1842—Stuttgart, Germany

Berlioz, on a tour of Germany, visits Stuttgart, where he is particularly impressed with Schrade, a trombonist in their orchestra. Berlioz says, “The trombones [in Stuttgart’s orchestra] are extremely good. The first, Schrade, who was in the Vivienne concert orchestra four years ago, is a most gifted player, a complete master of his instrument who makes light of the most formidable difficulties and produces a magnificent tone from the tenor trombone—I should rather say tones, for by some process not yet explained he can play three or four notes at the same time, like the young horn-player whom the musical Press of Paris has been so taken up with lately. During a fantasia which he performed at a public concert in Stuttgart, Schrade paused at a pedal point and to the astonishment of all present sounded simultaneously the four notes of the chord of the dominant seventh in the key of B flat, pitched as follows: E flat, A, C, F. It is for the acousticians to account for this new phenomenon of natural resonance and for us musicians to study it and profit by it if the occasion arises” (Berlioz-Cairns 276).