1941

Nicholas Bessaraboff, writing about European musical instruments for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, remarks on alto trombone: “The alto trombone has a small but distinctive voice of its own, and if the instrument were to be experimented with as much as the modern tenor trombone, no doubt fine alto trombones could be built. Its disappearance from the orchestra was mainly due to the fact that when valves were applied to the trumpet, there were two trumpets, in F and in E-flat, which could substitute for it. In some orchestras the alto trombone parts were played on these trumpets. After both the alto trombone and the low-pitched valve trumpets disappeared from the orchestra, the first tenor trombone player was required to play the alto trombone parts. The composers wrote higher and higher for brass instruments, a tendency deplored by Widor. This had one unpleasant consequence: trombonists began to ask for instruments which would produce the tones of the upper register with greater ease. This meant a smaller bore and smaller bell, a development which eventually resulted in the ‘pea shooter,’ a miserably sounding effeminate caricature” (Bessaraboff 189).