Trombone players: It’s time to bury Henry Fillmore’s “Lassus Trombone.”
by Douglas Yeo
NOTE: This article contains offensive material of an historical nature that is presented in an effort to inform the trombone community of a regrettable vestige of racism that continues to be a part of the trombone’s concert repertoire since it first came to light over 100 years ago. It is my hope that this article will lead trombonists around the world to make important, needed changes in the repertoire we choose for our recitals, and rid our concerts of music that is rooted in racial stereotyping and racist portrayals of African Americans.
In 1908, American composer Henry Fillmore (1881-1956) composed Miss Trombone for solo trombone and piano; it was published by his family’s company, Fillmore Music House of Cincinnati. Miss Trombone was a novelty piece in ragtime style and it featured slide glissandos, or what were also referred to at the time as “trombone smears.” The glissando is a signature feature of the trombone and Miss Trombone capitalized on the technique. By 1919, trombone glissandos were known by a new name: jazzes; the technique was called jazzing. Around that time, three method books were published that taught trombone players how to add jazzing to their playing of popular music. These books were Mayhew L. Lake’s The Wizard Trombone Jazzer (Carl Fischer, 1919), Henry Fillmore’s Jazz Trombonist (Fillmore Music House, 1919), and Fortunato Sordillo’s Art of Jazzing for the Trombone (Oliver Ditson, 1920).
Miss Trombone was so successful that Fillmore followed it with more trombone solos in the same style, all with glissandos that ripped up and down the horn. The pieces had names that tied them together. Miss Trombone was followed by Teddy Trombone, and 13 others were added, and by 1929, the series was complete with the publication of Ham Trombone. Together, they were marketed as a set, The Trombone Family.
Trombone players have been playing these pieces for over 100 years. The most popular member of Fillmore’s Trombone Family has always been Lassus Trombone. It’s a piece that has appeared on countless trombone solo recitals, and trombone ensemble, band and orchestra concerts. YouTube features 8000 recordings of the piece.
But there is an uncomfortable truth about Henry Fillmore’s The Trombone Family. It was born and marketed in a crucible of racial stereotyping, minstrelsy, racism, and Jim Crow. It is time to put these pieces to rest, to bury them, to remove them from our concert programs, and do better when selecting music in the future. For those who are unaware of the racist background of Fillmore’s signature works, or who may respond by saying, “It’s not such a big deal,” here is the story. It matters.
The trombone glissando first appeared in classical music in Alexander Glazanov’s symphonic fantasy, The Sea, a work for orchestra that was composed in 1889. In time, it found its way into other classical works including Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius (1899) and Arnold Schoenberg’s Pelleas und Melisande (1902). For an excellent discussion of the trombone glissando in both classical and popular idioms, I refer readers to Trevor Herbert’s excellent article, “Trombone Glissando: A Case Study in Continuity and Change in Brass Instrument Performance Idioms” (Historic Brass Society Journal, Vol. 22, 2010, 1-18). The trombone glissando came into popular music by the turn of the century. Arthur Pryor recorded Trombone Sneeze: A Humoresque Cakewalk by Chris Sorensen Jr. with John Philip Sousa’s band in 1902 (Victor 1223); the piece is full of trombone smears. Have a listen below (to hear this piece on YouTube, click HERE):
https://youtu.be/P3NU7LGBDcA
It was not long before the trombone glissando began to be strongly associated with music that was a part of minstrel shows. These were entertainments that featured caricatures of African Americans, with both white performers in blackface and black performers made up to look like white performers in blackface. The shows were mostly presented for the benefit of white audiences, and the caricature of black culture that the shows embodied was a product of white, racist thought that saw African Americans as bumbling and unintelligent. Music that reinforced these stereotypes was a a part of the Jim Crow era and it proved to be very popular among many whites. Arthur Pryor’s song (yes, THAT Arthur Pryor, the most famous trombone player in all history), A Coon Band Contest or The Tune That Won the Ham for That Coon Band, was published in 1899 and recorded by his band in 1906. It’s a typical example of the genre of music that used racial stereotyping as a marketing tool. The cover of A Coon Band Contest (see below) featured a caricature of a bulging-eyed African American trombonist with several stereotypical depictions of other blacks who were listening to and conducting the trombonist (including a large lipped conductor and a suspender clad man emptying the trombone’s water key onto another person who protects him/herself with an umbrella). The publisher of the song, The Bell Music Company, probably thought the cover was cute. It wasn’t. Racism is never cute.
