Sackbut - Performance Practice

Performance Practice

Musicians of the 16th and 17th centuries benefited from a broader base of skills than the average performer today.

They would have to improvise new music. In the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, various music treatises include in their tuition improvising at sight fast moving melody over a cantus firmus, or extra contrapuntal lines to a plainchant. In a non-liturgical setting, an alta capella group (in which a slide trumpet or trombone often featured) would involve the tenor playing the main tune in long tones while two others improvised florid counterpart tunes.

These traditions continued into the baroque with musicians expected to give expression to the written music by ornamenting with a mixture of one-note “graces” and whole passage “divisions” (also known as “diminutions”). The suggestions for producing effective ornaments without disrupting the line and harmony are discussed alongside countless examples in the 16th and early 17th century Italian division tutors. Graces such as the accento, portar della voce, tremolo, groppo, trillo, esclamationo and intonatio are all to be considered by performers of any music in this period.

“Cornetts and trombones...play divisions that are neither scrappy, nor so wild and involved that they spoil the underlying melody and the composer's design: but are introduced at such moments and with such vivacity and charm that they give the music the greatest beauty and spirit” Bottrigari, Venice 1594

Along with the improvisation, many of these tutors discuss articulation. Francesco Rognoni in 1620 describes the tonguing as the most important part of producing “a good and beautiful effect in playing wind instruments, and principally the cornetto” (which of course had a very similar role to the trombone). The treatises discuss the various strengths of consonants from “le” through “de” to “te”. But the focus of the text is for playing rapid notes “similar to the gorgia of the human voice” with “soft and smooth” double tonguing (“lingua riversa”) using “le re le re”. This is opposed to using “te che te che,” which is described as “harsh, barbarous and displeasing”. The natural ‘pairing’ of notes these articulations provide is similar to the instructions for string players who are instructed to slur (“lireggiar”) pairs of eighth notes with one bow stroke per quarter beat.

Another integral part of the early music sound-world is the musical temperament. Music in the middle-ages favours intervals of the 4th and 5th, which is why Pythagorean tuning was used. The interval of a third was used as a clash until the Renaissance, when it became consonant in compositions, which went hand-in-hand with the widespread use of Meantone temperament. During the 17th century, Well temperament began to become more and more popular as the range of keys increased. Temperament affects the colour of a composition, and therefore modern performances, typically employing equal temperament, may not be true representations of the composers' intentions.

These old tunings can come naturally on a sackbut. As the bell is smaller than a modern trombone, the harmonic series is closer to a perfect harmonic series, which is the basis for just tuning. Without adjusting the slide, the 1st to 2nd harmonic is a perfect octave, 2nd to 3rd harmonic is a 5th slightly wider than equal temperament and 4th to 5th harmonic is a major 3rd slightly narrower than in equal temperament. These adjusted intervals make chords ring and are the basis of meantone. In fact, Speer says, “Once you have found a good C (3rd position), this is also the place you will find your F♯.” Playing C and F♯ in exactly the same position on a modern orchestra sounds out of tune, but it tunes perfectly well on a sackbut if everyone plays meantone.

Plenty of musical understanding can be gathered from reading the original music print. Publishers such as SPES and Arnaldo Forni Edition provide facsimile copies of plenty of music for trombone from this era. To read these it one needs to become familiar with the old clefs, time signatures, ligatures and notational conventions of the era. There are myriad performance indicators embedded in the quirks of the old notation that are simply lost in modern editions.

When reading sackbut music, it is important to consider Musica ficta, to help solve some of the controversial pitches. The scores are unclear and composers were embarrassed to point out accidentals they felt were ‘obvious’ to performers. For example there are occasions where a leading note should be sharpened to a major 7th as you go into a cadence. There also are often questions about which notes accidental markings apply to. There are differences of opinion between editors and performers now, just as there were between performers then.