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The most frequently encountered types of trombone today are the tenor and bass, though as with many other instrument families such as the clarinet, the trombone has been built in sizes from piccolo to contrabass. Although trombones are usually constructed with a slide to change the pitch, valve trombones instead use the set of three valves common on other brass instruments.
The contrabass trombone is the lowest trombone. The modern contrabass design based on a 1921 patent by Ernst Dehmel is pitched in 12′ F below the tenor or bass trombone, with two valves to lower the pitch further and extend the range to fill gaps between fundamental (pedal) and partial tones. There is less commonly an even lower 18′ BB♭ form with a doubled slide.
The contrabass is only occasionally called for in orchestral works. First appearing in its low BB♭ form in the late 19th century in Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen opera cycle, the contrabass trombone has been called for in other 20th century works by Richard Strauss, Varèse, Schoenberg, Hans Werner Henze and others, without earning a permanent presence in the modern orchestra. In the late 20th century, the smaller and more manageable contrabass in F has largely replaced its unwieldy predecessor and seen somewhat of a revival, particularly in film and television soundtracks.
Although early instruments were pitched in G, F or E♭ below the tenor trombone, the modern bass trombone is pitched in the same B♭ as the tenor but with a wider bore, a larger bell, and a larger mouthpiece. These features combine to facilitate playing in the lower register of the instrument. Modern bass trombones have one or (more commonly) two valves which are needed to provide a fully chromatic low register down to the pedal range. In Britain, the bass trombone in G was used in orchestras from the mid 19th century and survived into the 1950s, particularly in British brass bands. The valves were invented between 1813 and 1830 which inspired the instrument maker, F. C. Sattler to make and construct it in 1839.
The tenor trombone has a fundamental note of B♭ and is usually treated as a non-transposing instrument (see below). Tenor trombones with C as their fundamental note were almost equally popular in the mid-19th century in Britain and France. As the trombone in its simplest form has neither crooks, valves nor keys to lower the pitch by a specific interval, trombonists use seven chromatic slide positions. Each position progressively increases the length of the air column, thus lowering the pitch.
Extending the slide from one position to the next lowers the pitch by one semitone. Thus, each note in the harmonic series can be lowered by an interval of up to a tritone. The lowest note of the standard instrument is therefore an E♮ – a tritone below B♭. Most experienced trombonists can play lower "falset" notes and much lower pedal notes (first partials or fundamentals, which have a peculiar metallic rumbling sound). Slide positions are subject to adjustment, compensating for imperfections in the tuning of different harmonics. The fifth partial is rather flat on most trombones and usually requires a minute shortening of the slide position to compensate; other small adjustments are also normally required throughout the range. Trombonists make frequent use of alternate positions to minimize slide movement in rapid passages; for instance, B♭3 may be played in first or fifth position. Alternate positions are also needed to allow a player to produce a glissando to or from a higher note on the same partial.
While the lowest note of the tenor trombone's range (excluding fundamentals or pedal notes) is E2, the trombone's upper range is theoretically open-ended. The practical top of the range is sometimes considered to be F5, or more conservatively D5. The range of the C tenor trombone is F♯2 to G5.
Many modern tenor trombones include an extra attachment of tubing – about 3 feet (0.9 m) in length – which lowers the fundamental pitch from B♭ to F. There are two different forms of this tubing: open wrap and traditional (or closed) wrap. The traditional wrap is curved and fits inside the main tuning slide while the open wrap extends past the main tuning slide and only has one curve in it. The F attachment is engaged by using a trigger which operates a valve (this is different from the three-valved valve trombone). This type of trombone is typically built with a larger bore size (0.525 or 0.547 inches (13.3 or 13.9 mm)) and is known as a B♭/F trombone, F-attachment trombone, or trigger trombone. [2] Trombones without this feature are known as straight trombones.
