TromboneChat

I wrote earlier today in the "Cello pieces" thread that although I have no problem with us playing music for cello (or bassoon, or sometimes even flute or oboe), and any good music is good music to play, I do think it's a shame that such music is the default choice for early repertoire for most modern trombonists and teachers, when there is so much repertoire that we completely ignore but is actually written for trombone, or could historically have been played on trombone (whereas a lot of these cello and bassoon pieces are from times and places where trombones were not used, and are very different from pieces of the same time that are actually written for our instrument). As promised there, here is a very non-exhaustive list of suggestions of early soloisitc trombone repertoire, for the modern trombonist to pick up and in particular for teachers to pick from when assigning pieces to students, maybe instead of the ubiquitous Telemann, Marcello or Gaillard pieces.

Solo pieces proper

-Francesco Rognoni – Susana d'Orlando (available on IMSLP), the earliest surviving solo piece that specifically calls for trombone. Very virtuosic bass trombone piece, also works transposed up a fifth on tenor. Diminutions on Lasso's Susanne un jour

-Giovanni Martino Cesare – La Hieronyma (available on IMSLP), earliest piece for solo trombone and continuo.

-Girolamo Frescobaldi – any of his canzoni for unspecified solo bass instruments (several available on IMSLP. Also various commercial modern editions available). There are two versions of all those pieces dated 1628 and 1634, loosely related but usually very different and sometimes barely regonisable between versions. One, La Tromboncina, might even be meant particularly for trombone, given the title.

-Giovanni Bassano – any of his diminutions pieces for bass voice (Edition by David Yacus available from Septenary Editions)

-Diego Ortiz – any of the recercadas from Trattado de glosas (good edition by Bärenreiter, also probably some online editions)

-any of hundreds of (especially sacred) vocal solo pieces with basso continuo, especially for bass or tenor voice, or for soprano voice down an octave, by early 17th century composers (tons available for free on CPDL).


Small chamber instrumental music with a soloistic trombone part
I'm limiting these suggestions for pieces for 2-4 instruments including a single soloisitc trombone part. This is very far from exhaustive, just a few suggestions that are easy to find.

-Dario Castello has several sonatas for 1 or 2 soprano instruments and one trombone in both books of his Sonate concertate. Book 1 available on IMSLP. Book 2 has no acceptable free modern edition, but a couple good commercial ones.

-Giovanni Paolo Cima's sonata for cornetto and (bass) trombone works equally well with violin on the top part (IMSLP)

-Antonio Bertali also has a couple sonatas for 2 violins and trombone. Some commercial editions available.

-Several sonatas by Matthias Weckmann (Septenary Editions)

-A few sonatas by Schmelzer, Biber, Fux (some on IMSLP, and commercial editions)

-Giovanni Picchi's canzoni (IMSLP)

-also several canzoni by Giovanni Battista Riccio (IMSLP)

-Frescobaldi also has good canzoni for 1 soprano and 1 basso, or 2 soprani and 1 basso, or 1 soprano and 2 bassi, that all work great on trombone (IMSLP)

-Diminutions of Giovanni Bassano for soprano and bass voices.

-Tons of vocal (again, sacred) music for 2-3 voices that can work well on instruments. (CPDL)

-Biagio Marini has two sonatas for two trombones or bassoon, and also a couple other pieces with a good trombone part along with one or two violins (IMSLP)

-Adam Jarzebski in his Concerti e canzoni (decent edition from Musedita) has a "concerto" for violin and trombone, and another one for two trombones or bassoons, that are quite cool, and several other pieces that can work well with a trombone on the bottom part.



Trombone and voice

-Tons of early 17th-century vocal (sacred) music for 2-3 voices that work well with the trombone playing a tenor or bass voice, with one or two sopranos. (CPDL)

-Some music for one or few voices and a couple instruments including a trombone. Look at Schütz and Schein, for example (older modern editions available on IMSLP)

-Many pieces from the 18th century Viennese tradition with obbligato trombone. Emperor Leopold I's Alma ingrate is a good accessible example of an Aria da capo for soprano, trombone and continuo. There are many examples of pieces by the great Viennese masters Johann Joseph Fux, Antonio Caldara, Marc'Antonio Ziani, Francesco Bartolomeo Conti, Frantisek Ignac Tuma and others. Some arie da capo from oratorios and "sepulchre" (musical dramas for Holy Week), some movements from masses and other liturgical works, throughout the whole century. A few albums have been recorded of this repertoire (Christian Lindberg did one, there's one by Henning Wiegrabe, and there's the amazing Fede e Amor with Catherine Motuz and Simen van Mechelen, for example, and those are a good place to look for ideas if you don't want to go look into books and articles about this repertoire)

Wow!
Thanks, Max.

Thank you so much! This is great!

Hi Maximilien, thank you for taking the time to share this!

How much do you advocate for performance and learning these pieces on historically accurate sackbuts vs performance on a modern trombone?

Gfunk wrote: Tue Nov 25, 2025 6:10 pm Hi Maximilien, thank you for taking the time to share this!

How much do you advocate for performance and learning these pieces on historically accurate sackbuts vs performance on a modern trombone?

I have a historically inaccurate sackbut (Wessex), but am still interested in giving some of these a go.

Posaunus wrote: Tue Nov 25, 2025 7:22 pm

Gfunk wrote: Tue Nov 25, 2025 6:10 pm Hi Maximilien, thank you for taking the time to share this!

How much do you advocate for performance and learning these pieces on historically accurate sackbuts vs performance on a modern trombone?

I have a historically inaccurate sackbut (Wessex), but am still interested in giving some of these a go.

Do it, with whatever instrument! My point is I think modern trombonists should discover this rep too (also on modern trombone), not just sackbut players, instead of defaulting to cello and bassoon repertoire whenever we want something baroque.

Gfunk wrote: Tue Nov 25, 2025 6:10 pm Hi Maximilien, thank you for taking the time to share this!

How much do you advocate for performance and learning these pieces on historically accurate sackbuts vs performance on a modern trombone?

Specifically about just playing this music:
I would love for more trombonists to actually play this music instead of defaulting to cello and bassoon music regardless of whether they play it on sackbut or modern trombone, and with or without a historically-informed approach. I'd advocate that we play this music more, period. It's our own repertoire.


More broadly:
Of course I believe that historical instruments fit that music better (otherwise I wouldn't play them myself) and that the playing characteristics and possibilities of a good sackbut are better aligned with the style and aesthetic considerations of the time. And I do think every trombone player, even without any ambition to seriously play the sackbut, can benefit from least exploring the instrument and more importantly a historically-informed performance approach (which goes far beyond just using a different instrument – the instrument is really just a first big step, but the biggest differences are in how we play it; if someone takes historical instrument and plays it exactly like they would a modern trombone without learning about the historical practices and style and adopting an inquisitive mindset, it's kind of pointless and they'll likely sound like just a worse version of their usual self). I find that even just a little exposure to this different way of making music can help inform our playing on modern instrument and make us conscious of certain arbitrary stylistic rules that we imposed on ourselves without even realising, and free us from them to make our playing more flexible and interesting and musical. Removing oneself from the constraints of our contemporary performance practice and replacing them with the constraints of a different era's allows us to see our contemporary practice from the outside and realise what its constraints are, that we don't necessarily realise, and gives us the ability to question them and perhaps remove some of them.