This trait and its smaller bore and bell produce a "covered, blended sound which was a timbre particularly effective for working with voices,... zincks and crumhorns",[3] as in an alta cappella.

Older trombones also generally don't have water keys,[5] stockings,[6] a leadpipe, or a slide lock, but as these parts are not critical to sound, replicas may include them.

[7] The term survives in numerous English spelling variations including sacbutt, sackbutte, sagbut, shagbolt, sacabushe, shakbusse[8] and shakbusshe.

[15] The earliest clear evidence of a U-shaped slide moving on two inner tubes is in a fresco painting by Filippino Lippi in Rome, The Assumption of the Virgin, dating from 1488 to 1493.

The original way to make the slide tubes was to roll a flat piece of metal around a solid cylinder mandrel, and the joining edges soldered together.

The flat rims and shallow cups of the older mouthpieces are instrumental in providing the player with a much wider palette of articulations and tonal colours.

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[24] 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 cornett"[25] (which of course had a very similar role to the trombone).

[29] The sackbut replaced the slide trumpet in the 15th century alta capella wind bands that were common in towns throughout Europe playing courtly dance music.

In many towns in Germany and Northern Italy, 'piffari' bands were employed by local governments throughout the 16th century to give regular concerts in public squares and would lead processions for festivals.

[31] Since ensembles had flexible instrumentation at this time, there is relatively little music before Giovanni Gabrieli's publication Symphoniae sacrae (1597) that specifically mentions trombones.

Giovanni Martino Cesare wrote La Hieronyma, (Musikverlag Max Hieber, MH6012) the earliest known piece for accompanied solo trombone.

It comes from Cesare's collection Musicali Melodie per voci et instrumenti a una, due, tre, quattro, cinque, e sei published in Munich 1621 of 28 pieces for a mixture of violins, cornetts, trombone, vocal soloists and organ continuo.

Francesco Rognoni was another composer who specified the trombone in a set of divisions (variations) on the well-known song Suzanne ung jour (London Pro Musica, REP15).

Rognoni was a master violin and gamba player whose treatise Selva di Varie passaggi secondo l'uso moderno (Milan 1620 and facsimile reprint by Arnaldo Forni Editore 2001) details improvisation of diminutions and Suzanne is given as one example.

The term "bastarda" describes a technique that made variations on all the different voices of a part song, rather than just the melody or the bass: "considered illegitimate because it was not polyphonic".

Giuseppe Scarani joined St. Mark's Venice in 1629 as a singer and in the following year published Sonate concertate, a volume of works for 2 or 3 (unspecified) instruments (and b.c.).

An English work of note from this period is Matthew Locke's Music for His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts, a suite for Charles II's coronation 1661.

[37] Johann Pezel wrote for Stadtpfeifer with his Hora decima musicorum (1670), containing sonatas, as well as Fünff-stimmigte blasende Music (1685) with five-part intradas and dance pieces.

During a mass attended by the Doge, evidence suggests they would have played a canzona in the Gradual after the Epistle and the Agnus Dei, a sonata in the Offertory as well as reinforcing vocal parts or substituting for absent singers.

Monteverdi also leaves the option to use trombones as part of the "sex instrumentis" of the Dixit Dominus and in the instrumental Ritornello a 5 between verses of Ave maris stella.

[30] Monteverdi arrived at St. Mark's in 1613 and it is unsurprising that he includes trombones and strings for several more sacred works during his time here, published in his Selva morale e spirituale 1641.

[41] Johann Hermann Schein specified trombones in some of his sacred vocal works in the Opella nova, ander Theil, geistlicher Concerten collection (Leipzig, 1626).

For example, Uns ist ein Kind geboren is scored for violino, traversa, alto trombone, tenor voice, fagotto and basso continuo.

For example, Gott fähret auf mit Jauchzen (BuxWV33 from CW v, 44) is scored for SSB voices, 2 violins, 2 violas, trombones, 2 cornetts, 2 trumpets, bassoon and basso continuo.

There is also Hochzeitsgesang für Daniel Sartorius: Es ist nicht gut, dass der Mensch allein sei for 5 voices, 2 violins, 2 trombones, bassoon and basso continuo.

[46] The lesser known Austrian composer Christoph Strauss, Kapellmeister to the Habsburg Emperor Mathias 1616–1620, wrote two important collections for trombones, cornetts and voices.

His motets published in Nova ac diversimoda sacrarum cantionum composition, seu motettae (Vienna, 1613) are in a similar tradition to Gabrieli's music.