Into this environment of demeaning portrayals of African Americans walked Henry Fillmore. By the time Miss Trombone was published in 1908, the cakewalk had given way to ragtime which was beginning to morph to what was first referred to as “jass” and then jazz. There was no reason that Fillmore’s Trombone Family had to caricature an African American family except for one simple fact: placing Miss Trombone and her family members into the environment of minstrelsy and racial stereotyping sold music to whites and their audiences.
All of the pieces in Fillmore’s Trombone Family featured trombone smears and they were given subtitles to frame them in the context of his fictional black family, what he called a “cullu’d fambly.” A look at all of the titles takes us into uncomfortable territory.
Miss Trombone (1908): A Slippery Rag
Teddy Trombone (1911): A Brother to Miss Trombone
Lassus Trombone (1915): De Cullud Valet to Miss Trombone
Pahson [Parson] Trombone (1916): Lassus Trombone’s ‘Ole Man
Sally Trombone (1917): Pahson Trombone’s Eldest Gal – Some Crow!
Slim Trombone (1917): Sally Trombone’s City Cousin – the Jazzin’ One Step Kid
Mose Trombone (1919): He’s Slim Trombone’s Buddy
Shoutin’ Liza Trombone (1920): Mose Trombone’s Ah-finity
Hot Trombone (1921): He’s Jes a Fren’ ob Shoutin’ Liza Trombone
Bones Trombone (1922): He’s Jes as Warm as Hot Trombone
Dusty Trombone (1923): He’s de Next Door Neighbor to Bones Trombone
Bull Trombone (1924): A Cullud Toreador
Lucky Trombone (1926): He’s de Thirteenth Member uv de Fambly
Boss Trombone (1929): He’s de Head Man
Ham Trombone (1929): A Cullud Bahbaque
Many of the subtitles are given in a caricatured African American dialect, something that, when done by whites, has always been racist. Fillmore, when asked about the title, “Lassus Trombone,” had a standard answer: “Why, molasses, of course. I really don’t know why except I thought of molasses on bread for breakfast, dinner, and supper.” However, as J. Stanley Lemons pointed out in his important article, “Black Stereotypes as Reflected in Popular Culture, 1880-1920” (American Quarterly, Spring 1977, Vol. 29, No. 1), the minstrel-era character of Jim Crow “spent his time sleeping’, fishing’, hunting’ ‘possums, or shuffling’ along slower than molasses.” Molasses was one of many stereotypical tropes used to represent “the slow-thinking, slow-moving country and plantation darkey.” It’s worth noting that Shoutin’ Liza Trombone was originally titled Hallelujah Trombone. But Fillmore’s father, James Henry Fillmore Sr. (1849-1936), a prolific composer of hymns and a publisher of hymnals, disapproved of the piece’s appropriation of the opening measures of Georg Frideric Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah. In deference to his father, Henry Fillmore changed the piece’s title. Unfortunately, Henry’s father didn’t disapprove of his son’s racist portrayals in The Trombone Family—the pieces were all published during his lifetime. Offending Handel was off limits. But offending African Americans? It was par for the course.
Fillmore’s marketing of The Trombone Family with its stereotyping of blacks would be offensive enough. But it is for his advertising campaign for the music that Fillmore reserved his most outrageous insults.
The first ad reproduced below appeared in February 1919 in The Musical Messenger, “a monthly band and orchestra journal” published by Fillmore Music House. The second one was published in Jacobs Orchestra Monthly in September 1918. These racist ads were at the heart of Fillmore’s advertising for The Trombone Family. The cartoon of Slim Trombone in the Jacobs Orchestra Monthly ad is taken directly from advertising by Harvey’s Greater Minstrels for its trombonist, Slim Jim Austin. There can be no doubt that Fillmore’s Slim Trombone was given its title to capitalize on the popularity of Austin on the minstrel show circuit. And the image of the floppy shoed trombone player in blackface in the ad from The Musical Messenger appeared on the cover of the sheet music for each of the pieces. The language of the ads needs no explanation. It is disgusting stuff.
