1600s—Brass instruments began to be used more extensively as ensemble instruments. Many of the instruments were used in outdoor performances or as a supportive voice in church choirs. Brass instruments had little use as solo instruments. During this time, brass instruments could play chromatic passages through use of the high overtone series and through the use of stopped notes on horn.

1600-1750—Trombones were regularly employed in a variety of ensembles, such as court and municipal bands, where it was common to combine them with double reed shawms. The sackbut was also used in ensembles where they were to blend with softer instruments or voice to improve projection. A vocal style of playing developed for the trombone that contrasted the period’s fanfare trumpet style. 

1600-1750—In order to change the key of a horn allowing for a different pitched partial series, crooks of various lengths needs to be added to the instrument.

c. 1600—Nuremberg, Germany: Some instrument makers improved the design of the natural valveless trumpet to function better in the upper overtones. The pitch of the instrument was changed by inserting crooks for lower keys and tuning was accomplished by inserting small lengths of tubing to extend the mouthpiece. Music composed for these instruments was written in the upper register where the overtone series are closer together and capable of playing more scale-like passages; this was generally referred to as the clarino register.

c. 1600—Prague, Czech Republic: Dirck de Quade van Ravesteyn (Dutch, 1565–1620), Allegory of Music (see below; public domain).

c. 1600-53—Haarlem, The Netherlands: Pieter Fransz de Grebber, The Procession of the Ark of the Covenant. Oil painting on harpsichord lid. See 2 details and full image below.

1604—Azores, Portugal: Detail from Vasco Pereira Lusitano’s Coroacão da Virgem (Museu Carlos Machado, Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal; source: wikimedia commons). See detail and full image below; public domain.

c. 1605—Italy: Portrait of Giovanni Domenico Peri (1564-1639) by Florentine painter. Holding a trumpet and lira da braccio (see below; public domain).

1612—Germany: Wolfgang Kilian, Chorus Musarum. Trombone (posaune) in upper-left, cornett (zink) in upper-right (public domain).

1613—Heidelberg, Germany: Beschreibung der Reiss, a festival book created to celebrate the 1613 Palatine wedding of Friedrich V to Elizabeth Stuart. Dietrich is shown playing the kettledrum with eight trumpeters in a procession before the Ringelrennen (Heidelberg: Vögelin, 16 / 3), Plate No. 2. Although the illustration is without color, according to the festival book, the trumpeters, playing silver trumpets, are dressed in blue hats with red tips; and blue, red, and yellow cloaks. See below, public domain.

1616-1668 The Evening, published by Peter Aubrey (1596-1668) (Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum). See below; public domain.

c. 1617-1620—Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640), Angel Blowing a Trumpet, Facing Right (see below; public domain). Design for a relief sculpture above the main entrance of the Jesuit Church in Antwerp, now the St. Charles Borromeo Church.

1618-1624—Christof Angermair’s ivory carving from the coin cabinet of Elizabeth of Lorraine depicts a number of musicians, including a trombonist in the foreground, performing with Pan, the shepherd’s god (see detail and full image below; public domain) (Munich: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlung; Salmen, Gartenmusik 75; Hindley 164).

c. 1620—France: Attributed to Nicolas Tournier (1590-1639), Saint-Jean le Baptiste (see below; public domain).

1620—Germany: Woodcuts of the various members of the brass family appear in Michael Praetorius’s Sciagraphia, a collection of illustrations appended to Syntagma musicum (Treatise of Music). The trombones pictured include alt or discant posaun (comparable to modern alto), gemeine posaun (comparable to modern tenor), quart- or quint-posaun (bass trombones, fourth and fifth below tenor), and octav posaun (contrabass, an octave below tenor) (see below image; Praetorius II, plate 8; public domain).

c. 1620-24—Wolfenbüttel, Germany: The organ is installed at the Wolfenbüttel Hauptkirche. Paintings located under the organ balcony, which probably date from the same period, include an angel playing trombone (see below image; public domain).

c. 1629—Venice, Italy: Veronese artist Fra Semplice da Verona includes a depiction of a cherub playing trombone in Infant Jesus and Musical Angels, an image framing a pre-existing Madonna in the Convento del Redentore. Other instruments being played include cornetto, viol, violin, and lute (see detail below; public domain) (Portogruaro, plate 37).

c. 1630—Rome, Italy: An etching from the series Figure con instrumenti musicali e boscarecci by Giovanni Battista Bracelli features a trombone and a serpent (see below image; public domain) (Falletti 107).

c. 1630—Italy: Giovanni Battista Bracelli, Musicians (see below; public domain).

c. 1630-1650—Spain: Alonso Cano, Angel with the Last Trumpet (see below; public domain).

