Sackbut
Encyclopedia
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
from the Renaissance
Renaissance music
Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...
and Baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
eras, i.e., a musical instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
in the brass
Brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
family similar to the trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
except characterised by a telescopic slide with which the player varies the length of the tube to change pitches
Pitch (music)
Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...
, thus allowing them to obtain chromaticism
Diatonic and chromatic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony...
, as well as easy and accurate doubling of voices. More delicately constructed than their modern counterparts, and featuring a softer, more flexible sound, they attracted a more sizeable repertoire
Musical repertoire
Musical repertoire is a collection of music pieces played by an individual musician or ensemble, or composed for a particular instrument or group of instruments, voice or choir.-See also:*Brass Quintet Repertoire*Classical guitar repertoire...
of original chamber
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
and vocal music
Vocal music
Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...
than many instruments contemporary with them.
Terminological history
The first reference to a slide instrument was probably trompette des ménestrels, first found in Burgundy in the 1420s and later in other regions of Europe. It was used to distinguish the instrument from the trompettes de guerre (war trumpets) which were a fixed length.
Middle French
Middle French is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from 1340 to 1611. It is a period of transition during which:...
sacquer (to push) and bouter (to pull) or from the Spanish sacar (to draw or pull) and bucha (a tube or pipe). The term survives in numerous English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
spelling variations including sacbut, sackbutte, sagbut, shagbolt, sacabushe and shakbusshe.
Closely related to sackbut was the name used in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
: sacqueboute and in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, where it was sacabuche. These terms were used in England and France until the 18th century.
In Scotland in 1538 the slide instrument is referred to as draucht trumpet (drawn trumpet) as opposed to a weir trumpet (war trumpet) which had a fixed length.
In Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the original word was Posaune, appearing about 1450 and is still used today. This (as well as bason) derives from busine which is Latinate and meant straight trumpet.
In Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
it was (and remains) trombone, which derived from trumpet in the Latin tromba or drompten, used in the Low Countries. The first records of it being used are around 1440, but its not clear whether this was just a nickname for a trumpet player. In 1487 a writer links the words trompone and sacqueboute and mentions the instrument as playing the contratenor part in a danceband.
History
The trombone developed from the trumpetTrumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
. Up until 1375 trumpets were simply a long straight tube with a bell flare.
There are various uses of sackbut-like words in the Bible, which has led to a faulty translation from the Latin bible that suggested the trombones date back as far as 600 BC, but there is no evidence of slides at this time.
From 1375 the iconography sees trumpets being made with bends, and some in 'S' shapes. Around 1400 we see the 'loop' shaped trumpet appear in paintings and at some point in the 15th century, a single slide was added. This slide trumpet was known as a 'trompette des ménestrels' in the alta capella
Alta capella
Alta capella were town wind bands found throughout continental Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries, which typically consisted of shawms and slide trumpets or sackbuts. Waits were the British equivalent. These were not found anywhere outside of Europe....
bands.
The earliest clear evidence of a double slide instrument is in a fresco painting by Filippino Lippi in Rome - The Assumption of the Virgin, dating from 1488-1493.
From the 15th to the 19th centuries, the instrument designs changed very little overall, apart from a slight widening of the bell in classical era. Since the 19th century, trombone bore
Bore (wind instruments)
The bore of a wind instrument is its interior chamber that defines a flow path through which air travels and is set into vibration to produce sounds. The shape of the bore has a strong influence on the instruments' timbre.-Bore shapes:...
sizes and bells
Bell (instrument)
A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...
have increased significantly.
It was one of the most important instruments in Baroque polychoral
Venetian polychoral style
The Venetian polychoral style was a type of music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras which involved spatially separate choirs singing in alternation...
works, along with the cornett
Cornett
The cornett, cornetto or zink is an early wind instrument, dating from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods. It was used in what are now called alta capellas or wind ensembles. It is not to be confused with the trumpet-like instrument cornet.-Construction:There are three basic types of...
o and organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
.
Instrument sizes
Michael Praetorius
Michael Praetorius was a German composer, organist, and music theorist. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns, many of which reflect an effort to make better the relationship between...
, these were:
| Voice | Praetorius' name | Praetorius' pitch | Modern pitch |
|---|---|---|---|
| alto | Alt oder Discant Posaun | D or E | E♭ |
| tenor | Gemeine recht Posaun | A | B♭ |
| bass | Quart-Posaun or Quint-Posaun | E and D | F(quart) and E♭ (quint) |
| double bass | Octav-Posaun | A (octave below tenor) | B♭ (octave below tenor) |
Because the tenor instrument is described as "Gemeine" (common or ordinary), this is probably the most widely used trombone.
The basses, due to their longer slides, have a hinged handle on the slide stay, which is used to reach the long positions.
The giant Octav-Posaun / double bass trombone / contra-bass trombone in the style of the those made in 16th/17th centuries is represented by only a few existing instruments. There is an original instrument made by Georg Nicolaus Oller built in Stockholm in 1639 and housed in the Musikmuseet. In addition, Ewald Meinl has made a modern copy of this instrument, and it is currently owned and played by Wim Becu.
Construction
The bore size of renaissance/baroque trombones is approximately 10 mm (0.393700787401575 in) and the bell rarely more than 10.5 cm (4.1 in) in diameter. This compares with modern tenor trombones which commonly have bores 12.7 mm (0.5 in) to 13.9 mm (0.547244094488189 in) and bells 17.8 cm (7 in) to 21.6 cm (8.5 in).Modern reproductions of sackbuts sacrifice some authenticity to harness manufacturing techniques and inventions that make them more comfortable for modern players, while retaining much of the original character of the old instruments.
Natural trumpet
A natural trumpet is a valveless brass instrument that is able to play the notes of the harmonic series.-History:The natural trumpet was used as a military instrument to facilitate communication ....
