Contempora Double-Valve Bass Trombones

As an extension of their collaborative work on the Philharmonic single-valve bass trombone, Reynolds worked with Kauko Kahila (BSO, 1952-1972) on double-valve prototypes throughout the 1950s. As the design finalized, Reynolds brought in Allen Ostrander (New York Philharmonic, 1946-75) for additional input and testing. While Kahila still considers himself to be the horn's architect, it’s worth noting that Edward Kleinhammer (Chicago Symphony) believed that Ostrander had sparked Reynolds’ interest in the project; this may, however, simply underscore Kahila's relatively low public profile on the overall project.

Introduced in 1958, the Contempora "Stereophonic" model was the first commercially produced bass trombone with two rotor valves permanently attached to the horn. Previous double-valve bass trombones had featured either a removeable second valve or an adjustable valve that was attached to the F attachment tubing. To fit the second valve, Reynolds developed a unique “flat wrap” design that extended the F-attachment tubing forward toward the bell.

While Kahila ultimately preferred his single-valve Reynolds "Philharmonic" bass trombone, Ostrander quickly championed the advantages of the Reynolds valve design, mating it to a lightweight Conn bell (9½" yellow brass 72H bell) and slide (.547/.562" dual-bore slide) for his NYPO playing. An image of a bass trombone with the Reynolds double-valve section appears on the front of my copy of Ostrander's "Double-Valve Bass Trombone Low Tone Studies" method book.

Model Specifications

Notes | Quotes

D Attachment | The Contempora double-valve bass trombone originally featured attachments with F and flat E tuning. As more double-valve models entered the marketplace in the 1960s, players began to express a preference for F and D attachments to make it more efficient to play in the low register. Finally, in the late 1960s, Zig Kanstul designed an optional D attachment for the Contempora trombone. Read more...

Henry Kavett recalls the following story regarding demo horns made for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra:

"I bought my double valve Contempora from the legendary teacher Donald Reinhardt, in 1970. He had four of these beasts in his studio which he said had been the demo horns made for the Metropolitan Opera (NY) orchestra. I had my pick of the litter. My teacher had studied with him and brought me for a lesson and to get a "new" trombone. It is a sentimental favorite -- a decent, multipurpose instrument that is essentially a compromise sort of horn. The top is great as is the middle, but the bottom was stuffy for me. After fitting it with a Callet lead pipe, the output was considerable better and more focused. Though I switched to another instrument about three years ago, this is still a terrific horn..."

Renold O. Schilke studied the Contempora design when he was thinking about marketing a trombone line under the Schilke name, but wound up designing the original Yamaha bass trombones instead. Mike Suter recalled the following story for the trombone-l community:

"In the early '70s, I was in Chicago and stopped by Schilke to say 'hi' to Phil Warsip and look around a bit. The old man came out, all excited, and said "you have to play my new bass trombone." He brought out a stacked Bb-F-E horn that looked for all the world like an exact copy of a double rotor Reynolds Contempora, roller linkages, dependent E branch, Reynolds pattern ferrules and all, except that it had a huge bell - a lot bigger than my Holton. I know it had a leaderpipe because my mouthpiece fit the receiver. But who knows how long or short it may have been. It was clearly an orchestral horn: you had to kind of boss it around to get what you wanted. After I'd played it for a while, he asked me what I thought of it. Somewhere in the first two sentences I mentioned its striking resemblance to the Reynolds. He snatched the horn from me and stomped off. Warsip just kind of smiled and said that I'd pay for that down the road.

Paul Rawlins confirms that Renold Schilke bought twelve (12) Reynolds Contempora bass trombones (of which Paul later bought one) in the early 1960s just before Richards Music went bankrupt and production moved out of Cleveland.

The popularity of Reynolds bass trombones still lingers in the U.K., where Chris Stearn reports that Gerry McElhone (Covent Garden) used a Reynolds before retiring in the late-1990's and Leslie Lake of the English National Opera still actively uses a Contempora bass trombone on a regular basis:

"Les wore out his original Reynolds slide, but found another newer one. Then, about ten years ago, I sold him an early Reynolds bass that was in as new condition. I had bought the instrument from the widow of Harry Spain, longtime bass trombonist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, who had used it for a short time in the sixties, then stored it. I used it at the Scottish Opera for a year or so, then sold it on to Les. He still plays it."