The F attachment originated in an instrument developed by German instrument maker Christian Friedrich Sattler during the late 1830s and patented in 1839. It gained popularity at a time when the older German E♭ and F bass trombones had fallen out of favour with orchestral players and were being replaced by a B♭ tenor trombone with a wide bore and large bell proportions. This instrument was known as the tenorbass trombone (German Tenorbassposaune)—it was a tenor trombone in B♭ with the bore and bell dimensions of a bass trombone, and was used to play both tenor and bass trombone parts.
Sattler used the rotary valve attachment to provide a way to play the notes between the fundamental B♭1 (first position) and the second partial E2 (seventh position). The valve allowed players to produce low E♭, D, D♭, C (and, with adjustments, B), thus making the full range of the old bass trombone in 12′ F available and extending the chromatic range of the tenor trombone through the fundamentals to E1.
Sattler's intention was not to create a trombone that would replace the older F and E♭ bass trombones, but rather to provide an instrument with the ability to cover the range of the bass and tenor trombones seamlessly. The tenorbass trombone did replace the older bass trombones, however, and the bore and bell size were increased later in the nineteenth century to allow for models designed specifically to cope with bass trombone parts; modern bass trombones are derivatives of these late nineteenth century B♭/F trombones that are used to play parts originally intended for the bass trombone in G, F or E♭. Since engaging the valve changes the tubing length, additional alternate positions for notes become available. The resulting increase in facility and the addition of the low E♭, D, D♭, C, and B make these instruments popular among experienced orchestral tenor trombonists.
As the tubing length increases by a factor of one-third, the distance between each position must be one-third longer when the valve attachment is engaged. This results in only six positions being available, as the slide is too short for what is effectively a bass trombone in 12′ F. Because of this, the B two ledger lines below the bass staff can only be played by extending the slide past seventh position.
The alto trombone is smaller than the tenor trombone and almost always pitched in E♭ a fourth higher than the tenor, although examples pitched in F are occasionally found. Modern instruments are sometimes fitted with a valve to lower the pitch, either by a semitone to D (known as a "trill" valve), or by a fourth into B♭. The alto trombone was commonly used in the 16th to the 18th centuries in church music to strengthen the alto voice, particularly in the Mass. Early 19th century composers such as Beethoven, Brahms, and Schumann began writing for alto trombone in their symphonies, but the subsequent use and popularity of tenor trombones in the orchestra largely eclipsed their use until a modern revival that began in the late 20th century.
The soprano trombone is usually pitched in B♭ an octave above the tenor, and has seldom been used since its first known appearance in 1677 outside of trombone choirs in Moravian Church music. Built with mouthpiece, bore and bell dimensions similar to the B♭ trumpet, it tends to be played by trumpet players. During the 20th century some soprano trombones—dubbed slide cornets—were made as novelties or for use by jazz players including Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie. A small number of contemporary proponents of the instrument include jazz artists Wycliffe Gordon and Christian Scott, and classical trumpeter Torbjörn Hultmark, who advocates for its use as an instrument for young children to learn music.
The sopranino and piccolo trombones appeared in the 1950s as novelty instruments, and are even smaller and higher than the soprano. They are pitched in high E♭ and B♭ respectively, one octave above the alto and soprano trombones. Owing to being essentially a slide variant of the piccolo trumpet, they are played primarily by trumpet players.
In the 19th century as soon as brass instrument valves were invented, trombones with valves instead of slides were adopted widely in orchestras, and remain popular in some parts of Europe and in military bands.
The cimbasso covers the same range as a tuba or a contrabass trombone. It has three to six piston or rotary valves and a predominantly cylindrical bore. Modern versions are most often pitched in F, although models are available in E♭, C, and occasionally B♭. The cimbasso has a sound ranging from warm and mellow to dark and menacing, and its valves allow for much more agility than a contrabass trombone.
The modern cimbasso is most commonly used in opera scores by Giuseppe Verdi from Oberto to Aida , and by Giacomo Puccini (only in Le Villi ), but the word also appears in the score of Vincenzo Bellini's Norma , which premiered in 1831. British composer Brian Ferneyhough used it in his large orchestral work Plötzlichkeit.
