[Trombone-l] Trombone-l trombones and choral music

[Howard Weiner]

second try

At 11:17 01.05.2007 -0700, John Cather wrote:
>Interesting, Didn't these composers write for bass trombone that
>played below low F? All of these composers died before an extra valve
>on trombone was in common use. Mozart died long before valves were
>invented. The Haydn Creation is the only one I remember that hits low
>D and C. Haydn certainly didn't have valves on his trombones, so he
>had at least an F bass for this.

Most of the third trombone parts by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, 
Schubert, etc. did not go below F, although there are exceptions, for 
example, a half a dozen notes (Cs, Ds, E-flats) in The Creation, a 
single low D in The Magic Flute, etc. (Two caveats: the third 
trombone parts Mozart wrote for Salzburg were most probably 
originally played on a quart-trombone in D; and a quart-trombone may 
also still have been in use in Prague when Don Giovanni was completed 
and premiered there.) On the basis of circumstantial evidence, I've 
come to the conclusion that the Viennese trombonists of the 
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were practiced in the use 
of the falset notes in the low register, and were thus able to play 
these occasional "trigger" notes on their B-flat instruments. For 
details see my article "When is an Alto Trombone an Alto Trombone? 
When is a Bass Trombone a Bass Trombone?" Historic Brass Society 
Journal 17 (2005).

Howard


--
Howard Weiner
h.weiner at online.de
http://howard-weiner.de/

Tosca jumped to a conclusion.