Trombone

Mertens, Albert

The trombone in Belgium

Published in memory of its author, this article reflects on the trombone tradition in Belgium and his lasting contribution.

Leloir, Edmond

The trombone with 6 independent valves

Technical analysis of the trombone with six independent valves, examining its mechanics, extended range and potential for new repertoire.

Lloyd, Leno

Lip vibration characteristics

of the trombone embouchure in performance

Study of lip vibration in trombone performance, analyzing embouchure behavior and its impact on sound production and control.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

An interview with Jean Douay

What does it take to stay at the top of a major orchestra? Jean Douay shares insights on discipline, pressure and the realities behind the trombone section.

Huber, Heinrich

The trombone: changing times, changing slide positions

Did trombonists always use seven positions? Heinrich Huber reveals how history, theory and early music reshaped the slide.

Fulkerson, James

Low register development for the trombone

Should you really drop the jaw for low notes? James Fulkerson challenges this idea and proposes a more stable approach to extend the low register.

Douay, Jean

The trombone in Maurice Ravel's Bolero

How should Boléro’s trombone solo be played? After 100 performances, Jean Douay challenges conventions and argues for a more supple, controlled approach.

Douay, Jean

The trombone in Maurice Ravel's Boléro

Boléro as ordeal: Jean Douay reveals stage fright, pressure, and the weight of the final solo—where one moment can elevate or undermine the entire orchestra.

Beyer, Werner

Reminiscence of trombonists of the past

Echoes of the past: Werner Beyer traces great trombonists from the 17th century to Wagner’s era—revealing how tradition, players, and instruments shaped the modern orchestra.

Thein, Heinrich

The contrabass trombone

Picture and sketches, taking particularly into account the construction principles (1973)

From Praetorius to Wagner: Heinrich Thein traces the evolution of the contrabass trombone—revealing how history, acoustics, and design shaped this powerful orchestral voice.

Underwood, Lee

Glenn Ferris - Profile

Beyond fame and labels: Glenn Ferris rejects the music business game—defining a raw, uncompromising vision of creativity, freedom, and what it means to truly play.

Thein, Heinrich

The contrabass trombone

Picture and sketches, taking particularly into account the construction principles (1973)

Inside the workshop of innovation: Heinrich Thein reveals how rethinking every detail—from valves to bell—transforms the contrabass trombone into a modern orchestral instrument

Beyer, Werner

The classical solo concerto for trombone and its interpreters in the 19th century

From Queisser to Ferdinand David: the rise—and disappearance—of the classical trombone concerto in the 19th century reveals a forgotten golden age of virtuosity.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Interview with Miles Anderson

Jean-Pierre Mathez traces Miles Anderson’s path from early training to orchestral and freelance work, expanding on the tension between livelihood and artistic pursuit.

Gade, Per

Anton Hansen (1877-1947)

Father of trombone playing in Scandinavia

From Nørrebro cafés to the Royal Orchestra, Anton Hansen’s early years reveal the shift from valve to slide trombone in Scandinavian orchestras.

Gade, Per

Anton Hansen (1877-1947)

Father of trombone playing in Scandinavia

Berlin, Leipzig and Copenhagen diary pages show Hansen testing slide-trombone ideals against Weschke, orchestral practice and Carl Nielsen.

Runyan, William E.

The alto trombone and contemporary concepts of trombone timbre

Alto trombone timbre from Vienna to Brahms, orchestral balance, period practice, and why bright brass sounds gradually disappeared.

Douay, Jean

A woman trombonist, Yvelise Girard

Women and Brass

From Paris conservatories to police bands, a young trombonist confronts isolation, scrutiny and ambition as women slowly enter the brass world.

Gade, Per

Anton Hansen (1877-1947)

Father of trombone playing in Scandinavia

From Sibelius to Paris, Anton Hansen’s later career links Scandinavian trombone playing with French repertoire, teaching, and orchestral reform.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Benny Sluchin

Portrait in brief

Between Paris, Cologne and Tel Aviv, Benny Sluchin brings mathematics, acoustics and contemporary performance into the brass world.

Manzora, Boris G.

The double-slide trombone

museum-piece with a future?

As virtuosity reshaped 20th-century brass playing, Boris G. Manzora argued that the forgotten double-slide trombone could redefine technique and range.

Sluchin, Benny

A Trombone Martyr

Auguste Léonard de la Tuilerie

A Paris apothecary turned trombone evangelist challenges 19th-century musical habits, imagining the slide trombone as the future voice of harmony.

