controversial: Will orchestral principal trombone players ever rethink?

[pjv]

Instrument choice is something that fascinated me from the beginning when I started playing tuba. So my apologies if it reads like I’m writing this more for my own pleasure than that of the reader (as this might very well be the case!)

Musicians fall more or less into two categories. Those that play everything on one instrument are the ones I envy. Makes life simple. In an orchestra we’re talking about almost all of the non-brass players. In jazz this is also true for many brass players as well. Find your sound and make it work.

Then we have the (brass) players that use various instruments within their own “family”. For tubists it’s an easy and often logical move. Whereas, for example, trombones come in (generally speaking) 4 more or less standard models (dixie, jazz, orchestra and bass), tubas vary enormously from lead pipe to bell (bore size, bell size, expansion rate, etc). As well, tuba history has a parallel development in the repertoire of the (for lack of better words?) bass and contrabass tubas. And in an orchestra we are on our own so we can do whatever we want.

The other brass work in sections. The real enthousiasts all play on the same make of instrument (the LA Phil Schilke trumpet rage comes to mind). And what to think of the Vienna-valve purists in Austria?!

-The French Horn-
In general they play one of two, usually a double but sometimes a single horn. In Europe I’d wager to guess that 90% play on an Alexander 103. You’d think with and instrument as old as the horn and with all that tubing (as long a F tuba) that there’d be tons of different horns in the orchestras, or at least high horn and low horn models. But no. Tradition? Whatever the reason, they do have to form a unity in herds of 2, 4 or 8.

-The Trumpet-
And one day it happened: piston valve trumpetists started using rotary valve trumpets for certain repertoire, and visa versa. Outside of that, we see them using C’s, D’s, Eb’s and piccolo’s in an orchestra. (Bb is for many still a taboo). But different bore and bell sizes, no. I asked a friend of mine who recently made a switch to a larger bore&belled trumpet if he played everything on this new axe or did he only use it for certain ensembles. I think you all know his answer.

-The Trombone-
Sometimes you get a weirdo orchestra player who’ll try a .525 bore 8’bell trombone out on the 1st part. If the conductor doesn’t call them out on this transgression their own sound concept will. After all, an orchestra sized trombone is what they’ve always played on. Most 2nd and 3rd trombonists won’t even bother, and every once in a while you find a bass trombonist who gets a kick out of playing a part on a smaller axe. But in general with them it’s about low, large, fat and loud. The only doubles they’ll be playing is a contra.

In short, I don’t believe we should be expecting a larger selection of instrument sizes and models within the brass sections anytime soon. It has to be a group decision and one that maybe doesn’t even make sense without involving the other brass sections in the group. For this to happen you need a motivated orchestra that actively discusses these kind of possibilities, certainly within the section.

As a (one axe trombonist) friend of mine says, “play on the instrument you sound best on”.

[Bob Kolada]

Back when I was playing bass trombone, a dual bore Getzen 1062, I picked up a mint Benge 190F for like 500 bucks. I'd never seriously played tenor before and it was a blast- light, sharp and a far better fit for my booze rock band than the chainsaw. The slide was way too narrow for me and I ended up trading it to get my valved bass trombone built. If I'd stuck with trombones a King 5B or 6B would have been a great pickup, though those three might be a bit too closely related. None of them came close to the contrabass though!

My orchestra 1 and 2 trombone never played anything smaller than a 42B but I definitely could have used it in a lower chair in big band, maybe 3rd in a 4 person section. I wouldn't want to play, say, heavy Kenton bass parts on it though. Way too much of a laser and I wasn't a good single valve bass player; I did consider getting a 42BO converted to a dependent double. Those are great mini bass trombones with a big mouthpiece.