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Ken Shifrin: The Alto Trombone in the Orchestra: 1800-2000

Chapter 2: The Ascent of the Tenor Trombone

2:1 Berlioz

At the epicenter of the changes occurring in the mid-nineteenth century stood Berlioz, whose writings, both musical and literary, are central to this thesis. Despite his overall preference for the tenor trombone,¹ Berlioz regretted that: 'le trombone alto soit, à cette heure, banni de tous nos orchestres parisiens'.²  This oft-quoted lament, first made in 1842 and repeated in his Traité of 1844, reflected Berlioz's despair over the absence of the alto trombone due to the loss of the notes b' - f" ('les sons hauts, tels que Si, Ut, Re, Mi, Fa, peuvent être fort utiles...'³), giving us a clear indication of what he considered the uppermost useable range on the tenor trombone. Kastner concurred:

Le Trombone Alto qui est d'un usage général en Allemagne, ne se rencontre en France que dans fort peu d'Orchestres, ce qui est très malheureux, car le Trombone Ténor destiné à le suppléer ne peut pas monter aussi haut, et le compositeur se trouve privé d'employer les notes dont il pourrait tirer grand parti.⁴

On the other hand, Berlioz found the alto's sound somewhat unpleasant; and that the low notes d down to A were of particularly poor quality ('d'un mauvais timbre'⁵) and best to be avoided, especially since they were excellent on the tenor trombone:

Son timbre est un peu grêle, comparitivement à celui des Trombones plus graves. Ses notes inférieures sonnent assez mal; il est d'autant plus raisonnable de les éviter en général, que ces mêmes notes sont excellents sur le Trombone Ténor.⁶

Nevertheless, Berlioz's opinions of the alto, expressed in 1842 and again in 1844, give the clear impression that despite its limitations he felt there was a definite place for the alto trombone in the orchestra, basically as an upper-register aid. Indeed, on the autograph score of the Symphonie Fantastique (1830), Berlioz wrote by the first trombone part: 'Il ne faut pas comme on le fait souvent en France jouer le trombone alto sur un grand trombone, je demand un véritable alto'⁷ (Figs. 2.1, 2.1a).

Figure 2.1: Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique, autograph score page 1⁸

Figure 2.1a: Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique, autograph score page 1, inset, shows an enlargement of the relevant passage.

"Je demande un véritable trombone alto"

However, in a letter to Louise Bertin, singer/pianist and daughter of the editor of the Paris Journal des Débats, written three months prior to publication of the Traité and nearly a year after submitting the manuscript for publication,⁹ Berlioz expressed a less well-known opinion which at first blush appears to contradict his previous statements about the alto trombone. Based on his conducting experiences in Berlin, he wrote:

Observations réiterées, faites à Berlin, m'ont conduit à penser que la meilleure manière de grouper les trombones dans les théâtres, est, après tout, celle qu'on a adoptée à l'Opéra de Paris, et qui consiste à employer ensemble trois trombones ténors. Le timbre du petit trombone (l'alto) est grêle, et ses notes hautes ne présentent que peu d'utilité. Je voterais donc aussi pour son exclusion dans les théâtres.¹⁰

Dr David Mathie contends that there is 'no contradiction [between the two opinions because] Berlioz only refers to the opera and theatre orchestras, not the symphony orchestra'.¹¹ However, as Guion points out, in France:

after 1791 it appears that most public concert music was performed in theatres by theatre orchestras. Perhaps for this reason, trombone parts in French concert music did not differ significantly from those in theatre music.¹²

Moreover, whether a trombone section plays upon or below the stage, the concept of ensemble and blend are essentially the same. In truth, Berlioz's two opinions are not difficult to reconcile, for what he appears to be saying in his letter to Mademoiselle Bertin is that, provided there is no loss of the notes b' - f", for reasons of sonority, balance and section blend it is best to replace the alto trombone with a tenor. He also advocated using the bass trombone only in section with the three tenors.¹³

Kastner differed with Berlioz:

... le Trombone-Alto, le Trombone-Basse très répondu en Allemagne est presque inusité en France: on comprend que ce sont là un grand désavantage pour nos compositeurs... Quelques professeurs semblent s'en applaudir, en disant que l'unité de timbre d'une harmonie si flatteuse, dans les orchestres ne peut s'obtenir que par des instruments égaux: nous ne partageons aucunement leur opinion à cet égard, et nous voyons avec pein les compositeurs Français adoptir presqu'exclusivement l'usage d'écrire les presqu' trois parties de Trombones pour le Trombone tenor... Nous pensons que c'est un grant tort de n'avoir point conservé les trois timbres différents du Trombone Basse, Ténor et Alto dont la diversité nous parait fort utile et fort désirable.¹⁴

Gevaert also lamented the 'malencontreuse transformation'¹⁵ of the trombone trio into a section of three tenors:

Par cette innovation regrettable le troupe des trombones a vu son étendu s'amoindrir d'une octave entière. Ses qualités sonores et techniques en ont reçu une atteinte non moins sensible: en effect, le trombone ténor manque d'aisance et d'éclat dans le haut; au-dessous d'ut2 il n'a guère de puissance et aucune mobilité.¹⁶

According to Macdonald, 'Berlioz wrote for the alto trombone in his early music with the upper trombone part notated in the alto clef, at least through the composition of Harold en Italie (1834)'.¹⁷ This includes the Messe solennelle – the part reaches eb"¹⁸ – Scène héroique, La Mort d'Orphée, the overtures Les Francs-Juges, Waverley and Roi-Lear, Cléopâtre¹⁹ and the 1832 version of Lélio.²⁰  With regard to Harold, the first trombone part is not particularly high by today's standards, and it is doubtful that many professional trombonists are aware that Berlioz had intended the first part to be played on an alto. As Hans Bartenstein states:

Auch die 1. Pos. des 'Harold en Italie' ist noch im Altschlüssel notiert und geht mehrmals bis h', was laut Gr. tr. schon fast über der Umfangsgrenze der Tenor-Pos liegt, aber tatsächlich von ihr ausführbar ist.²¹

The alto trombone was also used, according to Julian Rushton, in early performances in Germany of the 'Marche Hongroise' from Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust (1846).

