Bass trombone

The bass trombone is a special kind of instrument that belongs to the trombone family. It is a brass instrument, like a trumpet or a saxophone, and it helps make deep, rich sounds in a band or orchestra.

Modern bass trombones are tuned to the same note as the tenor trombone, which is called B♭. But they are bigger, with a wider tube, a larger bell, and a bigger mouthpiece. This helps them play very low notes.

Most bass trombones also have two extra valves. These valves help fill in the missing notes just above the very lowest sounds. This makes the bass trombone very useful for playing a wide range of music.

History

For broader coverage of this topic, see Trombone § History.

The earliest bass trombones were tuned a little lower than regular tenor trombones. They had a slightly bigger tube and a larger bell, plus a longer slide to reach very low notes. These old instruments had different names depending on how much lower they were tuned.

The oldest surviving bass trombone was made in France in 1593. More examples from the late 1500s and early 1600s exist from makers in Nuremberg. These match descriptions from a book written around 1614–1620.

Bass trombones were used in Europe during the Renaissance and early Baroque periods. By the 1700s, bass trombones in F or E♭ were used in Germany, Austria, Sweden, and France.

The "tenor-bass" trombone

In 1821, a German maker created a special trombone he called the Tenorbaßposaune. It was a B♭ tenor trombone with a bigger tube and mouthpiece for playing low notes, but it couldn’t play notes below E₂. Later, valves were added to trombones, which replaced the slide. In 1839, the same maker invented a valve that let a B♭ tenor trombone play down a fourth lower, into F. This helped fill in missing notes and became popular for bass trombone parts.

The bass trombone in Britain

From the mid-1800s, the bass trombone in G was popular in Britain and the British Empire, and also used a bit in France. British military and brass bands used the G bass trombone a lot, made by companies like Besson, Boosey & Co., and Hawkes & Son. It had a long handle on the slide to reach far positions, earning the nickname “kidshifter.” Some French instruments had a valve to extend the range lower.

British orchestras started using them in the early 1900s. In 1932, Boosey & Hawkes made a “Betty” model with a valve and a longer slide for very low notes. British composers usually didn’t write notes below a certain low note for these trombones until valves made it possible.

The G bass trombone stayed in use in orchestras until the 1950s, when British players started using larger American-made B♭ instruments. The G trombone continued in brass bands and period orchestras into the 1980s.

Recent developments

The modern bass trombone developed mainly in the United States. In the early 1900s, makers tried to fix the missing very low note on B♭/F trombones by adding a second valve. In the 1920s, some made trombones with a valve that could change the F tubing to E. The first true double-valve trombone, where you could use the second valve while playing, was made in 1937.

In the 1950s, some orchestral players had custom double-valve instruments made, and later manufacturers adopted these designs. In 1961, Vincent Bach released their double-valve “50B2” model. In the late 1960s, custom instruments appeared with a second valve that could lower the trombone to G. The first commercially available trombone with this was the Olds “S-24G” model in 1973.

The early 1980s brought the axial flow valve, called the “Thayer” valve after its inventor. It made playing easier and became common on high-end trombone models from US makers by the 1990s. This led to more innovations in valve designs.

Construction

Main article: Trombone § Construction

The modern bass trombone is like the tenor trombone, but it is wider to make low sounds. It has a larger bell and mouthpiece for playing low notes.

The bass trombone usually has two valves that change the pitch. These valves help fill in notes between very low and higher sounds. The first valve lowers the pitch, and the second valve can be used alone or with the first to lower the pitch more. Some older bass trombones had only one valve, but they were made in different ways to help players reach low notes.

Range

The bass trombone with two valves can play notes from very low to very high. It can go as low as the note B♭₀ and as high as B♭₄ or more.

In older music, especially from France, composers sometimes wrote very high notes for the trombone. Most orchestra music uses notes in the lower range. In the 1900s, composers started using even lower and higher notes. Today, both classical and jazz music use the wide range of sounds from the bass trombone.

Repertoire

During the Romantic period, orchestras, wind ensembles, and brass bands usually had two tenor trombones and at least one bass trombone. In a modern jazz big band, the bass trombone often plays the lowest notes, helping to support the group.

George Roberts, known as "Mr. Bass Trombone," was one of the first players to show the solo possibilities of the instrument. One of the first big classical solo pieces for the bass trombone was the Concerto for Bass Trombone by Thom Ritter George.

Images

Bass trombone in F

Bass trombone in E♭