Contrabass Trombone

The contrabass trombone (german: Kontrabassposaune, it, trombone contrabbasso) is the lowest instrument in the trombone family of brass instruments. First appearing built in 18′ B♭ an octave below the tenor trombone, since the late 20th century it has largely been supplanted by a less cumbersome bass-contrabass instrument pitched in 12′ F, a perfect fourth below the tenor and bass trombone. Wagner notably 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.

History

The contrabass trombone first appeared during the late Renaissance period as the (), a sackbut in 18′ B♭. The bass trombones of the time were pitched in 12′ F (), or 14′ E♭ (). 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.

The innovation that enabled a practical instrument was the double slide, first documented nearly two centuries later in 1816 by Gottfried Weber. Cited in Guion (2010). He proposed that it would lend greater facility to the bass trombone, and described the idea of using two outer slides joined together and moving on four inner tubes, which halves the distances between slide positions. Makers soon applied the double slide to bass trombones in F and E♭ that would normally require a slide handle to reach the longest positions. Newly invented models of contrabass trombone in low 16′ C and 18′ B♭ soon followed, and the first double-slide contrabass trombones were produced by Parisian maker Jean Hilaire Asté in the 1830s.

First use in orchestral music

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. 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. 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 E in the “spear” motif in ''Das Rheingold'':

In Britain in the 1860s London instrument maker Boosey & Co. built a small number of ''“Basso Profundo”'' double-slide contrabass trombones in 16′ C. These were used by British orchestras for performances of Wagner's operas, and earned the nick-name “King Kong” by players. In America at the turn of the 20th century, Conn manufactured a small number of B♭ double slide contrabass trombones, of which three are known to survive.

19th century Italy

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 an upright serpent, ophicleide, or 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''". By the time of his opera ''Otello'' in 1887, Milan instrument maker Pelitti had produced the (or sometimes, ), a valved contrabass trombone in low B♭. This instrument blended with the usual Italian trombone section of the time—three tenor valve trombones in B♭—and became the prototype for the modern cimbasso. Verdi and Puccini both wrote for this instrument in their later operas, although confusingly they often referred to it as simply to distinguish it from the tenor trombones.

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 provide missing notes in the low register between the first partial pedal F in first position and the second partial C in sixth (slide fully extended), to provide a fully chromatic range. This bass-contrabass instrument is the basic prototype of the modern contrabass trombone in F.

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.
The contrabass trombone is increasingly called for in large orchestral works by modern composers, and routinely since the late 1990s in film and video game soundtracks.

Construction

Instruments in F today are built with two independent (“in-line”) valves. These valves are usually arranged in two ways. A “traditional” configuration common with European manufacturers has valves in D and B♭, which combine to lower the instrument to A♭. The advantage of the resulting F/D/B♭/A♭ instrument is that the slide positions on the D valve are already familiar to bass trombonists using B♭/F/D instruments, and the B♭ valve is an octave below the bass trombone. The “American” style developed by American manufacturers and players has valves in C and D♭, combining to give A. This gives a contrabass in F/C/D♭/A, an arrangement familiar to bass trombonists used to the bass trombone in B♭/F/G♭/D, since the valves lower the pitch by the same intervals. Some instrument makers provide sets of tuning slides that allow changing between both configurations.

The bell diameter is similar to or slightly larger than a bass trombone, at around . The bore is typically at least as wide as the commonly used in modern bass trombones, and are commonly around . Some models employ a dual bore slide, and many models are now made using Axial or Hagmann valves.

Double slide instruments

While a regular trombone slide consists of a single U-shaped outer slide bow moving on two parallel inner slides, a “double slide” consists of two outer slide bows braced together, moving on four parallel inner slides. This doubles both the friction of movement and the length of air column that must be strictly cylindrical.

Double slide contrabass trombones are still made, mainly by Thein and Miraphone. The bore is large, varying from up to for the largest Miraphone models. They are usually built in 18′ B♭ with a valve in F, and some instruments only have six usable slide positions instead of the seven that would be expected. Miraphone also make an instrument in 16′ C with two independent valves, in G and the second tunable to A or A♭. The second valve can also be fitted with a smaller B♭ tuning slide and has a reversible linkage to place the instrument in B♭, raising it to C when engaged.

Range

The range of a modern F contrabass trombone with two valves is fully chromatic from at least C to F, with a comfortable working range of approximately E to D. Pedal tones (fundamentals) on most instruments tend to be distinct and resonant, and can be obtained to C with the six reachable open slide positions, and further to F♯ using the valves. Players of uncommon instruments with only one valve (usually in C) will find the low G above the first F pedal difficult or impossible to reach. G♭ is unobtainable without a second valve. Some mid-20th century instruments were built with a longer slide with a handle to reach the longer positions, but this is rarely encountered.

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

Due to the necessarily shorter slide, some B♭ instruments with a valve in F cannot always reach the C at full extent, and even on full-length slides the B is unobtainable. These notes are not missing on a modern valved F contrabass, and its strong pedal register from F downwards accesses 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. 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. It has also been called for in works by Berg, Webern, Varèse, Ligeti, and Boulez. Despite this, the contrabass trombone did not earn a permanent seat in the opera or symphony orchestra.

In the 21st century the contrabass trombone has appeared in orchestral works by Harrison Birtwistle, Sofia Gubaidulina, Hans Werner Henze, and Manfred Trojahn. It has also enjoyed a revival particularly in film and video game soundtracks, due to the influence of Los Angeles session players Phil Teele, Bill Reichenbach, Bob Sanders and others. The contrabass trombone first appeared in film music in Jerry Goldsmith's score for ''Planet of the Apes'' (1968), after Phil Teele and the composer agreed to try recording passages with his Miraphone double slide instrument. The popularisation of loud, low-brass heavy orchestral music in films and video games like the remake of ''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.

In jazz, it can sometimes be 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. 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.

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.

References

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Contrabass instruments
Bass (sound)
Orchestral instruments
Trombones