Music – Page 12 – An Echo That's Reversing

Glenn Branca symphonies

Having owned a cassette of his Symphony #1 (refed back in Sep 2018) and Symphony #3 on vinyl in college, I’ve had some persistent curiosity about his other symphonies. I’m not sure I’ll acquire them (those that are acquireable) because I’m a little out of the noise-rock thing at the moment, but I’d like to at least document what’s available. This information is gathered from:

The discography from his Wikipedia entry – several symphonies not mentioned
History and discography pages from his website. Each recording has its own page accessible individually but with no index page. Symphony No.1 links to the others.
Glenn Branca (Foundation for Contemporary Arts, 2009) – Biography and statements from Branca on several of his works, including #s 3, 7, 9, 11, 14
Avant-Garde Composer Glenn Branca Recounts His Cacophonic Symphonies One-By-One (The Village Voice, 19 Nov 2010) – Only excludes #16
Glenn Branca: A Guide to the Symphonies (Red Bull Music Academy Daily, 11 May 2016) – Includes #s 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. These are all of the recorded symphonies except for 13.
Glenn Branca’s Really Experimental Music: Why the Composer Is Still Punk After All These Years (Vice, 16 May 2016) – Interview with Branca and comments on #s 8, 10, 12, 13, 16
MIT Sounding Presents Both Sides of Composer Glenn Branca (Arts at MIT, 26 Sep 2019)
Glenn Branca 1948–2018 (Wire, May 2018)
Glenn Branca (undated), short review of several of his symphonies by David Sheridan and Michael Azerrad, from Trouser Press, includes #s 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, along with other works

Other, symphony-specific sources listed with their respective symphony.

Cambodian cassettes, Saigon rock

A year or so back, probably two years, Lisa and I went to Wax N Facts for a record store day [ed. written before pandemic isolation, how quaint?]. These visits are always discursive and you don’t know where you’ll end so that day I ended at the international/world music section looking for… not sure what. And (dun dun DUN) I found it in spades.

Pages: 1234

Art in the time of hate

From Ian Pace’s blog:

English Country Tunes is what I collected together in the summer of 1977, as impressions of what was going on. I didn’t live too far from Lewisham where there were riots , so all of that was noise going on while I was trying to write.
Interview between Ian Pace and Michael Finnissy on English Country Tunes, February 2009

Three Pieces for Orchestra

Audio exported from MuseScore:

Score exported from MuseScore:

three-pieces-for-orchestra

Audio mixed and exported from Dorico (14 May 2021):

Audio uploaded to YouTube with cover art (15 May 2021):

Cover: Andrew Kosten, Ghosts, 2015

“in this time of quarantine”
the djinn
breathe

The first one comes from a comment someone had made on Twitter that, though simple enough, felt resonant when given its own context. It stuck with me unexpectedly so I never bookmarked the source. The second is from a parable by Howard Taylor (which I referenced here a few weeks ago) regarding the cost of our responsibility to others. The last is both a hopeful and not hopeful outcome.

After obsessively listening to the New Complexity pieces, I realized that I haven’t gone far enough into the atonal world. Although much of New Complexity is tonal-ish, the extreme range was creatively inspiring and I tried to go as far as I could with that approach for “quarantine”. That section is also a stretch towards the “tapestry of sound” described by Piston for when many simultaneous voices work with drastic melodic contrast. It’s our unnerved disbelief at what we’re in right now, responding with nervous laughter. That moves on to a piece, “the djinn”, emphasizing primarily rhythmic contrast across voices. It’s the destructive, will-less bouncing of contagion. Finally to a harmonic/rhythmic consonance, but that’s ultimately bruised by what occurred previously.

(This is exported from Musescore and I’m working on the cleanup in Dorico.)

Updated 30 min later: Speaking of New Complexity, I just picked up the mail and my copy of Finnissy’s English Country-Tunes was delivered. (Pic added below.)

first page of *I’ll give my love a garland* from Finnissy’s *English Country-Tunes*

(more) complexity

I have been obsessed with this. The emotions it brings up are confusing and compelling and I still don’t quite know what it’s communicating. It’s mood is just at the edge of recognition. So, I’m doing closer listenings than before and hope to understand it better.