Felix Vobaron is best known today for teaching a provisional trombone class at the Paris Conservatory but not being hired when the class became permanent.

As part of his work at the Conservatory, he published a trombone method. It’s still important, but neither the first nor the best one in France.

The French musical press didn’t cover trombone soloists with the same enthusiasm as the German musical press did. We know several by name but nothing much about the pieces any of them played. But Vobaron appears to be the first.

Vobaron as educator

Someone named Vobaron, most likely Felix, served as professor of trombone in 1819-1820 at Cahors. More clearly, it was Felix who led music at the cavalry school of Saumur and a cavalry regiment of the Garde Royal.

The Paris Conservatory offered instruction on trombone at the time it opened its doors in 1795. Documentation in the early years is sparse, however, and trombone instruction was suspended in 1802.

In 1833, its director Luigi Cherubini hired Vobaron to establish a provisional class in trombone. When the Conservatory established a permanent class in 1836, Cherubini hired Antoine Dieppo instead of Vobaron.

Vobaron published an important trombone method in 1834. At least two editions of Vobaron’s etudes appeared in the 19th century and another early in the 20th century. Numerous editions of them have appeared since 1950. Sam Gossner started to prepare a newly typeset edition that includes the original text in 2017.

An Edmund Vobaron published a trombone method in 1852. His introduction says that he wrote it with advice from his father, so he is most likely the son of Felix. Publishers of later editions appear not to have spent much trouble distinguishing between the two authors. Some of the modern editions have one name on the cover and the other within the book.

Felix Vobaron’s method is one of several that appeared in France in the 1830s. The first was by Victor Cornette in 1831. Dieppo wrote one jointly with Frédéric Berr in 1835 but repudiated it and wrote one on his own when he became professor of trombone at the Conservatory.

I haven’t seen the Dieppo/Berr method. The other three get progressively more informative in their prose content. Modern editions of Cornette’s method and excerpts from Vobaron’s exist (without the prose content). Cornette’s seems the better known. I am not aware of any modern edition of Dieppo’s.

Vobaron as soloist

Trombone with over-the-shoulder bell from Vobaron’s trombone method (1834)

Vobaron was apparently the first person to play a trombone solo in France. At least, that’s what he claimed in the opening paragraphs of the introduction to his method book.

The trombone is a very ancient instrument. It originated centuries ago. It was used only for basso continuo. Its dimension was as disproportionate as that of the trumpet and other warlike instruments of olden times.

About forty years ago, German makers sought to improve this instrument, but they did not succeed completely. Ours, encouraged by several artists, finally obtained the degree of perfection one could hope for, more or less.

Some army trombonists in 1815 played their parts rather well, but they were extremely simple, and a passage like this one [a descending scale from b-flat to e-flat in eighth notes] was admired at the time. It was then that I resolved to devote myself entirely to the study of the trombone. I took great pains to learn the seven positions, which no one could show me; I searched for the complete mechanism and all its effects. At every moment, disheartened by the great difficulties that I had to overcome, I was ready to give up, when, finally, encouraged by many amateurs, I redoubled my efforts and managed to carry out some airs with variations, which I was obliged to make for myself.

Satisfied with the flattering reception given to me by a number of artists and amateurs in France and Belgium, like what I received from the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Ghent, of which I am honored to be a part, I went to Paris to offer the homage of my work to the Royal Academy of Music, which condescended to honor me with its approval. I have also not forgotten the interest with which the company of the Art School of Bordeaux agreed to admit me into its membership.

I can’t identify either the German or French designers of trombone Vobaron had in mind. “Forty years ago” would have been the 1790s. and very few of the trombonists active in Paris at the time had French names. Any French trombone makers then would have had to get advice from several Germans.

The “flattering reception” includes a review of the 1827 Concert Spirituel season by François-Joseph Fétis, one of the outstanding French writers on music of the entire 19th century:

Among the solos, those which were noteworthy are: a rondo brillante for piano by Mr. Kalkbrenner, performed by Miss Moke; a fantasia for violin by Mr. Lafont, an air with variations for trombone by Mr. Vobaron. . . Mr. Vobaron is an extraordinary artist on the trombone; he sings on this instrument with the sweetness of a horn, and with more good development and range. All of his skill is needed to make it forgivable to take his formidable instrument from the place it must occupy in the orchestra.

I have found little about the rest of his performing career, but in 1837 at least, Vobaron was part of the trombone section in the orchestra of Philippe Musard. Musard invented the promenade concert that introduced classical music to the working class.

Sources:

Grande méthode de trombone / Felix Vobaron. Gambaro, [1834]
A history of the trombone / David M. Guion (Scarecrow, 2010)
Revue musicale 1 (1827): 262-63
Slide trombone teaching and method books in France (1794-1960) / Benny Sluchin and Raymond Lapie, Historic Brass Society Journal 9 (1997): 4-25
Vobaron, Felix / WorldCat Identities