During the past year, Peter Körner, a trombonist in the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, published a new book coauthored with Heinrich Thein, “Die Welt der Altposaune” (The World of the Alto Trombone). The 345-page work was published by Martin Schmid Blechbläsernoten, in Germany.
The book’s publication has resulted in numerous invitations for Mr. Körner to speak at trombone-related events on both sides of the Atlantic. In February 2016 he will participate in the trombone “symposium” of the German Trombone Association and the France Trombone Association, to be held in Lausanne, Switzerland, and in June he will be in the US for the Cleveland Trombone Seminar and the International Trombone Festival, which will take place at the Julliard School of Music in New York.
Although the alto trombone has a long history, it fell out of favor during the nineteenth century, with the tenor trombone becoming the more commonly used instrument. Within the last 30 years, however, there has been a resurgence of interest in the alto trombone, for the purpose of playing music of Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert and many more composers on the original instruments of the period.
In the preface to his book, Mr. Körner notes that like many other trombonists, he had to learn the alto trombone quickly. In his case, he needed to play the instrument in a performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony by his high school orchestra, and learned it in two weeks. “After that,” related Mr. Körner, “I was a real fan of the alto trombone and played lots of different things on it.”
The book came about when Mr. Körner and his coauthor, who were collaborating on the development of a new alto trombone, discovered that there was very little published literature on the instrument. “The World of the Alto Trombone” fills that gap, covering all aspects of the alto trombone, from its history and various models, to mouthpieces, methods and repertoire, along with the thoughts of tenor trombonists on the alto instrument.