Contrabass trombone

The contrabass trombone is the lowest instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. A true contrabass trombone is pitched an octave below the B♭ tenor trombone. However, since the late 20th century, it has largely been supplanted by a bass-contrabass instrument pitched in F, a perfect fourth below the tenor trombone.[1] Wagner first specified the contrabass for his Der Ring des Nibelungen opera cycle in the 1870s, and it has since appeared occasionally in large orchestral works without becoming a permanent member of the modern orchestra. In the 21st century it has enjoyed something of a revival, particularly in film and video game soundtracks.[2]

Contrabass trombone
Contrabass trombone in F
Brass instrument
Classification
Playing range
Related instruments

History
For broader coverage of this topic, see Trombone § History.
Contrabass trombone in BB♭ by Öller, 1639. Scenkonstmuseet, Stockholm.

The contrabass trombone has been through a number of changes in its history. Its first incarnation during the late Renaissance period was the octav-posaune (lit. 'octave trombone'), a sackbut in 18′ B♭. The bass instruments at the time were pitched in 12′ F (quart-posaune), or 14′ E♭ (quint-posaune).[3] During this period, the contrabass trombone was built with a very long slide with an extension handle to reach the lower positions. This instrument was seldom used and generally unsatisfactory with players, being unwieldy and taxing to play.[3]: 498 

First use in orchestral music
See also: Cimbasso

Through the early 19th century tenor and bass trombone bores were enlarged and bell flares widened to allow a broader, darker timbre. The invention in 1839 of the quartventil (lit. 'fourth valve') in F was first applied to the tenor trombone, and the bass in F was gradually replaced by a "tenorbass" instrument pitched in B♭/F.[3]

In France, Bizet called for contrabass trombone in his opera La Coutes du Roi de Thulé (1869), and in his completion of Halévy's unfinished opera Noé in the same year.[4] Soon after, Wagner notably employed contrabass trombone in his four opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, writing a fourth trombone part to double on bass and contrabass trombone. For the première performances in 1876 Wagner commissioned a contrabass in 18′ B♭ from Berlin instrument maker Carl Wilhelm Moritz, who built it with a double slide.[3]: 500  The double slide and the pitch one octave lower means this instrument has the same seven positions as the tenor trombone, and a range to the low E1 in the “spear” motif in Das Rheingold:

The “spear” motif in the fourth trombone part of Wagner's Das Rheingold, intended for contrabass.

This type of contrabass trombone is still made today.

Italian composers for much of the 19th century specified the cimbasso as the bass voice of the brass section, a confusing term which over time referred to variants of the serpent, the ophicleide, and later, early variants of the tuba. By 1872, Verdi expressed his displeasure about "that devilish bombardone" (referring to the tuba) as the bass of the trombone section for his La Scala première of Aida, preferring a "trombone basso".[3]: 406–413  By the time of his opera Otello in 1887, Milan instrument maker Pelitti had produced the trombone contrabbasso Verdi, a valved contrabass trombone in low B♭. This instrument blended with the usual Italian trombone section of the time—three tenor trombones with valves—and became the prototype for the modern cimbasso.[5] Verdi and Puccini both wrote for this instrument in their later operas, although confusingly they often referred to it as the trombone basso, to distinguish it from the tenor trombones.[3]: 414 

Later innovations

In 1921, Ernst Dehmel, a German inspector of orchestras and bass trombonist from Berlin, patented a new design of contrabass trombone. The design utilised the old bass trombone in F found in Prussian military bands, and added two independent rotary valves. Even though its open slide has only six reachable positions, the valves do away with the need for a longer slide with a handle or a cumbersome double slide. The valves also fill in the missing notes between the first partial (fundamental) in first position and the second partial with the slide fully extended, to provide a fully chromatic range. This bass-contrabass instrument is the basic prototype of the modern contrabass trombone in F.[1]

