1900—Boston, MA

Louis C. Elson, author of the orchestration chapter of Famous Composers and their Works writes, “The alto, tenor and bass trombones are used frequently in modern music although not regular instruments of the classical orchestra…..the clarinetist often uses the B flat clarinet in defiance of the will of the composer, and many orchestras whose scores call for alto, tenor and bass trombones present all three parts upon tenor, or B flat, trombones….The alto trombone is the smallest of the group and possesses the shortest tube, therefore, the highest tone-series; its deeper register is weak, but the instrument is brilliant and effective in its higher tones; it is called the E flat trombone from the fact that (with closed slides, or without touching its keys) it gives the harmonic series of E flat.” He then provides a position chart for alto trombone in E-flat (Elson, Famous 137).*