1619—Wolfenbüttel, Germany

In his Syntagma Musicum II, Praetorius includes the following paragraph about some noteworthy trombone players: “Some players, however—among them Phileno, the famous Munich virtuoso—have taken this instrument to even greater lengths by assiduous practice. They can play without discomfort from bottom D to top c, d, or e in the soprano register. In fact, I myself have heard in Dresden the player Erhardus Borussus, who is supposed to be living in Poland now: he could take this instrument almost as high as a cornett (reaching the top g sol re ut) and as low as a quart-posaun, down to A. He was capable of the fast coloratura divisions that are played on a viola bastarda or a cornett” (Praetorius-Crookes II 43).