A few weeks ago I mentioned adding an image of a 16th century wind band from Spain to the Trombone History Timeline (16th Century). Today I added another 16th century wind band image, this one from Germany. The trombonist appears to be playing the horn in a very vertical position, although it is difficult to [...]
Old Germany: The Trombone in Augsburg
July 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Augsburg, second only to Trier among Germany’s oldest cities, has been the site of considerable trombone activity since the trombone’s beginnings in the 15th century. A painting of the Augsburg Cathedral that I recently added to the Trombone History Timeline (17th century, 1st half) spurred me to put together this post. This fairly specialized post [...]
Milan: Fashion, Opera, and Trombone?
March 3, 2010 By 2 Comments
Milan is a city known for both high fashion and opera (home of Giuseppe Verdi and La Scala opera house). But trombone? I recently added a number of entries centering around Milan to the Trombone History Timeline, revealing a fairly active trombone performance tradition in that city. The history of the trombone in Milan seems [...]
Wedding Bells: Trombone in Wedding Celebrations
February 18, 2010 By 1 Comment
I just added another image to the 19th century timeline (2nd half), another depiction of a wedding celebration that includes trombone (c. 1885, shown below). Wedding celebrations constitute a fairly common theme in trombone history, with a total of 14 related images spread throughout the Trombone History Timeline. They’re shown together below. The bulk of [...]
Earliest Depiction of Black Trombonist?
January 21, 2010 By 1 Comment
Today I added a color version of the below image, along with a nice detail of the musicians, to the 16th century timeline. An apt example of the trombone in the wind band tradition (alta ensemble, waits, pifferi, Stadtpfeifer), it is one of only a small handful of trombone paintings from late 15th/early 16th century, [...]
Trombone History: Trombone with 16th Century Wind Band
September 29, 2009 By 1 Comment
Added color version of Pinturicchio’s fresco (see below) to the 16th Century Trombone History Timeline. The painting provides one of the earliest examples of trombone iconography showing the instrument in a wind band setting (called pifferi in Italy). The color version of the fresco shows the vibrancy of the painting, as well as revealing the three [...]
Trombone History: Trombone in Peruvian Procession
September 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment
After a lot of searching, I found a much better reproduction of the Peruvian painting shown below (public domain; Wuffarden pl. 14). The trombonist is on the far left in the larger image. In this reproduction you can see the instrument in much better detail (including a red bow tied to the end of the [...]