1938

H.W. Schwartz, in his book on the instruments of the orchestra, says, “It is this glissando or ‘smear’ effect which makes the trombone the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of the musical world. Contrary to popular opinion, the distinction of being the jazziest instrument in the orchestra or band goes, not to the saxophone, but to the trombone. Known and admitted to be the most noble of all musical instruments, it is at the same time the jazziest of the whole lot. It depends on the player. When played as a ‘slip horn,’ nothing can equal it as a means of expressing jazz…Its slide gives it unmatched resources for slurring, portamento and glissando, in which are all the suggestiveness, smirk and sensuousness for which jazz is noted. Modern muting and ‘wow-wowing’ were early used on the ‘slip horn.’ It can moan, it can scream, it can seduce, it can laugh like a hyena. It is the most gifted of all instruments called upon to give expression to the worst type of jazz mania. But when Mr. Hyde steps forward, all is noble, sacred, grand. Whenever composers wish to depict religious solemnity, or martial glory, they call upon the noble trombone. Wagner used it often in his allegorical and religious ‘Nebelungen.’ When Berlioz wished to portray Gabriel’s awful trumpet announcing the Day of Judgment in ‘Requiem,’ he called for sixteen trombones! The trombone is like a great and gifted person whose talents may be turned to good or to bad, but in either case great achievement is assured through unusual capabilities” (Schwartz 223-24).