Sackbut Sackbut A sackbut is a type of trombone from the Renaissance and Baroque eras, characterised by a telescopic slide that is used to vary the length of the tube to change pitch. Unlike the earlier slide trumpet from which it evolved, the sackbut possesses a U-shaped slide, with two parallel sliding tubes, which allows for playing scales in a lower range. Records of the term "trombone" predates the term "sackbut" by two decades, and evidence for the German term "Posaune" is even older. "Sackbut", originally a French term, was used in England until the instrument fell into disuse in the
Recorder (musical instrument) "common flute", "common English-flute", or simply "English flute" while the transverse instrument was distinguished as the "German flute" or simply "flute." Until at least 1765, some writers still used "flute" to mean recorder. Until the mid 18th century, musical scores written in Italian refer to the instrument as , whereas the transverse instrument was called . This distinction, like the English switch from "recorder" to "flute," has caused confusion among modern editors, writers and performers. Indeed, in most European languages, the first term for the recorder was the word for flute alone. In the present day, cognates of the word