The first trombone was taken by an alto instrument; the manuscript part contains several alterations to accommodate it, sometimes a change of octave, sometimes simply a passage into the alto clef.²²

A late alto trombone curiosity appears in the 1847 published first trombone part of Berlioz's Roméo et Juliet. Composed in 1839 (Ex. 2.1), the first part was intended for tenor trombone.  However, in the edition that was published eight years later, the bracketed bars in the example above were written an octave higher in the part²³ (but not the score),²⁴ which would surely have necessitated the use of the alto trombone, given that Berlioz considered a c#", a semitone lower to be essentially only a theoretical note on the tenor.²⁵

Regarding the 1849 Te Deum, Denis McCaldin writes that:

it is from the autograph score that Berlioz originally planned the uppermost trombone part for the alto instrument [but] changed his mind and was obliged to alter... the bars of the 'Judex, Crederis' in order to accommodate the lower range of the tenor trombone.²⁶

By changing the designation of the first trombone part from alto to tenor and rewriting passages lower (Ex. 2.2), it is apparent that by 1849 Berlioz was 'acquiescing to the inevitable',²⁷ since with the previous abandonment of the bass trombone 'le trombone alto n'avait plus guère de raisons d'exister'.²⁸  By 1863 Gevaert could write that in orchestral trombone sections, 'trois ténors [sont] les seuls... [qu']on connaisse en France'.²⁹  Anthony Baines suggests that:

In settling on one single species players had merely bowed to a new professional logic. The instruments were no longer a set of three owned by a municipality. Players provided their own, as they have done since, and the tenor, on which any part, whether a single part or one of three, could be dealt with somehow was the obvious choice, particularly when serpent or ophicleide became subjoined as a bass voice below the trio.³⁰

Given his preference for the tenor trombone, it seems that it was not so much for reasons of tone colour that Berlioz designated an alto trombone for the first part, but because he thought the register was beyond a tenor trombonist's capability.³¹

2:1:1 Nomenclature and the primacy of the tenor trombone

It appears that beginning with the 1835 version of Le Cinq Mai, Berlioz designated the tenor trombone for the first part and 'wrote his three trombone parts on tenor and bass staves and presumed that all the players would use tenor trombones'.³²

Although Berlioz advocated a section of three tenors, he felt that to use the tenor trombone when an alto (or bass) had been intended by a composer was:

admettre en général une pareille latitude dans l'interprétation des volontés du compositeur [et] ouvrir la porte à toute les infidélités, à tous les abus.³³

Kastner maintained that this practice led to nomenclature problems:

En général, les compositeurs français ne se servent que du Trombone-Tenor qu'ils écrivent, à trois parties, mais qu'ils continuent souvent d'indiquer par les dénominations de: Alto, Ténor et Basse, ce qui, a l'étranger donne lieu à de singuliers embarras³⁴

However, while he preferred the bigger and more powerful tenor trombone with its 'sonorité fort et pleine', Koury maintains that 'it would be a mistake to conclude that Berlioz liked a lot of noise'.³⁵

According to Berlioz it was up to the conductor to ensure that with its powerful voice, the trombone's majesty did not degenerate into raucousness:

Le préjugé vulgaire appelle bruyants les grands orchestres: s'ils sont bien composés, bien exercés et bien dirigés; et s'ils exécutent de la vraie musique, c'est puissants qu'il faut dire: et, certes, rien n'est plus dissemblable que le sens de ces deux expressions... Trois trombones mal placés, paraitront bruyants, insupportables, et l'instant d'après dans la même salle douze Trombones étonneront le public par leur noble et puissante harmonie.³⁶

The composer shares equal responsibility with the conductor, continued Berlioz. Echoing the words of Albrechtsberger³⁷ he heaped scorn on 'la foule des compositeurs'³⁸ who vulgarized this noble and dignified instrument, so capable of depicting 'passions humaines'.³⁹

Le son du Trombone est tellement caracterisé, qu'il ne doit jamais être entendu que pour produire un effet spécial... [Il] possède en effet au suprême degré la noblesse et grandeur; il a tous les accents graves ou forts de la haute poésie musicale, depuis l'accent religieuse, imposant et calme, jusqu'aux clameurs forcenées de l'orgie. Il depend du compositeur de la faire tour à chanter comme un choeur de prêtres, menacer, gémir, sourdement, murmure un glas funèbre, étonner un hymne de gloire, éclater en horrible cris, ou sonner sa redoutable fanfare pour le réveil des morts ou la mort des vivants... Mais le contraindre... à hurler dans credo des phrases brutales moins dignes du temple saint que de la taverne... [ou] à meler sa voix olympienne à la mesquine melodie d'un vaudeville... c'est dégrader une individualité magnifique; c'est faire d'un héros un esclave et un buffon; c'est décolorer l'orchestre...; c'est volontairement faire acte de vandalisme, ou prouver une absence de sentiment de l'expression qui approche de la stupidité.⁴⁰

The tenor trombone solo from the 'Oraison Funèbre' of Berlioz's Grande Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale of 1840 (Ex. 2.3) is the first major solo for an orchestral trombonist to appear in the standard repertoire. Of grand proportion, only the trombone solo in Mahler's Third Symphony can rival it in magnitude and stature. The trombone was no doubt selected by Berlioz for its funeral associations and solemn tone. A strenuous solo, it requires great expressive ability and a broad, sustained, cantabile sound.  Moreover, as the soloist is called upon a number of times to play b', a note we recall Berlioz considered to be in the alto register, an alternate solo part for alto valve-trombone was provided by the composer.

