Trombone History: Trombone in Peruvian Procession

After a lot of searching, I found a much better reproduction of the Peruvian painting shown below (public domain; Wuffarden pl. 14). The trombonist is on the far left in the larger image. In this reproduction you can see the instrument in much better detail (including a red bow tied to the end of the slide). Like the image from my last post, it’s not only interesting because of the date, but because it’s from the New World. The painting belongs to a series of anonymous paintings, The Procession of Corpus Domini, detailing a long procession through the streets of colonial Cuzco, Peru.

It would appear that trombones have been marching in parades throughout most of our history. See also iconography of Italian processions in 1496 and 1556-59; German processions in 1574, 1582, and 1584; an Austrian procession in 1580; a Swiss procession in 1589; a Belgian procession in 1615, a French procession in 1654, and so forth.

Procession color detailProcession color1674-80—Cuzco, Peru: An anonymous painting, Confraternities of Saint Rose and La Linda, depicts a procession that includes a trombonist with several other wind players (see facing detail and image below; public domain) (Baker, Imposing Harmony 38).