provide a possible “missing link” between the small bore classical trombones which I shall presently describe, and the large bore trombones that were to be produced in Leipzig by Sattler which are of particular significance for this study.

Trevor Herbert provides a list of close to 120 surviving instruments built between 1700 and 1800[21]. This list is of course not comprehensive, and also neglects to mention the above-mentioned Crone trombones in Riga (of which I am certain Herbert was unaware, since they are unfortunately not on public view and the museum in Riga does very little to advertise their presence). In any case the production of trombones continued throughout the century despite the general decline of the instruments popularity and visibility. The fact that the demand for trumpet and horns continued to be strong, also kept many of the instrument builders in business. Herbert bases his list partly on the research conducted by Stewart Carter[22], as well as sources such as Langwill’s Index[23]. One particularly interesting set of instruments is to be found in the Grassi Museum in Leipzig, formerly known as the instrument museum of the Karl-Marx-Universiteit, Leipzig. This set by Johann Georg Eschenbach (Marneukirchen, 1740-97) is described and measured in great detail in a catalogue prepared in 1978 by Dr Herbert Heyde[24]. Heyde notes that the tenor trombone (no. 1899 in the collection) has a general bore size wider than instruments typical of the first half of the eighteenth century, yet displays a slightly narrower bell throat (that would correspond to a more trumpet like shape as described below).

“Because of this, on one hand a larger volume of sound is possible, and on the other the possibility for increased projection of the lower frequencies. The trombone follows the general tendency in Germany at the time towards larger bore sizes”[25]

One important difference in the design of trombones in the high baroque and Classical periods is the general trend towards a more trumpet like bell shape. Whereas the earliest surviving trombones from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries display a gently flared, almost cone-shaped bell flare, by the time the eighteenth century had arrived builders were using the trumpet style of bell form. This is fairly general in almost all the eighteenth century instruments I have been able to view directly or via photos and other secondary means. My personal theory on this is that perhaps with the decline in demand for trombones, instrument builders may have even used their trumpet bell mandrels for building trombone bells. It worth remembering that the age of industrialisation had not yet materialized and instrument builders used wooden mandrels against which the raw bells were pressed and formed. Wooden mandrels would have had a much shorter life span than modern day steel bell mandrels, going naturally out of shape with much heavy hammering and pressing on the mechanical lathes of the day. Another factor in this small change in trombone design would have been the slow but steady demise of the town bands and certain instruments that by the mid eighteenth century had become obsolete. Whereas the natural partner of the trombone in sixteenth and seventeenth century bands was the cornetto or zink, in both sacred and secular settings, by the high baroque this particular instrument’s decline was even more dramatic than that of the trombone. The trombone’s survival in the areas mentioned earlier, particularly in the courts of the Hapsburg Empire, meant that it was more often required to perform in sacred music alongside horns and trumpets rather than violins and cornetti. The trumpet shaped flared bell certainly gives the trombone a more penetrating and brilliant sound than the more covered vocal quality that the older more cone shaped bell provided.

The Leipzig Grassi Museum thus possesses a complete set of alto tenor and bass trombones, by Johann Georg Eschenbach (1740-97). At the time of publishing (1985) of Heyde’s catalogue both the alto and bass trombones were listed as damaged during the Second World War, but now the instruments have been restored and copied by the Dutch instrument builder Geert Jan van der Heide, who offers these trombones as his “classical” models. Eschenbach is considered by Günter Dullat to be the founder of the brass instrument building in Neukirchen (now Markneukirchen)[26].

Other instruments that have formed the basis for copies used at present are those from the workshop of Schmied in Pfaffendorf. These instruments serve as models for the classical trombone set by the Swiss builder Rainer Egger. Howard Weiner is of the opinion however, that these instruments were not of the highest quality[27]. The originals date from 1778-85 and are located in Basel. Egger has also produced a copy of an alto trombone by the above mentioned Johann August Crone, whose instruments were built with an unusually large bell flare for the period and a slightly larger bore.

The trombones Fröhlich knew

In compiling his Vollständige theoretisch- pracktische Musikschule, Joseph Fröhlich could only use the sources that he had available to him. In 1811, there was very little pedagogical material published regarding the trombone. In fact there appears to have been a single trombone method extant, that of the Paris based German trombonist Andreas (Andre) Braun. The American musicologist Howard Weiner has immersed himself very deeply in this publication, which appears to have had widespread currency in the early years of the nineteenth century. Braun himself seems to have been a Stadpfeiffer and had made a quite a peripatetic career for himself, as both a trumpeter and trombonist. It was Braun who played in the first performance of Gluck’s 1774 opera Ipghenie en Aulide, and was often to be found in Parisian orchestra lists of the day. He was reputedly the first trombone professor at the Paris Conservatoire (retiring in 1802). [28] Thanks to Howard Weiner’s research we can be sure that Froehlich’s principal source of information on the technical aspects of trombone playing was Braun’s Methode, supplemented perhaps by the few horn and trumpet methods available at the time.

What sort of trombone did Braun play upon? Since Fröhlich post-dates Braun by at least 15 years the instruments that Fröhlich may have heard could have already evolved somewhat from the late eighteenth century instrument that Braun would have known. We can only speculate about what sort of trombone Braun would have owned. It was most likely to be of German origin. The great French tradition of brass instrument building and design that gained much fame in the mid-and late-nineteenth century, had not yet materialized. There were some famous brass instrument builders of horns notably Rauox, but Trevor Herbert’s list of extant eighteenth century trombones does not list a single trombone built in France during that century[29]. Let us presume that Braun’s instrument would have been similar to the Eschenbach trombone described above. That the trombone was beginning to take slightly larger dimensions, at least in Germany and particularly in Saxony, at the time that Fröhlich published his tutor, seems to be beyond doubt. The bass trombone in E flat or F was certainly in decline in many places if not everywhere, as was the alto trombone. Howard Weiner covers this decline in great detail in his article “When is an Alto Trombone an Alto Trombone? When is a Bass Trombone a Bass Trombone? The Makeup of the trombone section in Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century Orchestras”[30]. Not all of Weiner’s conclusions have met with universal agreement within the (H.I.P)  trombone community, but his theory that both the E flat alto trombone and F or E flat bass trombone were not actually used by the contemporary trombonists in performances around the beginning of the nineteenth century is well argued. In any case Braun was certainly a tenor trombonist and unusual in his publication of a method. He was, as an émigré, no longer beholden to the strictures of the German Stadtpfeiffer guilds, who tried to keep the knowledge and pedagogy surrounding their craft as secret as they possibly could to safeguard their professional monopoly on civic, liturgical and  (by then) orchestral services, and free therefore to disseminate information previously considered a trade secret. Certainly Fröhlich’s enormous and comprehensive treatise is a sign that there was, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, a conspicuous demand for instructional material for the general public, after the decline of the courts and the political upheavals that had taken place had democratized the making of music, as it were. By the time of Fröhlich's writings, city orchestras and theatres, as well as military bands were beginning to emerge all over Europe, particularly in Germany, and the trombone was beginning to re-establish itself as an orchestral and band instrument in its own right after its demise and near disappearance in the eighteenth century. Together with the horn and trumpet, the trombone was about to undergo significant new developments in the period immediately following Fröhlich’s publication.

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J.G.Crone Alto trombone (copy R.Egger)

Joseph Fröhlich

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