Sorry, I meant to say that the change over to tenor was more or less
complete by the time we get to Tchaik or so. He certainly was writing
for two tenor trombones, and a bunch of the French composers even
before him were writing for three tenors. As you implied, it was a
fashion change that came about slowly, and sooner in some parts than in
others.
And yes, you are right that most of the old parts were played on tenor
trombone for most of the 20th century, with alto trombone making
somewhat of a comeback for the older repertoire recently. Even twenty
years ago, when I started, Brahms was mostly being played on tenor
trombone on the first parts, whereas most of the major orchestras use
alto now.
And that is GREAT that you are writing modern works for alto trombone!
Thank you for the clarification. As I said, I am not really an expert
on the literature - I just hear the guys I play with talking about it,
and see the parts.
Christopher
On Jun 21, 2006, at 2:46 PM, Robert Patterson wrote:
I don't know of much RECENT music written for alto-tenor-bass
orchestra
sections, though that was overwhelmingly the case from Haydn up to
Tchakovsky or so.
Are you sure Tchaik wanted alto trombone? Generally, my impression is
that alto trombone went out of fashion towards the end of the 19th
cent. (replaced by a tenor). It seems to be only recently that alto
trombone is re-emerging in mainstream professional orchestras. Before
that, even alto parts were usually played on tenors.
Personally, I like alto trombone very much. My latest orch. piece used
alto/ten/bass rather than the (now) more standard tenor 1/2, bass.
Fortunately the player has and enjoys playing an alto trombone. After
hearing it, I will probably rescore a few passages for tenor, though.
Alto trombone can't achieve the dark tenor sound, which is great
unless you want the dark tenor sound.
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