Had enough? Yet in the face of all of this, some may protest. “But Fillmore was just a product of his time. Minstrelsy and blackface were socially acceptable and he was just playing to the market.” This kind of apology just won’t do. It is revisionist history, a fiction promulgated by white “scholars” and others who try to make a distinction between “good minstrelsy” and “bad minstrelsy,” between “good blackface” and “bad blackface.” The truth of the matter is that there never was good minstrelsy or good blackface. It has always been offensive. Always. And the use of the “n-word” by whites was always offensive. Always. It was offensive in the nineteenth century, it was offensive in the twentieth century, and it is offensive today. Minstrelsy did not originate in or reflect the true black experience and true black cultural practices. It was a racist caricature of black life that was based in racial ridicule. It was always offensive, it was always racist, and it was always wrong. Henry Fillmore’s The Trombone Family promoted the racial stereotypes promulgated by the minstrel show era, promoted white domination of blacks, and reinforced harmful, hurtful stereotypes that are still, regrettably, with us today.
So, what to do about Lassus Trombone?
In his message to Congress on December 1, 1862, Abraham Lincoln said, “Fellow citizens, we cannot erase history.” That is true. History is history; it happened; we can’t change it. When we view history, we need clear eyes. And clear eyes lead me to only one conclusion: It is time to bury Henry Fillmore’s Lassus Trombone and The Trombone Family. They were born of racism and a racist culture. They padded the pockets of the Fillmore Music House and, later, Carl Fischer Co. which took over the copyright from The Trombone Family, and in recent years, since the works went out of copyright, a host of publishers around the world. Fillmore’s racist portrayals of African Americans sold. Racism was good business.
It is time for this to stop.
First, we need to inform our trombone community about the story behind these pieces that have been such a part of the fabric of the trombone’s performance history of the last 100 years. For instance, several years ago, I was invited to be guest artist at a major American university, to give a masterclass, solo with the university’s trombone choir, and conduct a massed trombone choir of high school and college students. The school’s trombone professor—a very good friend of mine—and I engaged in a conversation about what piece I might choose to conduct. He said he had a really nice arrangement of Lassus Trombone for trombone ensemble that he had used on many occasions; he thought it might be a good closer for the concert. I told him I would not conduct Lassus Trombone, and I shared with him the story behind the piece that I have laid out in this article. He was horrified; he didn’t know. He had no idea of the racist roots of Lassus Trombone. And he was so grateful that I told him. Lassus Trombone quickly disappeared from his trombone choir’s library. I conducted Simon Wills’ Tinguely’s Fountain instead.
Second, it is time for us to bury Lassus Trombone and the other members of Fillmore’s Trombone Family. We don’t need them. We don’t need to play music that is rooted in racism and racial stereotypes. We don’t need to play music that makes fun of any person. There are other pieces in the trombone glissando “jazzing” tradition that would make for a fine substitute for Lassus Trombone on a recital program. Why not try Mayhew L. Lake’s Slidus Trombonus? Composed in 1915—the same year Lassus Trombone was written—it was written for Gardell Simons. He was the celebrated soloist with Patrick Conway’s Band who also played principal trombone with the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1915-1930, and the piece was recorded by Conway’s band in 1916. You can hear Conway’s recording of Slidus Trombonus on the Library of Congress website by clicking HERE. And I have scanned my copy of Slidus Trombonus (which is in the public domain) and made it available for free on my website. You can download the trombone and piano music to Lake’s humorous piece by going to Mr. Yeo's site, (the url link for it is at the end of this article.)
“We cannot escape history.” But we can learn from it. We must learn from it. For over 100 years, trombone players have been complicit in continuing and fostering harmful racial stereotypes by performing Henry Fillmore’s Lassus Trombone and other pieces from The Trombone Family. We can do better. We must do better. And we will do better.
This is not a matter of political correctness or of censorship. This is a matter of righting a wrong and doing the right thing.
And here is something else. There is someone else who is doing the right thing with this. I began writing this article yesterday, June 27, 2020. I woke up very early this morning and went right to my computer to complete it. Between proofreading sessions, I went to look at my email “in” box and found a message from my friend, Gordon Cherry, founder and owner of Cherry Classics, one of the largest publishers of music for brass instruments in the world. Gordon is the retired principal trombonist of the Vancouver Symphony and his Cherry Classics catalog is very deep and wide. Gordon and I are in contact about various issues from time to time and he had something important he wanted to share with me. Gordon said that he had come to the realization—a realization that had been hiding in plain sight but that he just didn’t put all together until last week—that he was profiting by selling two arrangements of Lassus Trombone. Gordon told me that he plans to remove those arrangements from his catalog—something he will do tonight—and send a message to his email list of 6000 subscribers to tell them why he is removing this piece that has its origin in racial stereotyping. Gordon wanted to let me know about his thinking about this and he wanted to know what I thought about it. We just finished a FaceTime call where we both marveled that the two of us, friends separated by 2,000 miles, were thinking about the same issue in the very same way at the very same time, and that both of us had decided to do something about it. I applaud Gordon Cherry for his action on this and I encourage you to look in on the Cherry Classics website in the coming days when he will be posting a message about Lassus Trombone. Thank you, Gordon, for doing the right thing. He has set a model for all publishers. Sometimes doing the right thing is more important than making another dollar. This is one of those times.
