[Trombone-l] When to use what instrumentation

[Howard Weiner]

At 06:41 08.11.2007 -0500, DF Cramer wrote:
>Follow this link
>
>http://www.trombone-society.org.uk/resources/articles/shifrin/shifrin01.php
>
>to Ken Shifrin's doctoral research on the alto 
>trombone in the orchestra from 1800 to 
>2000.  Just because a part is written in alto clef does not mean alto trombone.
>
>The paper is a wonderful and insightful read 
>about the trombone and the orchestra.

I'm afraid I can't share your enthusiasm for 
Shifrin's dissertation. It contains quite a few 
mistakes (it was obviously not very carefully 
vetted) and has a misconception as its point of 
departure (i.e., that the alto trombone [and with 
it the section of alto, tenor and bass trombones] 
was ubiquitous in the eighteenth and early 
nineteenth centuries), so I'd be skeptical of those insights.

A few examples:
At the end of chapter 4 Shifrin writes "Archival 
material strongly suggests that in the first 
performances of [Brahms'] Symphony No. 1 and 
Symphony No. 2, the trombonists [in Vienna] used 
valved instruments." -- While the part about 
valved instruments is undoubtedly true, the 
source he gives in note 72 is irrelevant and 
incorrect -- "Haus-Hof-Stadt-Archiv, Wien: 
Oper/K80/1884/Nr. 557." -- the correct name of 
the archive is "Haus-, Hof- und Staats Archiv" 
and the cited document has nothing at all to do 
with Brahms or the first performances of his 
symphonies, and only very marginally with the 
change from valve to slide trombones in 1883.

In chapter 5, table 5.1, Josef Hilmer is listed 
as the trombone professor at the Prague 
Conservatory from 1903 to 1934. The source of the 
information about Hilmer is revealed in note 23 
to be "Ušák, ... citing Hoffmeister's obituary 
speech for Hilmer in 1930" -- with no comment 
offered concerning the obvious chronological... ah... problem.

In chapter 1, note 14, Shifrin wrote "Mozart 
called for an e" colla voce in the Gloria of the 
C Minor Mass, as well as in bar 182 of no. 6 in 
the theatre work Thomas, König in Ägypten, as did 
Bach in his Cantata no. 121; Gluck wrote an f" 
for the alto trombonist in Alceste. However, in 
all these cases, the trombone is doubling the 
voice part." -- The correct name of the theatre 
work is "Thamos" not "Thomas," and the f" in the 
first trombone part of Alceste does not appear in 
a passage where the trombone is doubling a voice part.

I could go on for pages, but I think you get the idea.

Howard


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

Tosca jumped to a conclusion.