.) There is a debate as to whether they used tight fittings, wax or another joining substance. Modern sackbut reproductions are usually soldered together. Some modern sackbut reproductions use glue as a compromise to give a loose fitting for high resonance without risk of falling apart.
Tuning slides came in during the very late 18th century. Early trombonists adjusted pitch with the slide, and by adding variously shaped and sized crooks
Crook (music)
A crook, also sometimes called a shank, is an exchangeable segment of tubing in a natural horn which is used to change the length of the pipe, altering the fundamental pitch and harmonic series which the instrument can sound, and thus the key in which it plays.-Master crook and coupler...
. Modern reproductions often have a bell bow tuning slide or telescopic slide between the slide and bell sections. Crooks are still used, as are variously sized bell bow sections for larger changes.
The stays on period sackbuts are flat. While the bell stay remained flat, from about 1660 the slide stays became tubular. On many modern reproductions round slide stays are much more comfortable to play and easier to make.
A loose connection between the bell stay and the bell is thought to be key to a resonant bell and thus a better sackbut sound. Original instruments have a hinge joint. Modern copies which have a tuning slide in the bell can need more support for operation of the slide, so either an extra stay but by the tuning slide is provided or a joint without play in only one axis is employed.
The original way to make the slide tubes was to roll a flat piece of metal around a solid cylinder mandrel, and the joining ends soldered together. Modern manufacturers now draw the tubes. They also tend to have stockings, which were only invented around 1850. In addition, modern made slides are usually made of nickel silver with chrome plating, giving a smoother finish and quieter action than simply the brass that would have originally been used.
The water key
Water key
A water key is a valve or tap used to allow the drainage of accumulated fluid from musical instruments such as trombones or trumpets. It is otherwise known as a spit valve....
was added in the 19th century, but modern reproductions often have them.
Pitch
Until some time in the 18th century, the trombone was in A and the pitch of that A was about a half-step higher than it is today - 460–480 Hz. There was a transition around the 18th century when trombones started to be thought of in Bb at around 440 Hz. This change did not require a change in the instrument, merely a new set of slide positions for each note. But it does mean that the baroque and renaissance repertoire was intended to be played at the higher pitch. There are many examples of evidence for this:- Fellow church instruments which are fixed pitch - cornetts and organs - were pitchedPitch (music)Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...
at approximately A=460–480 Hz ("Chorton") across Europe in the Renaissance and baroque eras. High pitch is also seen in Renaissance wind bands.
- Aureleo Virgiliano's Il dolcimelo (c. 1600) teaches trombonists that first position gives A, E, A, C, E and G.
- In 1687, Daniel Speer's Grund-richtiger concurs with these notes for the slide all the way in (while describing pushing the slide out a bit to get the C).
- Praetorius describes an alto in D, tenor in A, and bass in D.
The tenor trombones that survive are pitched closest to Bb at A=440 Hz, which is the same as A at A=466 Hz. So what we now think of as a tenor trombone with Bb in first position, pitched at A=440 was actually thought of as a trombone in A (in first position), pitched at A=466. Surviving basses in D at A=466 (Eb at 440) - for example: Ehe, 1612 (Leipzig) and Hainlein, c.1630 (Nuremberg) confirm Praetorius' description. It is also worth noting that Rognoni's "Suzanne ung jour" setting descends repeatedly to BBb, which is a tone lower than the lowest note playable on a bass in F; on a bass in D, it falls in (modern) fifth position.
Many groups now perform at A=466 Hz for the sake of greater historical accuracy.
Timbre
The sackbut was described as suitable for playing with the 'loud' ensembles in the outdoors, as well as the 'soft' ensembles inside.The alta capella
Alta capella
Alta capella were town wind bands found throughout continental Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries, which typically consisted of shawms and slide trumpets or sackbuts. Waits were the British equivalent. These were not found anywhere outside of Europe....
bands are seen in drawings as entertaining outside with ensembles including shawms, trumpets and trombones. When pushed, sackbuts can easily make a loud and brassy sound.
The sackbut also responds very well to rather soft playing - more so than a modern trombone. The sound is characterized by a more delicate, vocal timbre. The flat rims and shallow cups of the older mouthpieces are instrumental in providing the player with a much wider palette of articulations and tonal colours. This flexibility lends itself to a vocal style of playing and facilitates very characterful phrasing.
Mersenne wrote in 1636, "It should be blown by a skillful musician so that it may not imitate the sounds of the trumpet, but rather assimilate itself to the sweetness of the human voice, lest it should emit a warlike rather than a peaceful sound."
The Lorenzo da Lucca was said to have had "in his playing a certain grace and lightness with a manner so pleasing".
Performance practice
Musicians of the 16th and 17th centuries benefited from a broader base of skills than the average performer today.They would have to improvise new music. In the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, various music treatises include in their tuition improvising at sight fast moving melody over a cantus firmus, or extra contrapuntal lines to a plainchant. In a non-liturgical setting, an alta capella
Alta capella
Alta capella were town wind bands found throughout continental Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries, which typically consisted of shawms and slide trumpets or sackbuts. Waits were the British equivalent. These were not found anywhere outside of Europe....
group (in which a slide trumpet or trombone often featured) would involve the tenor playing the main tune in long tones while two others improvised florid counterpart tunes.
These traditions continued into the baroque with musicians expected to give expression to the written music by ornamenting
Ornament (music)
In music, ornaments or embellishments are musical flourishes that are not necessary to carry the overall line of the melody , but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line. Many ornaments are performed as "fast notes" around a central note...
with a mixture of one-note "graces" and whole passage "divisions" (also known as "diminutions"). The suggestions for producing effective ornaments without disrupting the line and harmony are discussed alongside countless examples in the 16th and early 17th century Italian division tutors. Graces such as the accento, portar della voce, tremolo, groppo, trillo, esclamationo and intonatio are all to be considered by performers of any music in this period.
