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Bass 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 earliest bass trombones were pitched a minor third, fourth, or fifth below the tenor, which was then pitched in A. They had a smaller bore and less flared bell than modern instruments, and a longer slide with an attached handle to allow slide positions otherwise beyond the reach of a fully outstretched arm. These bass sackbuts were sometimes called terz-posaun, quart-posaun, and quint-posaun (Old German, lit. 'third' or 'fourth' or 'fifth trombone', referring to intervals below the tenor), though sometimes quartposaune was used generically to refer to any size of bass trombone.
The earliest known surviving specimen is an instrument built in France in 1593 pitched in G (modern A=440 Hz). Other late 16th and early 17th-century specimens of basses survive by Nuremberg makers Anton Schnitzer, Isaac Ehe, and Hans and Sebastian Heinlein. These instruments match descriptions and illustrations by Praetorius from his 1614–20 Syntagma Musicum, by which time he only described basses in E or D (modern F or E♭), a fourth or a fifth below the tenor, and an octav-posaun which referred to a very large, rare, and unwieldy predecessor of the contrabass trombone. Based on Praetorius' descriptions, Canadian trombonist and early music specialist Maximilien Brisson proposes that a quint-posaun with an extra whole-tone crook resulted in an instrument in C, capable of playing down to the lowest G1 open string of the G Violone. By the late 17th century, the bass sackbut was mainly in D; German scholar and composer Daniel Speer only saw fit to mention the quint-posaun in his 1687 Grundrichtiger Unterricht treatise.
Bass sackbuts were used in Europe during the Renaissance and early Baroque periods. By the 18th century, the F and E♭ bass trombones were used in Germany, Austria and Sweden, and the E♭ bass trombone in France.
German instrument maker Christian Friedrich Sattler in 1821 created an instrument he called the Tenorbaßposaune (lit. 'tenor-bass trombone'), a tenor in B♭ built with the larger bore and mouthpiece from the F bass trombone. It facilitated playing bass trombone parts in the low register, but was missing notes below E2. Treatise author Georges Kastner and other contemporary writers described a dissatisfaction with bass instruments in F or E♭, due to their slow and unwieldy slides. The invention of valves was quickly applied to create valve trombones in the 1830s which replaced the slide altogether; these became popular in military bands and Italian opera.
In 1839 Sattler invented the Quartventil (lit. 'fourth valve'), a valve attachment for a B♭ tenor trombone to lower the instrument a fourth into F. Intended to bridge the range gap of the tenor trombone between E2 and B♭1, it was quickly adopted for bass trombone parts, particularly in Germany. These instruments in B♭/F gradually replaced the larger bass trombones in F and E♭ over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Late Romantic German composers specifying Tenorbaßposaune in scores intended a B♭/F trombone capable of playing below E2; Arnold Schoenberg called for four in Gurre-Lieder (1911).
From about the mid-nineteenth century, the bass trombone in G enjoyed a period of extended popularity in Britain and throughout most of the British Empire, and also a limited uptake in France. In British military and brass bands, the G bass trombone became standard, built largely by makers Besson, Boosey & Co., and Hawkes & Son (and later, Boosey & Hawkes) with no valves and a slide handle for reaching the longer sixth and seventh positions. The sight of the G bass trombone in the front rank of marching bands, with the player extending the long-handled slide, led to its "kidshifter" nickname, as if clearing a path for the band through the crowds.
Instruments were made as early as 1869 in France with a Quartventil valve attachment in D, which extends the low register below D♭2, the lowest (non-pedal) note in seventh position. British orchestras began to employ them from the early twentieth century. In 1932, Boosey & Hawkes introduced a "Betty" model, named after Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra bass trombonist William Betty, with a D valve and a second longer tuning slide for C (to obtain the low A♭1 above the first pedal G1). While British composers, writing for a G bass trombone without a valve, avoided writing below D♭2 between 1850 and 1950, the D (or C) valve allowed British orchestral players to play European repertoire written with bass trombones in F or E♭ in mind.
