Glenn Branca
Glenn Branca | |
---|---|
Born | Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. | October 6, 1948
Died | May 13, 2018 New York City, U.S. | (aged 69)
Occupation(s) | Composer, musician, luthier, playwright |
Glenn Branca (October 6, 1948 – May 13, 2018) was an American
Life and work
Beginnings: 1960s and early 1970s
Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Branca started playing the guitar at age 15. He also created a number of tape sound art collage pieces for his own amusement. After attending York College in 1966–1967, he started the short-lived cover band The Crystal Ship with Al Whiteside and Dave Speece in the summer of 1967. In the early 1970s, Branca studied theater at Emerson College in Boston. In 1973, he moved from Boston to London with his then girlfriend Meg English.
After moving back to Boston in 1974, he met John Rehberger. While there, he began experimenting with sound as the founder of an
New York: Late 1970s and 1980s
In 1976, Branca moved to New York City to continue in experimental theater. He encountered the N. Dodo Band and watched their rehearsals in Chelsea, hoping to use the space for a theater production. Branca spent time with one of its members, Jeffrey Lohn, who introduced him to bands such as Suicide. The two began forming a theater group when Branca decided he wanted to form a band, which he called the Static and later Theoretical Girls. Branca put up posters to recruit members, and after seeing one of the posters, Lohn expressed interest.[3]
Lohn's girlfriend Margaret De Wys joined the band as its bassist, and they borrowed drummer Mike Anthol from the N. Dodo Band. Artist Dan Graham booked the band at Franklin Furnace for its first performance.[4] The group reformed in 1977 with Wharton Tiers as its drummer.[4][5] Branca also recorded Barbara Ess's band Y Pants for their debut release on 99 Records and performed with Rhys Chatham's Guitar Trio on occasion from 1977 to 1979,[6][7] a noise music experience that was very important in the development of his compositional voice (Branca 1979). In 1982, Branca launched his own record label, Neutral Records, releasing Y Pants' LP and the first few records by New York noise rockers Sonic Youth.[8]
In 1978, Branca participated in the inception of the No Wave movement by participating twice in a five night no wave music festival at Artists Space organized by artists Michael Zwack and Robert Longo. It featured ten post-punk New York City bands; including Rhys Chatham's The Gynecologists, Communists, Branca's Theoretical Girls, Terminal, Chatham's Tone Death (performing his composition for electric guitars Guitar Trio)[9] and Branca's Daily Life (with Barbara Ess, Paul McMahon and Christine Hahn).[10]
In the early 1980s, Branca released his first album under his own name, Lesson No. 1.[11] In the same year, he composed several medium-length compositions for electric guitar ensembles, including The Ascension (1981) and Indeterminate Activity of Resultant Masses (1981). The Ascension appeared on his second same titled solo album in 1981, Indeterminate Activity of Resultant Masses wasn't released until 2008.[12]
Soon after these two compositions, he began composing
Early members of his group included Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Page Hamilton of Helmet, Phil Kline of The Del-Byzanteens, and several members of Swans including Michael Gira, Dan Braun, and Algis Kizys.[14]
Custom built musical instruments
To further develop his compositions based on the harmonic series Branca built several
Late work: 1990s to 2018
In the early 1990s, David Baratier attempted to document Branca's teaching style in They Walked in Line. In September 1996, The Glenn Branca Ensemble played at the opening ceremony for the
Beginning with Symphony No. 7, Branca began composing for traditional orchestra, although he never abandoned the electric guitar. Branca also played duets for excessively amplified guitars with his wife, Reg Bloor, and conducted his 13th symphony for 100 electric guitars at the base of the World Trade Center in New York City on June 13, 2001, less than three months before the center's destruction in the September 11 attacks. Since that time his 100 guitar piece has been performed in cities all over the U.S. and Europe. In 2008, he wrote his 14th Symphony, entitled The Harmonic Series, which is performed by a traditional orchestra. The first (and only completed) movement of this symphony, named 2,000,000,000 Light Years From Home premiered in St. Louis performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Robertson on November 13, 2008. This was the 12th major orchestra to perform Branca's orchestral work since 1986.