"Cornetts and trombones...play divisions that are neither scrappy, nor so wild and involved that they spoil the underlying melody and the composer's design: but are introduced at such moments and with such vivacity and charm that they give the music the greatest beauty and spirit"
Bottrigari, Venice 1594
Along with the improvisation, many of these tutors discuss articulation. Francesco Rognoni in 1620 describes the tonguing as the most important part of producing "a good and beautiful effect in playing wind instruments, and principally the cornetto" (which of course had a very similar role to the trombone). The treatises discuss the various strengths of consonants from "le" through "de" to "te". But the focus of the text is for playing rapid notes "similar to the gorgia of the human voice" with "soft and smooth" double tonguing ("lingua riversa") using "le re le re". This is opposed to using "te che te che" which is described as "harsh, barbarous and displeasing". The natural 'pairing' of notes these articulations provide is similar to the instructions for string players who are instructed to slur ("lireggiar") pairs of eighth notes with one bow stroke per quarter beat.
Another integral part of the early music sound-world is the musical temperament. Music in the middle-ages favours interval of the 4th and 5th, which is why Pythagorean tuning
Pythagorean tuning
Pythagorean tuning is a system of musical tuning in which the frequency relationships of all intervals are based on the ratio 3:2. This interval is chosen because it is one of the most consonant...
was used. The interval of a third was used as a clash (and it does in Pythagorean!) until the Renaissance, when it became consonant in compositions, which went hand-in-hand with the widespread use of Meantone temperament. During the 17th century, Well temperament
Well temperament
Well temperament is a type of tempered tuning described in 20th-century music theory. The term is modelled on the German word wohltemperiert which appears in the title of J.S. Bach's famous composition, The Well-Tempered Clavier...
began to become more and more popular as the range of keys increased. Use of these temperaments with their appropriate music produces far more beautiful and colourful music than the equal temperament
Equal temperament
An equal temperament is a musical temperament, or a system of tuning, in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical frequency ratio. As pitch is perceived roughly as the logarithm of frequency, this means that the perceived "distance" from every note to its nearest neighbor is the same for...
so prevalent in modern performers.
These old tunings can come naturally on a sackbut. As the bell is smaller than a modern trombone, the harmonic series is closer to a perfect harmonic series, which is the basis for just tuning. Without adjusting the slide, the 1st to 2nd harmonic is a perfect octave, 2nd to 3rd harmonic is a 5th slightly wider than equal temperament and 4th to 5th harmonic is a major 3rd slightly narrower than in equal temperament. These adjusted intervals make chords ring and are the basis of meantone. In fact Speer says "once you have found a good C (3rd position), this is also the place you will find your F#". Playing C and F# in exactly the same position on a modern orchestra sounds out of tune, but it tunes perfectly well on a sackbut if everyone plays meantone.
When reading sackbut music, it is important to consider Musica ficta
Musica ficta
Musica ficta was a term used in European music theory from the late 12th century to about 1600 to describe any pitches, whether notated or to be added by performers in accordance with their training, that lie outside the system of musica recta or musica vera as defined by the hexachord system of...
, to help solve some of the controversial pitches. The scores are unclear and composers were embarrassed to point out accidentals they felt were 'obvious' to performers. For example there are occasions where a leading note should be sharpened to a major 7th as you go into a cadence. There also are often questions about which notes accidental markings apply to. There are differences of opinion between editors and performers now, just as there were between performers then.
Before 1600
The sackbut replaced the slide trumpet in the 15th century alta capellaAlta capella
Alta capella were town wind bands found throughout continental Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries, which typically consisted of shawms and slide trumpets or sackbuts. Waits were the British equivalent. These were not found anywhere outside of Europe....
wind bands that were common in towns throughout Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
playing courtly dance
Historical dance
Historical dance is a collective term covering a wide variety of dance types from the past as they are danced in the present....
music. See Waits
Wait (musician)
Waits or Waites were British town pipers. From medieval times up to the beginning of the 19th century, every British town and city of any note had a band of Waites...
.
Another key use of the trombone was in ceremonies, in conjunction with the trumpet. In many towns in Germany and Northern Italy, 'piffari' bands were employed by local governments throughout the 16th century to give regular concerts in public squares and would lead processions for festivals. Piffari usually contained a mix of wind, brass and percussion instruments and sometimes viols.
Venice's doge had his own piffari company and they gave an hour-long concert in the Piazza each day, as well as sometimes performing for services in St. Mark's. Each of the six confraternities in Venice also had their own independent piffari groups too, which would all play at a lavish procession on the feast of Corpus Domini. These groups are in addition to the musicians employed by St. Mark's to play in the balconies with the choir (the piffari would play on the main level).
It also was used in church music
Church music
Church music may be defined as music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclestiacal liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn. This article covers music in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. For sacred music outside this...
both for instrumental service music and as a doubling instrument for choral music. The treble and high alto parts were most often played by cornett
Cornett
The cornett, cornetto or zink is an early wind instrument, dating from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods. It was used in what are now called alta capellas or wind ensembles. It is not to be confused with the trumpet-like instrument cornet.-Construction:There are three basic types of...
s or shawm
Shawm
The shawm was a medieval and Renaissance musical instrument of the woodwind family made in Europe from the 12th century until the 17th century. It was developed from the oriental zurna and is the predecessor of the modern oboe. The body of the shawm was usually turned from a single piece of wood,...
s, with the violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
sometimes replacing the cornett in 17th century Italian music
Italian classical music
-Art Music:"Art music" is a somewhat broader term than "classical music" and may be defined for the purposes of this article as "establishment" music that is composed for public or private performance. By definition, it excludes popular musical forms that are based on folk music...
.
The first record of trombones being used in churches was in Innsbruck 1503. Seville Cathedral's records show employment of trombonists in 1526, followed by several other Spanish cathedrals during the 16th century, used not only for ceremonial music and processionals, but also for accompaniment of the liturgical texts as well, doubling voices.
