Sackbut modern orchestra sounds out of tune, but it tunes perfectly well on in a sackbut choir if everyone plays natural harmonics. Plenty of musical understanding can be gathered from reading the original music print. Publishers such as SPES and Arnaldo Forni Edition provide facsimile copies of plenty of music for trombone from this era. To read these it one needs to become familiar with the old clefs, time signatures, ligatures and notational conventions of the era. The sound of sackbuts (and trombones) has long been thought especially solemn and noble, had an association with death and the afterlife. The instrument
Sackbut in A (in first position), pitched at A=466. Surviving basses in D at A=466 (E at 440)—for example: Ehe, 1612 (Leipzig) and Hainlein, c.1630 (Nuremberg) confirm Praetorius' description. It is also worth noting that Rognoni's "Suzanne ung jour" setting descends repeatedly to BB, which is a tone lower than the lowest note playable on a bass in F; on a bass in D, it falls in (modern) fifth position. Many groups now perform at A=466 Hz for the sake of greater historical accuracy. The sackbut was described as suitable for playing with the 'loud' ensembles in the outdoors, as well