On Jun 22, 2006, at 2:45 PM, Andrew Stiller wrote:
Another bit of confusion: I think that a lot of the very wide-bore, big-bell btrbs. that some of you have been discussing are the same thing that I have been calling an F contrabass trombone.
No, not really.
If there is a distinction betw. the two, I don't know what it is.
Fundamental frequency. The bass trombone that almost every North American orchestra uses has a fundamental frequency of Bb, same as the tenor trombone. The F contrabass is pitched a 4th lower, and has a correspondingly longer slide, which means it has an extension handle for human beings with non-gorilla arms to get the lower positions.
I never understood why they call THIS one a contrabass, as it is only a tone lower than the old-fashioned G bass trombone, and has a bore and mouthpiece that are very similar to an orchestral "tenor-bass" trombone. (BTW, nobody uses the term "tenor-bass" any more. We just call it a bass trombone.) The F contrabass plays more like a bass trombone than like a BBb contrabass, and sound more like the regular bass trombone too. so your confusion there is justified. But to the eye,
Long with extension = F contrabass (although the G bass looks like this, too! Watch out!) Much larger bore than the G bass. Same length as a tenor, but big bore and bell and usually has two triggers = bass trombone. Double slide = BBb contrabass. Responds like a bad tuba. I played one made by Mirafone for a year and never got an even scale out of it past the first octave.
In my book I use the term cbtrb. to refer only to the "true" contrabass in BBb, with double-barreled slide, or the valved equivalent; but following discussions last year with people on the contrabass list, I have been persuaded that any wide-bore trombone that can readily play down to the piano's bottom A, with no gaps, should be considered a contrabass trombone. Since there are a lot of professional trombonists gathered here, I'd like to ask how and where they themselves draw the line.
I just use the manufacturers names. But I still ask why the F contrabass is not called an F bass trombone. Whacky.
Christopher _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
