A sackbut is an early version of the trombone used during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Like a trombone, a sackbut has a sliding tube that changes length to alter pitch. However, it differs from later trombones by having a smaller, more cylindrical inside tube and a less wide bell. Unlike the slide trumpet from which it developed, the sackbut has a U-shaped slide made of two parallel tubes instead of one.

The word "trombone" was used before "sackbut" by about 20 years. Earlier records show the German term "Posaune" was even older. The term "sackbut," which came from French, was used in England until the instrument was no longer commonly played in the 18th century. When the sackbut became popular again in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Italian term "trombone" became more common. Today, an older trombone or a copy of one is called a sackbut.

The bell of the sackbut was more resonant because it did not have a tuning slide and was loosely supported instead of tightly braced. This design, along with its smaller tube and bell, created a "covered, blended sound" that worked well with voices, zincks, and crumhorns, as in an a cappella performance.

When the sackbut was revived, it changed in several ways. By the mid-18th century, the bell became more flared, tuning crooks were no longer used, and flat, removable supports were replaced with tubular braces. These changes made the instrument produce a stronger sound, suitable for outdoor performances in marching bands where trombones became popular again in the 19th century. Before the early 19th century, trombone players adjusted tuning using a crook placed between the bell and slide or rarely between the mouthpiece and slide, instead of the modern tuning slide on the bell curve. Older trombones also usually lacked water keys, stockings, a leadpipe, or a slide lock, though these parts are not essential for sound and may be included in replicas. The size of the tube inside the instrument remained varied, as it still is today.

Terminological history

The first known slide instrument was called trompette des ménestrels. This instrument was first mentioned in Burgundy in the 1420s and later appeared in other parts of Europe. The name helped people tell it apart from trompettes de guerre, which were war trumpets with fixed lengths.

In the 15th century, the word "sackbutt" appeared and was linked to slide instruments. There are two possible sources for the name: it may come from Middle French words sacquer (to pull) and bouter (to push), or from Spanish words sacar (to draw or pull) and bucha (a tube or pipe). The term was spelled in many ways in English, such as sacbutt, sackbutte, sagbut, shagbolt, sacabushe, shakbusse, and shakbusshe.

In France, the instrument was called sacqueboute, and in Spain, it was called sacabuche. These names were used in England and France until the 18th century.

In Scotland, in 1538, the slide instrument was called draucht trumpet (drawn trumpet), while the weir trumpet (war trumpet) had a fixed length.

In Germany, the instrument was originally called Posaune, which appeared around 1450 and is still used today. This word, along with bason, comes from the Latin busine, meaning a straight trumpet.

In Italy, the instrument is called trombone, a name that comes from the Latin tromba or drompten, used in the Low Countries. The first written records of trombone date to around 1440, but it is unclear if this was a nickname for a trumpet player. In 1487, a writer connected the words trompone and sacqueboute and noted that the instrument played the contratenor part in a dance band.

History

The trombone was created from the buisine trumpet. Before 1375, trumpets were made as long straight tubes with a bell-shaped end.

The word "sackbut" and similar terms appear in some Bible translations, such as the Geneva Bible and King James Bible. These terms were used incorrectly because the Latin word in the Vulgate Bible actually described a type of harp.

Starting in 1375, artwork shows trumpets with bends and some shaped like the letter "S." By around 1400, paintings depict trumpets with a loop shape. Later in the 15th century, a single-tube slide was added to the trumpet. This slide trumpet was called a "trompette des ménestrels" in alta cappella bands.

The first clear example of a U-shaped slide moving on two inner tubes appears in a painting by Filippino Lippi in Rome, titled The Assumption of the Virgin, created between 1488 and 1493.

From the 15th to the 19th centuries, the trombone’s design changed very little, except for a slight widening of the bell during the classical era. Since the 19th century, the size of the trombone’s body and bell has grown much larger.

The trombone was one of the most important instruments in Baroque music that used multiple choirs, along with the cornett and organ.

Instrument sizes

Sackbuts come in different sizes. According to Michael Praetorius, these sizes include:

The pitch of the trombones has (theoretically) increased by one half-step since the 17th century. This is discussed in the section about pitch.

The tenor-sized sackbut is called "Gemeine," which means common or ordinary. This suggests it was the most frequently used trombone. The larger bass sackbuts have longer slides and include a hinged handle on the slide stay, which helps musicians reach the extended positions.

A large contrabass sackbut called the Octav-Posaun (meaning "octave trombone") was used in the 16th and early 17th centuries. Only a few of these instruments remain today. One original example in B♭, built in 1639 by Georg Nicolaus Öller in Stockholm, is kept in the Scenkonstmuseet. Additionally, Ewald Meinl created a modern copy of this instrument, which is now owned and played by Wim Becu.

