The Concerto for Trombone, written in 1763 by Georg Christoph Wagenseil, is a piece in 2 movements for alto trombone and chamber orchestra. The orchestration consists of 2 parts for violin, 1 part for viola, cello and string bass, 2 French horn parts and 2 parts for flute. It is the first concerto form solo work for the alto trombone and was written during a time when wide use of this instrument had been diminished from centuries past. The Concerto for Trombone helped mark the beginning of a time when the musical expressiveness of the trombone began to be noticed in chamber genres where such attention had been lacking in previous decades. Chapter 2 examines the life and musical background of the composer. Chapter 3 discusses the history surrounding the possible origin of the Concerto and its performance history. Chapter 4 provides analytical insights into the construction and format of the piece. Chapter 5 details the creation of an urtext edition of the Concerto. Chapter 6 concludes this document with a performer's guide to the work based on the urtext edition of the solo trombone part to create the performance edition. This performance edition of the work includes historically informed solutions to the problematic technical elements of ornaments. The final section of the chapter makes suggestions regarding the preparation and performance of a historically informed version of the Concerto for Trombone.

The evolution of the role of the trombone as a solo instrument in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries can be traced most effectively through four schools of playing, with the music of today's avant-garde being a logical historical culmination of these four schools. It will be demons t rated that the avant-garde's use of the solo trombone has merely continued the evolutionary process started in the early nineteenth century. The contribution of the early nineteenth-century virtuosi was the establishment of the idea that the trombone could compete on its own terms with other instruments as a solo instrument. In addition to expanding the technical capabilities, they also left a basic solo repertoire. With the death of the virtuosi the trombone as a solo instrument went into a decline. For the remainder of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth century the Paris Conservatoire was influential. Standards of solo performance were brought to new heights by excellent study material and contest solos. The next important step came from the late nineteenth-century American band virtuosi. Their influence helped the public to accept the idea of the trombone as a solo instrument. The American jazz trombonists of the 1930's and 1940's also further widened the technical capabilities of the trombone and also further encouraged acceptance of the Instrument in its solo capacity. However, their most important contribution was in new tonal colors. The music of the avant-garde takes all these previous historical achievements and makes use of them in its own unique way.

It is widely known that intonation in live professional trombone auditions is one of the most critical factors for which execution is paramount. However, the musician who practices dutifully and precisely with a chromatic tuner, even to the point of technical mastery, will not be prepared sufficiently. He or she will find that in certain environments where heavy reverberation is present, the harmonies inadvertently created are not in tune, even when equal-tempered tuning is executed perfectly, due to the harmonic interactions that those reverberations create. Therefore, it is important that trombonists know how to play auditions excerpts with just intonation, a system that accounts for harmony to deliver results that are truly in tune, for use in the solo round of an audition in such an acoustically "wet" space. This document demonstrates the need for a solution in this regard, the factors involved in a practical application of these concepts in varying scenarios, and presents analyses in just intonation of ten of the most commonly requested excerpts. In addition, guidance and resources are provided for application beyond the excerpts that have been included. It is intended that the trombonist who reads this document will have a better understanding of the basics of just intonation as they apply to solo auditions, so that the quality of his or her audition is improved by leaving at least one less element, intonation, up to chance.

The basic purpose of this dissertation is to provide the trombonist of today with a realization concerning ornamentation practices of the baroque period, and to supply trombonists and trombone instructors with the resources necessary to include the appropriate ornaments in a performance of baroque music.Chapter 1 is concerned with the ornamentation practices of Italy and France, the two most influential nations in the development of a mature style of baroque performance. The Italian tradition of free embellishment is presented and compared with the French tradition of composers' providing specific ornaments for their music. The author's choice of ornaments presented in the sonatas of Galliard, Marcello, and Vivaldi in Chapters 4, 5, and 6 is based on the prominence of these two styles.Chapter 2 is a presentation of the three most popular categories of embellishments employed during the baroque period. The families of appoggiaturas, trills, and mordents, are notated together with suggestions for their proper expression and execution on the trombone. Examples are taken from the embellished sonatas presented later in this study, using measure numbering to identify their placement withineach measure.Chapter 3 is an essay dealing with the art of trilling on the trombone. The overtone series is explained in regard to the formation of thirds, and to the proper notation necessary to adequately perform trills of major and minor thirds. A section concerning the use of the "F" attachment for performing baroque trills is highlighted with examples identifying several valve and slide combinations that favor the execution of major and minor seconds on the trombone.Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are an application of baroque embellishments to eighteen sonatas from the baroque period. Each of the ornaments is notated and placed within the context of the music. The musical compositions chasen for this study represent the Six Sonatas for Bassoon and Harpsichord Johann Ernst Galliard, Six Sonatas for Viloncello and Piano by Benedetto Marcello, and Six Sonatas for Violoncello and Figured Bass by Antonio Vivaldi.