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

Chapter 5: Dvořák1

Trombones... are made in several sizes... Dvořák usually had two altos and a bass.2 (Annie O. Warburton)

Dvořák used the alto trombone in his Ninth Symphony.3 (Jiří Kratochvíl)

In Bruckner symphonies... Dvořák's New World, and other pieces where a large volume of sound is now required, the alto trombone tends to be swamped and is less satisfactory.4 (Ralph Sauer, Principal Trombone, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra)

We recently performed Dvořák's Symphony No. 6 in D Major. The conducting interpretation was classical, and we were encouraged to be more seen than heard. Partly with that in mind, I chose to use the alto on first.5 (Ron Barron, Principal Trombone, Boston Symphony Orchestra)

I would definitely use the alto [trombone] for a performance of the Dvořák Symphony No. 1.6 (Milt Stevens, Principal Trombone, National Symphony Orchestra, Washington DC)

The above statements represent the received wisdom regarding the use of the alto trombone by Dvořák. In this chapter I wish to reassess this view and explore the hypothesis that Dvořák was writing for valve trombones.

In contrast to Bruckner's case, the original handwritten parts to Dvořák's works no longer exist;7 nor did Dvořák enjoy the control over the publication process of his works that Brahms did.8 Nonetheless, one may still conclude, on the basis of other evidence, that Dvořák did not write for the alto trombone. For not only did Czech trombonists forego the alto in the early part of the nineteenth century, in part due to the difficulty in playing it in tune,9 but according to my research during Dvořák's lifetime valve trombones, tenor and bass, were used almost exclusively in Bohemia.

5:1 Music Education and the Valve Trombone in Bohemia

According to Jan Branberger, slide trombones were not used in Bohemia from 1826 to 1861.10 In 1826, the Prague Conservatoire of Music dismissed its professor of slide trombone, František Weiss, and replaced him with Josef Kail, a staunch advocate of the valve trombone11 and considered by some the inventor of the valve mechanism.12 According to Bohuslav Čížek, Curator of Musical Instruments at the Museum of Czech Music, Kail, in whose self interest was the study of valve trombone, 'constantly found important benefactors' and had great influence on musical opinion in Prague.13 Weiss attempted to establish his own school for slide trombonists 'but could not attract any pupils'.14 The valve trombone offered not only enhanced technical capacity, but proponents such as Červený, a leading Czech instrument-maker, also maintained that 'the intrinsic sound was no different from the slide trombone'.15 Study of the slide trombone continued to languish despite the efforts of the Conservatoire's Director Kittl, who argued correctly, in the author's opinion, that 'only the slide trombone kept the true sound of the trombone', and that valve trombones were 'degenerate, just like big trumpets'.16

However, in 1860, and over the strenuous protests of Kail and his supporters, Director Kittl 'imported' the Berliner August Bolze from the Krakow Theatre Orchestra to teach slide trombone to a few of the valve-trombone pupils. Nonetheless, the slide trombone remained unpopular, and according to Jaroslav Ušák, the renowned Czech trombonist and pedagogue, 'the introduction of the slide trombone was not accepted favourably by the whole of our music public'.17 The following year, the new Deputy Director discouraged the teaching of the instrument, which he considered 'too strenuous for the pupils'.18

Following Bolze's suicide in 1863, slide trombone instruction was placed in the hands of a second-year student, František Haužvic. Kail retired in 1867, after forty years' service, and Václav Smita, bass trombonist with the German Estates Theatre Orchestra in Prague and a former student of Kail's, was appointed to teach both valve and slide trombone19 (see Table 5.1). However, according to Ušák, Smita was primarily a valve trombonist.20 Finally in 190321 the Conservatoire trombone class was taken over by a proper slide trombonist, Josef Hilmer, who abolished the study of valve trombone altogether,22 and whom Karel Hoffmeister, Rektor of the Conservatoire, recognised as having distinguished himself by the fact that he did not play valve trombone, which up to that time was the standard instrument in the country.23