Construction

The bore size of Renaissance and Baroque trombones is about 10 mm (0.39 in), and the bell diameter is rarely larger than 10.5 cm (4.1 in). This is different from modern tenor trombones, which usually have bores between 12.7 mm (0.50 in) and 13.9 mm (0.55 in), and bells ranging from 17.8 cm (7.0 in) to 21.6 cm (8.5 in).

Modern copies of sackbuts give up some original features to use modern manufacturing methods and tools that make them easier for today’s players to use, while keeping many of the original design elements.

Some original sackbuts could be taken apart into straight tubes, curved tubes, bell flares, and stays, with metal fittings at the joints. Mersenne included a diagram showing this. (It is easy to imagine how adding an extra tube could change the instrument into something similar to a natural trumpet.) There is a discussion about whether the original instruments used tight fittings, wax, or another substance to join parts. Modern sackbut copies are usually soldered together. Some modern versions use glue to allow a looser fit for better sound without the risk of breaking.

Tuning slides were introduced in the very late 18th century. Early trombonists adjusted pitch using the slide and by adding crooks of different shapes and sizes. Modern reproductions often include a bell bow tuning slide or a telescopic slide between the slide and bell sections. Crooks are still used, along with different sizes of bell bow sections for larger pitch changes.

The stays on historical sackbuts were flat. While the bell stay remained flat, starting around 1660, the slide stays became tubular. Many modern copies use round slide stays because they are more comfortable to play and easier to make.

A loose connection between the bell stay and the bell is believed to help the bell produce a better, more resonant sound. Original instruments had a hinge joint (a looser connection helped slides move more easily). Modern copies with a tuning slide in the bell often need extra support for the slide’s movement. This is done either by adding an extra stay near the tuning slide or by using a joint that allows only limited movement in one direction.

The original method to make slide tubes was to roll a flat piece of metal around a solid cylinder and solder the edges together. Modern manufacturers now draw the tubes. They also often use stockings, which were invented around 1850. Additionally, modern slides are usually made of nickel silver with chrome plating, which gives a smoother finish and quieter action compared to the brass used in original instruments.

The water key was added in the 19th century, but modern reproductions often include it.

Pitch

Until the 18th century, the trombone was tuned to the note A, which had a higher pitch than it does today—between 460 and 480 Hz. Around the 18th century, the trombone began to be associated with the note B♭, which has a slightly lower pitch of about 440 Hz. This change did not require altering the instrument itself; it only involved renaming the notes for specific slide positions. However, this shift means that music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods was originally intended to be played at the higher pitch. Evidence for this includes:

• Fixed-pitch instruments, such as cornetts and organs, were commonly tuned to A=460–480 Hz ("Chorton") during the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Similar high pitches were also used in Renaissance wind bands.
• A book by Aurelio Virgiliano from around 1600 explains that the first slide position on a trombone produces the notes A, E, A, C, E, and G.
• In 1687, Daniel Speer’s work confirms these notes for the slide’s full-in position, while noting that the slide must be slightly moved outward to reach the note C.
• Praetorius describes the alto trombone as being in D, the tenor trombone in A, and the bass trombone in D.

Surviving tenor trombones are most closely tuned to B♭ at A=440 Hz, which is similar to A=466 Hz. This means that a trombone now considered to be in B♭ (with B♭ in first position) at A=440 Hz was originally thought of as being in A (with A in first position) at A=466 Hz. Surviving bass trombones in D at A=466 Hz (or E♭ at 440 Hz), such as those from 1612 (Leipzig) and around 1630 (Nuremberg), support Praetorius’ descriptions. Additionally, Rognoni’s musical setting of "Suzanne ung jour" includes a note that is a tone lower than the lowest note playable on a bass trombone in F; this note fits within the range of a bass trombone in D, which would be in the modern fifth slide position.

Many musical groups now perform at A=466 Hz to better reflect historical practices.

Timbre

The sackbut was described as a good instrument for playing with loud groups outdoors and soft groups indoors.

Alta capella bands are shown in drawings playing outside with groups that include shawms, trumpets, and trombones. When played forcefully, sackbuts can create a loud and bright sound.

The sackbut also plays softly better than a modern trombone. Its sound has a more delicate, voice-like quality. The older mouthpieces, with flat edges and shallow bowls, help the player make a wide range of sounds and articulations. This flexibility allows for a playing style similar to singing and helps create expressive musical phrases.

Mersenne wrote in 1636, "It should be played by a skilled musician so that it does not sound like a trumpet, but instead matches the sweetness of the human voice. Otherwise, it may produce a warlike sound instead of a peaceful one."

