Trombone as a solo instrument in the light of organology and historiography

Problem statement. In contemporary instrumentology, the primary task is to identify not only technical but also semantic (artistic) qualities of instruments that belong to the general concept of “instrument style”. This regards trombone artistry, the study of which extends beyond instrumentation and intersects with issues in philosophy, aesthetics, and culture studies. Such contextual understanding of trombone style is presented in this article, which is dedicated to studying the least researched aspects of trombone creativity and performance — solo trombone. The purpose of this paper is to identify the organology characteristics of the instrument within the context of researching the solo trombone. The relevance of the article lies in the demand for comprehensive developments of instrumental styles, including trombone, in contemporary theoretical musicology, as well as the absence of works dedicated to incorporating the corresponding musical material required for developing a similar theme. The results. From the perspective of organology as a comprehensive science of instruments as “organs”, “tools” of musical thinking, trombone is a melodic instrument of the brass aerophones group, which, thanks to its slide, can reproduce segments of the chromatic scale within three octaves with the possibility of natural glissando. The trombone’s acoustic and semantic resources are combined in its stylistic image, allowing for multifunctional use of this instrument in various music genres. The article outlines the path of forming the solo qualities of the trombone, presents classification of the types of trombone soloing, among which solo unaccompanied works for the trombone are highlighted. These mostly include miniatures of both programmatic and non-programmatic content, as well as sonatas for the trombone presented in the works by both foreign and Ukrainian authors. The specificity of such works is concluded in the combination of concert characteristics (the principle of soloing) and chamber characteristics (reproduction in a single voice of ensemble functions with equally potent voices-registers). This layer of trombone creativity is the least researched and therefore requires separate study, the beginning of which is laid out in this article. The scientific novelty of the research. Solo trombone music becomes an autonomous center containing everything characteristic of the trombone image and, within its competence, demonstrates all genres that exist or have existed in it. The proper qualities of the solo trombone are revealed in unaccompanied miniatures, the characteristics of which are illuminated for the first time in this article. Therefore, the issue of involving self-sufficient solo trombone works into musicological discourse pertains not only to the technical aspect but also contributes to a new perspective on the aesthetics and poetics of this instrument, its new philosophy, as demonstrated by the music of the Modern era.