[Trombone-l] Berlioz, Beethoven

[Howard Weiner]

At 11:10 04.01.2008 +0100, Dick Sleeman wrote:

>Albrechtsberger wrote a concert for alto trombone and orchestra as early as
>1769. Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792 and took lessons with 
>Albrechtsberger, so it is very likely that he knew about the alto 
>and how to write for it.

How do you know that Albrechtsberger wrote his trombone concerto for 
alto trombone? The title on the manuscript reads "Concerto in B del 
Giorgio Albrechtsberger"; and the part in the score is labeled 
"Trombone conc[ertato]."  The suffix "alto" was added by 20th-century 
editors who were misled by the alto clef of the solo part.

In 1790 Albrechtsberger published a treatise on composition 
(Anweisung zur Composition) that also contains a short description of 
each instrument, including its range and notes that could be played 
on it. His "alto" trombone has as its lowest note the c below the 
staff in alto clef, which is a fourth lower than the lowest tone 
given for the E-flat alto in contemporary sources. He also specifies 
the e (a third above this c), which was however not available on the 
E-flat alto trombones of the time since they had short slides and 
consequently only six positions -- and this e would have been in 
seventh position, an impossibility. Thus it has to be concluded that 
Albrechtsberger's "alto" trombone was in B-flat, which agrees with 
other information concerning the "alto" trombone in Vienna at the 
turn of the 18th to the 19th century. (See my article for full information.)

Howard




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

Tosca jumped to a conclusion.