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Bass 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 earliest bass trombones were pitched a minor third, fourth, or fifth below the tenor, which was then pitched in A. They had a smaller bore and less flared bell than modern instruments, and a longer slide with an attached handle to allow slide positions otherwise beyond the reach of a fully outstretched arm. These bass sackbuts were sometimes called terz-posaun, quart-posaun, and quint-posaun (Old German, lit. 'third' or 'fourth' or 'fifth trombone', referring to intervals below the tenor), though sometimes quartposaune was used generically to refer to any size of bass trombone.
The earliest known surviving specimen is an instrument built in France in 1593 pitched in G (modern A=440 Hz). Other late 16th and early 17th-century specimens of basses survive by Nuremberg makers Anton Schnitzer, Isaac Ehe, and Hans and Sebastian Heinlein. These instruments match descriptions and illustrations by Praetorius from his 1614–20 Syntagma Musicum, by which time he only described basses in E or D (modern F or E♭), a fourth or a fifth below the tenor, and an octav-posaun which referred to a very large, rare, and unwieldy predecessor of the contrabass trombone. Based on Praetorius' descriptions, Canadian trombonist and early music specialist Maximilien Brisson proposes that a quint-posaun with an extra whole-tone crook resulted in an instrument in C, capable of playing down to the lowest G1 open string of the G Violone. By the late 17th century, the bass sackbut was mainly in D; German scholar and composer Daniel Speer only saw fit to mention the quint-posaun in his 1687 Grundrichtiger Unterricht treatise.
Bass sackbuts were used in Europe during the Renaissance and early Baroque periods. By the 18th century, the F and E♭ bass trombones were used in Germany, Austria and Sweden, and the E♭ bass trombone in France.
German instrument maker Christian Friedrich Sattler in 1821 created an instrument he called the Tenorbaßposaune (lit. 'tenor-bass trombone'), a tenor in B♭ built with the larger bore and mouthpiece from the F bass trombone. It facilitated playing bass trombone parts in the low register, but was missing notes below E2. Treatise author Georges Kastner and other contemporary writers described a dissatisfaction with bass instruments in F or E♭, due to their slow and unwieldy slides. The invention of valves was quickly applied to create valve trombones in the 1830s which replaced the slide altogether; these became popular in military bands and Italian opera.
In 1839 Sattler invented the Quartventil (lit. 'fourth valve'), a valve attachment for a B♭ tenor trombone to lower the instrument a fourth into F. Intended to bridge the range gap of the tenor trombone between E2 and B♭1, it was quickly adopted for bass trombone parts, particularly in Germany. These instruments in B♭/F gradually replaced the larger bass trombones in F and E♭ over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Late Romantic German composers specifying Tenorbaßposaune in scores intended a B♭/F trombone capable of playing below E2; Arnold Schoenberg called for four in Gurre-Lieder (1911).
From about the mid-nineteenth century, the bass trombone in G enjoyed a period of extended popularity in Britain and throughout most of the British Empire, and also a limited uptake in France. In British military and brass bands, the G bass trombone became standard, built largely by makers Besson, Boosey & Co., and Hawkes & Son (and later, Boosey & Hawkes) with no valves and a slide handle for reaching the longer sixth and seventh positions. The sight of the G bass trombone in the front rank of marching bands, with the player extending the long-handled slide, led to its "kidshifter" nickname, as if clearing a path for the band through the crowds.
Instruments were made as early as 1869 in France with a Quartventil valve attachment in D, which extends the low register below D♭2, the lowest (non-pedal) note in seventh position. British orchestras began to employ them from the early twentieth century. In 1932, Boosey & Hawkes introduced a "Betty" model, named after Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra bass trombonist William Betty, with a D valve and a second longer tuning slide for C (to obtain the low A♭1 above the first pedal G1). While British composers, writing for a G bass trombone without a valve, avoided writing below D♭2 between 1850 and 1950, the D (or C) valve allowed British orchestral players to play European repertoire written with bass trombones in F or E♭ in mind.