George McCracken 1931-2024
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 2:51 pm
George McCracken has passed away.
Many folks here on the forum remember George McCracken as the man who designed the Duo Gravis bass trombone for Alan Raph. Fewer folks remember George's work in lightening 2B and 3B slides, and debugging bending challenges from light slide tubing. Fewer still know of his efforts to provide George Szell's Cleveland trombone section with horns that matched the sound in Szell's head, or of the wavy line that went from Szell horns through Chuck Ward's excellent designs for Benge trombones to the Conn "K" (as in "Kofsky") bell.
Higher brass players also knew George. Alan Raph mentioned bringing George to Vanguard during development of the Duo Gravis. George was thrilled to meet those legendary players. Turns out the players were equally thrilled to meet George.
For all of that, George was far better known in the Horn world. He leveraged all his experience as a player, as well as lessons learned designing the Duo Gravis bell from first principles, and created the King Eroica, followed fairly quickly by the King Fidelio. After retiring from King George then proceded to create a huge number of custom Horns, many completely unique in the Horn world. George was also active in the Horn players guild, and managed some arranging, as with his 8-Horn adaptation of Bruckner's "Os Justi."
George was a consumate designer. He was neither intimidated by theory nor enslaved by it. He was comfortable working through a log table to calculate Duo Gravis bell mandrel specifications according to theoretical work that Art Benade discussed with him. He was also comfortable making empirical adjustments to the Eroica bell mandrel when the results of the theory did not play the way he wanted them to. And he couldn't help but invent things. He found ways to pair rotary valves to reduce discontinuities in the acoustic channel. He had an amazing ability to think and edit designs in three dimensions in his head while keeping track of complex passage routing. Within the last few weeks he continued work on refining a triple horn valve he invented that could rotate passages in opposite directions within the casing.
Despite all the recognition, George remained first of all a musician and family man. From early days in Winston Salem he participated in church and other choirs wherever he happened to be. In his "retirement" (he never really retired from horn design, building, and repair) near West Point Virginia he led the church choir and organized and conducted performances, like the Faure Requiem at a (large!) private residence in West point.
George McCracken passed away quietly, surrounded by family, on April 12, 2024.
Many folks here on the forum remember George McCracken as the man who designed the Duo Gravis bass trombone for Alan Raph. Fewer folks remember George's work in lightening 2B and 3B slides, and debugging bending challenges from light slide tubing. Fewer still know of his efforts to provide George Szell's Cleveland trombone section with horns that matched the sound in Szell's head, or of the wavy line that went from Szell horns through Chuck Ward's excellent designs for Benge trombones to the Conn "K" (as in "Kofsky") bell.
Higher brass players also knew George. Alan Raph mentioned bringing George to Vanguard during development of the Duo Gravis. George was thrilled to meet those legendary players. Turns out the players were equally thrilled to meet George.
For all of that, George was far better known in the Horn world. He leveraged all his experience as a player, as well as lessons learned designing the Duo Gravis bell from first principles, and created the King Eroica, followed fairly quickly by the King Fidelio. After retiring from King George then proceded to create a huge number of custom Horns, many completely unique in the Horn world. George was also active in the Horn players guild, and managed some arranging, as with his 8-Horn adaptation of Bruckner's "Os Justi."
George was a consumate designer. He was neither intimidated by theory nor enslaved by it. He was comfortable working through a log table to calculate Duo Gravis bell mandrel specifications according to theoretical work that Art Benade discussed with him. He was also comfortable making empirical adjustments to the Eroica bell mandrel when the results of the theory did not play the way he wanted them to. And he couldn't help but invent things. He found ways to pair rotary valves to reduce discontinuities in the acoustic channel. He had an amazing ability to think and edit designs in three dimensions in his head while keeping track of complex passage routing. Within the last few weeks he continued work on refining a triple horn valve he invented that could rotate passages in opposite directions within the casing.
Despite all the recognition, George remained first of all a musician and family man. From early days in Winston Salem he participated in church and other choirs wherever he happened to be. In his "retirement" (he never really retired from horn design, building, and repair) near West Point Virginia he led the church choir and organized and conducted performances, like the Faure Requiem at a (large!) private residence in West point.
George McCracken passed away quietly, surrounded by family, on April 12, 2024.