The sacred use of trombones was brought to a fine art by the Andrea Gabrieli
Andrea Gabrieli
Andrea Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organist of the late Renaissance. The uncle of the somewhat more famous Giovanni Gabrieli, he was the first internationally renowned member of the Venetian School of composers, and was extremely influential in spreading the Venetian style in Italy as...
, Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque idioms.-Biography:Gabrieli was born in Venice...
and their contemporaries c.1570-1620 Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
and there is also evidence of trombonists being employed in churches and cathedrals in Italy at times during the second half of the 16th century in Bologna, Rome, Padua, Mantua and Modena.
Since ensembles had flexible instrumentation at this time, there is relatively little music before Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque idioms.-Biography:Gabrieli was born in Venice...
's publication Symphoniae sacrae (1597) that specifically mentions trombones. The only example currently known is the music by Francesco Corteccia
Francesco Corteccia
Francesco Corteccia was an Italian composer, organist, and teacher of the Renaissance. Not only was he one of the best known of the early composers of madrigals, and an important native Italian composer during a period of domination by composers from the Low Countries, but he was the most...
for the Medici wedding 1539.
Solo
The 17th century brings two pieces of real solo trombone repertoire.Giovanni Martino Cesare
Giovanni Martino Cesare
Giovanni Martino Cesare was a composer and cornetto player.Cesare was born at Udine. By 1611 he resided as cornetto player at the house of Margrave of Burgau at Günzburg, near Augsburg...
wrote La Hieronyma, (Musikverlag Max Hieber, MH6012) the earliest known piece for accompanied solo trombone. It comes from Cesare's collection Musicali Melodie per voci et instrumenti a una, due, tre, quattro, cinque, e sei published in Munich 1621 of 28 pieces for a mixture of violins, cornetts, trombone, vocal soloists and organ continuo. The collection also contains La Bavara for four trombones.
The other solo trombone piece of the 17th century, Sonata trombone & basso (modern edition by H Weiner, Ensemble Publications), was written around 1665. This anonymous piece is also known as the 'St. Thomas Sonata' because it was kept in the library of the Saint Thomas Augustinian Monastery in Brno, Czech Republic.
Francesco Rognoni was another composer who specified the trombone in a set of divisions (variations) on the well-known song Suzanne ung jour (London Pro Musica, REP15). Rognoni was a master violin and gamba player whose treatise Selva di Varie passaggi secondo l'uso moderno (Milan 1620 and facsimile reprint by Arnaldo Forni Editore 2001) details improvisation of diminutions and Suzanne is given as one example. Although most diminutions are written for organ, string instruments or cornett, Suzanne is "per violone over Trombone alla bastarda". With virtuosic semiquaver passages across the range of the instrument, it reflects Praetorius' comments about the large range of the tenor and bass trombones, and good players of the Quartposaune (bass trombone in F) could play fast runs and leaps like a viola bastarda or cornetto. The term "bastarda" describes a technique that made variations on all the different voices of a part song, rather than just the melody or the bass: "considered illegitimate because it was not polyphonic".
Chamber music
In the 17th century, a considerable repertoire of chamber musicChamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
using sackbut with various combinations of violins, cornetts and dulcian
Dulcian
The dulcian is a Renaissance bass woodwind instrument, with a double reed and a folded conical bore. Equivalent terms include "curtal" in English, "dulzian" in German, "bajón" in Spanish, "douçaine"' in French, "dulciaan" in Dutch, and "dulciana" in Italian....
s, often with continuo, appeared. Composers included Dario Castello
Dario Castello
Dario Castello was an Italian composer and instrumentalist from the early Baroque period who worked and published in Venice. As regards his instrument, it is not clear whether he played the cornetto or the bassoon...
, Giovanni Battista Fontana
Giovanni Battista Fontana (composer)
Giovanni Battista Fontana was an Italian Baroque composer and violinist.He was born in Brescia, and worked there and in Rome and Padua. He died in Padua during a plague....
, Giovanni Paolo Cima
Giovanni Paolo Cima
Giovanni Paolo Cima was an Italian composer and organist in the early Baroque era. He was a contemporary of Claudio Monteverdi and Girolamo Frescobaldi, though not as well known as either of those men....
, Andrea Cima, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer was an Austrian composer and violinist of the Baroque era. Almost nothing is known about his early years, but he seems to have arrived in Vienna during the 1630s, and remained composer and musician at the Habsburg court for the rest of his life...
and Matthias Weckmann
Matthias Weckmann
Matthias Weckmann was a German musician and composer of the Baroque period. He was born in Niederdorla and died in Hamburg.- Life :...
.
Giovanni Paolo Cima
Giovanni Paolo Cima
Giovanni Paolo Cima was an Italian composer and organist in the early Baroque era. He was a contemporary of Claudio Monteverdi and Girolamo Frescobaldi, though not as well known as either of those men....
, organist of S. Celso wrote the oldest known trio sonata and solo violin sonata. Contained in his Concerti ecclesiastici (Milan 1610) is his brother Andrea's Capriccio 'for cornett and trombone or violin and violone'.
Antonio Bertali
Antonio Bertali
Antonio Bertali was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era.He was born in Verona and received early music education there from Stefano Bernardi. Probably from 1624, he was employed as court musician in Vienna by Emperor Ferdinand II. In 1649 Bertali succeeded Giovanni Valentini as...
wrote several trio sonatas for 2 violins, trombone and bass continuo in the mid-17th century. One such Sonata a 3 is freely available in facsimile form from the Düben Collection website hosted by Uppsala universitet. A "Sonata a3 in C" is published by Musica Rara and attributed to Biber, although the authorship is unclear and it is more likely to have been written by Bertali.
Dario Castello
Dario Castello
Dario Castello was an Italian composer and instrumentalist from the early Baroque period who worked and published in Venice. As regards his instrument, it is not clear whether he played the cornetto or the bassoon...
