a composer I can't recommend
Apr. 29th, 2008 09:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimac... because I doubt that the best music of Henry Brant (who died at 94 a few days ago) would make much of an impact on record.
Brant was a devotee of what he called "spatial music". When commissioned, he would write the work for the specific hall where it was to be played. I was lucky enough to hear a couple of his works at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, including the premiere of Ice Field, which went on to get the Pulitzer Prize in Music. Brant would place small groups of instruments around the hall in various specified locations, and for the listener, the effect of different types of sound coming from all directions was truly striking. For me it was the principal appeal of Brant's music, which reduced to one direction (or two stereo speakers) I doubt I'd have found very memorable.
There's been multi-directional music before, of course. Gabrieli's antiphonal brass works, which since they involve only two or three choirs, without specified placement, can come across fairly well in stereo. Peter Maxwell Davies' An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise, which I've also heard live, ends with the back door being flung open and a highland piper in full fig and full throttle striding down the aisle to join the orchestra. The San Francisco Symphony once did a wonderful version of Janacek's Sinfonietta with part of the brass choir up in the balcony. These are all good, but Brant's work was of a much greater spatial complexity.
He was present at both the concerts of his music I've attended. He was a peppy little old man who even in evening wear didn't remove the old-fashioned sub-editor's eyeshade that seemed to be his permanent trademark.
Brant was a devotee of what he called "spatial music". When commissioned, he would write the work for the specific hall where it was to be played. I was lucky enough to hear a couple of his works at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, including the premiere of Ice Field, which went on to get the Pulitzer Prize in Music. Brant would place small groups of instruments around the hall in various specified locations, and for the listener, the effect of different types of sound coming from all directions was truly striking. For me it was the principal appeal of Brant's music, which reduced to one direction (or two stereo speakers) I doubt I'd have found very memorable.
There's been multi-directional music before, of course. Gabrieli's antiphonal brass works, which since they involve only two or three choirs, without specified placement, can come across fairly well in stereo. Peter Maxwell Davies' An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise, which I've also heard live, ends with the back door being flung open and a highland piper in full fig and full throttle striding down the aisle to join the orchestra. The San Francisco Symphony once did a wonderful version of Janacek's Sinfonietta with part of the brass choir up in the balcony. These are all good, but Brant's work was of a much greater spatial complexity.
He was present at both the concerts of his music I've attended. He was a peppy little old man who even in evening wear didn't remove the old-fashioned sub-editor's eyeshade that seemed to be his permanent trademark.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-30 03:54 pm (UTC)Binaural
Date: 2008-04-30 04:38 pm (UTC)I did a search, but I can't find any sign anybody tried recording performances of Brant this way.