On 9 Feb 2005 at 23:27, John Howell wrote: > At 10:55 PM -0500 2/9/05, David W. Fenton wrote: > >On 10 Feb 2005 at 11:19, Rudolf van Berkum wrote: > > > >> In the case of the trombones' entry in The Magic Flute that > >> Raymond Horton mentioned, we can appreciate that for the Lutheran > >> members of the audience in Mozart's day, the sound of the trombone > >> would have additional meaning for them because of the association > >> with church use, but for most of the audience it would just > >> provide a shiver up the spine because of the effectiveness of the > >> timbre of the instrument at that dramatic moment. > > > >Concerted Catholic church music in Mozart's days was invariably > >performed with trombones doubling the top 3 vocal parts, so I don't > >see any reason to limit the association to Lutherans. > > Actually it's the bottom 3 vocal parts, but you're essentially > correct. . ..
Wow! What a brain fart! I haven't a clue how I came up with the top 3, as I was think "alto, tenor and bass trombone!" Maybe I need to hire a new typist. :) > . . . Unless I misremember, Austria was Catholic, Mozart wrote > Masses for Catholic services, and he did NOT write Lutheran cantatas. Correct. > I'm not sure where the Austrian Lutherans came from! That use of > trombones (or sackbutts) goes back at least to Schuetz, one of whose > Psalm settings from about 1619 I studied in a graduate seminar, in a > manuscript with clear indications "con tromboni" and "senza tromboni." The trombone is also associated with hell (as in Don Giovanni), an association that goes way back to at least the 16th century in Italy. -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
