Blog
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A Remarkable Brahms Letter: “genuine little alto trombone”
I recently posted, in both the 19th century timeline (2nd half) and the Alto Trombone Timeline, a remarkable quotation from an 1859 letter written by Johannes Brahms to his friend and fellow-musician, Theodor Avé Lallemant (Avins and Eisinger, “Six unpublished letters from...
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Judging a Trombone Concerto Composition Competition
Spent the last 2 days judging a composition competition. The Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University, in celebration of its 25th anniversary, is sponsoring an international competition with a \$20,000 prize and commission for a new trombone concerto. Th...
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BYU Trombones: Audition Materials
BYU Trombones–Yes, it’s that time. Ensemble audition materials are now posted here. If you have any questions or problems, feel free to contact me by email. I look forward to hearing you and working with you in the fall! Now go practice!
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Trombone History: 16th Century Paintings of Trombonists
Added several new images to the 16th Century of the Trombone History Timeline. They include, respectively, a detail and 2 paintings by Caravaggio (the less-famous Caravaggio, sometimes known as Polidoro Caldara) (c. 1520, Rome, Italy), as well as a detail and full color version...
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Trombone History: Early Trombone Method Books, Other Updates
I continue to add to the Alto in Treatises page. As indicated by the subtitle of the page (treatises, dictionaries, and methods), my criteria are quite broad for this post. I recently added a trio of early trombone method books: Braun (c. 1795), Fröhlich (c. 1811), and Nemetz...
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Trombone History: Lyon & Healy Alto Trombones
Added the below entry to the Alto Trombone History Timeline. Lyon & Healy, a Chicago company that later specializes in manufacturing harps, offered numerous models of alto trombones, both slide and valve, all pitched in E-flat. Several other companies, including Zimmerman (Germ...
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Trombone History: Beethoven's Drei Equali
Added the entry below to the Alto Trombone History Timeline. It includes information from a firsthand witness about Beethoven’s Drei Equali, arguably one of the most important works in the history of the trombone. Among the noteworthy observations about the alto trombone is G...
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Performance Order and Repertoire in Competitions
We sometimes speculate as performers about what effect the relative order of a performance may have on the outcome of a competition, audition, or jury grade. An intriguing study published by Flores and Ginsburgh in The Statistician, available online here, sheds some light o...
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Trombone History: Update from Museum of Musical Instruments--Poznan, Poland
An update from Patryk Frankowski, senior assistant at the Museum of Musical Instruments in Poznan, Poland: Mr. Frankowski has shared information about 2 additional alto trombones, both pre-1800, not listed in Trevor Herbert’s book, The Trombone, or subsequently on my list,...
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Just for Fun: Images from 1894 Catalog
The following are some entertaining images from a 19th century Lyon & Healy catalog (Chicago, 1894). For other holdings from the catalog with more importance to trombone history, visit the Alto Trombone Timeline. For the full reference to the catalog, see the Alto Trombone Bib...
