Kathleen Cronin

MHL 564

Trombone In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

 

 

Origins of the Trombone

Before discussing the origins of the trombone specifically, it is helpful to go back further in history and examine the brass instruments in Roman times. This is necessary since these instruments influenced the later evolution of the trombone.

The Roman brass instruments made-up four types or species: the tuba, cornu, buccina, and lituus. Scott explains that the tuba had a long, straight body which was about four feet long and had a small bell at the end. The bore was cylindrical in shape and had a detachable mouthpiece.

The cornu is characteristic for its G-shape, the lituus for its J-shape. Both of these had detachable mouthpieces and were often played along side the tuba. The buccina closely resembles the shape of an animal horn (all three of these are illustrated at the top of the next page).

  

Buccina Cornu Lituus

From Romain Goldron, Ancient and Oriental Music. C 1968 H.S. Struttman Co., Inc, NewYork, NY.

The shape through out most of the sounding tube of the tuba (not pictured) and the lituus is a cylindrical one, and the basic shape of the buccina and cornu is a more conical one. This follows in modern brass instruments. For example, the trumpet and trombone are cylindrical through out much of their sounding tube. The modern horn and the modern tuba, however, are conical. The shape of the instrument affects the sound color. The conical bore instruments have a deeper tone color whereas the cylindrical bored instruments are brighter and more brilliant.

Lane sums up the basic qualities of these instruments. First of all, the instruments played few notes, possibly short fragments of melody or calls. The purpose of these calls was to signal war as indicated by the numerous references to tactical use of brass instruments in the Roman Empire. Volume was the most important quality to the Romans, and as shown by the fact that large numbers of brass musicians were displayed in the amphitheaters. The tone of the instruments was described by Polybius in 55 BC. "The parade and tumult of the army of the Celts terrified the Romans, for there was amongst them an infinite number of horns and trumpets which with the shouts of the whole army in concert, made a clamour so terrible and loud that every surrounding echo was awakened and all the adjacent country seemed to join in the horrible din."

The Busine

The busine is a long straight trumpet (above). It was mentioned in English literature after 1200 AD but existed some time before that, and is the precursor to the trombone. The busine (the word appears in many forms: buccine, bocine, busine, buisine, bosine, buze, buzune, pusine, puzune) was a new instrument in medieval Europe. The name was old Roman but the instrument had little to do with its namesake. Some of the busines must have been at least six feet long, made of metal, with a narrow, almost cylindrical bore. Galpin believed that the sackbut was evolved from the busine by two distinct steps: (1) the folding of the tube, and (2) the application of the slide. However, the application of the slide does not lead yet to the true Renaissance trombone but what may be called a slide trumpet.

The Folding of the Tube

Lane wrote, "The art of folding brass tubing, which requires careful workmanship and revolutionized the whole family of brass instruments, was known to the Romans in the first century. It appears that this art was lost when the empire fell. However, in about the year 1300 mention is made of cors crocus (crooked horns) in a French Romance. The folded form appeared in northern Italy as well, where a great revival of art and industry had begun."

At first the tube was simply folded twice in a single plane, a zigzag form which was weak in construction but was far more portable than the long busine. Sebastian Virdung drew a picture of this in 1511 in his Musica Getutscht. He called it a thurnerhorn (pictured below).

In the second stage of development, the third length of tubing was turned down over the first length. A piece of wood was inserted between the tubes to keep them apart but rigid when bound together with canvass strapping.

The Application of the Slide

The folding of the tube probably originated in Italy, evidence of this came from the fact that Germany and Spain referred to this zigzag shape instrument as an Italian Trumpet. The location of the application of the slide, however, is a source of some conjecture. Iconographical evidence shows trumpets, folded, and with some kind of device which might be a slide in paintings and carvings dating circa 1400 in Florence. However, a cassone in the Florence National Museum, with a depiction of shawms and a slide instrument, is of Burgundian workmanship, according to Galpin, and dates circa 1400.

Slide Trumpet

The trombone appeared after the mid fifteenth century, evidently as an advance on the Renaissance slide trumpet. This slide trumpet had a single slide that moved from the mouthpiece to the body of the horn. This is illustrated by Hans Memling in 1480 (below).

Despite the fact that there are few references to the slide trumpet, it is widely believed that it was a common instrument in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. The lack of references to it could be explained a few ways, either it was primarily used in dance and not used as much in sacred or vocal music, or there was a lack of good players so a specific player was in mind for the composition.

