At 6:46 PM +0000 6/21/06, Robert Patterson wrote:
>
I don't know of much RECENT music written for alto-tenor-bass orchestra
sections, though that was overwhelmingly the case from Haydn up to
Tchakovsky or so.
Are you sure Tchaik wanted alto trombone? Generally, my impression
is that alto trombone went out of fashion towards the end of the
19th cent. (replaced by a tenor). It seems to be only recently that
alto trombone is re-emerging in mainstream professional orchestras.
Before that, even alto parts were usually played on tenors.
Yes, it is fairly recently that alto has come back into use, as part
of the performance practice movement to recapture the original sounds
(at least in part). Rotary valve trumpets, with their very different
leadpipe dimensions, are another example. But one must keep in mind
that even the tenor trombones were small bore (aka "pea-shooter").
My father bought me a used early-20th century tenor when I was in
high school in the '50s (when you had to be careful that you didn't
get stuck with a "high-pitch" used band instrument!). The large 8-H
and 88-H Conns and equivalent makes with half-inch or more bores
didn't exist until, I think, the mid-20th century. Conn was
certainly making Eb altos in the mid-1960s, when I got mine.
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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