A hybrid, "duplex" or "double" trombone is a design of trombone that has both a slide and a set of three valves for altering the pitch. This idea has been reinvented several times since first appearing in the 19th century by Besson, and later Conn: the "valide trombone" in the 1940s by jazz trombonist and machinist Brad Gowans with a short four-position slide, and in the 1970s by Maynard Ferguson and Holton and named the "Superbone"; all with piston valves. In 2013 Schagerl in collaboration with James Morrison announced a larger bore variant built with rotary valves.
The "flugabone" (or sometimes "flugelbone"), portmanteau of "flugelhorn" and "trombone", also known as the "marching trombone", is a marching brass instrument, essentially a valve trombone wrapped into a more compact flugelhorn shape. [3] It retains the cylindrical bore of the trombone, rather than the conical bore of either the flugelhorn or bugle, and thus is similar in playing characteristics to the B♭ bass trumpet.
The term "sackbut" refers to the early forms of the trombone commonly used during the Renaissance and Baroque eras, with a characteristically smaller, more cylindrically-proportioned bore, and a less-flared bell.
A distinctive form of tenor trombone was popularized in France in the early 19th century. Called the buccin, it featured a tenor trombone slide and a bell that ended in a zoomorphic (serpent or dragon) head. It sounds like a cross between a trombone and a French horn, with a very wide dynamic range but a limited and variable range of pitch. Hector Berlioz wrote for the buccin in his Messe solennelle of 1824.
A portmanteau of "trombone" and "bassoon", the "tromboon" was created for humorous purposes by musical parodist Peter Schickele by replacing a trombone's mouthpiece with the reed and bocal of a bassoon. It is called for in several works of Schickele's fictional composer P. D. Q. Bach.
A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or labrophones, from Latin and Greek elements meaning 'lip' and 'sound'.
The euphonium is a medium-sized, 3 or 4-valve, often compensating, conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument that derives its name from the Ancient Greek word εὔφωνος euphōnos, meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced". The euphonium is a valved instrument. Nearly all current models have piston valves, though some models with rotary valves do exist.
The pitch of a brass instrument corresponds to the lowest playable resonance frequency of the open instrument. The combined resonances resemble a harmonic series. The fundamental frequency of the harmonic series can be varied by adjusting the length of the tubing using the instrument's valve, slide, key or crook system, while the player's embouchure, lip tension and air flow serve to select a specific harmonic from the available series for playing. The fundamental is essentially missing from the resonances and is impractical to play on most brass instruments, but the overtones account for most pitches.
The term sackbut refers to the early forms of the trombone commonly used during the Renaissance and Baroque eras. A sackbut has the characteristic telescopic slide of a trombone, used to vary the length of the tube to change pitch, but is distinct from later trombones by its smaller, more cylindrically-proportioned bore, and its less-flared bell. Unlike the earlier slide trumpet from which it evolved, the sackbut possesses a U-shaped slide with two parallel sliding tubes, rather than just one.
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips (embouchure) cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate. Most brass instruments use valves to alter the pitch, but trombones have a telescoping slide mechanism instead. Many modern trombone models also have a valve attachment which lowers the pitch of the instrument. Variants such as the valve trombone and superbone have three valves similar to those on the trumpet.
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet with the highest register in the brass family, to the bass trumpet, which is pitched one octave below the standard B♭ or C Trumpet.
The tuba is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibration – a buzz – into a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the newer instruments in the modern orchestra and concert band. The tuba largely replaced the ophicleide. Tuba is Latin for "trumpet".
A transposing instrument is a musical instrument for which music notation is not written at concert pitch. For example, playing a written middle C on a transposing instrument produces a pitch other than middle C; that sounding pitch identifies the interval of transposition when describing the instrument. Playing a written C on clarinet or soprano saxophone produces a concert B♭, so these are referred to as B♭ instruments. Providing transposed music for these instruments is a convention of musical notation. The instruments do not transpose the music; rather, their music is written at a transposed pitch. Where chords are indicated for improvisation they are also written in the appropriate transposed form.