Lorenzo da Lucca was said to have a playing style with a certain grace and lightness that was very pleasing.

Performance practice

In musical traditions that started before the Baroque period and continued into it, musicians were expected to add expression to written music by using a mix of simple "graces" (single notes) and longer "divisions" (also called "diminutions"). Instructions for adding effective ornaments without disrupting the melody or harmony are found in Italian music guides from the 16th and early 17th centuries. Performers during this time were taught to use specific ornament types, including the accento, portar della voce, tremolo, groppo, trillo, esclamationo, and intonatio.

Cornetts and trombones were expected to play divisions that were not messy or overly complicated, but instead added lively and charming details that enhanced the music’s beauty and spirit. This idea was described by Bottrigari in Venice in 1594.

Along with improvisation, these guides also discuss articulation, or how notes are separated. Francesco Rognoni, writing in 1620, said that tonguing (the way wind players start notes) was crucial for creating a good and beautiful sound, especially on the cornett (which had a role similar to the trombone). The guides explain the strength of different consonants, such as "le," "de," and "te." However, the main focus is on playing fast notes smoothly, like the "gorgia" of the human voice, using "soft and smooth" double tonguing ("lingua riversa") with "le re le re." This is contrasted with "te che te che," which is described as harsh and unpleasing. The pairing of notes from these techniques is similar to how string players are taught to slur pairs of eighth notes with one bow stroke per quarter beat.

Another important part of early music is the musical temperament, which affects how instruments are tuned. During the Middle Ages, music favored intervals like the fourth and fifth, which is why Pythagorean tuning was used. The interval of a third was considered dissonant until the Renaissance, when it became a consonant sound in compositions. This change led to the widespread use of meantone temperament. By the 17th century, Well temperament became more popular as the number of usable keys increased. Temperament influences the color and sound of a piece, so modern performances using equal temperament may not accurately reflect the composers’ original intentions.

These older tunings are based on the natural harmonic series of brass instruments like the sackbut. Because the sackbut’s bell is smaller than a modern trombone, its harmonic series is closer to a perfect harmonic series, which is the basis for just tuning. Without moving the slide, the first to second harmonic forms a perfect octave, the second to third harmonic creates a fifth slightly wider than equal temperament, and the fourth to fifth harmonic forms a major third slightly narrower than in equal temperament. These adjusted intervals help chords sound rich and are the foundation of meantone tuning. Daniel Speer noted, "Once you find a good C (in third position), this is also where you will find your F♯." On a modern orchestra, playing a sounding C and F♯ in the same position sounds out of tune, but in a sackbut choir, if all players use natural harmonics, they sound perfectly in tune.

Reading original music from this time can teach much about historical performance. Publishers like SPES and Arnaldo Forni Edition offer facsimile copies of trombone music from this era. To understand these, one must learn about old clefs, time signatures, ligatures, and notational conventions used during the time.

Symbolism

The sound of sackbuts (and trombones) has been thought for a long time to be especially solemn and noble. These instruments were connected to death and the afterlife. They were seen as symbols of divine presence, the voice of angels, and tools of judgment. This symbolism appears in works such as L'Orfeo, Alceste, The Magic Flute, the Death March from Saul, and funeral aequales.

This connection may have been influenced by the way people in the Renaissance period did not clearly tell apart natural horns, slide trumpets, and trombones. These instruments were often used and called the same name. In Martin Luther’s 1534 German Bible translation, the Greek words shophar and salpigx were translated as Posaune. At that time, Posaune could refer to a natural horn or other brass instrument. However, later it came to mean only "trombone." Similarly, English translations usually use "trumpet" and rarely "horn" or "shofar." This is why later readers of the Luther Bible might see a passage like: “…we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trombone; for the trombone shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible” (1 Corinthians 15:52).

Repertoire

The sackbut replaced the slide trumpet in the 15th century alta capella wind bands that were common in towns throughout Europe playing courtly dance music. See Waits.

Another key use of the trombone was in ceremonies, in conjunction with the trumpet. In many towns in Germany and Northern Italy, 'piffari' bands were employed by local governments throughout the 16th century to give regular concerts in public squares and would lead processions for festivals. Piffari usually contained a mix of wind, brass and percussion instruments and sometimes viols.

Venice's doge had his own piffari company and they gave an hour-long concert in the Piazza each day, as well as sometimes performing for services in St. Mark's. Each of the six confraternities in Venice also had their own independent piffari groups too, which would all play at a lavish procession on the feast of Corpus Domini. These groups are in addition to the musicians employed by St. Mark's to play in the balconies with the choir (the piffari would play on the main level).

