1959—Joseph Wagner, in his orchestration text, says the following about bass trombone

“All tonguing styles are possible, but the more rapid ones are fatiguing and become sluggish, especially in the lowest register. The deep, full tone of the bass trombone makes it ideally suited to the bass parts of all brass ensemble passages. It is rarely used as a solo instrument unless doubled either in unison or octaves. Extremely rapid notations are less satisfactory than those for the lighter tenor instrument” (Wagner, Orchestration 227).