In 2008, he was awarded a grant from the
In October 2014, Branca premiered Ascension Three, touring it with Glenn Branca Ensemble in Europe. In February 2015, Branca's second 100 electric guitars piece, Symphony No. 16 (Orgasm), was premiered at Cité de la Musique in Paris. The Light (for David) for four guitars, bass and drums, premiered in October 2016 at the Roulette in Brooklyn.[15]
Death
On May 14, 2018, Reg Bloor's official Facebook page revealed in a post that Branca had died from
Discography
Albums
- The Ascension (1981)
- Who You Staring At? (split with John Giorno (1982)
- Symphony No. 3 (Gloria) (1983)
- Symphony No. 1 (Tonal Plexus) (1983)
- Symphony No. 6 (Devil Choirs at the Gates of Heaven) (1989)
- Symphony No. 2 (The Peak of the Sacred) (1992)
- The World Upside Down (1992)
- Symphonies Nos. 8 & 10 (The Mysteries) (1994)
- Symphony No. 5 (Describing Planes of an Expanding Hypersphere) (1995)
- Symphony No. 9 (L'eve Future) (1995)
- Empty Blue (with Tony Oursler) (2000)
- Indeterminate Activity of Resultant Masses (2006)
- The Ascension: The Sequel (2010)
- Symphony No. 7 (Graz) (2010)
- Symphony No. 13 (Hallucination City) For 100 guitars (2016)
- The Third Ascension (2019)
Singles
- "Acoustic Phenomena" (1983)
- "Symphony No. 9 (L'eve Future)" (1995)
EPs
- Lesson No. 1 (1980)
- Edmond (1986)
Live albums
- Ensemble - Live at Primavera Sound 2011 (2011)
Compilations
- Songs '77–'79 (1995)
- Selections From the Symphonies (For Electric Guitars) (1997)
Music videos
- Glenn Branca - Symphonies 8 & 10 - Live at The Kitchen (DVD)
See also
- Mudd Club
- Minimalism (music)
- Tier 3
- Just Another Asshole
- New wave music
- No Wave Cinema
- No wave
- Noise Fest
- Experimental musical instrument
- Noise music
- List of noise musicians
- Post-punk
Footnotes
- ^ Paul Hegarty, Noise/Music, A History (Continuum, 2007) p. 123
- ^ Marc Masters, p. 112
- ^ Moore and Coley, p. 52–56
- ^ a b Moore and Coley, p. 56
- ^ Masters, p. 114
- )
- ^ Masters, p. 124
- ^ Joseph Nechvatal, Immersion Into Noise (Ann Arbor: Open Humanities Press, 2012), p. 46
- ^ Patrick Nickleson, The Names of Minimalism: Authorship, Art Music, and Historiography in Dispute, University of Michigan Press, p. 158
- ^ Patrick Nickleson, The Names of Minimalism: Authorship, Art Music, and Historiography in Dispute, University of Michigan Press, pp. 151-152
- ^ Masters, p. 126
- ^ Alan Licht, Common Tones: Selected Interviews with Artists and Musicians 1995-2020, Blank Forms Edition, Interview with Glenn Branca, pp. 399-420
- ^ Masters, p. 115
- ^ Masters, pp. 114–118
- ^ "David Bowie as Muse? Why One Composer Says So" by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, October 7, 2016
- ^ "Reg Bloor". Facebook.com. Archived from the original on 2022-02-26. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
- ^ "Guitarist & Composer Glenn Branca Dies at 69". Billboard.com. Retrieved 15 May 2018.
References
- Goldberg, RoseLee (1988). Performance: Live Art Since 1960. New York: Harry N. Abrams.
- Hegarty, Paul (2007). Noise/Music: A History. Continuum International Publishing Group.
- Masters, Marc (2007). No Wave. London: Black Dog Publishing.
- ISBN 978-0-8109-9543-7.
Further reading
- Branca, Glenn (November 1979). New York: Rhys Chatham. New York Rocker, 16.
- Cole Gagne: "Glenn Branca", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy Archived 2008-05-16 at the Wayback Machine
- John Rockwell: "All American Music" (Knopf, 1983) ISBN 0-394-72246-9
- Billy Bergman and Richard Horn: "Recombinant Do Re Mi" (Quill, 1985) ISBN 978-0-688-02192-4
- John Schaefer: "New Sounds" (Harper and Row, 1987) ISBN 0-06-055054-6
- Tom Johnson: "The Voice Of New Music" (Het Apollohuis, 1989) ISBN 90-71638-09-X
- Cole Gagne: "Sonic Transports" (de Falco Books, 1990) ISBN 0-9625145-0-0 (Accessed October 1, 2023)
- Cole Gagne: "Soundpieces 2: Interviews with American Composers" (Scarecrow Press, 1993) ISBN 0-8108-2710-7
- Alec Foege: "Confusion is Next" (St. Martins, 1994) ISBN 978-0-312-11369-8
- Geoff Smith and Nicola Walker: "New Voices" (Amadeus Press, 1995) ISBN 0-931340-85-3
- William Duckworth: "Talking Music" (Schirmer, 1995) ISBN 0-02-870823-7
- Bart Hopkin: "Musical Instrument Design" (See Sharp Press, 1996) ISBN 978-1-884365-08-9
- Kyle Gann: "American Music in The 20th Century" (Schirmer, 1997) ISBN 0-02-864655-X
- Bill Milkowski: "Rockers, Jazzbos and Visionaries" (Billboard Books, 1998) ISBN 0-8230-7833-7
- Roni Sarig: "The Secret History Of Rock" (Billboard Books, 1998) ISBN 978-0-8230-7669-7
- Bill Martin: "Avant Rock" (Open Court, 2002) ISBN 978-0-8126-9500-7
External links
- Official website
- EST Interview by and (c) Brian Duguid.
- Theoretical Girls by Paris Transatlantic magazine
- Glenn Branca interview
- Glenn Branca: "Acoustic Phenomena" (3:59) published on the Ubuweb