Table 5.1

Professors of Trombone at the Prague Conservatoire of Music, 1826-present24

Name Type of trombone taught Years taught
Josef KAIL valve trombone 1826-1867
August BOLZE slide trombone 1860-1863
Aruosl TESKE slide trombone 1864-1874
Václav SMITA valve and slide trombone 1874-1903
Josef HILMER slide trombone only 1903-1934
Antonín KOULA slide trombone 1934-1938
Jaroslav SIMSA slide trombone 1938-1950/1952
Jaroslav UŠÁK slide trombone 1940-1956
Miloslav HEJDA slide trombone 1956-1986
Josef STÁDNÍK slide trombone [Unknown]
Jaroslav VÍTEK slide trombone [Unknown]
Joleník PULEC slide trombone [Unknown]
Jaronín HAVEL slide trombone 1986-1989
Mastinvic PELC slide trombone [Unknown]
Jin JANDÍK slide trombone 1988-1989
Jon SAILER slide trombone [Unknown]
Josef ŠIMEK slide trombone 1986-
Václav FEREBAUER slide trombone 1990-

In 1911, Branberger wrote that Kail's valve system had been 'used for a long time at the Prague Conservatoire, and such instruments were produced in Prague until recent times'.25 Thus, according to Jaroslav Tachovsky, Principal Trombonist of the Czech Philharmonic:

Dvořák wrote for valve trombones which were played in his time. Slide trombones were first introduced in Prague in 1919 at the National Theatre at the insistence of the Chief Conductor Kovařovic.26

Burghauser feels the date is more likely to have been closer to 1900,27 while Hejda writes that slide trombones were introduced into the Czech Philharmonic around 1896.28 According to Hejda, towards the latter part of Dvořák's compositional career, the Czech Philharmonic trombone section could have consisted of both slide and valve players29. Yet generally speaking, with the exception of a few bars from the Eighth Symphony and Te Deum, some passages in the Rhapsodies and Symphonic Variations which at that time would have been considered technically difficult, and a number of exposed soft entrances involving slurred notes without natural 'breaks' in slow, step-wise motion,30 Dvořák's writing does not appear unduly influenced by the fact that, in the main, only valve-trombones were available to him in Prague and is today considered well-suited to the slide trombone. The clearest evidence of Dvořák's apparent use of the valve trombone occurs in the Finale of his 1889 Symphony Number Eight in G Major (Ex. 5.1) and in the fourth movement of the 1892 Te Deum (Ex. 5.2). Ironically, by this stage in his career Dvořák had conducted his works abroad on a number of occasions and must therefore have been well aware of the use of the slide trombone outside his homeland. For example, Stabat Mater, the D Major Symphony and the D Minor Symphony were all conducted by Dvořák in Britain during the years 1884-85, the latter being composed for the Philharmonic Society of London.

5:2 Survey of Trombones

The oldest inventory of the Prague Conservatoire's musical instruments, compiled by František Tadeás Blatt in 1843, includes a tenor valve-trombone in Bb (Fig. 5.1) and a three-valve bass trombone in F, both built by the Prague instrument-maker Václáv Šamal (also known as Wenzel Schamal)31 in 1834. The Brno brass instrument manufacturer, Lídl, also produced valve trombones, certainly of the tenor and bass type, but there is no documentation of an alto valve-trombone,32 in contrast to the Leipzig firm of J.H. Zimmermann, with agencies in St Petersburg, Moscow, Riga and London33 (see Fig. 5.3), which was manufacturing two different models of alto valve-trombone, at least as late as 1899. Neither Čížek, Pavel Szturc,34 (chief instrument restorer at the Museum of Czech Music), nor Hejda,35 know of any such instrument ever being used in Bohemia, with the exception of what is catalogued as an 'Army Alto Trombone in Eb' (Fig. 5.2), which they unequivocally state was never used in Czech orchestras.

