1920

Mendelssohn’s popular but difficult-to-trace quote appears in slightly modified form in Daubeny’s book, Orchestral Wind Instruments: “Mendelssohn may be said to have established for the trombone its present position in the orchestra, but personally he was rather inclined to hold it in reserve, for, said he, ‘it is too solemn an instrument to use except on very special occasions’” (Daubeny 96).