[Trombone-l] Tromboniating

[Dan Thornton]

I thought you might enjoy this bit of research, sent to me by the bass
trombonist in our local Kenai Peninsula Orchestra.

 

Dan

Pastor

Seasonal trombone player

Bach 36B

Selman Alto

Choir Director

Pit Orchestra director ("The King and I" this winter)

 

  _____  

From: Peter Norton 
Subject: Tromboniating

 

Dear Friends,

This week I had occasion to send an email to Renda Horn, director of the
Inlet Winds Community Band in Homer, Alaska. In her reply she indicated some
skepticism as to the existence of the word "tromboniating", which I had
employed. After scrupulous research I was able to remove all doubt from her
mind, thus:

Tromboniating. An interesting word. It obviously shares its history with the
modern instrument we all know and love, but it actually predates it. The
"bon" or "bone" part is as we know it, a portion of skeleton, from the
Anglo-Saxon. The "trom" portion came with the early Danish invasions of
Britain, a beast of burden or jackass. An ancient wind instrument,
consisting simply of an axially-bored portion of the upper hind legbone of
an ass, with no finger holes, and played by making farty noises into one
end, became part of the camp life of the armies defending English soil as a
way to lighten spirits by making the soldiers laugh: the sound produced by
these crude instruments resembled nothing so much as the braying of the
animals from which they were made. Initially these instruments were called
"sackbutts" from the Frisio-Celtic affectionate epithet applied to the
beasts themselves, but this name was supplanted in areas occupied by the
Danes. As brass instruments were developed, these names were transferred to
those in which pitch was regulated by means of a slide, not because of any
structural similarity, but because of the braying quality of the sound
produced. The name "sackbutt" fell into disfavor as the typical player
tended to be rather large in all dimensions and, proportionally, sensitive
about it. "Tromboniation" was actually coined by Shakespeare in an early
edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream, now lost, to describe the quality of
Nick Bottom's voice, "tromboniate" and "tromboniating" entering the language
at the very close of the sixteenth century as synonyms of "bray" and
"braying". Most modern tromboniators (or "trombonists", as many prefer),
sharing the sensitivity of their predecessors, somewhat affectedly and with
pretensions of musicianship employ the term "tromboning". A small but
growing minority of tromboniators, rather than approaching their craft with
diffidence or even defensiveness, now begin each concert with the
invocation, "Let us bray."

I hope that this small bit of scholarship will serve as an inspiration to at
least one of you in your musical journey.

Thanks you for your kind attention,
Peter Norton