Trombone
I just added the below entry to the 18th century timeline and the HubPages article on Cherubs Playing Trombone.
c. 1715—Vienna, Austria: A fresco above the organ loft in Vienna’s Peterskirche (St. Peter’s church) depicts cherubs playing trombone and bassoon (see below image; public domain).
A couple of months ago I posted an article on HubPages called Backward Advances: Rear-Facing Trombones Throughout History. It features 29 different images from 7 different countries. Three of the most interesting examples are pre-19th century. In a similar vein, I came across this painting attributed to Luca Giordano (1634-1705), an Italian artist from the late Baroque. I’m working on finding a better reproduction, but it would appear that the brass player in the center-left could be playing a rear-facing trombone as part of a basso continuo to accompany a group of singers.
I just added four more ophicleide pictures to my earlier post, Ophicleide History and Images, bringing the total to 21 pictures. Here’s one of them, below, from Félix Vobaron’s ophicleide method (which also includes a trombone in the background).
Check out this new article highlighting the history of the trombone and Christmas. Lots of interesting stuff, including paintings, videos, and interesting historical tidbits.
Over the weekend I posted a just-for-fun article on HubPages—One Man Bands: The Ultimate Multi-Taskers. There isn’t a lot that’s trombone-related, although a couple of the images include low brass, both predecessors to the tuba: one picture with an ophicleide and another with a serpent. There are also several videos that are kind of entertaining. Check it out here.
Full view of trombones and cornetts in procession
Full view of pageant wagon
Thanks to Bettina Hoffmann, viola da gamba specialist with Modo Antiquo, for bringing my attention to a 17th century German festival book now available online. I already had one of the images, but was able to get a much better reproduction, and the other, with 3 trombone-cornett pairs, is new to me. I’ve added them all to the 17th century timeline (first half). Below is the entry, along with some additional detail views that there weren’t space for in the timeline. The full views of both plates are above.
I’ve also added the info & images to the Females in Trombone History and How to Hold a Sackbut articles.
1617—Stuttgart, Germany: A festival book with engravings by Esaias von Hulsen, published in 1618, portrays the Stuttgart festivals of 1617 surrounding the christening of Ulrich of Württemberg and the marriage of Ludwig Friedrich of Württemberg to Elisabeth Magdalena of Hesse-Darmstadt. It features two different plates in the procession that include 4 different trombonists, all of them apparently female players (see details below; public domain) (sources: Komma 128, Festkultur online).
Detail of trombonist from pageant wagon
Detail 1 from procession
Detail 2 from procession
Detail 3 from procession
I just read an interesting firsthand account about the creation of the popular “Charlie Brown Christmas,” an animated feature that aired for the first time in 1965. Based on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz, the film uses trombone in place of all adult voices. According to the animator, Bill Melendez, “Sparky [Schulz] didn’t want any adult voices in the films, either, so we came up with the idea of using a trombone. In the recording studio, an actor would read the line to the trombone player using a lot of inflections in his voice. The trombone player would then play and shape the musical line to mimic the inflections of the actor’s voice” (Mendelson, A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition, 58). Talk about an interesting session. Imagine showing up and being told, “Um, no click track—in fact, no music—just mimic this actor!”
The famous series of woodcuts entitled The Triumph of Maximilian, executed primarily by artist Hans Burgkmair, includes the trombone in four different plates. The series depicts an imaginary procession of the court of Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519), who died before the project was actually completed. You can read more about the individual entries and instructions for the plates depicting trombones and see the original plates under “1526″ in the Trombone History Timeline (16th century).
I recently found two more versions of the woodcuts. One of them is a set of the original 1526 prints that was hand colored in 1765. The full set, digitized by the University of Graz in Austria, can be found here. The other version is a Spanish “copy” of the prints, c. 1700. Some of the Spanish images are relatively close copies, while others depart from the original in all but the most general sense. The artist for this version is unknown. An online copy of the full set is hosted by Biblioteca Digital Hispánica here.
Hand-colored set of original woodcuts (1765):
Spanish version of woodcuts by unknown artist (c. 1700):
A new article on HubPages, summarizing some recent medical research: Diet and Breathing: Trio of Medical Studies.
Added this article to HubPages about a man named after the trombone who murders his wife: The Strange Case of a 15th Century Trombonist-Composer-Murderer. I could see this guy’s life being made into a movie. Good Halloween fare for the trombonist!