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Trombone by Michael Nagel, Imperial City of Nürnberg, 1656
NMM 3592. Tenor trombone by Michael Nagel, Imperial City of Nürnberg, 1656. Engraved on bell garland: MACHT · MICHAEL [shield with bird and initials MN] NAGEL · NVR 1656. Slide may be an early 18th-century replacement. Ex coll.: Bohland & Fuchs, Graslitz, Bohemia. Purchase funds gift of Mr. and Mrs. Clifford E. Graese, Saddle River, New Jersey, 1985.
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While still in his mid-twenties, Nagel took over Droschel's shop after his death, married his mentor's young widow, and assumed Droschel's master's mark—a bird (Drossel in German translates as "thrush") facing to the right—to which he added his own initials, MN. |
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Michael Nagel was also closely associated with the great Hainlein family of brass instrument makers of Nürnberg. He was the godfather of Michael Hainlein (ca. 1659-1713), son of Paul (1626-1686), both of whom may have been mentors and/or co-workers with Johann Carl Kodisch, maker of the NMM's elaborately decorated trombone built in 1701. |
Michael Nagel built this trombone when he was thirty-five years old. Note that he used an abbreviation for Nürnberg—NVR—preceding the date, 1656. The tab seam is clearly visible below the darts (representing stylized acanthus leaves) that encircle the inner edge of the garland. |
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The single, flat bell stay is embellished on the center of both sides with an engraving of a woman holding a flower. |
Nagel's bell stay has one eyelet and is connected to the bell pipe with a hinge and pin. |
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The slide, possibly an early 18th-century replacement, features brass slide stays made from embossed, machine-made garnishes featuring delicate floral and foliate designs. |
The brass slide ferrules feature engraved and impressed rings alternating with embossed garnishes. |
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Ferrules on the bell bow feature decorative, punched designs surrounded by engraved and impressed rings on one end and a scalloped edge on the opposite end. |
Literature: "1985 Acquisitions at USD Music Museum," Newsletter of the American Musical Instrument Society 15, No. 1 (February 1985), p. 9.
Larry Kitzel, "The Trombones of The Shrine to Music Museum," D.M.A. dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 1985, pp. 234-235.
Margaret Downie Banks, "17th-and 18th-Century Brass Instruments at The Shrine to Music Museum," Brass Bulletin 58, No. 2 (1987), pp. 52, 54, and 56.
André P. Larson, The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), p. 7.
William Waterhouse, The New Langwill Index: A Dictionary of Musical Wind-Instrument Makers and Inventors (London: Tony Bingham, 1993), p. 278.
Stewart Carter, "Early Trombones in America's Shrine to Music Museum," Historic Brass Society Journal 10 (1998), pp. 92-94, 102-104.