Berlioz wrote in the manuscript: 'A defaut d'un Trombone ténor assez habile pour bien rendre la partie recitante de ce morceau, on peut l'exécuter sur un Trombone alto à pistons en Fa'.⁴¹

2:2 The Alto Valve-Trombone

The alto valve-trombone is described by Berlioz in his Grand Traité as basically the same instrument as the valve cornet but 'avec un peu plus de sonorité'.⁴²  Pitched in the same keys (Eb and F), both written in treble clef and both probably using very similar mouthpieces,⁴³ there seems very little to distinguish one from the other.⁴⁴ More than likely it was a logical double for cornetists. Thus, when we are told that on February 12 1848, in a concert at Drury Lane with Berlioz conducting, Koenig, one of England's foremost cornet virtuosos at the time,⁴⁵ performed the 'Funeral Oration' from the Sinfonie Funèbre on alto trombone, it is likely that the instrument meant was an alto valve-trombone.⁴⁶

The alto valve-trombone appears to have been used in French orchestras more as a solo instrument than as a member of the trombone section.  Moreover, according to Berlioz:

on écrit souvent pour le Trombone alto à pistons des solos chantants. Bien phrasée, une melodie peut avoir ainsi beaucoup de charme.⁴⁷

Del Mar states that:

cantabile solos are a rarity [for trombone] in symphonic literature and become a major feature when they do occur, as in the slow movement of Berlioz's Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale.⁴⁸

Legato playing on the slide trombone is especially difficult in the upper register, requiring a strong embouchure, supported by a well-developed diaphragm. It is perhaps indicative of how difficult this solo⁴⁹ was considered at the time that Cioffi, one of England's leading trombone soloists and a member of Berlioz's 1848 Drury Lane orchestra, did not perform the solo part.⁵⁰

Contrary to received opinion, Berlioz was not the first composer to score for the alto valve-trombone. In 1838, two years earlier, Halévy scored for a valved 'trombone soprano' in his opera Guido et Ginévra (see Ex. 2.4, 2.5, 2.5a, 2.6) which seems to be the same instrument Kastner and Berlioz refer to as an 'alto à piston' in their respective Traités. According to Kastner:

Plusiers maîtres, entr'autres Halévy, ont écrit des très jolis solos pour le trombone alto à pistons. Il faut naturellement que ces solos offrent un chant large et une mélodie distinguée.⁵¹

Berlioz enthusiastically describes the first appearance of this instrument in Halévy's opera thus:

'cet instrument nouveau, trés bien joué par M. Schlitz, a un son large et ample tout-à-fait différent du cornet à piston on a tant abusé.  Il monte facilement, et conserve dans tout son étendue le timbre qui lui est propre'.⁵² 

Halévy's new instrument functions as the most treble instrument in a brass group consisting of itself, two valved trumpets pitched in C and two valved horns in F (Ex. 2.4).  In the same opera, Halévy also assigned to a trombone soprano à piston en Mi a solo which in 1925 Flandrin described as 'peut-etre le plus haut et le plus dramatique solo de trombone qu'existe'.⁵³ (Exx. 2.5, 2.6)

Robin Gregory misleads us when he writes that 'Thomas appears to have had a particular affection for this instrument [i.e. the alto], for he gave it an important solo in the Overture to Le Compte de Carmagnola (1841)'.⁵⁴  Flandrin also misleads us when he states that the part was intended for an 'alto en mi'⁵⁵ by failing to distinguish between the slide and valved species, as shown in the autograph score (Ex. 2.7).  According to the autograph score, Thomas assigned the solo to a valved alto trombone in E, a separate instrument apart from the three-member trombone section. Moreover, as one would expect, the alto valve-trombone part in Thomas's manuscript of Carmagnola is written in treble clef.

2:3 The Tenor Valve-Trombone

Almost concurrent with the alto being phased out in France, was the introduction of the tenor valve-trombone.  Although Friedrich Blühmel's 1818 patent foresaw the invention of the three-valved tenor trombone,⁵⁶ it appears that this instrument was not built until the mid 1820s by other instrument-makers in Prague or Vienna.  In 1836, Jacques Christoph Labbaye patented the first French three-piston tenor trombone.⁵⁷

Although the tenor valve-trombone (and to a slightly lesser extent, the bass valve-trombone) enjoyed widespread, albeit relatively short-lived⁵⁸ usage⁵⁹ throughout Europe during the mid-1800s, French composers in particular embraced the instrument, not only for its technical capabilities (see Ex. 2.8, 2.9) but especially for the lyrical, legato qualities it offered. (See Ex. 2.10, 2.11).

Norman Del Mar contends that the slide:

makes a sentimental portamento (or worse still, glissando) very hard to avoid in legato phrases. No doubt it was on this account that the valve [tenor] trombone made a brief appearance.⁶⁰

Recalling Gevaert's statement that 'le chant lié ne peut s'éxécuter d'une manière satisfaisante sur le trombone à coulisse, seul usité en Allemagne'⁶¹ and the 1846 Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung's smug assertion that it was generally acknowledged that the standard of German instrumental music was the highest in the world ('da anerkanntermaassen die Instrumentalmusik in Deutschland am Höchsten steht'⁶²), it may be that French trombonists were less proficient in legato playing than their German counterparts. Indeed, in Kastner's Méthode Elémentaire pour le Trombone he instructs the pupil to place minute silences between slurred notes in order to avoid glissandi.⁶³

Berlioz also scored for the tenor valve-trombone in the 1846, Damnation of Faust (Ex. 2.9), discussed above.  Rushton states that:

a fourth trombone is specified in the 'Marche Hongroise' from bar 96 to the end.  It does not play elsewhere and no separate part has been found; it is wholly in unison with trombone 1.  It is not clear why Berlioz here specified the unusual tenor trombone a pistons.⁶⁴

The explanation that eludes Rushton is obvious to almost any trombonist. The very important first nine bars shown in the Ex. 2.9, played in unison by all three players, while technically awkward for the slide trombonist⁶⁵ present no such problem for the valve trombonist. Moreover, if the first trombonist were to use an alto, the bracketed notes would be very weak. Finally, the last sixty bars, which should be very prominent, are very taxing for the first trombonist and doubling would help 'zur Verstärkung der 1.  Posaune für den Höhe Punkt'.⁶⁶

Kunitz and Gregory both cite a solo passage that occurs in the first trombone part during Act 1 of Ambroise Thomas's 1868 opera Hamlet, as a 'curiously late example of the use of the alto trombone'⁶⁷ in French music. According to Kunitz, 'dieser Fall ist um so bemerkenswerter, als in den französischen Orchestern bereits seit 1830 keine Altposaune mehr verwendet wurden'.⁶⁸ However, despite the unusually high tessitura of the solo, the contention that Thomas specified an alto trombone seems to be without foundation as the autograph score specifically states '1st Trombone Tenor Solo', as shown in Ex. 2.10.

