2
pitched in F.1 Bass trombonists in the United States had few problems making this instrument
work within the context of the orchestra until the Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered Béla
Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra in 1943. Bartók was accustomed to writing for bass trombones
pitched in F as they were still in use in Germany and central Europe in the early twentieth
century,2 so he wrote for this version of the instrument in the Concerto for Orchestra.3 This
discrepancy in bass trombone models was only problematic during one passage of the work
when the bass trombone must perform a solo glissando from a B below the bass clef staff to the
F a tritone above. This glissando is simple on the F bass trombone Bartók had in mind; however,
the same glissando is physically impossible on a bass trombone pitched in B-flat with one valve
pitched in F because the maximum interval available for a glissando on the F-attachment is a
perfect fourth from C to F.
Due to the difficulties in performing this glissando, several bass trombonists from major
American symphony orchestras collaborated with instrument manufacturers throughout the
1950s to design new bass trombone prototypes that used two valves which could be operated
simultaneously, rather than a single valve that was standard at the time.4 Depending on the
tuning selected by the performer, the additional second valve produced the pitch E, E-flat, or D
in first position with both valves engaged simultaneously.5 Regardless of which tuning the
1 Byron Thomas Pillow, “The Bass Trombone in the United States and the Emergence of a Distinct, American-Style Instrument: 1755-1940” (Master’s thesis, University of South Dakota, 2017), 85.
2 Anthony C. Baines, et al, "Trombone," Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press, accessed November 8, 2017, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/40576.
3 David Guion, A History of the Trombone (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2010), 5-6.
4 Douglas Yeo, “EVOLUTION: The Double Valve Bass Trombone,” International Trombone Association Journal 43, no. 3 (July 2015), 35.
5 Ashley Hollis Alexander, “A Short History of the Trombone with Emphasis on Construction Innovations and Performance Modifications from 1945 to 1970” (Master’s thesis, North Texas State University, 1971), 45.