History

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.

By Howard Weiner

Part 1

The Baroque trumpet, the high trumpet and the so-called Bach trumpet

Edward H. Tarr examines the Baroque trumpet and clarifies the origins and meaning of the so-called “Bach trumpet.”

By Edward H. Tarr

Part 1

On the early history of valves and valve instruments in Germany (1814-1833)

At the origin of modern brass: Herbert Heyde uncovers the true story of valve invention—revealing rivalries, experiments, and the breakthrough that transformed musical history.

By Herbert Heyde

Part 1

From musical wallpaper to the twelve-note row

The trombone in the chamber ensemble at the beginning of modern music (1913-1934)

Between 1913 and 1934, the trombone gained an unexpected place in chamber music as Satie, Milhaud and Stravinsky challenged orchestral traditions with jazz and new sounds.

By Michael Struck-Schloen

Part 1

Ornaments in 18th-century Horn Concertos?

Performance once depended as much on informed invention as on written notes, and early horn concertos still carry that forgotten freedom in plain sight.

By Peter Damm

Part 1

The Art of the Musical Instrument Maker

Encyclopédie méthodique — Paris 1795

A 1795 encyclopedia captures brass and wind instruments at a moment when their language, character and expressive roles were understood rather differently.

By Anonyme

Part 6

How and why I became a musician

In wartime Switzerland, an unexpected encounter in Basel gives Edouard Gros his first F tuba, opening a new musical path amid military service and orchestral rivalries.

By Edouard Gros

Georgiy Antonovich Orvid

Portrait of a distinguished Soviet trumpeter

A Soviet trumpet virtuoso who shaped generations of musicians, Georgiy Orvid combined an international concert career with teaching, research and cultural leadership.

By Yuri Usov

George Swift, You see who I mean?

In the 1930s, George Swift brought cornet virtuosity and jazz influences to the concert trumpet, building a remarkable reputation through just a handful of recordings.

By Michel Laplace

Part 2

The Art of the Musical Instrument Maker

Encyclopédie méthodique, Paris 1795

In 1795, musical instruments were thought to need no further invention, yet their materials, construction and acoustic possibilities remained open to experimentation.

By Anonyme

Brass in the Operas of Berlioz

Berlioz turned a changing brass section into a dramatic force, using horns, trombones, cornets and saxhorns to shape colour, distance, ceremony and fear.

By Benjamin Perl

Part 3

The Art of the Musical Instrument Maker

Encyclopédie méthodique, Paris 1795

By Anonyme

The Alto Trombone in the 20th Century Orchestra

By Benny Sluchin

Contract of apprenticeship as Field-trumpeter 1703

Publication of a 1703 apprenticeship contract for a field trumpeter, offering insight into training, discipline and professional life.

By Ernst W. Buser

Part 1

Brass music in Slovenia

By Igor Krivokapic

On the Sackbut or Harmonic Trumpet

From Pierre Trichet’s Traité des Instruments de Musique (c. 1640)

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.

By Pierre Trichet

Part 2

Music in an American Frontier Communal Society

Aurora Colony

Music shaped daily life in Aurora’s communal colony, from civic ceremonies and political events to touring brass bands that carried its identity across the American West.

By Deborah M. Olsen

Part 1

The Tibetan Ritual Orchestra

By Daniel Scheidegger

The Oldest Concert Band in Japan

Founded in 1895 by a local banker, Ichinomiya’s municipal band survived war and changing musical traditions, preserving a remarkable chapter of Japan’s musical history.

By Michio Sugihara

Part 4

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music

The instrument for jazz

Jazz trumpet playing balances equipment, embouchure and articulation, as changing sound ideals reshape mouthpieces, technique and the physical approach to playing.

By Michel Laplace

Part 2

School of trumpet in Liège

By Rosario Macaluso

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.

By Werner Beyer

Aimé Barelli

Trumpet crooner

French jazz, wartime Paris and changing styles shaped a trumpeter whose playing balanced virtuosity, melody and expression across several musical worlds.

By Michel Laplace

Military Bands in Europe: Exhibition

By Heinz Preiss