If you’d like to join me in removing Lassus Trombone and The Trombone Family from today’s trombone repertoire conversations, please feel free to share this article on social media and other types of platforms. Let’s get the message out. Ending racial stereotypes matters. Thank you for doing your part in this.
What we think matters.
What we do matters.
What we think of others matters.
How we treat others matters.
Let’s bury Henry Fillmore’s Lassus Trombone and The Trombone Family. It matters.
Here is the link to Mr. Yeo's article on his site:
It’s time to bury Henry Fillmore’s “Lassus Trombone.”]]>Gordon performed as Principal Trombonist of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the CBC Radio Orchestra from 1974 to 2009. Previously he performed as Principal Trombonists of the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada from 1970 to 1974. He also taught at the University of British Columbia from 1975 to 2008. Many of his students have performed in orchestras around the world.
Gordon studied with Emory Remington at the Eastman School of Music.
Go to some of our other great blogs on this site.
]]>Adolph Herseth (1921-2013) was one of the greatest brass artists of the 20th Century, performing as principal Trumpet with the Chicago Symphony for 53 amazing seasons. He performed under all the world's famous conductors during that time and along with Arnold Jacobs, helped form the famous unmistakable "Chicago Sound".
He retired in 2001 and his principal chair in the orchestra is now named after him - The Adolph Herseth Principal Trumpet Chair.
Don Harder is a former CBC recording engineer who also plays the trumpet and like many brass performers was always in awe of Herseth's legendary sound and style. He received a grant from the CBC to travel to Herseth's home in Oak Park, Illinois to conduct this wonderful interview in the year 2001.
The charm and knowledge of Mr. Herseth is such a wonder to hear in this rare recording.
Cherry Classics Music has received permission from Mr. Harder and the CBC to post the interview in its entirety.
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ERGOBRASS playing supports for brass instruments have been around for more than 15 years. There are approx. 6500 sets in use in 50 different countries worldwide. However, like with any new inventions, also the idea of playing supports was been met with some suspicion, although open-minded players have taken to the idea already.
When we talk about brass instruments, we must remember that they are hundreds of years old. To make any major changes in the way they are to be played is really a huge task. Therefore, it is not surprising that people have prejudices toward this new idea of playing supports. Old habits die hard even if there are obvious rational reasons which would speak for a change. When the seat belts were introduced into cars in the 60s and 70s there was a huge resistance and most drivers tried to avoid using them. Luckily this has changed during the last decades and most drivers use the belts automatically nowadays.
What were the real obstacles which the car drivers needed to overcome when the seat belts were introduced? The answer is simple, it just did not "feel" right. Emotional resistance towards change is one of the most basic manners of human behaviour. But sometimes our emotions prevent us from seeing the potential and usefulness of a new idea. This is what I have experienced working with ergonomic supports for brass instruments during the past 18 years.
Usually when a player tries the support for the first time, they are surprised and they do not know how to react:
"This feels good but it is a bit odd...". "The support really makes holding the instrument a lot more effortless and the grip feels quite sensitive, but... I do not think I need this..."
These all are emotional reactions to a new idea.
On the other hand, if you put a trombone or a French horn with a playing support into someone’s hands who is not a brass player and then after a short while ask him to hold it without the support. Then you always get the same question: “Why would anybody ever like to play this instrument without the support? This is really heavy!”
The person who has not played these instruments at all, has not developed any emotions or images of how the instrument has always been held and played. When the person has no preconceived ideas about the whole thing, then the obvious rational reasons can be seen more clearly.
Saxophone and bassoon players usually take the idea of brass supports a lot more positively. It is also very understandable, as they have always used neck straps, harnesses and other types of supports for their instruments.
