1905—Boston, Massachussetts

Louis C. Elson, professor of theory at New England Conservatory, publishes Elson’s Music Dictionary. In it, he comments on the valve versus slide trombone, “The trombone with keys is the easier to play, but the slide-trombone has the better tone.” He goes on to talk about pedal tones: “Each instrument [alto, tenor, and bass] can also sound the note an octave deeper than the one given as the lowest in the above schedule. This is however very difficult to do, yet good players can attain this fundamental, by protruding the lips well into the mouthpiece, and can then lower the tone by means of the slides. These deep tones are called the pedal tones and must be sparingly used….The pedal tones have a growling, unpleasant quality” (Elson, Music Dictionary 271).