The prophet of the trombone

Summary

Then there was the player with a passion for the trombone. In his view the trombone would sooner or later dethrone and replace all other instruments. He was the prophet Isaiah of the trombone. Saint-Jean would have played his drum in the wilderness; this fellow, to prove the immense superiority of the trombone, boasted of having actually played it in a coach, a railway train, a steamboat, and even while swimming in a lake twenty metres deep.

Apart from appropriate exercises for playing the trombone while swimming in lakes, his Method includes several cheerful pieces for weddings and similar festivities. Beneath one of these masterpieces there is a note which says: “When this piece is played at a wedding, a stack of plates should be dropped at the bar marked X; this produces an excellent effect.”