Trombone
Added several new images to the 16th Century of the Trombone History Timeline. They include, respectively, a detail and 2 paintings by Caravaggio (the less-famous Caravaggio, sometimes known as Polidoro Caldara) (c. 1520, Rome, Italy), as well as a detail and full color version of a painting by Schelhas (c. 1600, Augsburg, Germany). The Caravaggio [...]
Added the below entry to the Alto Trombone History Timeline. Lyon & Healy, a Chicago company that later specializes in manufacturing harps, offered numerous models of alto trombones, both slide and valve, all pitched in E-flat. Several other companies, including Zimmerman (Germany), Boosey & Co. (England), Sears & Roebuck (US), and Montgomery Ward (US) offered [...]
Added the entry below to the Alto Trombone History Timeline. It includes information from a firsthand witness about Beethoven’s Drei Equali, arguably one of the most important works in the history of the trombone. Among the noteworthy observations about the alto trombone is Glöggl’s note that, although his father’s collection included soprano and quart trombones, the [...]
We sometimes speculate as performers about what effect the relative order of a performance may have on the outcome of a competition, audition, or jury grade. An intriguing study published by Flores and Ginsburgh in The Statistician, available online here, sheds some light on the role performance order has on the outcome of competitions. The authors [...]
An update from Patryk Frankowski, senior assistant at the Museum of Musical Instruments in Poznan, Poland: Mr. Frankowski has shared information about 2 additional alto trombones, both pre-1800, not listed in Trevor Herbert’s book, The Trombone, or subsequently on my list, Extant Altos. Both held at Mr. Frankowski’s museum, they are a 1722-71 Ehe alto [...]
The following are some entertaining images from a 19th century Lyon & Healy catalog (Chicago, 1894). For other holdings from the catalog with more importance to trombone history, visit the Alto Trombone Timeline. For the full reference to the catalog, see the Alto Trombone Bibliography. First, a suave trombonist modeling a uniform: Second, Lyon & [...]
A study published in Diabetes Care in April 2008 found that people with “adult onset” diabetes (type 2 diabetes) experience reduced lung capacity. All adults experience a natural decline in lung capacity (and lung function in general) after it peaks in a person’s early 20′s. However, this study, along with a growing body of medical [...]
I was reading through the 1894 edition of Lyon & Healy’s Band Catalogue, primarily to look at their trombone holdings (they offered a surprising variety of alto trombones, but more on that in another post), when I came across this full-page spread on “Fowler’s Artificial-Lip Mouthpieces.” Why did this never catch on? Gotta love it. ”No [...]
Got a note this morning from Patryk Frankowski, senior assistant at the Museum of Musical Instruments in Poznan, Poland. According to Mr. Frankowski, one of the alto trombones listed by Trevor Herbert in his book, The Trombone, and subsequently listed in my page on Extant Alto Trombones, is actually a tenor trombone. Apparently the instrument, [...]