Moreover, on the score of the first printed edition published by Heugel (Ex. 2.11), it is suggested that 'ce solo [est] mieux exécuté sur un trombone à pistons'.⁶⁹ In his Nouveau Traité Gevaert confirms that Thomas intended the solo to be played on a tenor valve-trombone and informs us that originally it was performed at the Opéra on Sax's six-valve model⁷⁰ (see Fig. 2.2), which according to Flandrin, from about 1866 to 1873 became obligatory in the Opéra, causing 'a cette époque la presque disparition du trombone à coulisse'.⁷¹  During this time Dieppo, under pressure from Général Mellinet, Inspecteur des Musique Regimentaires, was compelled to teach the Sax valve-trombone at the Gymnase Militaire to the exclusion of the slide trombone.⁷²

French Bb tenor trombone with six independent valves, Adolphe Sax, Paris, ca. 1852.

Gevaert states that in France:

Le système des pistons n'est appliqué jusqu'à ce jour qu'au trombone ténor... Aujourd'hui... l'usage général de trombone à pistons permet sans aucune restrictions de lier tous les sons entre eux.⁷³

He specifically cites the Hamlet solo as an example of how composers could write more expressively for the tenor trombone as a result of the application of the valved mechanism.⁷⁴  Significantly, Gevaert writes in his Nouveau Traité d'Instrumentation of 1885, nearly two decades after Hamlet had first been performed, that although

le trombone-alto possède plus de mobilité, plus de souplesse que le ténor; à l'orchestre néanmoins il n'a jamais été traité, que je sache, en instrument solo.⁷⁵

Unfortunately the original parts, which might provide further confirmation, no longer exist.⁷⁶  Nevertheless, there appears to be no evidence to support the contention that the Hamlet solo was intended for the alto (slide) trombone.

According to Gevaert, from around 1850 tenor valve-trombones were prevalent not only in France but throughout Europe, as military brass bands customarily included three tenor valve-trombones.⁷⁷  Moreover, composers were accustomed to viewing the tenor valve-trombone as a solo instrument, as it often assumed this role in the Fanfare ensemble.

Même que la première trompette, mais moins souvent, le premier trombone est un des organes mélodiques de la Fanfare: une puissante voix de ténor aux accents tour à tour héroïques, onctueux ou terribles.⁷⁸

For example, given the range and extensive legato playing that is demanded, a tenor valve-trombone would have been considered ideal for the lyrical first trombone solo⁷⁹ in Halévy's opera, Le Juif Errant (Ex. 2.12) composed in 1852, the same year that Sax brought out his six-valve instrument.⁸⁰

In 1873, thanks largely to the efforts of Dieppo's former student Paul Delisse, 'non moins brilliant instrumentaliste',⁸¹ study of the slide trombone was restored in France.⁸²

2:3:1 Rossini's Guillaume Tell

Bate makes the dubious assertion that:

such men as Rossini began to write bravura trombone parts which even today are not easy to realise except on the valved instrument... He is perhaps the most important of the composers who were beguiled by this feature, and we can think of passages in l'Italiana in Algeri for example, which probably terrified contemporary slide trombonists.⁸³

Contrary to what Bate maintains, not only are there no trombone parts in the 1813 L'Italiana, but Rossini's most prolific years as a composer pre-date the advent of the valve trombone.⁸⁴

A popular concert item assumed by many trombonists to have been written for valve trombones, Rossini's overture to the opera Guillaume Tell, (Ex. 2.13) was premièred at the Paris Opera in 1829. The overture stands out from among Rossini's compositions as containing his most technically demanding trombone parts.⁸⁵  According to Bartenstein, Berlioz would never have written anything as difficult for the slide trombone.

Schwierige Gänge in rascher Bewegung wie etwa die auf der Zug-posaune kaum ausführbaren donnernden Passagen im 1. Allegro (Sturm) von Rossinis 'Tell' Ouv. vermeidet Berlioz durchweg.⁸⁶

It seems rather ironic that the dramatic storm scene, with its rapid, ascending and descending scales, which would have made the perfect vehicle to show off the technical advantages of a newly invented valve trombone, was not in fact intended for this instrument. Although Bartenstein states that the 1829 Rossini opera made use of the new cornet à pistons in the Paris Opéra for the first time,⁸⁷ according to Bartlett, no such use was made of the valve trombone.⁸⁸  However, this does not preclude the possibility that valve trombones may have been used in later performances, throughout the continent.⁸⁹

Kastner cautioned composers 'si on désire de la nettetée de la justesse il faut craindre de donner des figures trop compliquées ou trop rapides aux trombones'.⁹⁰ Similarly, Berlioz advised composers to avoid writing passages for trombones that involved large position changes with abrupt shifts in slide direction.⁹¹  With regard to the Guillaume Tell Overture, Gevaert criticized Rossini for having 'imposé à l'executant une tâche audessus de ses forces'.⁹²  According to Gevaert, 'un instrument à pistons est seul capable de jouer distinctement tant de notes'⁹³ and he cautioned that 'ceux de nos contemporains qui continuent à donner la préférence aux trombones à coulisse feront donc bien de s'abstenir de pareils passages',⁹⁴ a warning they appeared to heed. Given the great technical demands of the Rossini overture, one wonders how the trombone section of the Paris Opera⁹⁵ coped with what Jadassohn considered 'der äussersten Grad von Geschwindigkeit, welchen man der Posaune zumuthen kann'.⁹⁶  Moreover, according to Jadassohn, long phrases were inappropriate for the trombone:

Ebensowenig darf man die Posaunen andauernd beschäftigen, da sie sehr viel Athem erfordern. Der Bläser braucht Zeit, um die Lungenkraft wieder zu gewinnen.⁹⁷

It is not inconceivable that the three trombonists staggered the passage, dividing the unison scales into simplified alternating phrases.

