Trombone History

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Today, the trombone is a widely used instrument in different musical settings. The trombone is defined as “non-transposing brass instrument derived from sackbut, of semi-cylindrical bore and cup-mouthpiece, generally equipped with slide which serves to extend length of the tube. Although it has evolved over the centuries, the physical features have stayed almost the same. The trombone is found in ensembles, wind bands, chamber settings, and many more places. The reasons that makes today’s trombone what it is today is the origin of the trombone, the nomenclatures for the trombone, and the forerunners of today’s trombone. It is unclear as to exactly when the trombone originated. Within Europe the trombone was adopted and evolved within…show more content…
“The French name sacqueboute is known from 1468 if Olivier de la Marche faithfully reports the wedding of the Duke of Burgundy to Margaret of York at Bruges in that year; the music played a motet played by the haut menestrels with trompette-saicqueboute and three shawms, disguised as goats.” ”The rendering ‘sackbut’ was only used in England and it was never universal – ‘sagbutt’, ‘sacbut’ and ‘shagbut’ were equally popular. The Italians always used trombone and the Germans Posaun(e), both of which are derived from other words (tromba and buzine) which mean trumpet. On the other hand, ‘sackbut’ comes from a different and more interesting etymological strain. The word (but not the instrument) almost certainly originated in south-western Europe – France, Spain or Portugal – where the first element, sac-, is derived from words meaning to draw, in the sense of pulling, and the second, bu-, probably has its origin in a Teutonic root meaning to push. The French ended up calling the trombone saquebute, the Spanish sacabuche and the English rendered it ‘sackbutt’, ‘sagbut’, ‘shagbosh’ or whatever seemed reasonable to long-suffering scribes recording payments to yet another foreigner for blowing a new musical gadget.” “’Sackbut’ (several spellings are found in English documents – ‘sagbut’, ‘shabutt’, ‘sakebut’ and so on), is a corrupotion of the…show more content…
By the early fifteenth century, such words refer to instruments of fixed pitch that are short and play in the higher register. An instrument labelled ‘Clareta’ is given in Virdung.” “With the exception of the sackbut, the names of these instruments are of no help. Posaune is modern German for the trombone, but it is derived from busine. Such forms as busune, prusune, and so forth appear without break from the thirteenth century to the sixteenth.” The physical features virtually have not changed, however, the only major change has been the position of the slides. Today’s trombone has two U-shaped turns leading to the flared bell. There is one slide and an added feature versus the forerunners is that today’s trombones have a water valve key to dispose of condensation from the breath. In conclusion, although the trombone’s physical features have not changed and have evolved from the original trombone over the years, it is a widely popular instrument in today’s music. The trombone fits nicely into any ensemble and gives the ensemble a nice tenor sound. The origin of the trombone, the nomenclatures for the trombone, and the forerunners of today’s trombones make the trombone what it is
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