The bass trumpet is a type of low trumpet which was first developed during the 1820s in Germany. It is usually pitched in 8' C or 9' B♭ today, but is sometimes built in E♭ and is treated as a transposing instrument sounding either an octave, a sixth or a ninth lower than written, depending on the pitch of the instrument. Having valves and the same tubing length, the bass trumpet is quite similar to the valve trombone, although the bass trumpet has a harder, more metallic tone. Certain modern manufacturers offering 'valve trombones' and 'bass trumpets' use the same tubing, valves, and bell, in different configurations - in these cases the bass trumpet is virtually identical to the valve trombone.
The baritone horn, or sometimes just called baritone, is a low-pitched brass instrument in the saxhorn family. It is a piston-valve brass instrument with a bore that is mostly conical but it has a narrower bore compared to the similarly pitched euphonium. It uses a wide-rimmed cup mouthpiece like that of its peers, the trombone and euphonium. Like the trombone and the euphonium, the baritone horn can be considered either a transposing or non-transposing instrument.
Contrabass refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass, many other instruments in the contrabass register exist.
The valve trombone is a brass instrument in the trombone family that has a set of valves to vary the pitch instead of a slide. Although it has been built in sizes from alto to contrabass, it is the tenor valve trombone pitched in B♭ which has seen the most widespread use. The most common valve trombone has three piston valves, and plays just like a trumpet but an octave lower. They are built in either short or long form.
The cimbasso is a low brass instrument that developed from the upright serpent over the course of the 19th century in Italian opera orchestras to cover the same range as a tuba or contrabass trombone. The modern instrument has four to six rotary valves, a forward-facing bell, and a predominantly cylindrical bore. These features lend its sound to the bass of the trombone family rather than the tuba, and its valves allow for more agility than a contrabass trombone. Like the modern contrabass trombone, it is most often pitched in F, although models are made in E♭, and occasionally low CC or BB♭.
The superbone is a hybrid tenor trombone in B♭ that has both a slide like a regular trombone and a set of valves like a valve trombone.
The bass trombone is the bass instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. Modern instruments are pitched in the same B♭ as the tenor trombone but with a larger bore, bell and mouthpiece to facilitate low register playing, and usually two valves to fill in the missing range immediately above the pedal tones.
The alto trombone is the alto member of the trombone family of brass instruments, smaller than the tenor trombone. It is almost always pitched in E♭ a fourth higher than the tenor, although examples pitched in F are occasionally found. The alto trombone was commonly used from the 16th to the 18th centuries in church music to strengthen the alto voice, particularly in the Mass. Alto trombone parts are usually notated in alto clef.
Marching brass instruments are brass instruments specially designed to be played while moving. Most instruments do not have a marching version - only the following have marching versions:
The contrabass trombone is the lowest instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. A true contrabass trombone is pitched an octave below the B♭ tenor trombone. However, since the late 20th century, it has largely been supplanted by a bass-contrabass instrument pitched in F, a perfect fourth below the tenor trombone. Wagner first specified the contrabass for his Der Ring des Nibelungen opera cycle in the 1870s, and it has since appeared occasionally in large orchestral works without becoming a permanent member of the modern orchestra. In the 21st century it has enjoyed something of a revival, particularly in film and video game soundtracks.
The saxotromba is a valved brass instrument invented by the Belgian instrument-maker Adolphe Sax around 1844. It was designed for the mounted bands of the French military, probably as a substitute for the French horn. The saxotrombas comprised a family of half-tube instruments of different pitches. By about 1867 the saxotromba was no longer being used by the French military, but specimens of various sizes continued to be manufactured until the early decades of the twentieth century, during which time the instrument made sporadic appearances in the opera house, both in the pit and on stage. The instrument is often confused with the closely related saxhorn.
The soprano trombone is the soprano instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. It is usually pitched in B♭ an octave above the tenor trombone, and has a bore, bell and mouthpiece similar to the B♭ trumpet. Although modern instruments are made, the soprano remains a rare trombone seldom written for, compared to the tenor, bass, or even the uncommon alto trombone.
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