What do we know about the facts of ergonomics in brass playing? A report of a research project about how playing supports impact the player's physics was concluded in December 2017. The research started in 2012 and was carried out by Kevin Price, head of music performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and PhD Alan Watson at Cardiff University. (You can watch a short video documentary about the research project here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlRSf_dCod8
The results confirm the initial expectations and assumptions. The playing supports really lessened the muscle activity of keeping the instrument upright in a playing position. The players were monitored with electromyography recordings while playing both with the playing support and without the support. Statistically significant reductions (15-30 %) were seen in many of the muscles when using the support; some players even showed larger reduction (up to 70 %) in their muscle activity. The research also asserted that the more the player is familiar with the support, the more it usually reduces the excessive muscular activity thus enabling the player to stay more relaxed. This was no surprise.
The playing supports are not designed for the disabled or injured players - even if they work great for them - but for all players. The goal is to provide more relaxed and comfortable ways of playing. It is simply so much better when the player can stay more relaxed and feel comfortable when holding the weightless instrument. Also, the posture will stay automatically better. And this is especially great for children.
However, also the health aspect is very important. In one of the earliest large scale surveys of musicians’ health, 32% of brass players disclosed that they had had a musculoskeletal problem sufficiently severe to have an impact on their performance at some stage in their career. In a more recent study, almost twice that percentage reported chronic pain lasting for more than three months, predominantly in the shoulder, neck or back. There are a lot of problems due to the weight of the instrument and the “normal” static way of holding it upward.
Ergonomics is something that has become more and more important in our daily life in our working tools, chairs, spaces and in our normal activities. This is mainly due to better understanding of how problematic our modern work with monotonous movements is. This is hazardous for our health. During the last few decades, ergonomics has, without a doubt, played a great part when designing new and better tools
My goal during the last 18 years has been to bring the ergonomics to brass playing as well. Our instruments were designed hundreds of years ago with no understanding of ergonomics. Is it really OK that we keep on playing exactly the same way as we have always done disregarding the ergonomic concerns raised?
]]>I have been a student of Richard Wagner’s music all my adult life. One of my first memories of definitive contact with his music was during the 1969 moon landing during which CBS television used the “Liebestod” from Tristan und Isolde as the accompanying music; my father asked me if I could identify it - I was wrong in guessing it was a Mendelssohn “Song Without Words” – ironic though, given Wagner’s anti-Semitic streak. Since that time, I became ever more immersed in the beauty of the music and the tragedy of the man and the legacy left by the historical record of he and his music. I have been especially taken by his late work and by far most interested in “Der Ring des Nibelungen”. During my career as a professional trombonist, I had the opportunity to play Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger, Tristan und Isolde, Der Fliegende Holländer (Flying Dutchman), and Die Walküre, and have written many arrangements of Wagner’s music for trombones and/or brass ensemble.
I began planning my pilgrimage to the Bayreuth Festival as early as 1990, but did not pursue the 10-year ticket ordering ordeal at that time. But in 1999, I made my first trip to Germany which included a visit to the Bayreuth Festival, which was closed during the off-season and as a result was able to take a German-language tour of the theatre.
I then began the 10-year wait for tickets, diligently re-ordering every year, and finally, 2011 was the year to go – but there was no “Ring Cycle” that year. I obtained mid-theatre tickets for Parsifal, Tristan und Isolde, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – in that order. Hearing the Parsifal prelude as the first notes from that theatre was incredible (Parsifal was written with the acoustics of the Bayreuth theatre in mind).
The acoustics, so well documented in print by so many, simply cannot be adequately described but rather have to be experienced, and no recording can properly do justice regardless of how well done. And there have been various theories as to how to get the most accurate recording – everything from 1 or 2 microphones to a battery of them. Just consider the description given in an interval during the 1983 Solti/Bayreuth “Ring” broadcast via WFMT radio in which a general history of recording technology at the theatre is given as well as a listing of all the various microphones used for that production (I provided audio clips on YouTube) here”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGFqpY_vufY&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=qkpN3eaRbvc
In 2011, in addition to the 3 productions I saw from my seat in the theatre, I had the opportunity to obtain a ticket (via one of the trombonists in the orchestra) to sit in the orchestra pit (referred to as the “mystic abyss” at Bayreuth) next to the low brass for Act I of Lohengrin. Absolutely incredible orchestra, which is hand-picked from (almost entirely) German orchestras. The festival engages nearly 200 players – there are at least 100 in the pit at any given time, and during some of the longer, more taxing works, rotate some of the players between acts – in particular the horns in the “Ring” for example – and some rotation goes on from opera to opera. And the orchestra has such a glorious, passionate, technically great and musical sound as exists anywhere. The orchestra pit is huge, and the orchestra is arranged on seven levels descending back and down under the stage with partial covers in front of and over the orchestra. The string basses and celli are split in half on each side of the orchestra, and the first violins are located to the right of the maestro so their sound emanates up and back, away from the partial cover over the front of the pit. The sound from the pit is actually deflected back to the stage and comes out to the audience with the voices on stage – in this way, the singers can be heard under most conditions even with the orchestra at full volume. The orchestra is not visible to the audience, so the members of the orchestra dress very casually – shorts, T-shirts and thongs in some cases. One hears about how hot and loud it is in the pit, but as a pit musician myself, I loved it, and it actually felt cooler than the theatre during those hot August days. The top of my “bucket list” includes a return to Bayreuth to hear the “Ring.’
