Graduate recital in trombone

Includes recorded audio files in WAV and MP3 formats, 57:53 in length.When I first started programming my recital, I had three major objectives: to play music from different time periods and diverse backgrounds; to demonstrate my abilities and those of the trombone; and to play no transcriptions. This last objective proved to be the most difficult to achieve, for even though the trombone has been in common use since the sixteenth century and can even be dated back to the Middle Ages, little literature had been written for it until the nineteenth century. The reasons for this might be the original intended use of the instrument--that of a substitute for, or an enhancement of, voices in a choir. Another reason could be the instrument's inherent physical awkwardness, causing it to take longer for the trombonist to reach a level of technical satisfaction equal to solo literature. This is not to say that there was no challenging music written for the trombone. One need go no farther than Giovanni Gabrieli to find it. However, we don't know how well such passages where played. With all that said, my first piece, Sonate Fur Fagott und Violoncello, K. 292, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) comes very close to breaking the important ???no transcription??? rule. My reading the bassoon part as written is my justification for this. I like to use a bassoon or another trombone instead of a cello because it makes for a better balance. Keith Brown wrote a transcription for trombone and piano; however, it loses the feel of the original and sounds a lot like tricks on the trombone. In 1775, Mozart traveled to Munich on a commission to write an opera buffa for the carnival season. While in Munich he composed quite a bit of music including a series of sonatas, K. 279-284. He also composed this duet sonata probably for Baron Thaddaus von Durnitz, an amateur bassoonist, for whom he wrote K. 284. (See more in text.