Figure 5.1: Kail's valve trombone (tenor)36

Figure 5.2: Červený's Armée Alto Posaune in Es37

Figure 5.3: pages from Zimmermann's 1899 Musik Instrument Katalog38

5:3 The Trombone in Dvořák's Orchestral Works

The eb'' for the first trombone which Dvořák calls for in the Scherzo of the 1865 Symphony No. 1 in C Minor (Ex. 5.3) – a note one would customarily see only in an alto trombone part – appears to the present writer also to be one of the 'traces... of the author's lack of experience'.39 Dvořák entered the manuscript (Ex. 5.4, 5.5), his first attempt at writing a symphony, in a German competition, after which he never saw it again. He did not return to the C Minor Symphony, and thus it was never performed in his lifetime.40 The fact that Dvořák did not include the C Minor Symphony, amongst his symphonies shown on the list pictured in Fig. 5.4, indicates that he apparently did not consider it a proper work of professional merit.

Figure 5.4: List of Dvořák's symphonies, written in his own hand (with the C Minor Symphony omitted)41

Dvořák's Second Symphony of 1865, which he commenced almost immediately upon completing the C Minor, also appears to bear 'traces... of the author's lack of experience'.42 Before submitting it to Simrock for consideration in 1887 – at which time the publisher rejected the work – Dvořák 'carried out a new and thorough revision of the work',43 and in 1888, during rehearsals for the first performance, 'once again Dvořák went through the work [and] made various changes'.44 Whether Dvořák originally made as severe upper-register demands on the first trombonist as those of his C Minor Symphony is difficult to ascertain because:

a complete reconstruction of the original text is impossible owing, on the one hand, to the loss of manuscript material (sheets removed from the original score and, today, no longer extant) and, on the other, to the fact that it is not possible in many cases to discover the original version even from the autograph as it was usually carefully scratched out.45

Nonetheless, it is possible to discern from the autograph score that Dvořák originally included a number of very taxing passages for the first trombone that were eventually modified or eliminated in the final published form (see Ex. 5.6).

5:3:1 Dvořák's score writing

In examining the notation of the trombone parts in the scores of Dvořák's symphonic works, a pattern appears to emerge. In his first five symphonies, between 1865 and 1875, Dvořák uses three staves, indicating 'alto', 'tenor' and 'basso' with their corresponding clefs;46 this occurs as well in his first four operas and the first version of Patriotic Hymn.47 Burghauser writes that:

separately stands his 1874 Rhapsody in A Minor in which the trombones, coupled with the tuba for the first time in his output, are written on two staves, the upper one for 'tromboni I, II' in the tenor clef.48

However, any evidence one might wish to find of a difference in the style of trombone writing in the Rhapsody, or of a lower tessitura for the first trombone, is not present.

Beginning with the 1877 Stabat Mater49(Ex. 5.7, 5.8) and continuing with his Symphony No. Six in 1880 (Ex. 5.9) through to 1885, Dvořák, in common with a number of Russian composers, (see n. 117, Chapter 2), uses two-stave writing for the trombones, scoring the 'alto' and 'tenor' on a single stave of alto clef 50 (for instance, see Hutsiská, autograph score, Ex. 5.10). Exceptions to this manner of notation occur in the 1878 Slavonic Dances (Dvořák refers to the section merely as '3 Posaunen' as shown in Example 5.11), and the minor 1879 work, Polonaise in Eb (all three trombones are placed on one staff of bass clef.51) As with the Rhapsody in A Minor mentioned above, the changes of nomenclature and clef are not reflected by any variance in the style of writing. The first symphony in which Dvořák does not designate the trombones by their traditional names is No. 8 in G Major of 1889, but with trombones '1' and '2' still sharing a stave in alto clef.52

Although in his Ninth Symphony (1893) Dvořák again refers to the trombones by numeral (Ex. 5.12), the first-printed edition by Simrock calls them 'alto', 'tenor' and 'bass'.53 The fact that Dvořák did not proof-read the galleys but left this up to Brahms and Simrock may account for this,54 as well as for the fact that in the Simrock edition the tuba joins the trombones in the chorale at the end of the second movement. In the autograph this is not indicated (see Ex. 5.13); the original, handwritten first trombone part is in alto clef but labelled 'trombone 1' (see Ex. 5.14).

