trombone

Trombone is the augmentative of Italian tromba (trumpet): tromba + -one = trombone, 'big trumpet.' The instrument emerged in the mid-15th century in Burgundy and northern Italy as the sackbut (from Old French sacqueboute, possibly meaning 'pull-push'). It was a trumpet fitted with a telescoping slide instead of finger holes or valves, allowing the player to change the length of the air column continuously. The slide made the trombone the first chromatic brass instrument — it could play every note, not just the harmonics.

The sackbut was the standard name in English until the 18th century, when the Italian word trombone displaced it. The Italian name won because Italian was the language of music. Every tempo marking, every dynamic marking, every expression marking in Western music is Italian. The instrument adopted the language of its artistic context. A sackbut became a trombone by changing languages.

Mozart, Beethoven, and their contemporaries used trombones sparingly and with specific dramatic intent. Mozart used them in Don Giovanni for the voice of the Commendatore — a dead man. Beethoven introduced them to the symphony in his Fifth (1808), reserving them for the triumphant finale. The trombone carried weight. It was not everyday orchestral furniture.

Jazz transformed the trombone's identity. From Kid Ory in New Orleans in the 1910s to J.J. Johnson's bebop innovations in the 1950s, the trombone became a solo voice, an improviser's instrument. The big trumpet that had accompanied dead men and triumphal finales started swinging.