Given the amount of research Shifrin has done, together with the music
of the Dvorak 8th symphony (quite nonidomatic for slide trombone) and
other Dvorak excerpts, I'll accept it, at least until your paper comes
out. <g>
(BTW, is the "slide trombone specialist ... named a permanent
instructor" in 1903 the one that Shifrin mentioned as teaching a year
and then committing suicide?)
All that matters, in this case, was what instrument was in Dvorak's
head. That's hard to determine, but fun to try.
For me, this all has bearing on the extremely unusual trombone writing
in the Janacek _Sinfonietta_, written decades later but still a great
challenge on slide trombones. If it were written for three or four of
the four-valve Bb valve instruments, the parts would make much more sense.
John Howell wrote:
Hi, Christopher (and Ray). If only these question were that simple!
Certainly the information on the Czech Conservatory is strong, but
only if one assumes that (a) all symphony trombonists (or other
instrumentalists) were hired out of that Conservatory and none were
hired from other countries (unproven); and (b) that between 1860, when
slide trombone was no longer banned from the Conservatory, and 1903,
when a slide trombone specialist was named a permanent instructor, no
one else was teaching slide trombone technique, perhaps as what we
would call an adjunct. Which actually seems unlikely, given that the
Czech Philharmonic started using slide trombones in 1896, and used
them exclusively from 1901. And there also seems to be an assumption
that Dvorák composed exclusively for that orchestra, which I suspect
was definitely NOT the case, and a question of whether musicians in
other orchestras in other countries would even have considered what
the Praguers thought was proper!!
Facts are such messy things, but they do make a musicologist's life
interesting! This brief article (and thanks for the link) speaks not
to the question of alto trombones, but to that of slide vs. valve
trombones, but it's well worth knowing about for those interested in
organology (which contrary to Mr. Shifrin's surprise is the accepted
term used quite widely in musicological circles).
(And in passing, are we correct in using the terms "Czech"
Conservatory and Philharmonic, given that Czechoslovakia did not exist
until it was created out of Bohemia and Moravia after WW I, and the
"Czech Republic" is an invention of the late '80s or early '90s? What
were they called in Dvorák's lifetime?)
John
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