Jadassohn maintains that Rossini, by scoring the overture for tenor trombones in unison:

verdient den Vorzug, weil die drei Instrumente gleichen Klang, gleiche Kraft wie gleiche Stimmung haben, und deren Behandlung die gleiche ist.⁹⁸

Clearly the 'division of labour' in the Rossini could not be brought off convincingly with the three different timbres of alto, tenor and bass trombones.

Nevertheless, Jadassohn asserts that this section would be 'für die kleinere Altposaune leichter und weniger ermüdend als für die grössere Tenor- un Bassposaune',⁹⁹ although he provides no explanation for a statement that is not altogether valid. The reader, presumably, is to take for granted that since the alto is smaller it is thus easier to play. While in general these notes might be marginally more responsive on an alto, in order to balance the fortissimo of the other members of the section – what Jadassohn calls 'von erschütternder Gewalt'¹⁰⁰ – a great effort would be required. The resulting unflattering, over-blown sound would not justify the effort expended. Additionally, while manipulation of the lighter, shorter alto slide has its advantages, certain position changes between notes, which would not be difficult on the tenor, can be problematic on the alto. For example, the succession d - d# - e, which occurs four times, is simply the positions 4 - 3 - 2 on the tenor; on the Eb alto it would be a perilous 2 - 1 - 7 with the risk of losing the slide on the fast shift down to e. Similarly, the last four quavers of the eighteenth bar, e - d# - f# - d# - [b] would be far clumsier on the alto (positions 7 - 1 - 5 - 1 - [5]) than on the tenor (positions 2 - 3 - 5 - 3 - [4]). Indeed, Kastner maintains that 'beaucoup de diezes [et] figures rapides ne conveniennent pas au trombone alto'.¹⁰¹

According to Elizabeth Bartlett, an acknowledged Rossini expert, when Guillaume Tell was performed in Paris, the 'three trombones [were] called "alto", "tenor", "bass"',¹⁰² although it is unlikely, given the modest compass of the section, that three different species of trombone were used: all three parts could have been handled on a Bb tenor trombone. Bartlett states that 'Rossini notated the parts on a single line of bass clef... for Rossini primarily conceived of the trombone as a bass instrument'.¹⁰³

2:4 English Orchestral Trombone Playing

In England, loud, bombastic trombone playing seemed to be the order of the day. For example, in 1848 it was said of the orchestra of Her Majesty's Theatre 'that the trombones were noisy'.¹⁰⁴  According to Joseph Bennett, leading conductor Sir Michael Costa 'remained to the end a noisy musician, and the trombones were more dear to him than any other instruments in the orchestra'.¹⁰⁵  Thus, Bate's assertion that in England, 'the alto seems to have disappeared quite early, yielding place to a second tenor trombone playing mainly in the upper part of its compass',¹⁰⁶ seems quite plausible.

However, the lament by English music scholar Ebenezer Prout that in 1897 'the tenor trombone... is the only one to be found in the orchestras of France and Italy... [and] it is to be regretted that [the alto] is not always to be found in our orchestras'¹⁰⁷ is an indication that the alto trombone had not completely disappeared from English soil.  Carse refers to at least one London orchestra – the King's Theatre – which employed an alto trombonist, Smithies (or Smithers), as late as 1850, the other members of the section being Schloengen and Mariotti, playing second and bass, respectively.¹⁰⁸

Yet it appears that the trombones could at times become too raucous even for Sir Michael. Baines quotes the description of the London Philharmonic trombone section by music critic Samuel Wesley as 'a disgusting interruption and disturbance of the harmony',¹⁰⁹ and thus Costa had them try bell-over–the-shoulder models which directed the sound behind them.¹¹⁰  In 1852 an anonymous English writer stated that the Paris Societé des Concerts trombone section was 'so superior to our ear-splitting Bartlemy-Fair bulls of Basham as can be conceived'.¹¹¹

George Bernard Shaw wrote in 1885 that in a London perfomance by Richter, 'the Tannhäuser overture was spoiled by the trombones. The three gentlemen in charge of these instruments confidently delivered the 'Pilgrims' Chorus' with all possible coarseness, flat throughout'.¹¹²

Shaw goes on to make this scathing assessment of London trombone playing:

The gravity of [the trombone's] tones, and the habitual solemnity of feature which its embouchure produces in the player, contrasted with the laughable action of the slide, have a serio-comic effect which has made it the butt of much unenlightened ridicule... It is not ordinarily believed that the trombone has been called the king of instruments... or that the trombone player may claim a position of the first dignity in the orchestra. He certainly enjoys – and frequently abuses – a greater power of spoiling an otherwise excellent performance than any other player can pretend to... The noisy vulgarity which our experience... has led us to associate with that instrument... and that brain-splitting bark which detaches itself from the rest of the orchestra, asserting itself rowdily and intrusively in your ear, prevent[s] you from hearing the music, and make[s] you wonder, if you accept the hideous din as inevitable, how Berlioz could ever call such an ignobly noisy instrument 'Olympian'... Mr George Case the well known trombone player… protested earnestly… that trombone players are often blamed by critics for disagreeable effects due to the composers' ignorance of the instrument's peculiarities.  Such cases probably occur some times, though far oftener the injustice is done to the composer, who is blamed for the coarseness due to the deficiencies of taste or skill in the player.  But there is no doubt that [the] recommendation to composers to treat trombone players as gentlemen, pathetically insisted on by Mr Case, has been disregarded by the majority of composers.  Mozart would certainly regard a fortissimo passage for three trombones in unison in a serious work as an attack on public decency - [yet] no matter how many fortissimo marks the composers writes there is no use in forcing the tone of the trombone. I am not going to be tromboned out of my senses. The trombone is like the little girl in the nursery rhyme. When it is good, it is very, very good, but when it is bad it is horrid.¹¹³

2:5 Rimsky-Korsakov

Norman Del Mar would have us believe that the alto trombone was used for the first trombone part as late as 1888 by Rimsky-Korsakov in Scheherazade and the Russian Easter Festival Overture:

The little alto, pitched in Eb, is regularly to be found in classical and early romantic scores. Even a composer as late as Rimsky-Korsakov can be found giving all the trombone solos to the second of the three players in his Scheherazade and the Russian Easter Festival Overture in order to specify that they should be played on a tenor and not an alto trombone.¹¹⁴

With regard to Scheherazade, in which the highest note written for the first trombone is a', Del Mar has apparently concluded that since Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the first trombone part in alto clef in the score, ipso facto he intended an alto trombone. It is risky to make assumptions about the clefs that composers used for the trombones in their manuscripts during the late 1800s, a period of transition from the alto to the tenor on the first trombone part. As we have seen, the choice of clef in the autograph score could have had more to do with convenience than instrument specification.

