 General Information
Beginning orchestration students are often baffled by
the question of what to write for the trombone.
This is a fair question because the answer isn't black and white. That's
because the trombone does a little
bit of everything. It plays the melody, provides harmonic background and
contributes powerful rhythmic accents when needed. Let's take a look at
the many roles of the trombone.
The orchestral trombone
section commonly consists of two tenor
trombones and one bass trombone.
The term "tenor" is very often omitted, so tenor
trombones are usually just referred to as trombones.
Notation
When notating the three trombone parts, two staves are used.
The two tenor trombones are placed
on one stave. The bass trombone
either has a stave of its own or is coupled with the tuba.
The trombones are typically notated
in the Bass clef
at concert pitch. Passages in the upper register are occasionally notated
in the Tenor clef.
Range
The ranges of the trombones
vary, depending on the player. A safe range for the tenor
trombone would be from E2
(an octave plus a
below Middle C) up to Bb4
(the first Bb above Middle C).
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