Books › A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891 › scan 195
Scan 195
A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891
8 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 175. See the scan on archive.org.
11511) calls it busaune, and from this word the modern German name of posaune has been derived. In Virdung's work an engraving of the instrument is given, which has been reproduced by Luscinius (Nachtgall) in his Musurgia, already spoken of in this work.
3The sackbut was for a long time a very popular instrument in England, and the best players upon the Continent were often Englishmen. In the private band of Henry VIII. there were, among other instrumentalists, ten sackbut players; and appreciation of the English artist is shown by the fact that in 1604 King Charles III., of Lorraine, endeavoured to procure sackbut players from England. Of the use of the instrument in Lorraine further account may be found in the beautiful work of M. Jacquot (La Musique en Lorraine, Paris, 1886).
5In the time of Prætorius (about 1618) the sackbuts formed a complete family, which he thus arranges: (1) alt or discant posaun, the compass of which was from B to d''; (2) gemeine rechte posaun; having a compass from E to g'; (3) quart posaun, the compass of which was A, to c'; (4) and the octav posaun from E, to a. Prætorius mentions that the octav posaun was usually of a larger bore than the others, and had a slide double the length of that of the ordinary instrument. This system was an improvement designed by one Hans Schreiber, the octav posaun usually made being slightly different. All the instruments are described at length, and there are drawings which show the details fully. The use of crooks was employed when Prætorius wrote, and they were termed krümmbügle, and placed as now, between the instrument itself and the mouthpiece. A form of crook called tortil came into use some years later, and is described by Mersenne. The tortil was placed in the middle of the instrument, between the bell and the slide, and consisted of a coil of tubing sufficiently long to lower the pitch of the instrument a fourth, in order that it might serve as a bass to concerts of hautboys. And as a bass instrument the trombone was generally used, and had supplanted, as early as 1618, the use of the cornetto torto, or bass zinck, the intonation of which was faulty, and the tone harsh and strident.
7The theoretical principle upon which the trombone is constructed is simple, and consists merely in lengthening the air column sufficiently to produce the difference of a semitone in pitch. This result is obtained by means of the slide, which is made long enough to allow of
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