1980—Alfred Blatter, in his orchestration textbook, mentions an alto trombone “comeback”

“Once given up for lost, the alto trombone is making a modest comeback. This rise in popularity has been due to a renewed interest in older music written specifically for the alto trombone, to the interest shown by some contemporary composers in its lighter, sweeter sound, and to the relative ease it offers in the performance of some of the high nineteenth-century orchestral parts” (Blatter 163).