The trombone is among the oldest instruments still used in European and American music, but several varieties have a much shorter history. The soprano trombone first appeared in the early to middle 18th century and has been used primarily in the Moravian tradition. The G bass trombone apparently dates only from the early 19th century. It was used only in British music (including colonial holdings such as Australia)—and it lasted barely into the last quarter of the 20th century.

Michael Praetorius’ description trombones in his Syntagma musicum (1619) includes among others the Rechte gemeine Posaun (ordinary, or tenor trombone) and the Quart-Posaun (bass trombone, a trombone pitched a fourth lower than the tenor). The fourth remains the most common relationship of tenor to bass to this day. The modern tenor trombone is in B-flat, so the most common long bass trombone is in F, although we’re likely to call it a contrabass trombone today.

An inventory of instruments from Stuttgart in 1589 mentions Terz-Pusonen, pitched a third lower than the tenor. In other words, they stood in the same relationship to the tenor trombone as a bass trombone in G. Ordinarily at that time, trombonists used crooks to lower the basic pitch of their instruments, but apparently the Stuttgart court preferred to have longer ones made instead. They are outliers, however. Apparently, no one made anything comparable for more than two centuries.

The reintroduction of the trombone to England

The trombone disappeared from English music in the reign of Charles II. Handel used trombones in two of his oratorios but apparently relied on traveling foreigners to play them. The Handel Commemoration of 1784 permanently reintroduced the trombone to British music, but all the trombonists on that occasion appear to have been Germans, trained in the Stadtpfeifer tradition.

According to Charles Burney, they played “the three several species of sacbut: tenor, base, and double base.” It is not clear just what he meant, but the instrument was unfamiliar to him. The usual designation of the three kinds of trombone is alto, tenor, and bass.

Beginning in the late 18th century, André Braun, Joseph Fröhlich, and Andreas Nemetz declared that alto, tenor, and bass trombones, all in B-flat, differed only in the mouthpiece used. Traditionally, however, the alto was a fourth higher and the bass a fourth lower than the tenor.

 Whoever played bass trombone at the Handel Commemoration must have played an F bass. Ten years afterward, trombones had regained a place in all British musical institutions.

The leading trombonist of the early 19th century in England was the Italian-trained Antonio Mariotti, who had moved to London by 1791 and retired around 1830. He is generally identified as a bass trombonist. The parts he would have played during his brief residence in Paris are all bass parts but playable on a B-flat trombone.

Why G?

The earliest mention of a trombone in G that I have found appeared in 1827. Andreas Nemetz described the bass trombone in his Neuste Posaune-Schule as usually in F but more seldom in A-flat or G. This brief reference does not include any indication of who might have played these exceptional instruments.

The G bass trombone must have originated sometime after the beginning of the 19th century. British bands and orchestras used it in preference to the bass trombones in F or E-flat favored on the continent. Why?

One theory is that it makes a logical complement to the C tenor, which the British supposedly favored more than continental trombonists did. That explanation seems unlikely, as none of the trombonists mentioned in the previous section would have played a C trombone.

The G trombone—and the C trombone if anyone actually played it—probably originated in the British military. Denis Wick supposed bass trombones in F or E-flat were too heavy and awkward for use in marching bands.

Although the shortest of the bass trombones, the slide of the G trombone was too long for a normal person’s arm to reach the outer positions. Therefore, bass trombones required a handle on the slide to provide the necessary length. G bass trombones require (or allow) the player to extend the slide to 7th position to play the typical “oom-pah” bass lines in the keys (flat keys) most used by composers of marches.

The sight of bass-trombone slides regularly extended seven feet or more at the head of a band must have been an imposing spectacle. Wandering children would certainly know to get out of the way of the front of the band: bass trombones (in G) were called “kidshifters” in the north of England.

Threats to the G bass trombone and a vigorous defense

Traditional British trombones had a narrow bore. The G bass usually had a .487 bore (that is, 0.487 inches). Boosey & Hawkes made a trombone with a D trigger and a larger bore (.523) for orchestral use.

By1971, according to Denis Wick, the Conn 88H and other American B-flat/F trombones (with a .547 bore) had largely supplanted the G bass in English orchestras. Boosey & Hawkes had just introduced a new G bass trombone with two valves, but it was only available by special order.

Wick noted:

Although there are a few fine performers on the G trombone in some brass bands, the great majority of players on the instrument make the kind of sound that caused its use to be discontinued in many bands and orchestras—a most unpleasant tearing sound, reminiscent of an overloaded circular saw.

Godfrey Kneller, bass trombonist with the London Philharmonic orchestra, viewed the American invasion with alarm.

One of the distinguishing factors that differentiates a British orchestra from others is its bass trombone. It is English. It is as English as the English rose, and just as there is no other rose to compare with an English rose, so there is no trombone in the world to compare with the warmth, depth, and majesty and sonority of sound that our bass trombone produces. . .

Now there is a threat that the English bass trombone will be superseded by one from abroad, on which lower notes can be obtained than on the tenor trombone, but which excludes some of the lowest notes obtainable on an English bass trombone. The sound is, of course, completely different from that of our bass trombone. Imagine a tenor singer attempting to sing a bass part, but being able to reach only the lower notes of the baritone range and lacking the quality of the bass.

