[Trombone-l] An alto neophyte asks for it.

[Mark Narins]

I did a lot of alto trying out several years ago. The best horn I tried by
far was the Courtois 131R which I found to have a beautiful timbre. It has 3
different lead pipes. I played both the Mozart Requiem and Brahms 4th on
this horn with different lead pipes. The tuning of the positions seemed to
be perfect. I didn't have to hunt around for positions and all the notes in
a particular position were in-tune with each other. It blended perfectly
with the tenor and bass in both timbre and volume and still retained the
alto brilliance. The Courtois played easily in the high range-not all altos
do. I also tried an older Courtois from the late 1980's. This was quite a
different horn (a different model and concept). Played OK but nothing like
the 131R

The first alto I tried and performed on was the Weril. In a way it was too
large and did not produce a characteristic ringing alto sound. The heavy
slide tuning slides were not good and made it very difficult to play fast
passages as one would encounter in the Mozart Requiem.

I also tried a Kuhnl and Hoyer Slokar model which for me was very difficult
to play in the high range. The high notes were more difficult to produce
than on a tenor trombone. It was a beautifully made horn. I performed a
Beethoven 9 on this one. This company also produces a standard alto
supposedly responds like a traditional alto. I have not played that one.

The Selman Chinese altos are astoundingly good for the price. I wouldn't
have believed it until a colleague of mine bought one. Although it looks
like a Slokar it plays like a traditional brilliant alto. It is reasonably
in tune but not up to Courtois standards. The tone is good. The slides need
some breaking in and possible adjustment BUT the horn plays very well over
all-and when you take into account that it costs $200 or less-it's just
amazing. I played and performed on the standard lacquer model. I would also
be interested in trying the model in nickel silver horn. To me this is the
obvious choice for anyone learning alto but still desiring a quality
instrument.

As far as mouthpieces go I have always used a Bach 12E. I read a very
interesting post or article a while back saying that many alto players
actually use mouthpieces that are too large for the acoustics of the
instrument. Altos are much more sensitive to the mouthpiece size than a
tenor or bass. Whenever I would experiment with larger mouthpieces it would
seem to amplify certain parts of the acoustics of the horn and at the same
time detract from others. I'm not just talking about producing notes but the
way the whole horn responded and how it affected the characteristic timbre
of the horn. Smaller mouthpieces work for me.

One last thought. I exchanged a series of e-mails with a very well known
trombone builder on the subject of alto trombones. His contention at the
time is that altos are not supposed to sound like very high tenor trombones.
They traditionally had a timbre somewhere in between trombone and trumpet.
He informed me that this characteristic timbre has much more to do with the
acoustics of the bell sections rather than the bore size. In general he
thought some modern alto makers were indeed trying to make a larger, tenor
like bell section whereas others were trying to retain the real timbre and
brilliance of the traditional alto. My personal taste in alto sound
definitely agree with this later idea of altos-retaining the characteristic
sound of the alto. It's a very exciting sound which both can blend and
standout over the rest of the section depending on the needs of the music.

Thanks,

Mark Narins
Co-principal trombone, Kensington (California) Symphony Orchestra