The instrument was tuned in D, but if it needed to play a lower note to match others (ie. singers) it could slide down. The trombone, if considered as a large, double-slide trumpet, is a later development in the fifteenth century. It was evidently in widespread use by 1500. The first reliable depiction of the instrument occurs just before 1490, in an Italian church painting by Filippino Lippi in the church S Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. It clearly shows an angel playing a slide tenor trombone. The trombone may have had its beginnings circa 1450, but no documentary evidence can be applied to this aspect of its history.

The Sackbut

Authorities disagree to the origins of the word sackbut, which is thought to be the earliest term referring to a slide instrument similar to the trombone. For example, Nares thought it was derived from the Latin Sambuca and Kastner thought it came from the French "saccades bouter" meaning "to give little jerks." Although there are many stories and legends about a slide instrument used by the ancients, it seems fairly certain that the term sackbut, or sacabouche, was applied to a musical instrument not earlier than the fifteenth century in Spain. From there it spread to France and Northern Italy and afterward to all of Western Europe. In German speaking areas, the terms besoine, buisine, basuin or posaune (derivations of buisine) were used to describe brass instruments. So one can see how the modern German term for trombone, posaune, came from the old term buisine.

The Nuremberg Manufacturers

Starting from the end of the fifteenth century, facts are more documented and less disputed by historians. Schwartz makes a comparison between the brass instrument making in Nuremberg and the violin making in Italy. He implied that they were starting a trend of producing a higher level of instruments.

The Neuschel family included several of the important Nuremberg Manufacturers starting with the most important Hans Nuschel Sr. Hans Nuschel, of Nuremberg, appears as not only the most eminent maker and player of this time but as one whose genius had vastly improved the instrument both in its shape and in the quality of its tubing.

There is a document dated 1491 that contains an appointment of H. Nuschel Sr. as trumpet player and city-fifer for five years earning a yearly salary of fifty-six pounds. He probably died around 1503 or 1504, while his son Hans Jr. carried on the family trade. Hans Jr. was accepted into the iron-smith guilds in Nuremberg in 1493. When this Nuschel died in 1533, his nephew Jorg took over the business. Jorg was the last Nuschel to become a instrument maker in Nuremberg.

Erasmus Schnitzer was another notable Manufacturer in Nuremberg at this time. He moved there around 1547 and died in1566. The oldest known surviving trombone is a tenor in the Germanic Museum of Nuremberg. It was made by Erasmus Schnitzer and bears the following inscription on its rim: Erasmus Schnitzer De Nuremberg/M.DLI.

The Nuremberg Manufactures were the most popular manufactures to purchase instruments from. Nuremberg Manufactures had been so enthusiastically received, that their works had been sent to most of the Elector Courts and Princes, in great quantities to Spain, France, Denmark, Holland, and even to Moscow. At the time of Palestrina the Italians obtained trumpets, flutes and crumhorns from Nuremberg, as attested by the Duke Ernst of Bavaria in 1574. The choral music and instrumental music of the time required new instruments with a tone quality acceptable to the style.

Trombone Specifications

Michael Praetorius wrote about the different sizes of trombone in 1620 in the Syntagma Musicum.

1. The Octav-Posaune was as octave below the ordinary or tenor posaune.2. The Quart-Posaune was an octave below the alt-posaune, although it was also made a tone lower as well. 3. The Ordinary-Posaune has a range from low E below the bass staff to a g or a on the treble. 4. The Alt-Posaune had a normal range from B on the bass staff to d or e on the treble.

The octave posaune was made in two forms, the older way being by an enlargement of the bore by inserting tubing between the slide section and the bell; a more recent way, invented by Hans Schreiber in 1614, was by a proportionate enlargement of the whole instrument, with the slide strengthened by an additional stay on the lower positions reached by means of a handle attachment as in the ordinary bass instrument.

It’s also interesting to note that Praetorius didn’t mention the double-slide trombone even though Jorg Nuschel constructed one in 1542. The double-slide trombone has a long slide that is folded over itself so that it gives the appearance of two slides. This solves the problem of the clumsiness of the bass trombone’s slide becoming too long. This design obviously hasn’t lasted to today, possibly because it makes the slide too heavy. Instead, the extra tubing is in the top of the instrument.

Similarities of the Sackbut to the Modern Trombone

It’s possible to study the sackbut by comparing it to the modern trombone that we are familiar with. Francis William Galpin compared measurements of a sackbut made by Jorg Nuschel in 1557 to a Boosey tenor trombone made in 1907 in his writings "The Sackbut, its Evolution and History". It’s interesting to see how little the trombone had changed over the span of 350 years.

