[Trombone-l] trombones and choral music

[james meador]

Howard,

The point I'm making is regardless of what the instruments are labeled, 
Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert were all writing for the same Bb 
instrument, which is a tenor bass, not a true bass trombone.  I still refer 
to the part affectionately as bass trombone because that is my instrument in 
the orchestra, and even though I try to have a lighter, more delicate tonal 
concept when I play pieces by these composers I play them on my .562 bore 
(tenor) bass.  I know some bass trombonists who prefer to play pieces by 
these composers on .547 large bore tenors.

I understood the original question to be if pieces like the Schubert Mass in 
G would have used trombones to accompany the choir, so I was also 
considering his masses in Ab and Eb, which do have trombones.  All I'm 
saying is that there would not have been a section of trombones playing 
written orchestral parts while another section of trombones accompanied the 
choral parts.

Clearly, whether or not there are orchestral parts written, trombones could 
be and were used to accompany voices, just not two sections doing both at 
the same time.  Perhaps I read too much into the question and should not 
have considered pieces that already have parts written for trombones.

James

======================
James N. Meador, Bass Trombone
Orquesta Sinfónica de Yucatán
+52-999-221-5845 cell
+52-999-195-1144 home
jamesmeador at hotmail.com