1950—Milan, Italy

Casella and Mortari’s Italian orchestration text, La tecnica dell’ orchestra contemporanea, says trombone often has “grandiose, majestic, solemn, dramatic, violent and even ferocious moments (see Verdi’s Otello).” The authors also observe that the instrument is given a serious role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen, although the authors seem taken aback that in only a short time, jazz musicians have forced the trombone to take on “an unthinkably lively and joyful virtuosity” (Dalmonte, Towards a Semiology).