As I mentioned in an earlier post on paper trombonists, an interesting little subset of music history images exists in the form of contemporary 19th-century military figurines. These figurines include military musicians, and, more specifically, serpent players. Although a number of such collections are available, all of the examples shown below were produced by the [...]
Hi Ho, Brass! Trombones on Horseback
May 21, 2010 By 1 Comment
Ever tried playing the trombone on horseback? A pretty contorted affair, one would think. There are, however, several visual depictions throughout trombone history of trombonists on horseback. I recently added one such image of a military musician to the 19th century timeline. The earliest two pictures of trombones on horseback, which date from the early [...]
Bassoonist Does Battle
March 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Another off-topic post, again about an image that I couldn’t pass up from Cassin-Scott and Fabb’s Military Bands and Their Uniforms (London: Blandford Press, 1978): We occasionally hear stories about military musicians pressed into actual combat situations. This picture, a 19th century engraving, captures a French bassoonist getting creative in order to hold off a [...]
Bandmaster Cigarettes–A Different Era
March 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
This is off-topic, but I came across this authentic cigarette advertisement from c. 1900 in Cassin-Scott and Fabb’s Military Bands and Their Uniforms (London: Blandford Press, 1978, p. 93) (see below image; public domain). There are several things here that make you scratch your head. We truly live in a different era!
Trombone Images from 19th Century London Newspapers
February 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
I have recently added quite a few trombone images to the 19th century timeline (1st half, 2nd half). Many of them originate from London. Collected below are all the pictures from the 19th century timeline that come from London. As it turns out, they are all from newspapers. Several are humorous in nature. A couple [...]
Trombone History: Two Very Different Images
November 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Added the following images, quite a bit different in character, to the 17th Century (first half) and 19th Century (2nd half) timelines, respectively. The similarity, of course, is that they both include a trombone. _______________ c. 1610—Antwerp, Belgium: Hendrick van Balen’s painting, The Banquet of the Gods, includes a trombone resting on the ground among [...]