]]>Born December 22, 1891, Emory Brace Remington took up the trombone at age fourteen. His own remarks about that beginning are perhaps most appropriate: “All along I was fascinated by the trombone. I’d seen pictures of it and that was all I’d talk about. Finally, the next-door neighbor came home with an instrument from a pawnshop and gave it to me. I didn’t know the first thing – I thought you just went up and down on the slide.”
In 1929, he became a member of the Eastman School of Music Faculty and first trombonist in the Eastman Theatre Orchestra (which was later called the Rochester Civic Orchestra and then the Rochester Philharmonic). For the next twenty-eight years, he never missed a concert. After his retirement from the orchestra in 1949, he continue to teach his beloved pupils for another twenty-two years until his death, December 10, 1971, making a grand total of fifty years at Eastman. His influence and the influence of his legion of students have been enormous.
A typical lesson with “the Chief” (as he became affectionately known) consisted of his own special warm-ups, involving scale and arpeggio patterns in all keys, vocalises, dramatic orchestral style etudes, and perhaps a solo piece or a few orchestral excerpts. As the student became more advanced, the material increased in difficulty at a pace that was demanding but not overwhelming. The number of pages that the student prepared was not assigned, and within reason, could be varied by the individual. Remington’s principal teaching device was to sing virtually every note in every lesson. Again, his own words are most descriptive: “If I had a special distinction, it was that I tried to make the trombone sing with a human quality. In the old days, no one asked fundamental questions like tongue placement, breath control and so on. I just played as it seemed right to me. There was very little material then that treated the vocal line. It was marches, Boom, Boom, dah, dah, a lot of the German school, very smeary on the slide. The old school was to spit it out. I was strong on articulation, in the mouth like a singer. I didn’t blow into the horn, I sang into it, as little resistance as possible. I’ve always treated the instrument as just another voice.”
He had a baritone voice of uneven quality but the ability to convey phrasing, articulation, and sound quality in an uncanny manner. He estimated that he sang six to seven hours a day. If the student listened carefully, the various aspects of playing could be deduced from this continual vocalization.
The only time that he did not “sing along” was when a solo was played just prior to performance, or the occasional opening phrase of an etude. After a few measures, he would usually say: “Hold it! Not like that; more like this”, and launch into song. Then student and teacher would begin again together. On rare occasions when the student captured exactly the right qualities of the first phrase, “the Chief” would enter on the second. This was the highest form of praise and was worth more than any of his spoken encouragements. Technical explanations were completely absent. It may be difficult for some to fully understand, but this was the essence of his “osmosis” style of teaching. Each student was free to learn as much or as little as was desired. He treated all his students the same. There was no star system. The talented players were allowed to develop their gifts at the rapid pace on which they thrived. The average players were gently “pushed” to higher levels of attainment. The problem players were usually coerced, without their realizing, into non-performance areas of the profession.
If Remington’s method had a weak point, and this is debatable, it was his reluctance to make technical suggestions to his students. While it is true that some of his former pupils were helped by other teachers more adept at the technical aspects of teaching, this manner of working with people was foreign to his humanistic nature. He realized (as the teachers of today should) that only a few would ever make their living as performers and that false encouragement and long, painful adjustment periods would usually lead to frustration and disappointment. As Howard Hanson, former Director of the Eastman School, so eloquently said: “Remington did not teach trombone, he taught people.”
This article originally appeared in The Brass Bulletin, #21.
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]]>I recommend you read these excellent interviews.
The site is:
http://www.davidbrubeck.com]]>Tenor Trombone, Euphonium, Bass Trombone or Tuba
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