Baroque trombone
With sackbut (also Renaissance trombone , Sackbut or sack Butt ) today is called the trumpets -type, which from the 16th to the 19th centuries was common. - It has been superseded by the modern design since the second half of the 19th century, first in German and Eastern European and then in America. The older design persisted in French and English orchestras well into the 20th century.
design type
The so-called "baroque trombone" is characterized by a narrower scale (approx. 10 mm) and a bell with a small opening angle and a diameter of well under 20 cm. Modern trombones, on the other hand, have a length of about 11.5 to 13.5 mm and a bell of about 22 cm. The modern type was first built by VF Czerveny in Königgrätz in 1853 and was often called the “German” trombone at that time because it was soon used in many orchestras in the German-speaking area, something which Hector Berlioz noticed on his travels.
It is blown with a flat and narrow mouthpiece with a very sharp-edged transition from the bowl to the soul. As a result, the sound is basically quieter than that of the modern trombone and at the same time "bitter", "clearer", "slimmer". In ensembles with strings, singers or recorders, the sound of the baroque trombone, even in the forte, is not as dominant as modern trombones. In the orchestras of the 17th century, the treble part in the brass section was still assigned to the zinc and the alto trombone, in the 18th century oboes and increasingly clarinets took over the melody. When the valve trumpet took over the treble part in the 19th century (still in the form of the “loud” F trumpet) and more full-sounding bass instruments such as the ophicleide and tuba were added , the trombone setting often seemed too “thin” with conventional instruments.
The baroque trombones form an instrument family of bass (in low E), tenor (in A), and alto trombone (in d). The bass trombone (which was rather unusual at the time) is 3.7 m longer than the modern bass trombone in Bb (2.7 m), but has a narrower scale. Your trumpet slide is very long, so a handle is attached to the slide bar to pull it out to the 7th position. The baroque trombone was usually in the cornetto tone above today's concert pitch . The modern trombone tuning in Bb therefore corresponds to the tuning of the old tenor trombone in A.
Sackbut
The instrument has been in use since the Renaissance and is first mentioned as a sackbut in 1468 on the occasion of the wedding celebration of Charles the Bold and Margaret of York in Bruges . The name sack butt comes from the Middle French sacquer and bouter (“push” and “pull”; in France the instrument was called sacqueboute .) The sack butt was only used with trumpets from the high baroque period ( Handel ) . (In the Renaissance and early Baroque periods, the typical soprano instrument was the zinc .)
Typical are colla parte passages in Handel oratorios or works for bass and 4 trombones by Heinrich Schütz and Thomas Selle . Virtuoso solo works for trombone were created as early as the 17th century (e.g. by Antonio Bertali ). For the alto trombone as a solo instrument, several small concerts by Leopold Mozart , Johann Georg Albrechtsberger , Michael Haydn , Georg Christoph Wagenseil and JG Wagenseil were performed in Vienna between 1750 and 1770 .
The term sackbut is used alongside the term baroque trombone to distinguish the historical instrument from its modern counterpart.
Historical performance practice
The first replicas of baroque trombones were made in Germany after World War II. Wilhelm Ehmann , Otto Steinkopf and Helmut Finke began to redefine the music of the Evangelical Trombone Choirs and to contrast the dark and opaque trombone sound ideal from the 19th century with a bright and transparent sound concept. For this purpose, historical instruments were searched for and copied.
In the course of historical performance practice , the instrument replicas developed further, as did the skills of the musicians who deal with these instruments and their own variety to this day. In the meantime, the use of baroque trombones, as used in orchestras at the time , has become common for works up to around 1800 .
Whether the “baroque trombone” should be used today in orchestral works from the first half of the 19th century is the subject of discussion. What is certain is that the modern trombone with wider bores was not yet available and that the sound of the trombones in the enlarged orchestra of that time was sometimes considered to be insufficient, especially in the German-speaking area. The modern trombone is problematic in 19th century French music. - The baroque trombone is now being taught again at music colleges.
literature
- Karlheinz Weber: The “German” trombone , in: Das Orchester 7/8: 1978, pp. 566-570
Notes and individual references
- ^ Karlheinz Weber: Die deutsche trombone , in: Das Orchester 7/8: 1978, pp. 566/567
- ^ Daniel Speer: Grund-right / Kurtz-Leicht- and Nöthiger / now Wol-increased teaching of musical art. Or quadruple musical shamrock. 1678
Web links
- Article by Weber as an online article (PDF file; 744 kB)
- British Trombone Society: Sackbut