Old Germany: The Trombone in Augsburg

Augsburg-1493

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 [...]

Early Trombone and the Dance

I recently found the below video, showing a number of different dances in which the trombone serves as a member of what is commonly called the alta capella. Below the video I have added a selection of entries and pictures from the Trombone History Timeline that highlight the trombone’s role in dance music, a major [...]

Milan: Fashion, Opera, and Trombone?

Luini Angels

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

Gay Procession

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?

Detail, The Engagement of St. Ursula and Prince Etherius

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

Pint detail

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

Procession color detail

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 [...]

Trombone History: 16th Century Paintings of Trombonists

Caravaggio-muses

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 [...]