The trombone is a brass instrument that changes pitch with a telescoping U-shaped slide instead of valves, so the player can lengthen the tube smoothly and slide between notes. Its ancestor, the sackbut, appears in European records by about 1500 and was used in church and civic music. The modern trombone entered the orchestra in the early nineteenth century and remains central to bands and jazz.
What a name can hide
Names complicate the trombone’s early story. In Italian the word means, roughly, a large trumpet, from tromba plus an augmenting ending, while later usage named the same kind of instrument a sackbut, from the French sacqueboute, usually explained as a pulling and pushing action. The Bate Collection in Oxford notes that the origins of the English word remain unclear. The theorist Johannes Tinctoris, cited by Iowa State University’s early music resource for an account of 1487, reports that the instrument was called trombone in Italy and sacqueboute in France.
Historians generally agree that the slide appeared during the fifteenth century, probably developing from earlier trumpets with a single sliding section, though the evidence for the intermediate stages is incomplete. By about 1500 the sackbut appears regularly in pictures and records, often playing with shawms. Sackbut is now the usual name for instruments of the Renaissance and Baroque, and trombone for their later descendants, but the two words describe one continuous line of development.
A tube that changes length
The defining feature is the double slide. Two parallel inner tubes fit inside two outer tubes joined by a crossbar, and the player moves the outer section to lengthen or shorten the air column. A tenor trombone in B♭ has roughly 2.7 metres of tubing, mostly cylindrical, ending in a wide flared bell. Many orchestral models add a trigger-operated extra loop, pitched in F, that lowers the fundamental further.
A sackbut differs in details that matter to its sound. Compared with a modern trombone, a Renaissance sackbut has a smaller bore, a less flared bell and a shallow mouthpiece, and it lacks a water key, slide lock or tuning slide. An example from Nuremberg in 1594 by Anton Schnitzer, preserved in Edinburgh, shows a gentler bell than a modern one. Its basic plan, a slide and a bell on a simple metal tube, is the one later trombones follow.
From cornett-like blend to orchestral blaze
Iowa State’s account says that sackbut players were expected to imitate the tone of the cornett, a wooden instrument with a cup mouthpiece, rather than the trumpet’s harsher blast. Smaller bores and lighter construction gave a voice that blended with singers and cornetts, and the instrument’s role was often to support or double vocal lines in church and civic ensembles.
A modern trombone, with a larger bore and bell, can move from a soft, velvety chorale tone to a brilliant, ringing fortissimo. The cylindrical bore gives it a focused, slightly edged core, and mutes or slide effects add colour. The Philharmonia Orchestra observes that when an orchestra reaches its most powerful climaxes, trombones are often what underpin them.
Seven positions and a pedal note
The standard tenor trombone is pitched in B♭ and is not transposing; parts are written at sounding pitch, usually in bass clef, with tenor clef for higher passages. The commonly cited written range runs from E2 to about B♭4, with pedal notes below and a few notes above for expert players. The alto trombone, commonly in E♭ and a fourth higher, serves in Classical repertoire, while the bass trombone reaches lower.
Because the slide can adopt any length, the trombone can be tuned note by note and can play exact intervals, a flexibility shared with the voice and the Violin. Each lengthening of the slide lowers the pitch, and seven positions, each about a semitone further than the last, cover the gap between one harmonic and the next.
The arm as a pitch control
The player holds the instrument in the left hand, gripping the bell section and mouthpiece, while the right hand moves the slide. Notes are selected by combining a position with a harmonic that the lips choose, so the ear must guide the arm more than with a valved instrument. Position changes have to be quick and exact, and players coordinate tongue and slide to keep the articulation clean.
Two special effects define the instrument’s image. Glissando, in which the slide moves while a note is sounding, produces a continuous swoop. Legato, a smooth connection between notes, can be achieved by slurring between harmonics or by using a gentle tongued articulation. Slide technique also draws on careful lubrication, which is why players often use a small water spray.