Del Mar himself alludes to this fact earlier in his text:

It would be convenient to be able to say that the alto, tenor and bass trombones are notated each in their corresponding clef; but although all three clefs are in fact used, so that there is indeed an element of truth in this, it is needless to say by no means the whole story.¹¹⁵

On the manuscript score of Scheherazade both first and second trombones are on the same stave in alto clef. ¹¹⁶  Del Mar appears to contradict a statement he makes about the Russian style of score notation during this period. According to Del Mar, Rimsky-Korsakov was one of a group of four Russian composers, along with Cui, Borodin and Musorgsky, who were influenced by Balakirev and adopted his predilection for:

writing for the 1st and 2nd trombones together on one stave and using the alto clef - thus producing the anomaly that the instruments actually used whilst reading in this clef will be not at all two altos but at least one and most probably two tenor trombones.¹¹⁷

Regarding scores in which the first and second trombones share the same stave, Piston adds that first trombone parts, traditionally played by the alto trombone:

were written ordinarily in the alto clef, and this is probably one reason for the use of alto clef for first and second trombones seen in some scores even when no alto trombone is intended. This practice is common among Russian composers.¹¹⁸

As far as the Russian Easter Festival Overture is concerned, the first performance of which was also in 1888, all three trombone parts are written in bass clef in the manuscript score.¹¹⁹  Thus Del Mar's assumption that the first part was played by an alto trombone is very unlikely, especially as the highest note called for is only a bb'. ¹²⁰

One further factor that casts doubt on Del Mar's assertion is that in Rimsky-Korsakov's Principles of Orchestration, while he discusses the various pitched trumpets, cornets and horns, the composer makes no mention of different species of trombone; as far as Rimsky-Korsakov is concerned there appears to be only the tenor trombone with an F-valve attachment.¹²¹ (See Fig. 2.3).

Figure 2.3: From Rimsky-Korsakov's Principles of Orchestration ¹²²

It is worth noting that he cites bb' as the highest note for the trombone with g' as the practical upper limit.

2:6 Wagner

While Alan Lumsden implies that Wagner never wrote for the alto trombone,¹²³ Flandrin states that Wagner wrote in 'deux manières, pour les trombones classiques et pour trois ténors'.¹²⁴  In the former, Flandrin adds, Wagner demonstrates the usefulness of the alto-trombone.¹²⁵

The following list (Fig. 2.4), provided courtesy of Dr Egon Voss, Chief Editor of the Richard Wagner-Gesamtausgabe, shows Wagner's specification of trombones in his early works according to the autograph scores.

Figure 2.4 Specification of Trombones in Wagner's Early Works

(according to Wagner's autograph scores) ¹²⁶

Konzertouvertüre Nr 2 C dur WWV 27	1832	Alto, Tenore, Basso
Symphonie C-Dur WWV 29	1832	manuscript lost
Die Feen WWV 32	1833/4	manuscript lost
Festspiel 'Beim Antritt des neuen Jahres 1835' WWV 36	1834	Alto, Tenore, Basso
Overture 'Columbus' WWV 37	1834/35	manuscript lost
Das Liebesverbot WWV 38	1835/36	Alto, Tenore, Basso
Ouvertüre 'Polonia' WWV 39	1836	Alto, Tenore, Basso
Ouvertüre 'Rule Britannia' WWV 42	1837	Alto, Tenore, Basso
Volks-Hymne 'Nicolay' WWV 44	1837	Alto, Tenore, Basso
Rossini: Li marinari (Instrumentation) WWV 47	1838	3 Tromboni
Rienzi WWV 49	1838-40	manuscript lost
'Norma il predisse'. Arie für Bellinis 'Norma' WWV 52	1839	3 Tromboni
Ouvertüre 'Faust' WWV 59 1. Fassung	1839/40	3 Tromboni
Der fliegende Holländer WWV 63	1840/41	3 Tromboni
'Descendons gaiment la courtille' für das Vaudeville 'La descente de la courtille' WWV 65	1841	3 Trombones
Festgesang 'Der tag erscheint' WWV 68B	1843	manuscript lost (copyist's score: Alto, Tenore, Basso)
Das Liebsmahl der Apostel WWV 69	1843	3 Tromboni
Tannhäuser WWV 70	1843-45)	3 Posaunen

Recalling that, according to Berlioz among others, the highest note thought practical on the tenor until at least 1840 was bb',¹²⁷ it seems possible that at least two works on the list could well have been intended for alto trombone: Konzertouvertüre Nr 2 C-Dur (1832) and the overture Rule Britannia (1837). In the former, Wagner writes for a brass section of three trombones, designated as 'alto', 'tenor' and 'bass' with natural trumpets and horns in C, making the first trombone the most treble, chromatic brass instrument.

In classical and pre-classical works the alto trombone frequently doubled the oboe and violin.¹²⁸ In Example 2.14 from the Konzertouverture, in which Wagner takes the first trombone up to d", it plays in unison with the second oboe and in octaves with the first violin, first oboe and first flute.  In the overture Rule Britannia (1837), the first trombone, designated 'alto', plays the passage shown in Example 2.15, which at that time was clearly in the alto register.

