Robert Patterson wrote:
I think this all is part of the homogification of trombone sound. My
preference is a brighter trombone sound easily distingushable from a
french horn or euphonium, but (at least a few years ago) all the
trombonists seemed to be striving for the same darkness as those other
instruments. In that world, large bores and large mouthpieces are the
order of the day, and the difference between tenor and bass is
completely blurred.
But it was not always thus, and the re-emergence of the alto trombone I
hope may signal a re-emergence of differentiated trombone sounds in
general as an ideal. Yin/yang.
In my personal case, my bass trombone part calls for sustained, exposed
pedal F's at ppp dynamic. While this note is technically equally
possible on the tenor/bass instrument the 2nd player is playing, only
the bass trombone player is living his life for the chance to play this
note. The difference between the bass and the tenor trombone is as much
attitude as it is axe.
Homogification?? That's a new one. :)
We are also talking about orchestral work here.
In the jazz world (where I do the vast majority of my work) the trend is
not as strongly toward big horns - a 'symhony standard tenor' has a .547
bore, but a lot of jazz players juse that with a .564 trigger attachment
for bass 'bone work in big bands any more, and a .500 bore is standard
for lead and 2nd 'bone parts. I play 3rd 'bone in a couple of bands and
use a .525 bore horn with a trigger, but the Bach 16M and King 3b (bores
ranging from .500 to .509) are almost the default setting for jazz lead.
And I use a King 2b Liberty (dual .581/.591 bore) for jazz leads and a
lot of small combo work to blend with (usually) 1 sax or a sax and
trumpet - the bigger horns would not blend well at all, and the .547
would not be nimble enough to solo on.
Homogenization is mostly a theoretical pursuit - orchestras go in one
direction, jazz players go another, and the studio cats do whatever they
want (if you want to see a wide variety of horns, go to a commercial
scoring session some time!)
cd
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