On 22-Jan-09, at 22-Jan-09 2:42 PM, Ray Horton wrote:
This whole area of research has been more interesting to me as a bass trombonist, who has always assumed that the F bass trombone was standard, until replaced by a Bb with F valve. With both men's research we find that the F bass, throughout the classical and into the romantics, was often desired but rare and considered difficult to play.
I heard a G bass trombone (!) played by the bass trombonist for the Czech national orchestra back in 1981 or 82, when it was still part of the USSR. It was the only instrument he had ever played, since he was an adolescent, and he used it exclusively for all bass trombone parts played by the orchestra. He was sixty or so at the time, and played beautifully. The sound was like nothing we had ever heard before, and he admitted that it suited some repertoire better than others, but he had to play it regardless. I couldn't imagine Mahler FFF on it, as it was more like a sackbut in timbre, but it was impressive, and his control was impeccable.
Christopher _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