In all of Dvořák's post-1893 autograph scores that were available to view, comprising the Carnival Overture, the Wild Dove (Ex. 5.15) and his last work, Armida (Ex. 5.16), the trombones continue to be designated sequentially55 – the first two trombones sharing a stave in alto clef – with no divergence in the style of trombone writing. Perhaps it is this score notation that led Warburton erroneously to assert that Dvořák wrote for two alto trombones.56

5:4 Dvořák: The Historical Context

Nor does it appear that Dvořák, as often contended by leading orchestral trombonists, ever wrote for a single alto trombone. Historical evidence points to the conclusion that Dvořák composed for a trombone section consisting of two Bb tenor valve-trombones and a bass valve-trombone, probably pitched in F. Given the lack of surviving erste Abschriftstimmen, the value of examining a composer and his works in a historical context to arrive at an understanding of his writing is aptly demonstrated above. Without this perspective one might assume that the young Dvořák, who knew only valved tenor and bass trombones, and given the lack of extensive brass-choir writing and the tessitura demanded of the first trombone, composed the C Minor Symphony with an alto (slide) trombone in mind. Moreover, because Dvořák's trombone writing does not in general reflect an obvious bias towards valves, it would not be readily apparent to someone unaware of the enormous advances made in trombone technique and especially legato playing during the last century that Dvořák was in fact writing for the valve trombone. As with Bruckner and Brahms, the nomenclature and clefs Dvořák used in his manuscripts, as well as the manner in which he wrote, are too often unreliable indicators of the type of first trombone for which he composed.

