1927

The trombone entry in Who’s Who in the Orchestra (Fundamentals of Musical Art, vol. XI) says, “Slide trombones are known, along with fiddles, as the only perfect instruments of the orchestra, because they alone may always be played mathematically in tune at any pitch. The trombone is a truly noble horn. It is also one of the most versatile. While usually sounding like a majestic tenor or bass trumpet, it has courtly, mystic, and religious sides to its nature, unknown to the smaller instrument. A trombone quartet (three trombones and a tuba), like the one at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, when well played in a high place such as a church steeple, is a memorable delight. Mendelssohn declared that this instrument is ‘too sacred to use often.’ But it has many other effects up its sleeve as well. It can sound tearful, menacing or terrible, mocking, severely mournful, or pompously heroic. Mozart obtained some weird, unearthly effects from the trombone in ‘Don Giovanni,’ when the statue of the murdered Don Pedro speaks in response to Don Giovanni’s mocking invitation to supper. Schubert obtains some soft, beautiful effects from the trombones in his great ‘C-Major Symphony,’ especially in the coda of the first movement. Berlioz, as usual, in his ‘Messe des Morts’ went to the extreme and called for sixteen trombones to help in imitating Gabriel’s trump.”