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I'd like to know to which instruments are these signatures referring. I think "Pos" is a trombone but I may be wrong.
Please note these are from page 2 of Wagner's Tannhauser ouverture and, most likely, the abbreviation is in German language.
Additionally, I'd like to know if "zu 3" means something about how many instruments are supposed to play the part or not.
Posaunen: Trombones. Btb: Bass Tuba. Pk: Pauken = tympani.
zu 3 = all three trombones play the same notes.
Wagner was German, so the instrument names are in German. (Die Posa is Latin for "placed on")
Yes, Pos. is short for Posuane, German for trombone.
Btb. is short for Basstuba, German for Bass tuba (duh :P)
Pk. is short for Pauken, German for Timpani
zu 3 is short for zusammen drei, German for (literally) "three together"
Here is a comprehensive chart from Yale University Library which provides the names of all the major orchestral instruments, and more, in
It does not provide a list of the common abbreviations like the ones in your example score. It provides the full names of each instrument in each language, and notes synonyms or alternate names. However, you should still find it to be a useful reference source.
Here are two other sources:
Instrument abbreviations in two languages (French, English) from Laval university of Canada Abréviations des instruments de musique
Extensive information about instrumentation, nomenclature, abbreviations (English, Italian, German, French, Spanish) orchestral setup and much more from Dolmetsch Organisation Musical instrument ranges & names