  1. The author wishes to express his immense gratitude to Dr Marketta Hallová, Director of the Dvořák Museum, Prague, and Dr Jarmil Burghauser for their invaluable assistance. I am particularly indebted to Dr Burghauser for the translations he kindly provided. Return to Article
  2. Annie O. Warburton, Score Reading, Form and History, London, 1959, p. 36. Although some scholars may consider Warburton's work to have been superseded, to the best of my knowledge, her assertion about the composition of Dvořák's trombone section has never been challenged in print; moreover, her view is still being propagated today by leading orchestral trombonists. Return to Article
  3. Jiří Kratochvíl, Dějiny A Literatur Dechových Nástrojů, Prague, 1992, p. 68. Trans. Dr Suzanna Petraškova. Return to Article
  4. Ralph Sauer, 'The Alto Trombone in the Symphony Orchestra', ITA Journal , 7 (July 1984), p. 41. Return to Article
  5. Ron Barron, personal correspondence with the author, 20.3.95. Return to Article
  6. Milt Stevens, personal correspondence with the author, 1.3.95. Return to Article
  7. According to Dr Marketta Hallová (personal interview, 8.5.96) and Dr Holoček, Archivist, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (personal correspondence, 20.5.96), only the trombone parts to Symphony No.9 are extant, held in the New York Philharmonic Archives. Return to Article
  8. According to Otakar Šourek, Dvořák was unable to persuade his German publisher Simrock to use his proper name, Antonín, rather than Anton, on the title pages of his works. Otakar Šourek, 'Dvořák', in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians 5th edition, London, 1954, p. 834. N.B. The New Grove is not as specific with regard to this point. Return to Article
  9. According to Jarmil Burghauser, personal correspondence with the author, 30.4.96. Return to Article
  10. Jan Branberger, Konservatoř hudby v Praze, Pamětní spis k stoletému jubileu založení ústavu, Nákladem Konservatoře, Prague, 1911, pp. 71-72. Return to Article
  11. Kail likened the sound of the slide trombone to a herd of elephants (Bohuslav Čížek, 'Josef Kail (1795-1871), Forgotten Brass Instrument Innovator', part 2, Brass Bulletin. 73 (1991), p. 28. Return to Article
  12. According to Burghauser, Kail merely adapted Stözel's invention. Personal correspondence, 10.5.96. Return to Article
  13. Čížek, op. cit., p. 28. Return to Article
  14. Branberger, op. cit., p. 38. Return to Article
  15. Čížek, op. cit., pp. 27-8, citing Václáv František, Slavou I, Prague, 1862, pp. 97-98. Return to Article
  16. Čížek, op. cit., p. 27, citing Branberger, op. cit., pp. 71-2. Return to Article
  17. Jaroslav Ušák, 'Oddělení zest'ů na pražské Konservatoři' ('The Brass Instruments Department of the Prague Conservatoire of Music'), in 150 let pražské Konservatoře (150 years of the Prague Conservatoire), Prague, 1961, p. 157. Return to Article
  18. Branberger, op. cit., p. 73. Return to Article
  19. Ušák, op. cit., p. 160. Return to Article
  20. Ibid. Although Hejda maintans that Smita's Concertino for Trombone and Orchestra in Eb Major (1899) was written for a slide trombone (personal interview, Prague 22.11.96), given the non-idiomatic nature of the part for a slide trombone, the frequent omission of natural 'break' slurs in favour of step-wise slurs, the even greater technical demands than those in concerti written for Queisser or in solos composed by Arthur Pryor, the relatively nascent stage of slide pedagogy in Prague at the time, and Smita's background as a valve player, the author is led to question this assertion. Return to Article
  21. In 1901, Dvořák was appointed Professor of Composition, Instrumentation and Musical Form at the Prague Conservatoire. Šourek, op. cit., p. 834. Return to Article
  22. According to Miloslav Hejda, personal interview, Prague 22.11.96. According to Jaroslav Kummer, Professor of Trombone, Janáček Academy of Music, until 1906 only valve trombone was taught in Moravia. Personal interview, Olomouc, 9.11.98. Return to Article
  23. Ušák, op. cit., p. 160, citing Hoffmeister's obituary speech for Hilmer in 1930. Ušák singles out for mention – probably due to its being so unusual – the fact that Hilmer 'originally played an alto trombone' (ibid.). Return to Article
  24. Source: Hejda, personal correspondence, op. cit. Return to Article
  25. Bohuslav Čížek, 'Josef Kail (1795-1871), Forgotten Brass Instrument Innovator' part 1, Brass Bulletin 73 (1991), p. 70. Citing Branberger, op. cit., p. 38. Return to Article
  26. Jaroslav Tachovsky, personal correspondence with the author, 13.6.96. Return to Article
  27. Personal correspondence, 10.5.96. Return to Article
  28. Personal correspondence, 5.2.97. Return to Article
  29. Personal interview, Prague, 22.11.96. Carl Wesecky, an Austrian who had studied at the Wiener Conservatorium and who became the principal trombonist of the Prague German Estates Theatre Orchestra around 1895, was an accomplished slide as well as valve trombonist. However, he left Prague in 1898 to take up the position of bass trombonist with the Vienna Philharmonic (correspondence with Gerhard Zechmeister, 29.1.98). A photograph of the Czech Philharmonic taken in 1908 on the occasion of the first performance of Mahler's Seventh Symphony clearly shows at least one player holding a slide trombone (Gustav Mahler, Facsimile Edition of the Seventh Symphony, Amsterdam: Rosbeek, 1995, p. 41). Yet an indication that the valve trombone was still used in the first part of the twentieth century in Prague is given by the fact that the Czech Philharmonic trombonists were asked by Janáček in 1928 to perform his Capriccio on valve trombones (Burghauser, personal interview, 20.11.96). Bohemia was not the only place in which the valve trombone was still relied upon in the early twentieth century. In 1924 Falla was compelled to conduct Pulcinella, a work resplendent with trombone glissandi, with a valve trombonist 'because only valve trombones [were] available in Seville' (letter from Falla to Stravinsky, 2.1.1921, cited in Robert Craft (ed.), Stravinsky, Selected Correspondence, London, 1984, p. 163), a practice Stravinsky approved. 'You can perform Pulcinella with a valve trombone' (ibid., p. 164). Return to Article
