1467—Nördlingen, Germany

A visiting ensemble called Count Palantine performs with what a local scribe indicates as 3 pfeifers and a trumpet. However, at a performance by the same players in Nuremberg that year, a scribe describes the instrumentation as “three pfeifers and a posaune.” This highlights the elusiveness of terminology in the early years of the trombone’s existence; the instrument is called, depending on context and location, trombone, trumpet, trompette de ménestrels, posaune, sackbut, and various permutations of those terms (Polk, Archival Documents).