He went on to mention a number of conductors who were pleased that he could play low notes as written (for example the low B in Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra) that non-English bass trombonists had to take up an octave. (He could not play the infamous glissando in that piece, by the way. It requires a bass trombone in F to gliss up a tritone from that B.)

The development of the American B-flat/F bass trombone

The earliest trombonists in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (founded in 1891) played on large-bore German trombones in B-flat. Even the third trombone did not use a trigger. Large-bore would be relative to other trombones of the time, not necessarily what would be considered large-bore today.

The Conn company developed the 8H, with a .547 bore, in 1913. Gordon Pulis, principal trombonist with the New York Philharmonic in the 1940s, played an 8H, although it appears that principal trombonists in most American orchestras did not yet use such large equipment. By that time, the design of the 8H had changed under the influence of Emory Remington, trombone professor at the Eastman School of Music.

Conn started making B-flat/F trombones in 1920 with various bore sizes, especially the 70H. The 88H, a B-flat/F instrument with a .547 bore designed with Remington’s help, appeared in 1954.

The New York Philharmonic performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 1951. Trombonists Gordon Pulis, Lewis Van Haney, and (on bass trombone) Allen Ostrander all played Conn instruments. They played with a roundness of tone and range of dynamics that British orchestras with their small to medium bore instruments could not match.

 Also in 1951, the Scottish National Orchestra dismissed their bass trombonist, Jimmy Miller, who played a straight G bass. The orchestra asked second trombonist Percy Cook to become the next bass trombonist. He agreed, but only on condition that he could play the part on a B-flat/F instrument. He received one made by the German maker Piering. By 1957, the bass trombonist in the London Symphony Orchestra likewise played a German B-flat/F trombone.

The beginning of the end of the G bass trombone in British orchestras

After the Second World War, only two British manufacturers made trombones: Boosey & Hawkes and the Salvation Army, which supplied instruments only for its own bandsmen. Boosey & Hawkes started developing its own B-flat/F trombones shortly before the embargo ended. It bought out the Salvation Army’s instrument factory in 1972.

With the help of Denis Wick and Raymond Premru, it started making bass trombones with two independent inline rotary valves. This instrument made it possible for B-flat bass trombones to play the notes Kneller had complained they lacked. The company continued to make G and G/D bass trombones until 1978.

By the middle of the 1950s, many British trombonists wanted American instruments. As the B-flat/F trombone became the standard bass trombone, they wanted a Conn 70H, a King 5B, or a Reynolds Contempora. Unfortunately, a trade embargo imposed in 1938 made it illegal to import American instruments. When the Philharmonia Orchestra toured the US in 1955, its trombonists bought a set of Conn instruments. Customs officials confiscated the bass trombone when they returned to London.

The embargo was repealed in 1958, and within five years, nearly every British professional bass trombonist acquired an American-made B-flat/F trombone. Only four important British orchestras featured the G bass trombone by 1963. When Frank Mills of the English National Opera died in 1974, he was the last professional bass trombonist in Britain who still played the G/D bass trombone.

The special case of British brass bands

The requirements of British bands for trombones differed from that of orchestras. Military bands required that its brass instruments be silver-plated. American manufacturers did not much use that finish. British brass bands used a high pitch (A = 452.5 Hz) that no one else in the world adopted. Therefore, G bass trombones lasted longer in bands than in orchestras. Boosey & Hawkes made them in both high pitch and low pitch.

But then, in the mid 1960s, British brass bands relinquished high pitch. The G bass trombone was one of the few instruments that could be modified to play at low pitch. Even before then, however, some bandsmen had advocated joining the rest of the world in adopting B-flat/F bass trombones.

The idea aroused the same objections that Kneller raised, with the same effect. By the mid 1970s, G bass trombones had all but disappeared from higher section bands. As G bass experts retired, younger players favored the B-flat/F trombones. Boosey & Hawkes made its last G trombones in 1978.

The current status of the G bass trombone

The G bass trombone disappeared from manufacturers’ catalogs at about the same time the early music revival and interest in historically informed performance practice became widespread.

Orchestras wanting to use serpents, ophicleides, or even F bass trombones must find a modern maker to create them. Plenty of G bass trombones in playable condition still exist. And unlike Percy Cook, modern players of B-flat instruments are willing to learn G bass, if only to play one or two pieces.

Nowadays, the G bass makes some of its occasional appearances outside of England. For example, Douglas Yeo of the Boston Symphony Orchestra used one to perform Elgar’s Cockaigne Overture in 2002. Ironically, the G bass makes occasional appearances in historically informed performances of such continental masterpieces as Beethoven’s Fifth and Ninth Symphonies. It is much easier to find G bass trombones than trombones in F.

Sources

Farewell to the kidshifter: The decline of the G bass trombone in the UK 1950-1980 / Gavin Dixon. Historic Brass Society Journal 22 (2010):75-89
A history of the trombone / David M. Guion (Scarecrow Press, 2010)
Trombone technique / Denis Wick (Oxford University Press, 1971)
Trombones to the fore / Godfrey Kneller, The Musician (July 1954)