1883—Leipzig, Germany

Heinrich Saro, German composer, military bandmaster, and trombonist, publishes his text on instrumentation for military bands, Instrumentations-Lehre für Militair-Musik, which describes an alto trombone in E-flat (see below image; public domain): “The alto trombone is rarely represented in military music. It has an effective range of two octaves and is written in alto clef. If the slide is closed, we obtain the following series of notes [see diagram, below]. The second position gives the pitch of half a tone lower, etc. Trills are not written for the alto trombone; likewise it is not possible to play the following figure: [see diagram, below]” (Saro 17).