TROMBONE (It. trombone, augmentative of tramba, trumpet, probably from OlIG. /rumba, tr u m pa Ger. Trammel, drum, perhaps corrupted from triumphus, triumph; nItimately nected with Eng. drum). A musical instrument of the trumpet family, the tones of which are produced by means of a slide-mechanism. In its present form it was known as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century. To-day the trombone is made in four different sizes, known as the alto, tenor, bass, and contra-bass trom bone. The compass of the alto trombone is from A to that of the tenor trombone from E to bbl; that of the bass trombone from to f': and that of the contra-bass trombone from to d'. Besides this regular compass each trombone is capable of producing seven pedal tones. descending chromatically and beginning a tritone (q.v.) below the lowest tone of the compass of the instrument. The intermediate tones between the highest pedal-tone and the lowest Iegular tone are wanting. The trombones are non-transposing instruments and the notes all sound as written. In playing this instrument
seven positions arc used. 'the first position is when the slide is completely pushed in. Taking the tenor trombone for the purpose at illustra tion, the lowest tone that can be produced in the first position is Bb. In every position all the partial tones from 2 to S (see Aum STICS ) eau be produced. Thus in the first position on the tenor trombone the following tones are pro duced: Bb, f, bb, ip, P. a bb'. The second sition is obtained by drawing out the slide so far that A is produced. The partial tones for this position are A, c, a, P. The third position begins on Al) and so on, descending by semitones till the seventh position beginning with E is reached.
Recently trombones have been constructed in which the sliding mechanism is replaced by pis ton or rotary valves. These instruments permit more rapid execution than the sliding trombones, but are much inferior to the latter in purity of intonation. See ORCHESTRA,