 
Trombones consist of a long, thin, coiled tube with a cup-shaped mouthpiece on one end and a bell on the other, just like a big trumpet. What isn't just like a trumpet is the slide. Where a trumpeter changes pitches by using valves, which in effect change the length of the instrument, the trombonist moves a slide in and out, constantly making his instrument visibly longer and shorter as he plays.Early trombones were called sackbuts or sagbuts. This funny word probably comes from an old French word, sacquer (sah-coor), meaning "to draw out." It also may come from an old Spanish term, sacabuche (sa-ca-bush), meaning "to draw out the innards." Trombones seem to have begun appearing in the 1400s. By the 1500s they were being made in all sizes and were used in groups, in town bands, court bands, and mixed ensembles. Many composers liked the sound of a trombone trio, and wrote for alto, tenor, and bass trombones. These days, two or three tenor trombones and one bass trombone make up the normal trombone section. 
By the late 1700s, composers had begun to include trombones in their orchestras. Believing that trombones have a stately, or noble, sound, some composers used them in church music or for special dramatic effects, as Mozart did in the closing moments of his opera Don Giovanni. 
The first composer to use trombones in a symphony was Beethoven, in his Fifth Symphony. Hector Berlioz, that adventurous French Romantic composer, especially liked trombones and said they could portray anything from "religious accent, calm and imposing . . . to wild clamours of the orgy." For some wild and crazy trombone parts, listen to his Symphonie Fantastique.
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