Contemporary use

Since the late 20th century the contrabass trombone in F with two valve attachments has all but replaced the double slide B♭ instrument.[1] The contrabass trombone is increasingly called for in large orchestral works by modern composers, and since the late 1990s has been called for routinely in film and video game soundtracks.[2]: 33–35 

Construction
Main article: Trombone § Construction
Contrabass trombone in BB♭

Instruments in F today are typically built with two independent valves, either in a “traditional” configuration of D and B♭ which combine to place the instrument in A♭, or the “American” style in C and D♭ combining to give A.[1] Some instrument makers provide sets of tuning slides that allow changing between both configurations.[6]

The bell diameter is similar to a bass trombone at around 9+1⁄2 to 10+1⁄2 inches (24 to 27 cm). The bore is typically at least as wide as the 0.562 inches (14.3 mm) commonly used in modern bass trombones. The B♭ contrabass bore size varies between Thein's 0.587 inches (14.9 mm) and up to 0.615 inches (15.6 mm) for some Miraphone models.[7][8] The F contrabass instruments tend to have an intermediate bore size, around 0.576 to 0.605 inches (14.6 to 15.4 mm); they often employ a dual bore slide, and many models are now made using Axial or Hagmann valves.[9][10][11]

Double slide

Double slide contrabass trombones in B♭ are still made by Thein, Miraphone and others.[7][8] They usually have one rotary valve in F, and some instruments only have six usable positions instead of the seven that would be expected.[12] Miraphone offers instruments made in 16' C with a G valve, and optionally a second A valve (which together give a very low F) to obtain otherwise impractical or missing low notes.

The idea of the double slide was first documented in 1816 by Gottfried Weber, who described using two outer slides joined together and moving on four inner tubes, which halves the distance between the slide positions. He theorised that it would lend greater facility to the bass trombone, and eliminate the need for the handle.[3]: 62–63  The first double-slide trombones were produced by Parisian maker Jean Hilaire Asté in the 1830s.[1]

At the turn of the 20th century, Conn manufactured a small number of contrabass trombones, of which three are known to survive.[13]

Range
Range of the contrabass trombone in F.

The range of a modern F contrabass trombone with two valves is fully chromatic from at least C1 to F4, with a comfortable working range of approximately F1 to C4. Pedal tones (fundamentals) on most instruments tend to be distinct and resonant, and can be obtained to C1 with the six reachable open slide positions, and further to at least A♭0 using the valves. Players of uncommon instruments with only one valve (usually in C) will find the low G1 above the first F1 pedal difficult or impossible to reach. G♭1 is unobtainable without a second valve. Some instruments have a longer slide with a handle to reach the longer positions, but this is rarely encountered.

Range of the contrabass trombone in B♭.

The range of the original B♭ contrabass trombone demanded by Wagner was from E1 to E4, but composers have since required even lower notes, as low as B♭0. While pedal tones can in theory be obtained down to F0 in sixth position, in practice tones below about A0 (27 Hz) on any brass instrument are at the limit of human hearing and become indistinct vibrations.

Due to the necessarily shorter slide, B♭ instruments with a valve in F cannot reach the C1 at full extent, and the B1 is unobtainable. These notes are not missing on a modern valved F contrabass, and its pedal tones below G♭1 provide access to the lowest useful range of the older B♭ contrabass trombone.

Repertoire

After Wagner's reinvention of the B♭ contrabass trombone for his Ring cycle, it has occasionally been used by other 20th century composers. Strauss wrote for it in his opera Elektra (1908), and Schoenberg in his mammoth Gurre-Lieder (1913), scored for a section of seven trombones including alto and contrabass.[3]: 500–1  French composer D'Indy, inspired by performances of Wagner's Ring, wrote for it in several of his later works, including his last two symphonies.