Sackbut, 1557 Trombone, 1907

Total length 42 _ inches 43 _ inches

Bore of inner sliding tube _" diameter 7/16" diameter

Width of slide between 3-5/8 inches 2-3/4 inches

the tubes (King 4B 3 _ in.)

Changes From the Sackbut to the Modern Trombone

The most obvious change from the sackbut to the trombone is the size of the bell. The sackbut’s bell is less conical and more trumpet like than the modern trombone. The sackbut does not have a tuning slide in the upper bend nor does it have a water key.

The sackbut had an interesting feature that the modern trombone does not, it could be completely dismantled. All of the sections could be taken apart and put back together. The straight tubes, u-bends, and the bell section could be separated.

Early Guilds

The earliest known evidence of brass instrument usage indicates their existence prior to the twelfth century. Although specific and authentic details as to the instruments, performance practices, and music which related to these groups, we do know that their place in the history of music was soon to become increasingly important and widespread. Indeed, the development of music for ensembles of wind instruments so closely interwoven with the political and social state of Europe in the Middle Ages that it is almost impossible to sketch the one without touching upon the other. The early guilds were wandering minstrels and were associated with such bad elements as acrobats, actors and "loose women" (as Lane puts it).

The Stadtpfeifer in Germany

The Stadtpfeifer was the name given to the guilds formed in Germany early in the fifteenth century. Since the fourteenth century, German cities had been hiring watchmen who were stationed in the city towers to guard the entrances and sound a warning signal on a horn in the event of an impending attack. During the fifteenth century they were taken into the Stadpfeifer guilds and their duties expanded to include services such as those of Turmer, a member of the Stadpfeifer guild in Lubeck, who in 1474, was required to "blow and play the whole year and every evening on the claritte (trumpet) as the custom hath been." The importance of the Stadpfeifer shows in the fact that there were more musicians employed in the guilds than in the churches, courts, and the military.

Their versatility was considerable. Although virtuosity was frequently achieved by many players, it was not a requirement. They were required however, to achieve a basic performing competency on an imposing variety of instruments. For admission

to the Leipzig Stadpfeifer in the middle of the eighteenth century, candidates were obliged to perform a flute and an oboe concerto, a violin trio, a concert chorale on the slide trumpet, a chorale for the discant, alto, tenor and bass trombones, and a chorale bass on the grossen violin. They were required only to achieve a basic level of competence on these instruments, some attained virtuosity but it was not a requirement.

The three stages of the Stadpfeifer were 1) apprenticeship, 2) journeyman, and 3) master. The apprentice was more of a servant for the journeymen and masters. After completion of the apprenticeship, he would be promoted to journeyman where he would gain musical experience from traveling for three years. After this, he became candidate for master. To attain the status of master, they first had to pass a test. They were required to sight read pieces on every instrument that was played in the guilds.

Although the Stadpfeifer was paid wages by the city, they were also able to accept wages for other engagements, ie. weddings, processions, christenings, and other various occasions.

Trombone In the Court

The royal courts of Europe employed brass instruments in ensembles during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The pomp and grandiose scale of royal festivals, ceremonies, pageants, and a great variety of other situations, both in and out of doors, called for music in which brass instruments played a favored part. The brass musicians in the courts were not as numerous as in other areas, but they were the best paid, and were also the best musicians. It naturally followed that the finest performers, with very few exceptions, were in court service, a situation which was encouraged by the common practice among the various European monarchs of competing for the services of the best players.

Extent of Brass Instrument Performers

in English Royal Court, 1509-1640

Date Trumpet Sackbut Cornett

1509 15 4 0

1526 15 10 0

1570 ? 7 0

1603 22 7 (and hautboy) 3 (and other winds)

1618 21 6 (and hautboy) 4

1625 21 11(and hautboy) 6

1635 ? 14 (and hautboy; includes 8

1 double sackbut)

1640 ? 10 (of these, three play 8 (three

cornett; three others play also play

hautboy sackbut)

Walter L. Woodfill, Musician’s in English Society. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1953.

The three brass instruments used in the European courts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were the trumpet, sackbut, and cornet. The trumpet was the most important and most numerous at this time.

 

Trombone in the Church

There is ample evidence of the use of instruments in all kinds of instruments in all kinds of churches in Italy during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The preponderance of brass, particularly trombones, has been noted.

Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1557-1612) was the most important composer for brass in Italy at this time. Giovanni Gabrieli was not the first Venetian composer to add instrumental parts to his choral motets or to write instrumental music (canzonas); he was uncontestedly the first one to assign different parts to specific instruments on a large scale.

When Sonata pian’e forte was published in 1597 in the Sacrae Symphoniae, it was designated for: cornetto, trombone, trombone, trombone, violino, trombone, trombone, trombone. This was written for two choirs (cori spezatti) in which they are played separately.

Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) was a student of Gabrieli and was obviously greatly influenced by him. Praetorius was to Germany as Gabrieli was to Italy. In his book Musae Sioniae (1607), he suggests over a thousand instrumental-vocal combinations for the choirs.

Trombone Technique

There is no tutorial books extant from the sixteenth or early seventeenth century, so the Speer tutor dated 1697 is the earliest known indication of pedagogical techniques.

Improvisation

One can draw a conclusion that because the written music for the trombone was simple that the musicians were not virtuosos. Lane argues this point:

"There is a popular assumption that because works for instrumental ensemble published in the sixteenth century frequently demands little virtuosity and give scant evidence of instrumental style, that virtuosity on the part of string and wind players came suddenly into being in the baroque era. This assumption only betrays a latent tendency to stress compositional style in making historical evaluations. It is easy to forget that until fairly recently improvisation was an essential part of individual virtuosity."

Although there were no books written about trombone technique, there were books written about vocal improvisation, i.e. Diego Ortiz’s Tratado de glosas (1553). It demonstrates ways a keyboard and vocalist can improvise together. Instrumental ensembles were also known to play vocal polyphonic works for various functions, including banquets, processions, festivals. These would require ornamented arrangements that the performers would probably improvise.

Tonguing

The sixteenth-century wind player used a wide variety of tonguing syllables, a variety which implies a nice feeling for subtlety and delicacy of nuance in performance. These syllables were furthermore associated with a particular effect or mood to be projected to the listener. Ganassi wrote in his book Fontegara, syllables to use when playing the recorder. They were 1) tech- for a harsh sounding effect, 2) tere - less harsh than the first, and 3) lere, for a soft effect. There are variations that change the first letter of the syllable and that change around the vowels.

The Slur

Slurs were not exactly written for brass, except where the brass instrument were an alternate for a stringed instrument. But often, as in Biagio Marini’s Affecti musicali (Venice, 1617), a wind instrument such the cornetto is listed as an alternate for the violin. Presumably the effect of the slur is desired in either case. The same problem arises in an ornamented arrangement of Lasso’s Suzanne un jour for violone or trombone by Francesco Rognioni. Since brass instruments were imitating or playing along with strings, it follows that since strings were slurring brass were as well.

Summary

It is impossible to know for sure how the trombone came into existence but it is certain that it was in use by 1500. It came from the buisine after it went through the process of 1) folding the tube, and 2) adding the slide. This was not yet the tenor trombone but more of a slide trumpet which evolved to a lower register to become extremely similar to the tenor we see today.

The Nuremberg Manufacturers, including Hans Nuschel, brought trombone making to a high level.

Trombonists could play in the Stadpfeifer guilds, the Church, or the royal courts. More musicians played in the guilds, but the wages were best in the courts and so were the best musicians.

Trombone technique was in the realm of probability since no books were written about it until the Baroque era. But it is highly probable that there were virtuoso trombonists.

 

 

 

 

 

J.E. Scott, "Roman Music," The New Oxford History of Music, Vol. I: Ancient and Oriental Music (1957), pp 406-407.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

G.B. Lane, The Trombone in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982), p. 12.

Ibid, p.12.

Francis W. Galpin, Old English Instruments of Music. (London: Methuen, 1911), p.181.

Lane, The Trombone..p.15.

Francis W. Galpin. "The Sackbut, its Evolution and History," Proceedings of the Royal Music Association, 33rd Session, (1906-07), p. 7.

Ibid, p. 8.

11 G.B. Lane, The Trombone in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982).

Ibid., p. 16.

Ibid., p. 16.

Lane, The Trombone…p. 16

Galpin, The Sackbut…p. 8-9.

Anthony C. Baines, "Trombone," New Groves Dictionary of Music, Vol. 19, p. 166.

Anthony C. Baines, "Trombone," New Grove’s Dictionary of Music. Vol. 19, p.166.

Lane, The Trombone…p. 63.

Galpin, The Sackbut…p. 2.

Lane, The Trombone…p. 62.

