The second valve can be removed. The remaining, permanently mounted valve can then, when a longer valve slide is added, be used as a quart valve (Ab). This Ab slide extends the instrument's lower register, taking it into the tenor range, and so combining the brighter sound of the alto with a greater compass. This is useful for the modern and experimental works in the trombone repertoire and opens up greater musical prospects for the player.
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Alto Trombone - New Modell
By Heinrich Thein , Max Thein
Caption: Eb alto trombone, Armin Rosin model. Double trigger (semitone each). Second valve can be removed and replaced with different slides, e.g: quart bow (Ab). Bore: semibore slide 13.40 - 13.90 mm. (0.528 - 0.547″).
The alto is the real solo instrument of the trombone family. There are both Baroque and classical works for the instrument, few in number but important, such as the concertos by Arcangelo Corelli, Johann David Heinichen, Georg Philipp Telemann, Leopold Mozart, Johann Michael Haydn, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger and Georg Christoph Wagenseil.
These are virtuoso works and call trills and rapid figures, especially in the cadenzas. Playing these trills as lip trills is possible but perilous. The two valves, fitted to this instrument each giving the interval of a second make the performance of these trills more secure. Although this is a mechanical solution not in keeping with historical performing principles, it nevertheless suits the musical approach of modern solo and orchestral trombonists — such as Armin Rosin, for example — very well.
Brass Bulletin 40, IV / 1982 page 33
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