Tag Archives: trombone

The sacred music of Anton Bruckner

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Bruckner monument

Bruckner monument in Stadtpark, Vienna / photo by Benoit Prieur via Picryl

We think of Anton Bruckner as a symphonist and devout Wagnerian. In fact, he had long experience as a composer of church music before he ever heard Wagner’s music or attempted to compose a symphony. He had apparently experimented with chromatic harmonies, too.

His best-known large-scale sacred music includes three masses and the Te Deum. He also composed motets throughout his career. Many of them are performed much more frequently than the larger works. Several include trombones, continuing a long-standing Austrian tradition. Continue reading →

André Lafosse and the end of an era in trombone instruction

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Paris Conservatory trombone class

Au conservatoire: Classe de trombone, professeur M. [Paul] Delisse / drawing by Paul Renouard in the periodical L’Illusation (1886)

André Lafosse published the first edition of his monumental Méthode complète de trombone à coulisse (Complete Method for Slide Trombone) in 1921. He revised it, adding a third volume, in 1946. In 1948, he became professor of trombone at the Paris Conservatory of Music. During his tenure there, he published three more extensive pedagogical works for trombone.

By the time Lafosse retired in 1960, the trombone, its technique, and philosophy of brass instruction had changed drastically. He had resisted all the changes.  His trombone method has more in common with that of Antoine Dieppo, the Conservatory’s first trombone professor, than with any of the important pedagogical treatises that appeared within a decade of his retirement. Continue reading →

Frank Holton: trombonist and band instrument manufacturer

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Frank Holton, trombonist and band instrument manufacturer

Frank Holton, ca. 1920

For some reason, they say musicians can’t succeed in business. Frank Holton had a notable career as trombonist, but no one would give him a second thought today if he hadn’t founded a very successful business. With great difficulty and perseverance, he built Frank Holton & Company into one of America’s premier band instrument companies.

Frank Holton was born in 1857 or 1858 (sources vary) in Allegan County, Michigan to a music-loving family. His father, a farmer, sang in the village choir and his mother played organ. It’s not unusual for well-known musicians to come from small towns, but Allegan is special. Not only was Holton born there, but other brass greats Gardell Simons, H. A. Vandercook, and C. Z. Bronson.

Like many small-town musicians, Holton was largely self-taught on trombone. But only a few (Arthur Pryor being another) became nationally known soloists. Continue reading →

What they say about the trombone: quotations

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trombonist enrages neighbor. trombone quotations

Enraged Neighbor, a lithograph by Bourdin after an image by Robert William Buss (1838). The handle on the slide indicates a bass trombone

Looking back over everything I have written in this blog, I noticed it has been a while since I offered any quotations. And I have never offered quotations about the trombone. And so I figured I’d have a fairly easy time of going to the usual quotation sites and picking some good ones.

Wrong. I couldn’t find very many interesting trombone quotes at all.

This one from Trombone Shorty might explain why: Continue reading →

Opinions about the trombone from Harmonicon

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Cornette trombone illustration. Harmonicon

An illustration from Victor Cornette’s trombone method

The Harmonicon was one of the earliest English music journals to last for an extended time. It appeared monthly between 1823 and 1833. It covered not only British music but published reports from all over Europe and the US. I’d like to present some extended quotations about the trombone.

The Harmonicon appeared at about the same time the intelligentsia started to observe a distinction between classical and popular music. Traveling virtuosos and Rossini’s music counted as popular music, the kinds of music Robert Schumann attributed to Philistines. Continue reading →

The trombone in Beethoven’s music

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Beethoven-- trombone parts

Portrait of Beethoven / Joseph Karl Stieler, 1820

The trombone was accepted only grudgingly as a member of the symphony orchestra early in the 19th century. Some few works of the great classical masters, especially Beethoven, called for them.

The trombone had found little use in most of Europe during most of the 18th century. Music that appealed to the lower classes led the revival of the trombone. That explains the disdain.

Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven might have used trombone more extensively if the Austrian traditions of the early 18th century had not gone out of fashion already. Continue reading →