1636—Paris, France: Marin Mersenne discusses serpent and includes a woodcut of the instrument in his Harmonie universelle (see below image; public domain). Among other comments, he says the following in describing the serpent: “To accompany as many as twenty of the most powerful singers and yet play the softest chamber music with the most delicate grace notes,” “But the true bass of the cornett is performed with the Serpent, so that one can say that one without the other is a body without a soul,” “Even when played by a boy it is sufficient to support the voices of twenty robust monks,” and “It seems that the irregular distance of the holes of the Serpent makes its diapason more difficult than that of the other instruments.”

1643—Netherlands: Job Adriaensz Berckheyde (Dutch, 1630-1693), Le Boulanger (see below; public domain).

1647—Wenceslaus Hollar (Bohemian, 1607-1677), Five Hunting Horns (see below; public domain).

1650-1655—Netherlands: Adriaen van Ostade (Dutch, 1610-c. 1685), Baker (see below; public domain).

c. 1650—Michiel Sweerts or Michael Sweerts (Flemish, 1618-1664), Portrait of a young man playing a hunting horn (see below; public domain).

c. 1650—Camaldoli, Italy: A painting in the Camaldoli Monastery by an unknown Tuscan artist depicts 2 putti playing trombones (source: Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali). See below; public domain.

c. 1650—Cornelis van Dalen (Flemish, 1638-1664), Neptune Rising from the Sea (see below; public domain).

c. 1650—Germany: Germany school/attr. Joachim von Sandrart (1606-1688) or Jan Cossiers (1600–1671), Interior with Musicians /Le Concert]. See below; public domain.

c. 1650-1700—Adam Frans van der Meulen (1632-1690), Horn Player (see below; public domain).

c. 1652—Italy: Mattia Preti (Italian, 1613-1699), An Angel Blowing a Trumpet (see below; public domain).

1657—Dresden, Germany: Copper engraving from Constantin Christian Dedekind of Parnassus and the Muses and Poets (see detail and full image below; public domain).

1660-1665—Netherlands: Gerrit Dou, Trumpet Player in Front of a Banquet (Louvre). See below; public domain.

c. 1660—Netherlands: Anthonie Palamedesz (Dutch, 1602-1673), An Officer Blowing a Trumpet. See below; public domain.

c. 1660s—Netherlands: Jacob Ochtervelt (Dutch, 1634-1682), Trumpet Player (see below; public domain).

c. 1660—Pierre Paul Sevin’s drawing of a performance of a mass for 4 choirs includes a serpent (see far right of image below; public domain) (Marx, The Instrumentation of Handel’s Early Italian Works).

c. 1666–1668—Delft, Netherlands: Johannes Vermeer, The Art of Painting (see detail and full image below; public domain).

1671—Denmark: Cornelius Norbertus Gijsbrechts (1657-1683), Trompe l’oeil med Christian Vs udstyr til parforcejagt (see below; public domain).

1673—Rome, Italy: Athanasius Kircher includes a print and description of the serpent in his treatise, Phonurgia nova (see below image; public domain) (source: European Cultural Heritage Online).

c. 1675—Godfried Schalcken (Dutch, 1643-1706), Diana and Her Nymphs in a Clearing (see below; public domain).

c. 1681—Netherlands: Job Adriaenszoon Berckheyde (Dutch, c. 1630 – before 1693), The Baker (see below; public domain).

1689—Netherlands: Willem Van Mieris, Trumpet Player with Companion (source: Bonhams.com). Ssee below; public domain.

1693—Cusco, Peru: Francisco Chihuantito’s painting, The Virgin of Monserrat, located in the parochial church of Chichero, Cusco, includes a depiction of a trombonist in a prominent position near the center of the painting. A cornett player stands to the right of the trombonist, while two other similarly-dressed musicians, probably playing shawms, stand behind (Velarde 82; Rosas 384; Pinilla 73).

1694-1696- Swidnica, Poland: Polish School, ceiling painting in Kosciót Pokoju w Swidnicy (Church of Peace in Swidnica). The second view includes both trombone and trumpet. See below; public domain.

Late 1600s—The clarino style of trumpet playing reached its peak near the end of the 1600s with solo concertos composed by Guiseppe Torelli, Domenico Gabrielli, and Giacomo Perti. Many of these pieces, along with music by Maurizio Cazzati and other composers associated with the basilica of San Petronio in Balogna, are still performed today.