1610—Venice, Italy

Monteverdi’s 1610 Sextus part-book reveals what may be a doubling practice for trombonists of the time. As musicologist Andrew Parrott puts it, “At ‘Quia respexit’ the cornett III part shares a stave with trombone I, making it entirely feasible in this verse for one and the same player first to play cornett (of one size or another), then tenor sackbut, and finally cornett again, using the intervening woodwind duets to switch instruments” (Parrott, Monteverdi: Onwards and Downwards).