, a wind player at St. Mark's Venice in the early 17th century had two books of Sonate Concertate published in 1621 and 1629. The sonatas of 1-4 parts with bass continuo often specify trombones, as well as cornett, violin and bassoon. The numerous reprints during the 17th century affirm his popularity then, as perhaps now.
Giuseppe Scarani joined St. Mark's Venice in 1629 as a singer and in the following year published Sonate concertate, a volume of works for 2 or 3 (unspecified) instruments (and b.c.). The title has been suggested was chosen to try and capture some of Castello's success.
Tiburtio Massaino
Tiburtio Massaino
Tiburtio Massaino, also Massaini was an Italian composer.-Life:Augustinian friar in Piacenza he became maestro di cappella at S Maria del Popolo in Rome in 1571. He moved to Modena in 1578, Lodi in 1580 and Salò in 1587 before arriving in Innsbruck at the service of Archduke Ferdinand II in 1589-90...
wrote a Canzona for eight trombones, published in Raverii's 1608 collection.
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer
Johann Heinrich Schmelzer was an Austrian composer and violinist of the Baroque era. Almost nothing is known about his early years, but he seems to have arrived in Vienna during the 1630s, and remained composer and musician at the Habsburg court for the rest of his life...
wrote several sonatas which included trombones. For example, his Sonata à 7 for two cornetts, two trumpets, three trombones and basso continuo.
Daniel Speer
Daniel Speer
Georg Daniel Speer was a German composer and writer of the Baroque.Speer was born in Wroclaw, Poland.- Writing :...
published a four part sonata in Neu-gebachene Taffel-Schnitz (1685). In 1687, Speer published the first written instruction in sackbut (and several other instruments) playing: Grund-richtiger/kurtz/leicht und noethiger Unterricht der Musicalischen Kunst. The second edition in 1697 provides two three part sonatas for trombones.
An English work of note from this period is Matthew Locke
Matthew Locke (composer)
Matthew Locke was an English Baroque composer and music theorist.-Biography:As a boy, Locke was trained in the choir of Exeter Cathedral, under Edward Gibbons, the brother of Orlando Gibbons...
's Music for His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts, a suite for Charles II's coronation 1661.
Light music
Non-serious music, often based on dances for festive occasions, rarely had specified instrumentation. Often you find something like "per diversi musici". Indeed the groups that would perform them would often be full of multi-instrumentalists.Johann Pezel wrote for Stadtpfeifer with his Hora decima musicorum (1670), containing sonatas, as well as Fünff-stimmigte blasende Music (1685) which five-part intradas and dance pieces.
Well known pieces from Germany includes Samuel Scheidt
Samuel Scheidt
Samuel Scheidt was a German composer, organist and teacher of the early Baroque era.-Biography:...
's Ludi Musici (1621) and Johann Hermann Schein's Banchetto musicale (1617).
The first English piece scored for trombone is John Adson
John Adson
John Adson was an English musician and composer. Little is known about his early life; indeed, the first certain reference to him comes in 1604, when he was in service to Charles III, Duke of Lorraine as a cornett player...
's Courtly Masquing Ayres (1611). Another light collection suitable for including trombones is Anthony Holborne
Anthony Holborne
Anthony Holborne was a composer of English consort music during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.-Life:Holborne entered Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1562. He was admitted to the Inner Temple Court in 1565. Holborne married Elisabeth Marten on 14 June 1584. On the title page of both his books he...
's Pavans, Galliards, Allmains, and other short Aeirs both Grave and Light in Five Parts for Viols, Violins or Other Musicall Winde Instruments (1599).
Venice
Trombonists were in the regular ensemble at St. Mark's Venice from its formation in 1568 until they left the payroll in 1732. The first two ensemble directors - maestro di concerti - Girolamo Dalla Casa
Girolamo Dalla Casa
Girolamo Dalla Casa was an Italian composer, instrumentalist, and writer of the late Renaissance. He was a member of the Venetian School, and was perhaps more famous and influential as a performer than as a composer....
(1568–1601) and Giovanni Bassano
Giovanni Bassano
Giovanni Bassano was an Italian Venetian School composer and cornettist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was a key figure in the development of the instrumental ensemble at St. Mark's basilica, and left a detailed book on instrumental ornamentation, which is a rich resource for...
(1601–1617) - were cornett players and the nucleus of the group was 2 cornetts and 2 trombones, although for the larger ceremonies many extra players were hired. During a mass attended by the Doge, evidence suggests they would have played a canzona in the Gradual after the Epistle and the Agnus Dei, a sonata in the Offertory as well as reinforcing vocal parts or substituting for absent singers.
This ensemble was used extensively by Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque idioms.-Biography:Gabrieli was born in Venice...
in pieces substantially for brass, voices and organ in Venice up until his death in 1612. He was greatly influential in Venetian composers in other churches and confraternities, and his early baroque and cori spezzati style is seen in contemporaries like Giovanni Picchi
Giovanni Picchi
Giovanni Picchi was an Italian composer, organist, lutenist, and harpsichordist of the early Baroque era. He was a late follower of the Venetian School, and was influential in the development and differentiation of instrumental forms which were just beginning to appear, such as the sonata and the...
and Giovanni Battista Grillo
Giovanni Battista Grillo
Giovanni Battista Grillo was an Italian composer and organist.Little is known about Grillo until he was elected organist to the Venetian confraternity 'Scuola Grande di S Rocco' on 28 August 1612. In addition he was appointed first organist of San Marco on 30 December 1619...
.
It is suggested that Monteverdi wrote his Vespro della Beata Vergine
Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610 (Monteverdi)
Vespro della Beata Vergine 1610 — commonly called Vespers of 1610 — is a musical composition by Claudio Monteverdi. The term "Vespers" is taken from the Hours of the Divine Office, a set of daily prayers of the Catholic Church which have remained structurally unchanged for 1500 years...
(1610) as a pitch for employment at St. Mark's as successor to Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque idioms.-Biography:Gabrieli was born in Venice...
