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Mute Stories II -
Tenor Trombone
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After the considerable success of
the Classic trumpet straight mute, my
trombone friends started asking when I
was
going to make a trombone straight
mute.
It was an excellent
idea, there were really no good
trombone straight mutes on the market in
1969. I pictured a trombone mute with
the same general shape, curves and sound
as the new Classic trumpet mute,
enlarged to trombone size. I am not an
acoustician and know nothing of
Helmholtz curves or other acoustical
lore. My approach was instinctive and
artistic, with future input from my
trombonist friends.
I started by drawing full scale
what I pictured a trombone mute should
look like. I had no paper large enough,
so I cut open a paper bag and used a
marking pen. The drawing in hand, I
talked with our landlord, who had
wood-working tools in the basement of
our two flat. I wondered if he would
like to work with me to make a trombone
mute. He was very interested so we went
from there. He found a block of wood,
large enough to make a tenor trombone
mute model. Much as sculptors find a
statue inside a block of marble, we
searched for the trombone mute in this
block of wood. He trimmed and shaped
with a saw and then started spinning it
on his homemade lathe. I watched over
his shoulder and guided the curves.
Finally we had a good looking model, a
solid wooden trombone mute. Important to
trombonists it also fit well in the
hand. Now it had to be converted to a
real aluminum mute. I took the model to
our metal spinner and they made a wooden
mandrel from our model. With this
mandrel they could spin a mute, take a
little wood off the mandrel and make a
slightly smaller mute, trying to find
the optimal size. With many samples,
each a little smaller than the last, I
had my trombone friends start testing.
My testers were the trombones of
the Lyric Opera Orchestra and the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Ardash Marderosian, then
principal trombone of the Lyric
Orchestra and Jay Friedman, then and now
principal trombone of the CSO were two
important testers..The testing was not difficult.
They all chose what is now our tenor
trombone mute. It is pretty much as I
imagined and drew it. It is easy blowing
and has a good traditional straight mute
sound. This mute was well received
worldwide. In 1974, during a visit to
Prague we went to a concert of the Czech
National Symphony Orchestra. The first
trombonist was using the new Tom Crown
tenor trombone straight, this
only a year after we introduced
it. We do no advertising, so the word of
mouth of this new mute traveled fast.
I have enquired on Facebook to
find early users of this
mute. Outside of Chicago, where
Lyric Opera and CSO trombonists used the
Tom Crown trombone straight mute from
its birth. the earliest user outside of
Chicago was Axel Maukner, longtime
principal trombonist of the Deutsche
Oper, Berlin. I was in Berlin for a year
from 1973 to 1974 playing in the
orchestra of the Deutsche Oper. I
somehow brought with me or had sent
mutes for the trumpets and trombones. In
Berlin, at a luncheon in our honor,
Donna and I,
thirty years later, were pleased
to see our friends from long ago.
Axel brought along his mute to
show and tell that although retired from
the opera he still used that mute I gave
him in 1973 on his gigs.
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