Lister, Richard

The contrabass sackbut

a modern copy

A reconstructed 17th-century contrabass sackbut revives forgotten low brass practice, from Venetian polychoral music to modern performance challenges.

Gorovoj, Sergej

Viktor Venglowski

Musician and Teacher

From the Leningrad Philharmonic to the Conservatoire, one trombonist shaped repertoire, ensembles and generations of players across the Soviet Union.

Weiner, Howard

The trombone: changing times, changing slide positions

From Virgiliano to Praetorius and Eisel, early sources reshape long-held assumptions about trombone tuning, slide positions and historical playing practice.

Sumerkin, Viktor

Pyotr Naumovich Volkov (1877-1933)

First trombone professor at St. Petersburg Conservatory

From imperial St. Petersburg to Soviet Leningrad, Volkov shaped a distinctive Russian trombone tradition through performance, teaching and generations of pupils.

Sumerkin, Viktor

Vladislav Mykhaylovich Blazhevich (1881-1942)

Trombonist, Composer and Teacher

From village band to the Moscow Conservatoire and the Bolshoi, a lifelong commitment to performance, teaching and wind music shaped Soviet trombone tradition.

Gotthold, Jean

Thoughts on the Bass Trombone

Long before modern standards took hold, bass trombones existed in many forms, raising questions that still shape orchestral writing and performance today.

Thein, Heinrich · Thein, Max

Alto Trombone - New Modell

A forgotten solution to Baroque virtuosity meets modern orchestral demands, where historical ideals and practical performance no longer follow the same path.

Barantsev, Anatoly

Akim Alexeyevich Kozlov

A Trombone Artist

Behind decades of orchestral excellence, one trombonist shaped a school of playing whose influence reached far beyond Leningrad and the concert hall.

Gorovoj, Sergej

Science and Technology in Trombone Teaching

What if tone production depended less on instinct than on understanding how the instrument, the lips and the air function as one interconnected system?

Trichet, Pierre

On the Sackbut or Harmonic Trumpet

A seventeenth-century description of the sackbut captures its moving slide, chromatic freedom and bass role at a moment when the instrument was still being defined.

Hübler, Klaus-K.

The Polyphonic Trombone

A suggested notation system

When trombone slide, overtones, breath and valves become independent musical voices, conventional notation reaches its limits and a new system becomes necessary.

Sluchin, Benny

The Trombone in the Sacred Works of W. A. Mozart

In Mozart’s sacred music, the trombone moved beyond choral reinforcement to striking solo roles that preserve the sound and practice of eighteenth-century Salzburg.

Laplace, Michel

Maurice Ravel and the new trombone

Dance-band trombonists reshaped orchestral expectations in the 1920s and 30s, leaving their mark on Ravel’s Boléro and a generation of players.

Cramer, William F.

Fundamental trombone performance technique

Teaching and application

Technique becomes musicianship when breathing, vibration, resonance, articulation and slide movement cease to be separate skills and begin working as one.

Sluchin, Benny

Michel Becquet

Interview

A young Michel Becquet challenges orchestral habits, champions the trombone as a solo voice and reflects on competitions, repertoire, teaching and sound.

Laplace, Michel

The trombone in Jazz and Popular Music

Jazz did not invent the modern trombone: early virtuosos, New Orleans players and changing techniques reveal a more complex path toward flexibility and legato.

Fetter, David

Joannès Rochut (1881-1952)

Trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra

Behind a cornerstone of trombone teaching lies Rochut’s path between Paris and Boston, lost manuscripts, orchestral life and the enduring Bordogni legacy.

Laplace, Michel

The trombone in Jazz and Popular Music

The classical Armstrong period (1927-1945)

Jazz trombone changed rapidly between 1927 and 1945, as Armstrong’s influence, big-band playing and new techniques transformed both its language and sound.

Laplace, Michel

The trombone in Jazz and Popular Music

Pluralism of expression since 1945

Bebop, cool jazz, free jazz and neo-classicism transformed the trombone after 1945, as new players, techniques and instruments pushed its boundaries.

Fonseque, Raymond

Good intonation on the trombone

The trombone’s fixed positions meet the compromises of natural harmonics, as Raymond Fonsèque proposes a different logic for pitch across major and minor keys.

Sluchin, Benny

Trombone workshops

In Nashville, Copenhagen and Metz, trombone workshops took strikingly different forms, exposing the artistic ambitions and practical tensions behind a growing movement.