. In addition to the Magnificat, two movements specify trombones: the opening Deus in adiutorium is for 6 voices, 2 violins, 2 cornetts, 3 trombones, 5 viola da braccio and basso continuo; Sonata sopra ‘Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis’ is for soprano, 2 violins, 2 cornetts, 3 trombones (one of which can be a viola da braccio), viola da braccio and basso continuo. Monteverdi also leaves the option to use trombones as part of the "sex instrumentis" of the Dixit Dominus and in the instrumental Ritornello a 5 between verses of Ave maris stella.
From around 1617, when the maestro de' concerti at St. Marks changed to violinist Francesco Bonfante and correspondingly the ensemble changed from basically a brass ensemble to being more evenly mixed with brass, wind and string instruments.
Monteverdi arrived at St. Mark's in 1613 and it is unsurprising that he includes trombones and strings for several more sacred works during his time here, published in his Selva Morale e Spirituale 1641. Of the c.40 items in this collection, six specify three or four trombones (or viola da braccio, ad lib): SV268 Beatus vir I, SV263 Dixit Dominus I, SV263 Dixit Dominus II, SV261 Et iterum venturus est, SV258 Gloria in excelsis Deo, SV281 Magnificat I. Each is for 3-8 voices with 3 violins (apart from SV261), the trombones/violas and basso continuo. Monteverdi also specified trombones in two more sacred works: SV198 Laetatus sum (i) (1650) for 6 voices, 2 violins, 2 trombones and bassoon and SV272 Laudate Dominum omnes gentes I (1641) for 5 voices ‘concertato’, 4 voice chorus ad lib, 4 viola da braccio or trombones and basso continuo.
Germany/Austria
A prolific composer for trombones in Germany in the 17th century was Heinrich Schütz
Heinrich Schütz
Heinrich Schütz was a German composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and often considered to be one of the most important composers of the 17th century along with Claudio Monteverdi...
. His Fili me, Absalon (SWV 269) and Attendite, popule meus (SWV 270), are both scored for bass voice, four trombones (of which two are optionally violins) and basso continuo, are well known. They are part of his first Symphoniae Sacrae collection dating from 1629 and commentators have noted that the style reflects his studies in Venice with Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli
Giovanni Gabrieli was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque idioms.-Biography:Gabrieli was born in Venice...
1609-1612. The other pieces which specify trombones (according to Grove) are (grouped by the collection they were published in): Concert mit 11 Stimmen (1618): SWV 21, Psalms of David Op.2 (1619): SWV 38, 40-46, Symphoniae Sacrae I Op.6 (1629): SWV 259, 269-271, 274, Symphoniae Sacrae II Op.10 (1647): SWV 344, Symphoniae Sacrae III Op. 12 (1650): SWV 398a, Historia (1664): SWV 435, 448, 449, 453, 461, 452, 466-470, 473, 474-476, Schwanengesang Psalm 119 (1671): SWV 500, although many others are suitable for trombones too.
Johann Hermann Schein specified trombones in some of his sacred vocal works in the Opella nova, ander Theil, geistlicher Concerten collection (Leipzig, 1626). For example, Uns ist ein Kind geboren is scored for violino, traversa, alto trombone, tenor voice, fagotto and basso continuo. Mach dich auf, werde licht, Zion uses Canto 1: violino, cornetto, flauto picciolo e voce, Canto 2: voce e traversa, Alto: Trombone e Voce, Tenore: Voce e Trombone, Basso: Fagotto Trombone e Voce and Basso Continuo, during which solos for each of the trombonists are specified. Of particular interest is Maria, gegrüsset seist du, Holdselige which uses soprano and tenor voices, alto trombone, 2 tenor trombones and on the bass line "trombone grosso" which goes down to pedal A, and a couple of diatonic scale passages from bottom C.
German composer Johann Rudolf Ahle wrote some notable sacred pieces for voices and trombones. Höre, Gott uses five favoriti singers, two ripieno choirs (which double other parts at intense moments) and seven trombones, with basso continuo. And his most famous Neu-gepflanzte Thüringische Lust-Garten.. (1657–65) contains several sacred works with 3 or 4 trombones, including Magnificat a 8 for SATB soloists, cornett, 3 trombones and continuo and Herr nun lässestu deinen Diener a 5 for bass, 4 trombones and continuo.
Dieterich Buxtehude
Dieterich Buxtehude
Dieterich Buxtehude was a German-Danish organist and composer of the Baroque period. His organ works represent a central part of the standard organ repertoire and are frequently performed at recitals and in church services...
specifies trombones in a few sacred concertos using style derived from polychoral Venetian works and one secular piece. For example, Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen (BuxWV33 from CW v, 44) is scored for SSB voices, 2 vn, 2 va, trbn, 2 cornetts, 2 tpt, bn and bc.
There are a few vocal works involving trombones in works by Andreas Hammerschmidt
Andreas Hammerschmidt
Andreas Hammerschmidt , the "Orpheus of Zittau," was a German composer and organist, of Bohemian birth, of the early to middle Baroque era...
. These include Lob- und Danck Lied aus dem 84. Psalm for 9 voices, 5 tpt, 3 trbn, 5 va and bc (Freiberg, 1652). There is also Hochzeitsgesang für Daniel Sartorius: Es ist nicht gut, dass der Mensch allein sei for 5 voices, 2 vn, 2 trbn, bn and bc.
Johann Schelle
Johann Schelle
Johann Schelle was a German baroque composer.Schelle was born in Geising and died in Leipzig. He was the cantor of the Thomanerchor from 1677 to 1701....
has numerous sacred vocal works that use trombones. For instance Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schar is scored for soprano, tenor, SSATB choir, 2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cornetts, 3 trombones, 2 trumpets, timpani, basso continuo, and Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele is for two choirs of SSATB and similar instruments to the previous work.
The lesser known Austrian composer Christoph Strauss
Christoph Strauss
Christoph Strauss was an Austrian composer, cantor and organist. His church music includes polyphonic pieces and polychoral Masses, including a notable Requiem for high and low choirs. Although his textures were, by current standards, old-fashioned at the time, his word painting proves his...
