Valve trombone
Definition
The valve trombone is an approximately nine-foot length of tubing (which produces a fundamental pitch of B-flat 1) with two U-shaped bends. It has a cylindrical bore for most of its length and a flaring bell. This trombone has been built in every size from alto to contrabass, just as a regular slide trombone is, though it is the tenor valve trombone which has seen the most widespread use. The most common valve-trombone has three valves, like a trumpet. However, there are many other versions that use four or even seven valves.The Valve trombone plays just like a trumpet (an octave lower). It’s very handy for euphonium or trumpet players to go for a valve trombone since the fingerings are exactly the same.
Context
There is no evidence to suggest that valve trombones were introduced in order to render slide instruments obsolete, but they were perceived as having technical advantages. Fast passages have become more manageable. It also repealed the impression that fast playing trombones are slghtly behind compared to valve instruments. Furthermore, trills have become easier to play. Some composers have even begun to write for the valve trombone rather than the slide trombone. Giuseppe Verdi, in particular, made extensive use of the ability of the valve trombone to negotiate its way through fast passages. Another example could be found in Gioachino Antonio Rossini’s William Tell overture, where the trombones have to play very fast chromatical passages. However, the valve trombone has its own drawbacks compared to the slide trombone. Many trombone players, for example, believe that a valve trombone has a stuffier, less open tone.It lacks the fullness and broadness of the slide trombone tone. Moreover, the valve trombone has a completely different articulation than the slide trombone. It depends on what you are performing and how you want to sound, but it could be seen as the disappearance of the unique trombone articulation. This video perfectly covers all those differences. https[://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-6nZZrs9Xk]
As the B♭ tenor valve trombone uses the same fingering as the B♭ trumpet, it is occasionally a doubling instrument for jazz trumpeters. Notable jazz musicians who play the B♭ tenor valve trombone include Maynard Ferguson, Bob Brookmeyer, Clifford Thornton, Juan Tizol of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Rob McConnell and Bob Enevoldsen.[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxha-rY8QGM ]
History
Valve trombones were first produced in the 1820s in Vienna, Austria. The invention of the valve trombone must be seen as an outcome of the developing technology of rotary valve and piston valve instruments. The rotary-valve trombone pictured and described here is in the tenor range (like a tenor trombone), but historically, valve trombones have been made in the bass and alto registers as well. For example, a contrabass valve trombone is called a cimbasso. The modern cimbasso is most commonly used in opera scores by Giuseppe Verdi, from Oberto to Aida, and in some Giacomo Puccini operas too.
In the 19th century, the valve trombone was used in military bands, including horse-mounted cavalry bands, and frequently in orchestras alongside slide trombones. In the 20th century, it came to be used in school marching bands and as an auxiliary instrument in the domain of jazz. The tenor valve trombone does not possess a repertoire of its own; instead, a performer has available to them a considerable repertoire of music composed for the trombone. It is, today, considered an auxiliary instrument that amateur or professional trombonists and euphonium/baritone horn players might own for occasional use.
Discourse (optional)
The invention of the valve radically changed the design, construction, and function of brass instruments. Following the introduction of the valve trombone during the 1820s, the slide was considered to be unwieldy and cumbersome, and therefore, inadequate for performing technically difficult music. Trombonists in America and Europe began to select the valve over the slide trombone as their instrument of preference. Even Arthur Pryor (1870-1942), who became famous throughout the world for his virtuosic slide trombone performances, began his career as a valve trombonist. Howerver by the end of the 19th century,valve trombones intonation and tone quality issues, mass production of reliable, higher quality slide trombones led to a return of original slide trombone popularity. David James Blaikley wrote ‘‘The trombone is the last possible instrument to which to apply pistons with an advantage, the reason being the great length of the cylindrical tube, and a very slight interference with the freedom of vibration when you have such a great length of small tube, with So many bends and turns in the tubes are necessitated by the valve action, is rather a disadvantage. Nothing can be better as far as it goes than the slide’’. Despite the continuing growth in the usage of the slide trombone, valve trombones have remained popular in, for example, Austria, Italy, Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Spain, Portugal, South America and India. Today, valve trombone is most common in military bands (both marching and cavalry) and pit orchestra contexts, where the space necessary for valve trombone’s compactness trump its intonation and sound quality shortcomings.
Wider context (optional)
The player, either standing or seated, grasps with their left hand the valve joint near the rotors and with their right hand the other side of the valve joint, placing the first three fingers of the right hand above the rotor buttons and positioning the mouthpiece against their lips. The bell joint rests on their left shoulder with the bell facing forwards.
Further research (optional)
Continent: Europe
Region: Western Europe
Nation: Austria
Formation: cosmopolitan (Euro-American)
Category: aerophone
Air cavity design: tubular - cylindrical with flaring open distal end
Source and direction of airstream: player exhalation through mouth into air cavity; unidirectional
Energy transducer that activates sound: lip reed (player’s lips) placed over cup mouthpiece at end of tube
Means of modifying shape and dimensions of standing wave in air cavity: incremental lengthening with valve mechanism of air cavity in which the standing wave is active
Overblowing utilization: overblowing at consecutive partials
Pitch production: multiple - changing length of standing wave by adding tube length with valves or slide and by selecting partials through overblowing
Dimensions
Approx 42 in. (106cm) length
Primary Materials
metal
References
- weblink: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_trombone]
- weblink: [http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/cultures-of-brass/trombone/The_Valve_Trombone.pdf
- weblink: [http://kimballtrombone.com/2013/07/01/the-valve-trombone-in-iconography/] 4.weblink: [http://kimballtrombone.com/2013/07/01/the-valve-trombone-in-iconography/]
- weblink: [https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/umi-uncg-1046.pdf]
- weblink: [https://omeka-s.grinnell.edu/s/MusicalInstruments/item/2949]