Review

Trevor Herbert
The Trombone:

New Haven and London, ,
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date of Publication: 2006

Illustrated, hard cover. 336 pages. $38.00.

Primary Genre: Study Material - book

To the organological tomes by modern authors writing in the English language, Baines, Bate, Dempster, Gregory, Guion, Lane, to these is added Trevor Herbert’s treatise, The Trombone. It is a comprehensive survey of our instrument in all its facets, well written, exhaustively researched and tremendously interesting because of its fresh, new perspective. Dr. Herbert adds little new knowledge to our understanding of trombone construction, design, function and technique for that is not his mission. Indeed, he presents The Trombone as “the first comprehensive cultural and musical history of the instrument.” Its themes center around established organology as a point of departure, towards investigation of written and aurally transmitted repertoire, and towards the players, especially journeyman professionals; “…it is the players who are the most important… who have put the culture into the trombone. It is they who, in all epochs, have given it a voice and positioned it in its soundscapes and cultural contexts.” 

This book is not so much about the trombone as instrument; it documents the culture of trombone playing. The first two chapters discuss the instrument and its techniques across time as a matter of broad introduction. Chapters 3-6 move rather chronologically from origins to now and the last eight chapters focus on major trends, traditions, and contexts that involve trombone playing. By tying these histories together Dr. Herbert is able to draw conclusions about how our traditions of playing and interacting have coalesced. He identifies three broad trends of the last two centuries that have exerted the greatest influence on the trombone’s idiom: conservatoire education, popular music as a mass consumer commodity, and the advent of jazz. Considering these arenas juxtaposed with one another generates perspective heretofore unseen in trombone histories and makes for fascinating reading.

We are treated to rarely seen publicity, advertisements, catalogues, correspondence, photographs and illustrations. Dr. Herbert favors tables as the best device for presenting dense data, which he places directly in the narrative as well as in appendices, the most interesting being a comprehensive list of surviving trombones from before 1800, an indicative accounting of orchestral trombone sections 1780-1930, and a list of centers of 17th and 18th century trombone repertoire including the composers active in those cities. Dr. Herbert’s work is impressive on two fronts, breadth of research and conclusions; the research makes the conclusions possible. We learn about individuals who played trombone for their livelihood, about their environs, their lot in life. A fraternity is established across time with which we can identify. 

Welsh trombonist and scholar, Trevor Herbert (b.1945), studied music education at St. Luke's College, University of Exeter then spent three years at the Royal College of Music as a foundation scholar where he studied trombone with Arthur Wilson and composition with Jeremy Dale Roberts. He has earned the BA degree in humanities at The Open University, and Ph.D. for a thesis on “The Trombone in England before 1800.”

Between 1969 and 1976 he played trombone with leading London orchestras and chamber groups, most particularly the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Glyndebourne Opera, Welsh National Opera, the Northern Sinfonia, the Taverner Players, Musica Reservata and the Wallace Collection. Dr. Herbert joined the staff of the Open University in 1976 cultivating research in two areas: the history, repertoires and performance cultures of brass instruments, and the place of music in the cultural history of Wales. He has authored numerous reviews, articles, book chapters, several original compositions, encyclopedia contributions and another book, Music in Words: A Guide to Researching and Writing about Music. In 2002 he became the first British recipient of the Historic Brass Society’s Christopher Monk Award. He is joint editor of the Bucina series of Pendragon Press, a member of the editorial board of the Historic Brass Society, and associate editor of the Encyclopaedia of Wales. He is an Honorary Professor of Music at Cardiff University, a Fellow of the Leeds College of Music and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Music.

-Mike Hall
Old Dominion University