, Kapellmeister to the Habsburg Emperor Mathias 1616-1620, wrote two important collections for trombones, cornetts and voices. His motets published in Nova ac diversimoda sacrarum cantionum composition, seu motettae (Vienna, 1613) are in a similar tradition to Gabrieli's music. Of the sixteen motets in the collection, all are titled "concerto" apart from the "sonata" Expectans Expectavi Dominum for 6 trombones, cantus voice and tenor voice. In 1631 he published a number of masses which were much more baroque, with basso continuo, rhetorical word painting and obligato usage of instruments.
Later in the 17th century, Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber composed sacred works for voices and orchestra featuring trombones. His Requiem mass (1692) uses an orchestra of strings, 3 trombones and basso continuo. A similar ensemble accompanies 8 vocal lines in his Lux perpetua (c1673), and three more similar works in the 1690s.
Theatre
Monteverdi ushers sackbuts into the first great opera - 'L'Orfeo' 1607. The orchestra at the first performance, as shown in the first publication, the list of "stromenti" at the front of the score specifies four trombones, but at one point in Act 3, however, the score calls for five trombones.1700-1750
There is relatively little repertoire for the trombone in the late baroque.But Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
uses trombones in fourteen of his church cantatas - BWV 2, 3, 4, 21, 23, 25, 28, 38, 64, 68, 96, 101, 121, 135 as well as motet BWV 118. He uses the trombone sound to reflect the (by now) archaic sounds of the Renaissance trombones doubling voices (with cornett
Cornett
The cornett, cornetto or zink is an early wind instrument, dating from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods. It was used in what are now called alta capellas or wind ensembles. It is not to be confused with the trumpet-like instrument cornet.-Construction:There are three basic types of...
playing the soprano line), yet he also uses them independently, which John Eliot Gardiner says prepares the way for their use in Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. The cantatas were either composed in Leipzig during 1723-1725, or (for BWV 4, 21 & 23) the trombone parts were added to the existing cantata during the same period. The cornett and trombone parts would have been played by the Stadtpfeifer.
In England, George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
includes trombones in three of his oratorios: Saul (1738), Israel in Egypt (1738) and Samson (1741). There are no other documented groups or performances with trombone players in England at this time, and it has been suggested that the premiers took place with a visiting group from Germany, as was the custom in Paris at this time.
Vienna's Imperial court used trombones in church music:
Johann Joseph Fux was Hofkapellmeister in Vienna from 1715 until 1741. Many of his masses use the choir strengthened by strings, cornetts and trombones, often with independent moments for the instrumentalists and sometimes. Missa SS Trinitatis uses two choirs which again points to the traditions going back to Gabrieli. His highly successful Requiem is for five vocal parts, two cornetts, two trombones, strings and continuo. He also uses the trombone in smaller motets and antiphons, such as his setting of Alma Redemptoris mater for soprano, alto trombone, strings and continuo. Some of his chamber music involves trombones, as do many of his operas, used as an obbligato instrument.
Also in the Vienna court was Antonio Caldara
Antonio Caldara
Antonio Caldara was an Italian Baroque composer.Caldara was born in Venice , the son of a violinist. He became a chorister at St Mark's in Venice, where he learned several instruments, probably under the instruction of Giovanni Legrenzi...
, vice-kapellmeister 1717-1736. Among his output are two Holy Week settings as Da Capo arias: Deh sciogliete, o mesti lumi for soprano, unison violins, bassoon, two trombones and organ and Dio, qual sia for soprano, trombone, bassoon and basso continuo.
1750-1800
Again this period suffers from a lack of trombone players. Most of these works derive from Vienna and Salzburg.Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
uses trombones in Il rotorno di Tobia, Die Sieben Letzten Worte, The Creation, Die Jahreszeiten
The Seasons (Haydn)
The Seasons is an oratorio by Joseph Haydn .-Composition, premiere, and reception:Haydn was led to write The Seasons by the great success of his previous oratorio The Creation , which had become very popular and was in the course of being performed all over Europe...
, Der Sturm, Orfeo de Euridice and secular cantata choruses.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
uses trombones in connection with death or the supernatural. This includes the Requiem
Requiem (Mozart)
The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...
(K626, 1791), Great Mass in C minor (K423, 1783), Coronation Mass (C major) (K317, 1779), several other masses, Vesperae Solennes de Confessore (K339, 1780), Vesperae de Dominica, his arrangement of Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
's Messiah plus two of his three great operas: Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
(K527, 1787) and Die Zauberflöte
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
(K620, 1791). Mozart's first use of the trombone was an obligato line in the oratorio Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots (K35, 1767)
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
includes trombones in five of his operas: Iphigénie en Aulide (1774), Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing...
(1774), Alceste (1776), Iphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck in four acts. It was his fifth opera for the French stage. The libretto was written by Nicolas-François Guillard....
(1779) and Echo et Narcisse (1779), as well as ballet Don Juan (1761).
Some chamber music in this period includes trombone in an obligato role with voice, and also as a concerto instrument with string orchestra. Composers include the likes of Leopold Mozart
Leopold Mozart
Johann Georg Leopold Mozart was a German composer, conductor, teacher, and violinist. Mozart is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule.-Childhood and student years:He was born in Augsburg, son of...
, Georg Christoph Wagenseil
Georg Christoph Wagenseil
Georg Christoph Wagenseil was an Austrian composer.He was born in Vienna, and became a favorite pupil of the Vienna court'sKapellmeister, Johann Joseph Fux. Wagenseil himself composed for the...
, Johann Albrechtsberger, Michael Haydn
Michael Haydn
Johann Michael Haydn was an Austrian composer of the classical period, the younger brother of Joseph Haydn.-Life:...
and Johann Ernst Eberlin
Johann Ernst Eberlin
Johann Ernst Eberlin was a German composer and organist whose works bridge the baroque and classical eras. He was a prolific composer, chiefly of church organ and choral music...