According to Karl-Heinz Weber (formerly Principal Trombone with the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra), in Lohengrin: 'Wagner hat zwar für die Bühnenmusik zwei Altposaunen vorgeschrieben.¹²⁹ Weber also contends that Wagner intended an alto trombone in the first version of Der fliegende Holländer (1841), which version was customarily performed in Bayreuth:

Der fliegende Holländer ist eindeutig für Altposaune geschrieben [und] ist traditionell in Altschlüssel geschrieben. In der ersten Fassung... die erste Posaune ging bus zum d" hinauf. Die Ouverture hat Wagner sicher nachträglich für den Konzertgebrauch bearbeitet. Daher der Tenorschlüssel für die erste Posaune.¹³⁰

Hausmann specifically cites Wagner's Rienzi as a work that was scored for alto trombone.¹³¹ Moreover, conductor and composer Herman Scherchen also maintained that Wagner had indeed intended an alto trombone for the first trombone part of Rienzi:

Auf jeden fall sollte sich bei den Orchestern je eine Altposaune befinden, diese ist noch heute [1929] unentbehrlich für Mendelssohn: Ruy Blas Ouvertüre, Schumann: Es-Dur Sinfonie [und] Wagner: Rienzi.¹³²

The lithography of the first printed edition of Rienzi (1838–40) is believed to have been done by Wagner himself, according to a receipt of the Fürstenau and Co. printing firm dated 25 July 1844: twenty five copies were made by Wagner's 'als Manuscript autographiert'.¹³³ Unfortunately this cannot be verified, since the Stichvorlag (printer's copy) is lost.¹³⁴

However, even if we were to consider the first printed score as a kind of autograph, as we have observed, the fact that the first trombone part is designated 'alto' does not necessarily indicate that Wagner wrote this part for an alto trombone.¹³⁵ Designating trombone parts numerically, according to Bartlett, was a fairly modern concept and the terms 'alto', 'tenor' and 'bass' were used increasingly to indicate range rather than type of instrument.¹³⁶ As late as 1885, Gevaert points out that some composers still clung to the traditional names of the three separate trombones¹³⁷ long after the section came to consist of three tenors:

... l'habitude traditionnelle d'écrire trois parties de trombones à l'imitation d'un trio vocal s'est maintenu jusqu' à nos jours... Quelque fois on se contentait d'indiquer 'trombones I II III'.¹³⁸

Nor is the fact that in the score Wagner wrote the first part in alto clef a reliable indication of the type of trombone intended:

... nunmehr dass die Tenorposaune die höchste Stimme in der Posaunengruppe ausfürtre wenn man auch gewohnheitsmäßig vielfach die bisherige Notierung der Posaunenstimmen im Alt-, Tenor- und Baßschlüssel beibehielt.¹³⁹

2:6:1   Wagner's disenchantment with the alto trombone

Influenced by leading French composers such as Meyerbeer, Berlioz and Halévy,¹⁴⁰ Wagner became increasingly disenchanted with the alto trombone and enamoured of the tenor trombone with its greater range and richer, more robust sound. In his Reform Plan for the Royal Dresden Orchestra, from March 1, 1846, Wagner applied for the acquisition of a tenor trombone for the following reasons:

Die Unschaffung noch einer Tenor-Posaune ist notwendig, weil für die meisten neuern Opern, zumal für die französischen (in welche nur für Tenor-Posaunen geschrieben ist) die Alt-Posaune ihrem Umfange nach nicht zureicht, und der Alt-Posaune daher genöthigt ist, oft ganz Stellen auszulassen oder sie um eine Ottave höher zu spielen. Dem Alt-Posaunisten muss daher ausser einem gewöhlichen Instrumente noch eine Tenor-Posaune zugestellt werden.¹⁴¹

Although Wagner's Reformentwurf (Reform Plan) was rejected,¹⁴² Werner Berger states that:

Damit hatte der heute in allen Orchester bestehende Posaunensatz, also 1. und 2. Tenorposaune und Baßposaune seinen festen Platz in der Kapelle gefunden.¹⁴³

2:7 The Decline of the Alto Trombone

It is frequently stated that the advent in the mid 1820s of fully-chromatic valved trumpets sounded the death knell for the alto trombone. According to Widor:

Aujourd'hui, le premier de ces trois instruments, quoique de timbre magnifique (il sonne comme une Trompette en fa) est quelque peu délaissé précisément parce qu'il est à peu près du même étendue que cette magnifique Trompette, car il monte au fa, au sol, voire même en la, et fait par conséquence double emploi avec elle.¹⁴⁴

Upon examination, however, we find a number of discrepancies in Widor's argument. Although valve trumpets had been utilised in German cavalry bands as early as 1824,¹⁴⁵ 'extremely conservative'¹⁴⁶ trumpeters resisted abandoning their natural trumpets and not until the 1840s did the use of rotary-valve trumpets become widespread in Germany.¹⁴⁷ If Widor's contention is valid we should logically expect to find that as the F valve-trumpet became more commonplace, the upper register of the first trombone parts would become less extreme as the alto was replaced by the tenor on the first part.

Yet in 1840 Mendelssohn required an e" from the alto trombone in the 'Lobgesang' (Ex 1.34), and in 1846 in Elijah a d". In the 1850s Schumann was writing d"s and eb"s for the alto trombone; in the 1860s Bruckner (in his F Minor Mass) and Dvořák (in his Symphony No. 1) demanded d" and eb" respectively; and Brahms wrote d"s for the first trombone in his Second Symphony (1876). Even at the end of the century, we find Strauss scoring a d" in Also sprach Zarathustra, as did Elgar in Froissart (1890) and the Enigma Variations (1899).

Moreover, regarding the status of the F trumpet, the sound of which was 'près du même étendu' to that of the alto, according to Baines, 'it seems fairly certain that by the 1850s the higher instrument [the Bb trumpet] had largely found its way in and became... the ordinary trumpet in Germany'.¹⁴⁸ In France, on the other hand, where as late as 1875 valve trumpets had not yet caught on,¹⁴⁹ the alto trombone had already virtually disappeared nearly three decades earlier.¹⁵⁰ Kunitz points out:

daß es mit den Naturtrompeten und mit dem corno da caccia wie auch mit dem nach 1753 umgestalteten Naturhorn durchaus möglich und auch üblich war, im Hauptaktionsgebiet der Alt- (und der Sopran-) posaune... diatonische, ja sogar chromatische Bewegungen auszuführen. Es wäre also schon in jener Zeit ohne weiteres möglich gewesen, die Alt- und die Sopranposaunenstimmen mit der Trompete bzw. dem corno da caccia auszuführen, zumal diese Instrumente damals technisch sogar noch viel anspruchsvoller als die Posaunen eingesetzt wurden. [Der] Standpunkt... die Verwendung der hohen Posaunen sie nur auf ihre chromatischen Fähigkeiten zurückzuführen und daher mit der Erfindung der Ventiltrompete hinfällig geworden, ist also bereits aus diesem Grunde durchaus irrig.¹⁵¹