Sizes, valves and a few detours
Renaissance consorts used several sizes in a family from alto to bass, and larger instruments often have a handle that extends the slide so the arm can reach the far positions. Today’s usual sizes are the tenor, bass and alto, according to the Philharmonia Orchestra. Bass trombones usually have a wider bore and one or two trigger attachments.
Valve trombones, which replace the slide with valves, have existed since the nineteenth century, and the Bate Collection holds several made for cavalry bandsmen, for whom a long slide is inconvenient on horseback. The Bate Collection also holds three German trombones of 1814, known as the Waterloo Sackbuts.
Church, stage and dance band
The Philharmonia Orchestra notes that the trombone was mainly a church instrument in the Renaissance, with delicate music for groups of trombones, and that it became a regular orchestral player only in the early nineteenth century. Earlier, composers used it selectively, for example in Mozart’s Requiem, which an Edinburgh catalogue entry connects with the Viennese tenor trombone of 1794. The orchestra now typically has two tenor trombones and a bass trombone.
Beyond the concert hall, the trombone is a mainstay of brass bands, wind bands, big bands and jazz groups, where its slide adds a vocal smear. Small ensembles of trombones, sometimes called trombone choirs, use the homogeneous tone of the family. In the orchestra it often sits beside the Trumpet and Tuba, which fill out the brass section.
Keeping the slide moving
The slide is the most delicate part. Its inner tubes are made to fine tolerances, so a dent or a bend makes it stick, and players are careful never to rest the instrument on its slide or let it swing. Slide lubricants, whether cream or oil, keep it smooth, and a spray of water across the slide during play helps.
The bell and mouthpiece are cleaned regularly with lukewarm water, and the tubes are flushed and dried so that deposits do not build up. The water key, on instruments that have one, is used to drain condensation. A repairer can remove dents and realign the slide.
Details from the collections
- Nine other surviving tenor trombones very similar to the 1594 example in Edinburgh date from between 1576 and 1599.
- Edinburgh’s catalogue argues that a Viennese trombone of 1794, by Huschauer, stands nearer in design to the Schnitzer of 1594 than to instruments of the late twentieth century.
- The Bate Collection calls the trombone probably the least changed of all the brass instruments.
- The Bate Collection owns an ornate tenor trombone from the later 1800s by Joseph Higham of Manchester, a maker of military band instruments.
Terms used in this entry
- bore
- The internal diameter of the tubing, which affects tone and response.
- cornett
- A Renaissance wooden instrument with finger holes and a cup mouthpiece, often played alongside sackbuts.
- glissando
- A continuous slide of pitch from one note to another, without gaps.
- harmonic series
- The set of notes available on a given tube length as the player tightens the lips.
- pedal note
- A very low note, sounding an octave below the lowest note of the normal range of a brass instrument.
- position
- One of the standard slide settings, each about a semitone lower than the one before.
- sackbut
- The name now given to the Renaissance and Baroque slide instrument that led to the modern trombone.
- slide
- The pair of telescoping U-shaped tubes that lengthen the instrument’s air column as the player moves them.
- trigger attachment
- A thumb-operated lever that adds an extra loop of tubing to lower the instrument’s pitch.
References
- The Bate Collection, University of Oxford. Trombones | The Bate Collection. bate.ox.ac.uk/trombones
- Iowa State University. The Sackbut (Antiqua, Iowa State University). antiqua.music.iastate.edu/instrument/sacbut
- University of Edinburgh, St Cecilia’s Hall. Tenor trombone | Anton Schnitzer II | 1594. collections.ed.ac.uk/stcecilias/record/95933
- University of Edinburgh, St Cecilia’s Hall. Tenor trombone, nominal pitch: B♭ | Huschauer | 1794. collections.ed.ac.uk/stcecilias/record/95976
- The Bate Collection, University of Oxford. Brass | The Bate Collection. bate.ox.ac.uk/brass
- Philharmonia Orchestra. Trombone: Philharmonia’s Instrument Guide. philharmonia.co.uk/resources/instruments/trombone
Sources were consulted for facts and context; the text is original. See Sources and Methodology.
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