1565—Florence, Italy

Wedding festivities for Prince Francesco de’ Medici and Johanna of Austria include performance of the comedy La Cofanaria by Francesco d’Ambra, with interludes (intermedii) between the acts. The trombone is used in several different settings. The 1st intermedio, for example, calls for 2 trombones (Westrup, Monteverdi and the Orchestra), and the 5th intermedio features Striggio’s madrigal Fuggi mia speme, fuggi, accompanied by 4 violins and 4 offstage trombones (Bowles, Musical Ensembles 53). Duke Ferdinand of Bavaria, a guest at the wedding, writes in a letter that wind music is also performed at the wedding breakfast: “at the breakfast…music was played with cornetts, trombones [pusaunen], also with crumhorns; but they only played Italian dances which in my opinion were nothing special” (Boydell, Crumhorn 53).