What seems a more plausible explanation for the widespread demise of the alto trombone is that composers, eager to exploit the harmonic possibilities of the new, fully chromatic trumpet and horn, took advantage of the 'practically free choice of notes [which] resulted in a much richer and more flexible brass-voiced harmony';¹⁵² the new combination of trumpets, horns and trombones in a unified brass section created a new timbral function for the trombone. Kunitz adds:

daß die Komponisten nach der Erfindung der Ventiltrompete (also gegen Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts) von deren außerordentlichen spieltechnischen Erleichterungen sofort weitestgehenden Gebrauch machten... Maßgebend war nunmehr bei allen satztechnischen Erwägungen die Tatsache, daß nunmehr die gesamte Tonskala der 'scharfen' Blechblasinstrumente, also der Posaunen und der Trompeten, vollchromatisch geworden war, so daß man dazu überging... deren Gruppen sowohl in thematischer Hinsicht als auch im Akkordsatz miteinander zu verschmelzen und als eine einheitliche Gruppe zu behandeln. Damit zugleich erfolgte auch eine engere Verbindung der Posaunen mit den nun ebenfalls chromatischen Hörnern, die infolge der gleichen Spieltechnik (d.h. der 'Naturtechnik') bisher satztechnisch mit den Trompeten verbunden waren. Dieses Verfahren stellte eine ganz erhebliche, ja grundlegende Veränderung des orchestralen Satzes und seiner spezifischen Klangfaktoren dar, die auch heute noch allgemein gültig ist. Es hatte vor allem zur Folge, daß die Komponisten von dieser Zeit, also von etwa Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts an, die Altposaune nicht mehr einsetzten.¹⁵³

As usual the opera orchestra, eager to enhance its timbral palette, took the lead in incorporating the valved brass. Gevaert states that after 1830:

l'orchestre de théâtre, s'appropriant les cuivres chromatiques, nouvellement inventés, et exhibent des timbres spéciaux, s'est créé un cadre à lui et a réalisé des combinaisons sonores auparavant inconnues. Cette révolution musicale inaugurée en France par Meyerbeer, Berlioz, Halévy, eut en Allemagne son aboutissement provisoire dans les plus anciens opéras de Richard Wagner... Peu à peu le nouveau programme s'est répandu par toute l'Europe, et depuis une vingtaine d'années il est devenu celui de l'orchestre ordinaire de théâtre et de concert.¹⁵⁴

A change of colour was taking place in the orchestral sound. It was becoming darker and weightier, and as the demands of the larger, louder romantic orchestras grew, the demise of the alto trombone was hastened.¹⁵⁵  The diminutive alto, according to Lobe 'etwas greller als der Bass- und Tenor-posaune und in den tiefsten Tönen schlecht',¹⁵⁶ was simply no match for the rest of the trombone section and 'deshalb man diese lieber der Tenor-posaune überträgt'.¹⁵⁷

Marx maintained that each facet of the trombone's character – 'erschütternde Macht, strenge Würde und Feierlichkeit... tritt stärker entwickelt hervor in den tiefen Posaunenarten, am stärkesten also in Bassposaune, am wenigsten entschieden in der Altposaune'.¹⁵⁸ Flandrin added that 'la disgrâce du trombone alto fait... motivée par la médiocre qualité de son qu'il donnait; objet de tentatives d'améliorations, il fait construit, tour à tour, sur fa, mi et réb, sans résultats appréciables, car la structure générale de l'instrument était seule fautive.'¹⁵⁹

The celebrity of trombone soloists such as Belcke and Queisser,¹⁶⁰ gave added prominence to the larger-bored instruments of the section at the expense of the alto.

Solo trombone pieces, heretofore almost exclusively for the alto,¹⁶¹ were now being written for the tenor and bass trombone,¹⁶² paving the way for the emergence of other (non-alto) trombone soloists.¹⁶³

The increase in the size of the concert halls built in the nineteenth century to provide for the growing number of concert-goers may have also contributed to the alto's demise. Daniel Koury states that:

it can be strongly argued that the increase in orchestra size in the nineteenth century is directly related to the... increasingly large size [of the halls] in order to accommodate a growing middle-class audience.¹⁶⁴

But the increase in the size of concert halls may also have been related to the need to accommodate a larger orchestral sound.¹⁶⁵ According to Koury, 'figures confirm that tremendous growth took place in romantic orchestras such as Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Leipzig and London during the nineteenth century'.¹⁶⁶ As orchestras grew in size they would naturally have grown in volume, a factor that would have highlighted the alto's shortcomings.

Robert Sheldon advances another possible reason for the decline of the alto trombone:

In the 19th Century orchestra the alto's decline and disappearance can be similarly attributed to the ever increasing development of valve horns and the interest in the (compared to trombones) then relatively recent romantic sound of the horn. A woodwind history parallel would be that of increasing interest in the also relatively recent romantic sound of the clarinet. That can certainly explain the 19th Century diminished interest in the oboe as a chamber music treble woodwind participant.¹⁶⁷

Nicholas Bessaraboff states that the widespread demise of the alto led:

trombonists to ask for instruments that would produce the tones of the upper register with greater ease. This meant a smaller bore and smaller bell, a development which eventually resulted in the 'pea-shooter', a miserable sounding, effeminate caricature.¹⁶⁸

Around 1850 Adolph Bernard Marx summed up the status of the alto trombone in Germany:

Die Altposaune, die in der tiefern Lage nicht die Klangfülle der Tenorposaune hat, in der Höhe gepresst und leicht schreiend wird scheint weniger geeignet, ist aber gleichwohl nicht immer zu entbehren.¹⁶⁹

For the time being the alto trombone lingered on, mainly in those parts of Germany and the Austrian Empire where a more traditional style prevailed, 'making its final surrender only in the last quarter of the century'.¹⁷⁰  In the next chapter we will attempt to determine when and where that final surrender took place.