Brian Thacker

Last night I presented a recital at Bethel University, in McKenzie Tennessee. Being the first solo recital I have given in several years, I was quite pleased with how it turned out. I have posted some videos from my performance on this site under the Audio & Video Clips section of About Me.

The performance space at Bethel makes for a challenging experience as a soloist. Turner Recital Hall is still basically a multipurpose room with no acoustical treatment. In addition, there is no place for a performer to retire to during works (especially nice for a brass player to get the instrument off of the face for a moment). Basically I played the recital top to bottom with just enough lead time between works for instrument changes and other odds & ends (like placing a piece of wood on the floor to tap on during Elegy for Mippy II instead of the carpet!).

I would like to thank all of the students, faculty, and community members who attended last night. I greatly appreciate your support!

“In my opinion the trombone is the true head of that family of wind instruments which I have named the epic one.  It possesses nobility and grandeur to the highest degree;  it has all the serious and powerful tones of sublime musical poetry, from religious, calm and imposing accents to savage, orgiastic outbursts.  Directed by the will of a master, the trombones can chant like a choir of priests, threaten, utter gloomy sighs, a mournful lament or a bright hymn of glory, they can break forth into awe-inspiring cries and awaken the dead or doom the living with their fearful voices.”

“Nevertheless, ways were found some thirty years ago to degrade this instrument by limiting its use to the worthless and ridiculous doubling of the double-bass part.  Fortunately, this method has now been almost completely abandoned; but in many otherwise beautiful scores one can still find the basses almost continuously doubled in unison by a single trombone. I know nothing less harmonious or more vulgar than this manner of instrumentation.  The tone of the trombone is so characteristic that is should never be used except for special effects.  It cannot be its function merely to reinforce the double-basses, with whose timbre, moreover, it has no sympathy whatever.”

A few years ago I scanned almost all of the ITA Journals and Newsletters up to the year 2004 into searchable PDFs for my own personal use. Dr. Randy Kohlenberg and myself offer those PDFs to the ITA who at that time had no interest in electronic versions. With the continued moving of back issues from UNCG to the ITA Archives, the subject was once again broached on behalf of the ITA by Magnus Nilsson. I am happy to say I have donated all of the PDFs to the ITA for upcoming release on their website. Hopefully my work will speed up the progress of creating a comprehensive electronic archive of this organization.