  30. For example, in Symphony No. 4 and No. 5. The role dictated for the trombone by orchestral repertoire of this period usually 'entailed executing block chordal work, rhythmic interjection and counterpoint and – where thematic material was presented – in a generally detached, marcato style' (Simon Baines, The Evolution of Orchestral Brass in the Last Hundred Years: Organology, Trends in Performance Practice, and their Effect, PhD dissertation, Keele University, 1996, p. 11). So much so that in 1910 W. H. Stone wrote that 'the quiet smooth legato method... is almost a lost art' (W. H. Stone, 'The Trombone', Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, London, 1910, vol. v, p. 164). Sir Henry Wood wrote that in the same year Elgar 'was delighted with the beautiful legato these instruments [i.e. valve trombones] produced in the Finale of his Symphony No. 2'. Sir Henry Wood, My Life of Music, first edition, London, 1946, p. 250. Return to Article
  31. Čížek, part i op. cit., p. 75. Return to Article
  32. Burghauser, personal correspondence, 10.5.96. Return to Article
  33. J.H. Zimmermann, Musik Instrument Katalog, Leipzig, 1899, p. 114. Return to Article
  34. Personal interview with Čížek and Szturc, Prague, 26.6.96. Return to Article
  35. Personal interview, Prague, 20.11.96. Heidrun Eichler, Curator of the Markneukirchen Museum, in whose workshop in Saxony was produced one of the earliest tenor/bass valve trombones in the mid-nineteenth century (Heyde, op. cit., p. 240) – also had no knowledge of an alto valve-trombone in trompetten form used in Bohemia (personal interview, Markneukirchen 19.11.96). Return to Article
  36. Source: Čížek, part i, op. cit, p. 75. Return to Article
  37. Courtesy of Čížek. Return to Article
  38. Zimmermann, op. cit., pp. 112-17. Return to Article
  39. František Bartoš, 'Preface', Bartoš (ed.) to Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Complete Edition, Prague, 1961, p. xvii. Trans. Dr J. Fiala. Return to Article
  40. According to Tachovsky (op. cit.) the Symphony's first trombone part has always been played on tenor trombone in Prague. Return to Article
  41. Courtesy of Dr. Hallová, Dvořák Museum, Prague. Return to Article
  42. For example, from page 187 of the autograph (bar 166 of the fourth movement) to the end of the Symphony, Dvořák inadvertently uses an alto clef sign for the second trombone, although he continues to write as if in tenor clef. Return to Article
  43. František Bartoš, 'Preface', Bartoš (ed.) to Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 2 in Bb Major (op. 4), Complete Edition, Prague, 1959, pp. xiv-xv. Trans. R. Finlayson-Samsour. Return to Article
  44. Ibid., p. xv. Return to Article
  45. 'Editor's notes', ibid., no page number. Return to Article
  46. The trombone clef notation that Dvořák employed, as well as his concept of first trombone range, may have been influenced by his early study of Mendelssohn's works. Jarmil Burghauser, personal correspondence, 30.4.96. Return to Article
  47. Burghauser, personal correspondence, 10.5.96. Return to Article
  48. Ibid. Return to Article
  49. Premièred in Prague in 1880, this is apparently the first work in the standard repertoire in which a tenor trombonist is required to play as high as d''. Dvořák demanded this note in only two other instances: the Finale of Symphony No. 6 in D Major, and his First Symphony. Return to Article
  50. Burghauser, personal correspondence, 10.5.96. In the Finale of his First Symphony Dvořák writes the first two trombone parts on a single stave in alto clef. See also Chapter 1, nn. 106, 147; Chapter 2, n. 117. Return to Article
  51. Ibid. Return to Article
  52. Consequently, in some publications of Dvořák's works in which the engraver has copied the trombone parts without changing the composer's clefs, both the first and the second trombone appear in alto clef. In the Preface to the critical edition of Symphony No. 5 in F Major the editor states that: 'Simrock's proof-reader, Robert Keller's... editorial changes affect the autograph, insofar as... the second trombone, which in the autograph has its own stave in tenor clef... is inscribed in the stave for first trombone (in alto clef)'. František Bartoš, 'Preface' to Antonín Dvořák, Symphony Five in F Major, Complete Edition, Prague, 1960, p. xvii. With the help of data collected by Otakar Šourek. Trans. George Theimer. Return to Article
  53. Lothar Niefend, Simrock archivist, personal correspondence with the author, 16.4.96. Return to Article
  54. Burghauser, personal correspondence, 28.4.96. Return to Article
  55. Or 'tromboni [and] bass tromboni'. Return to Article
  56. See Chapter 1, nn. 148, 149. Return to Article

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