H.W. Schwartz, The Story of Musical Instruments (New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1939), p. 212.

Galpin, The Sackbut…p. 11.

Lane, The Trombone…p. 78.

Ibid. p. 72.

Ibid. p. 73.

Lane, The Trombone…p. 74.

Ibid. p. 74.

J.A. Kappey, "Wind-Band," Grove’s, 3rd edition, Vol. V, p. 73

Lane, The Trombone…p. 89.

Lane, The Trombone…p.89. Lane quoted from Hermann Mendel and August Reissman, "Stadtmusicus," Musikalisches Conversations-Lexikon, Vol. IX (Leipzig: List und Francke, 1870-1873), p.395.

Pattee Edward Evenson, A History of Brass Instruments, their Usage, Music and Performance Practices in Ensembles during the Baroque Era. Unpublished D.M.A. treatise. University of Southern California, 1960. P. 84.

Lane, The Trombone…p. 90, Lane quoted from Arnold Schering, Musikgeschichte Leipzigs, vol. 3 (Leipzig: Fr. Kistner and C.F.W. Siegel, 1926-41), p.152.

Lane, The Trombone… P. 97.

Lane, The Trombone…p. 113.

Evenson, A History of Brass Instruments…, p. 113.

Lane, The Trombone…p. 135.

Egon F. Kenton, "The ‘Brass’ Parts in Giovanni Gabrieli’s Instrumental Ensemble Compositions," Brass Quarterly, I (Dec. 1957), pp. 73-80.

Lane, The Trombone…p. 173, Lane quotes Henry Howey, A Comprehensive Performance Project in Trombone Literature with an Essay Consisting of a Translation of Daniel Speer’s Vierfaches Musikalisches Kleeblatt, Unpublished D.M.A. treatise, University of Iowa, 1971.

Lane, The Trombone…p. 175.

Lane, The Trombone…p. 176

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

Baines, Anthony C. "Trombone," New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 19, p. 166. ML100.N48

Baines wrote about the history of the trombone and of the instrument today.

Evenson, Pattee Edward. A History of Brass Instruments, their Usage, Music and Performance Practices in Ensembles during the Baroque Era. Unpublished D.M.A. treatise. University of Southern California, 1960. FILM 6679

Galpin, Francis W. "The Sackbut, its Evolution and History," Proceedings of the Royal Music Association, 33rd Session, (1906-1907).

ML 28 L8 M8

Galpin wrote about the origins of the trombone and of the term sackbut. He also talks about its use in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Galpin, Francis W. Old English Instruments of Music…(London: Methuen, 1911). ML 501.G2 1965

Galpin covers all classifications of instruments going back as far as Roman times through to the Baroque period.

Goldron, Romain. Ancient and Oriental Music. H.S. Struttman Co., New York, N.Y., 1968. ML 162.B87

This book goes back forty thousand years. It includes iconography from drawings, sculptures, and surviving instruments.

Kappey, J.A. "Wind Band," Grove’s 3rd edition, Vol. V, p. 730. ML 100.G88 1904

This is an article he wrote for the Grove’s Dictionary of Music.

Kenton, Egon F. "The ‘Brass’ Parts in Giovanni Gabrieli’s Instrumental Ensemble Compositions," Brass Quarterly, I (Dec. 1957), ML 410 G2 K4

This includes Gabrieli’s choral and instrumental works. Kenton also writes about his life.

Lane, G.B. The Trombone in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. (Bloomington University Press, 1982). ML 965.L36 1982

Lane gives the origins of the trombone, and goes into detail of the trombone’s role in the guilds, the churches, and the courts of this time.

Praetorius, Michael. Syntagma Musicum. First Edition, Wolfenbuttel, 1619. Vol II, De Organographia, 1st and 2nd parts translated by Harold Blumenfeld. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1949.

ML 100.P8 1958 v.2

This is a translation of Praetorius’s writings of musical instruments in 1619.

Schwartz, H.W. The Story of Musical Instruments (New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1939), p. 212. ML460 S42 S8 1970

Schwartz writes of the history of the symphony, and the history of each family of instruments.

Scott, J.E. "Roman Music," The New Oxford History of Music, vol. I: Ancient and Oriental Music (1957). ML 160.N44

Scott writings for The New Oxford History of Music.

Virdung, Sebastion. Musica Getutscht und auszgezoge durch Sebastianu Virdung Priesters. First Edition, Basel, 1511. Facsimile edited by Leo Schrade. Kassel: Barenreiter, 1931. M2.G39 1966 Bd.11