.
For works for trombone post-1800, please see trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
.
Modern performance
Many groups specializing in period music make frequent and prominent use of the sackbut.External links:
Medieval
Renaissance / Baroque small chamber music
- Concerto Palatino
- Les Sacqueboutiers de Toulouse
- Caecilia Concert
- His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts
- La Fenice
- The Whole Noyse
- Capella de la Torre
- Dresdner Stadtpfeifer
- Spiritus Collective
- the Gabrieli Consort
- Adam Woolf
Recordings
Plenty of recordings of the authentic sackbut are now available from the groups such as Concerto Palatino, HMSC, Gabrieli Consort and the Toulouse Sacqueboutiers. For a closer examination of the instrument, here are some recommended recordings where the sackbut is heavily featured in a 'solo' capacity.- Songs Without Words - Adam Woolf, SFZMusic 2010
- Treasury of a Saint - Caecilia Concert, Challenge Records 2006
- La Sacqueboute - Michel Becquet, Les Sacqueboutiers de Toulouse
- Sackbutt - Jorgen Van Rijen, Channel ClassicsChannel Classics RecordsChannel Classics Records is a record label from the Netherlands, specializing in classical music. The managing director and producer is C. Jared Sacks, who grew up in Boston. Sacks was schooled as a professional horn player at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam...
2008 - Schmelzer & Co - Caecilia-Concert, Challenge Records 2009
- Buxtehude & Co - Caecilia-Concert, Challenge Records 2007
Early surviving instruments
The earliest instruments:| Date | Maker | Made in | Category | Modern copies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1551 | Erasmus Schnitzer | Nuremberg | Tenor | Piquemal, Toulouse (1980 ca.) |
| 1557 | Georg Neuschel | Nuremberg | Tenor | |
| c.1560 | Unknown | Venice? | Tenor | |
| 1576 | Anton Schnitzer I | Nuremberg | Tenor | |
| 1579 | Anton Schnitzer I | Nuremberg | Bass | |
| 1581 | Anton Schnitzer I | Nuremberg | Tenor | |
| 1587 | Conrad Linczer | Nuremberg | Tenor | |
| 1593 | Pierre Colbert | Reims | Bass in G | |
| 1594 | Anton Schnitzer II | Nuremberg | Tenor | Mike Corrigan |
| 1595 | Anton Drewelewcz | Nuremberg | Tenor | Ewald Meinl 'small bore' |
| 1602 | Andreas Reichart | Edfurt | ? | |
| 1607 | Simon Reichard | Nuremberg | Bass in E-F | |
| 1608 | Jakob Bauer | Nuremberg | Tenor | |
| 1612 | Isaac Ehe | Nuremberg | Bass in D-Eb | Egger (bore 11.5-12.0mm, bell 124mm) |
Other notable ones:
| Date | Maker | Made in | Category | Modern copies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1627 | Sebastian Hainlein I | Nuremberg | Tenor | (Munich) (1932?) Egger 'tenor-bass' (bore 11.5/12.0mm bell 120mm) |
| 1631 | Sebastian Hainlein | Nuremberg | Tenor | Egger (bore 10.5/11.0mm, bell 98mm) |
| 1639 | Georg Nicolaus Oller | Stockholm | Bass in F | Ewald Meinl |
| 1653 | Paul Hainlein | Nuremberg | Tenor | Ewald Meinl 'wide bore' |
| 1670 | Hieronimus Starck | Nuremberg | Alto | Egger (bore 10.0/10.0mm, bell 94mm) |
| 1677 | Paul Hainlein | Nuremberg | Tenor in C | Currently owned by Christian Lindberg Christian Lindberg Christian Lindberg is a Swedish trombonist, conductor and composer.As a youth, Lindberg learned to play the trumpet, and subsequently began to learn the trombone at age 17. He originally borrowed a trombone to join his friends' Dixieland jazz group, inspired by records of Jack Teagarden... |
| 1785 | Johann Joseph Schmied | Pfaffendorf | Alto in Eb | Egger 'classical' |
| 1785 | Johann Joseph Schmied | Pfaffendorf | Bass in F | Egger 'classical' |
| 1778 | Johann Joseph Schmied | Pfaffendorf | Tenor | (private collection in Basel) Egger 'classical' |
For more information, see Herbert (2006).
Modern manufacturers
- Egger, Basel, Switzerland
- Ewald Meinl, Geretsried, Germany (formerly Meinl und Lauber)
- Geert Jan van der Heide, Netherlands
- Helmut Voigt, Germany
- Jürgen Voigt Brass, Germany
- Thein, Bremen, Germany
- John Webb, London
- Frank Tomes, London +44 (0)208 542 4942
- Böhm und Meinl
- BAC/Mike Corrigan, USA
- Johannes Finke, Germany
- Markus Leuchter, Germany
Further reading
- Woolf, Adam (2010). Sackbut Solutions: A Practical Guide to Playing the Sackbut. ISBN 978-90-814833-0-8.
Historical references
- Virgiliano, Aureleo: Il dolcimelo (c. 1600)
- Rognoni, Francesco: Selva de varii passaggi... (1620)
- Mersenne, Marin: Harmonie Universelle (1636)
- Praetorius, Michael: Syntagma Musicum (1619)
- Speer, Daniel: Grund-richtiger/kurtz/leicht und noethiger Unterricht der Musicalischen Kunst (1687); 2nd edition: Grund-richtiger... Unterricht... oder Vierfaches musicalisches Kleeblatt (1697)
External links
- Musica Antiqua's Sacbut page History, photos, and sounds
- Sackbut player Adam Woolf's personal website sound-clips, news of new recordings and home of Sackbut Solutions - sackbut tutor book
- His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts sound-clips, news of new recordings, photos and news
- The Caecilia-Concert a new sound in early music