It also was used in church music both for instrumental service music and as a doubling instrument for choral music. The treble and high alto parts were most often played by cornetts or shawms, with the violin sometimes replacing the cornett in 17th century Italian music.

The first record of trombones being used in churches was in Innsbruck 1503. Seville Cathedral's records show employment of trombonists in 1526, followed by several other Spanish cathedrals during the 16th century, used not only for ceremonial music and processionals, but also for accompaniment of the liturgical texts as well, doubling voices.

The sacred use of trombones was brought to a fine art by the Andrea Gabrieli, Giovanni Gabrieli and their contemporaries c.1570-1620 Venice and there is also evidence of trombonists being employed in churches and cathedrals in Italy at times during the second half of the 16th century in Bologna, Rome, Padua, Mantua and Modena.

Since ensembles had flexible instrumentation at this time, there is relatively little music before Giovanni Gabrieli's publication Symphoniae sacrae (1597) that specifically mentions trombones. The only example currently known is the music by Francesco Corteccia for the Medici wedding 1539.

The 17th century brings two pieces of real solo trombone repertoire.

Giovanni Martino Cesare wrote La Hieronyma, (Musikverlag Max Hieber, MH6012) the earliest known piece for accompanied solo trombone. It comes from Cesare's collection Musicali Melodie per voci et instrumenti a una, due, tre, quattro, cinque, e sei published in Munich 1621 of 28 pieces for a mixture of violins, cornetts, trombone, vocal soloists and organ continuo. The collection also contains La Bavara for four trombones.

The other solo trombone piece of the 17th century, Sonata trombone & basso (modern edition by H Weiner, Ensemble Publications), was written around 1665. This anonymous piece is also known as the 'St. Thomas Sonata' because it was kept in the library of the Saint Thomas Augustinian Monastery in Brno, Czech Republic.

Francesco Rognoni was another composer who specified the trombone in a set of divisions (variations) on the well-known song Suzanne ung jour (London Pro Musica, REP15). Rognoni was a master violin and gamba player whose treatise Selva di Varie passaggi secondo l'uso moderno (Milan 1620 and facsimile reprint by Arnaldo Forni Editore 2001) details improvisation of diminutions and Suzanne is given as one example. Although most diminutions are written for organ, string instruments or cornett, Suzanne is "per violone over Trombone alla bastarda". With virtuosic semiquaver passages across the range of the instrument, it reflects Praetorius' comments about the large range of the tenor and bass trombones, and good players of the Quartposaune (bass trombone in F) could play fast runs and leaps like a viola bastarda or cornetto. The term "bastarda" describes a technique that made variations on all the different voices of a part song, rather than just the melody or the bass: "considered illegitimate because it was not polyphonic".

In the 17th century, a considerable repertoire of chamber music using sackbut with various combinations of violins, cornetts and dulcians, often with continuo, appeared. Composers included Dario Castello, Giovanni Battista Fontana, Giovanni Paolo Cima, Andrea Cima, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer and Matthias Weckmann.

Antonio Bertali wrote several trio sonatas for 2 violins, trombone and bass continuo in the mid-17th century. One such Sonata a 3 is freely available in facsimile form from the Düben Collection website hosted by Uppsala universitet. A "Sonata a3 in C" is published by Musica Rara and attributed to Biber, although the authorship is unclear and it is more likely to have been written by Bertali.

Dario Castello, a wind player at St. Mark's Venice in the early 17th century had two books of Sonate Concertate published in 1621 and 1629. The sonatas of 1-4 parts with bass continuo often specify trombones, as well as cornett, violin and bassoon. The numerous reprints during the 17th century affirm his popularity then, as perhaps now.

Giuseppe Scarani joined St. Mark's Venice in 1629 as a singer and in the following year published Sonate concertate, a volume of works for 2 or 3 (unspecified) instruments (and b.c.). The title has been suggested was chosen to try and capture some of Castello's success.

Tiburtio Massaino wrote a Canzona for eight trom

Recordings

Many recordings of the authentic sackbut are now available from groups like Concerto Palatino, HMSC, Gabrieli Consort, and the Toulouse Sacqueboutiers. To learn more about the instrument, these recordings are recommended where the sackbut is played in a solo role.

• Songs Without Words. Adam Woolf. SFZMusic, 2010.
• Treasury of a Saint. Caecilia Concert. Challenge Records, 2006.
• La Sacqueboute. Michel Becquet, Les Sacqueboutiers de Toulouse.
• Sackbutt. Jorgen Van Rijen. Channel Classics, 2008.
• Schmelzer & Co. Caecilia-Concert. Challenge Records, 2009.
• Buxtehude & Co. Caecilia-Concert. Challenge Records, 2007.