Made the following update to the Alto in Treatises page, giving a summary of specific keys that writers have historically assigned to the alto trombone. For more on alto trombone keys, see also the Extant Altos page, which lists alto…
E-flat alto trombone
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letter written by Johannes Brahms to his friend and fellow-musician, Theodor Avé Lallemant (Avins and Eisinger, “Six unpublished letters from…
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:…
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…
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…
Alto in Treatises
Trombone History: Added a new page, Alto in Treatises, that gives quotations from more than 45 treatises, dictionaries, and methods, most of them primary sources. It is arranged chronologically and spans from 1600 through the first quarter of the 20th…
Trombone History Update
Added several new entries to the Alto Trombone Timeline, including Stössel (Germany, 1736), Eisel (Germany, 1738), Koch (Germany, 1802), Kastner (Germany, 1840), and the trombone article from the 1888 Encyclopaedia Britannica (Scotland, 1888). Also expanded the Daniel Speer entry (Germany,…
More Alto Trombone History
•Added several more sources to the Alto Trombone Timeline. There are now more than 50 primary sources for the alto timeline (see alto trombone bibliography). Many of them confirm that historically the alto trombone was primarily an instrument pitched in the…