In 20th-century classical music, despite the contrabass trombone not having earned a permanent seat in the opera or symphony orchestra, it has been called for in works by Berg, Webern, Varèse, Ligeti, and Boulez.[3]: 500–1 

In the 21st century the contrabass trombone has enjoyed a revival, appearing in orchestral works by Harrison Birtwistle, Sofia Gubaidulina, Hans Werner Henze, and Manfred Trojahn.[2]: 66,81  It has also become increasingly employed in film and video game soundtracks since the 1990s due to the influence of Los Angeles session players Phil Teele, Bill Reichenbach Jr., Bob Sanders and others. The popularisation of loud, low-brass heavy orchestral music in films and video games like Planet of the Apes (2001), Call of Duty (2003) and especially Inception (2010) has made the contrabass trombone nearly ubiquitous, and bass trombonists are now routinely required to double on contrabass for soundtrack session work.[2]: 33–35 

In jazz, it is sometimes employed to play the fourth (bass) trombone parts in big bands. Maria Schneider has written for it in several of her works, most recently on her 2017 album The Thompson Fields.

Performance

The double-slide contrabass trombone in B♭ has less resistance than a tuba but takes more air to produce a tone, and even modern instruments remain somewhat taxing to play.[12] Technical passages on the contrabass in F are generally able to be played with more agility than the double-slide contrabass, since for much of its range it requires a shorter column of air to vibrate and has two valves instead of one, enabling more alternate positions. Nonetheless, the instrument is best suited to more harmonic material, not unlike a tuba, rather than virtuosic melodies.[14]

The use of a contrabass trombone almost always requires the addition of a fourth player to the trombone section, and while in the past the parts written for this instrument were sometimes played on a tuba (or more recently a bass trombone), it is nowadays considered unacceptable to use anything but a contrabass trombone to play them, at least in professional settings. Most opera house orchestras and some symphony orchestras require the bass trombonist to double on the contrabass trombone.[6]

References
  1. Yeo, Douglas (2021). "Contrabass trombone". An Illustrated Dictionary for the Modern Trombone, Tuba, and Euphonium Player. Dictionaries for the Modern Musician. Peterson, Lennie (illustrator). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 36–37. ISBN 978-1-5381-5966-8. OCLC 1249799159.
  2. Kifer, Shelby Alan (May 2020). The Contrabass Trombone: Into the Twenty-First Century (DMA thesis). University of Iowa. doi:10.17077/etd.005304. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
  3. Bevan, Clifford (2000). The Tuba Family (2nd ed.). Winchester, Hampshire: Piccolo Press. ISBN 1-872203-30-2. OCLC 45648770.
  4. Dean, Winton (October 1947). "An Unfinished Opera by Bizet". Music & Letters. Oxford University Press. 28 (4): 347–363. doi:10.1093/ml/XXVIII.4.347. JSTOR 855071. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
  5. Renato Meucci (March 1996). Translated by William Waterhouse. "The Cimbasso and Related Instruments in 19th-Century Italy". The Galpin Society Journal. 49: 143–179. doi:10.2307/842397. ISSN 0072-0127. JSTOR 842397. Wikidata Q111077162.
  6. Colomer, Javier; Thein, Heinrich (2012). El Mundo del Trombón Contrabajo [The World of the Contrabass Trombone]. Cocentaina, Spain: Javier Colomer. ISBN 978-84-616-2483-6. OCLC 1001569788.
  7. "Contrabass Trombone in Bb with Double Slide". Thein Brass. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  8. "Bb contrabass slide trombone". Miraphone eG. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  9. "1690 F/C/Db/A Contra Bass Trombone". Kanstul Musical Instruments. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  10. "Ben van Dijk Model". Thein Brass. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  11. "Contrabass Trombones". Michael Rath Trombones. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  12. "Contrabass Trombone". Roseville Big Band. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
  13. Crewe, Murray (23 May 2007). "A Rare Beast" (Interview). YouTube (video). Bob Lauver. 1:20. Archived from the original on 10 March 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  14. Newton, Bret (October 4, 2015). "Contrabass Trombone". Bandestration. Archived from the original on 5 October 2015. Retrieved November 13, 2018.
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