Brant, Henry
Brant, Henry
Brant, Henry remarkable and innovative American composer; b. Montreal (of American parents), Sept. 15, 1913. He received rudimentary instruction in music from his father, Saul Brant (1882–1934), a concert violinist, and began to compose when he was only 8. After studies at the McGill Conservatorium in Montreal (1926–29), he went to N.Y. and continued his training with Leopold Mannes at the Inst. of Musical Art (1929–34). He also received private instruction from Riegger and Antheil. He likewise studied conducting with Fritz Mahler. During the 1930s and 1940s, Brant was active as a composer and conductor for radio, films, ballet, and jazz groups in N.Y. while pursuing experimental composition for the concert hall. He taught orchestration and conducted ensembles at Columbia Univ. from 1945 to 1952 and at the Juilliard School of Music from 1947 to 1955. From 1957 to 1980 he taught composition at Bennington (Vt.) Coll., and then settled in Santa Barbara in 1981. In 1947 and 1956 he held Guggenheim fellowships. He was the first American composer to win the Prix Italia in 1955. In 1979 he was elected to membership in the American Academy and Inst. of Arts and Letters. He received grants from the Fromm (1989) and Koussevitzky (1995) foundations. In 1998 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Wesleyan Univ. His MSS were deposited at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel in 1998.
Brant is a pioneer of spatial music, in which performing forces are placed at specified widely separated points in space on the stage, in the balconies, and in the aisles, with the object of making contrasted, high-impact textures clear and intelligible for the listener. An audacious explorer of sonic potentialities, he has introduced unusual acoustic timbres into large and small ensembles, and complete orchestral ensembles, each comprising only a single tone quality. His vocal writing frequently involves a notated form of scat singing, much expanded in its range of expression, and often deployed in complex polyphony. He also employs jazz and other popular genres simultaneously with classical materials, and utilizes intact original idioms from other cultures—African, Indian, and Indonesian—as well. In conducting his spatial music, he uses an appropriate body language, turning at 90, 135, and 180 angles to address his performers. He also gives cues by actually imitating the appearance of the entering instruments, miming the violin bow, a trombone slide, a piccolo, a drum, etc. by the movement of his body or by facial movements. Brant has expounded the rationale of spatial music in his article “Space as an Essential Aspect of Musical Composition” in B. Childs and E. Schwartz, eds., Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music (N.Y., 1967; 2nd ed., rev., 1998). His experiments have convinced him that space exerts specific influences on harmony and polyphony and has come to view space as music’s inescapable fourth dimension, the other three being the familiar pitch, time-measurement, and tone-quality. His works exclude electronic materials and do not permit amplification. He finds that recordings do not adequately suggest the spatial resonances, definitions, and contrasts in his music, and thus are only fully intelligible when heard live.
Works
spatial:Antiphony I for 5 Orch. Groups or Chamber Ensemble (1953); December for Soprano, Tenor, Man and Woman Speakers, Choruses, Woodwinds, Brass, Percussion, and Organ (1954); Grand Universal Circus for 8 Solo Voices, Chorus, and Orch. (1956); On the Nature of Things for String Orch., Solo Winds, and Glockenspiel (1956); In Praise of Learning for 16 Sopranos and 16 Percussionists (1958); Mythical Beasts for Soprano or Mezzo-soprano and 16 Instruments (1958); The Children’s Hour for 6 Voices, Chorus, 2 Trumpets, 2 Trombones, Organ, and Percussion (1958); Atlantis for Mezzo-soprano, Speaker, Chorus, Orch., Band, and Percussion Group (1960); Headhunt for Trombone, Bass Clarinet, Bassoon, Cello, and Percussion (1962); The Fourth Millennium for 2 Trumpets, Horn, Euphonium, and Tuba (1963); Voyage Four for Orch., Organ, and Soprano (1963); Odyssey—Why Not? for Solo Flute, Flute Obbligato, and 4 Orch. Groups (1965); Windjammer for Horn, Piccolo, Oboe, Bass Clarinet, and Bassoon (1969); Kingdom Come for Orch., Circus Band, and Organ (1970); Immortal Combat for 2 Bands (1972); An American Requiem for 16 Woodwinds, 14 Brass, Percussion, Organ, Church Bells, and Optional Soprano (1973); Sixty for 3 Wind Ensembles (1973); Prevailing Winds for Wind Quintet (1974); Solomon’s Gardens for 7 Solo Voices, Chorus, 24 Hand-bells, and 3 Instruments (1974); A Plan of the Air for Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass, Organ, Orch. Wind Groups, and Percussion (1975); Curriculum I for Baritone and 8 Instruments (1975) and II for Small Orch. Groups (1978); Homage to Ives for Baritone, Piano, and 3 Orch. Groups (1975); Spatial Concerto—Questions from Genesis for Piano, 8 Sopranos, 8 Altos, and Orch. (1976); Antiphonal Responses for 3 Solo Bassoons, Piano, Orch., and 8 Instruments Obbligati (1978); Trinity of Spheres for 3 Orch. Groups (1978); Orbits for 80 Trombones, Organ, and Soprano (1979); The Glass Pyramid for Unison Strings, Horn, E-flat Clarinet, Chimes, 2 Pianos, English Horn, Bassoon, and Contra-bassoon (1980); Inside Track for Solo Piano, Sopranino Obbligato, 3 Small Ensembles, and Projected Images (1982); Meteor Farm for Orch., 2 Choruses, 2 Percussion Groups, Jazz Orch., Javanese Gamelan Orch., West African Drumming Ensemble, South Indian Soloists, and 2 Western Solo Sopranos (1982); Desert Forests for Large and Small Orch. Groups and Improvising Pianist (1983); Litany of Tides for Solo Violin, 4 Soprano Voices, and 2 Orchs. (1983); Bran(d)t aan de Amstel for 100 Flutes, 4 Jazz Drummers, 3 Choruses, 4 Street Organs, 4 Church Carillons, and 4 Concerto Bands (1984); Mass in Gregorian Chant for Multiple Flutes (1984); Western Springs for 2 Orchs., 2 Choruses, and 2 Jazz Combos (1984); Northern Lights over the Twin Cities for Large Chorus, Small Chorus, 5 Solo Singers, Concert Band, Jazz Ensemble, Bagpipe Group, Chamber Orch., 5 Pianos, and Large Percussion Ensemble (1985); Autumn Hurricanes for Men’s and Women’s Choruses, 3 Solo Singers, Woodwind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Brass Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, String Orch., and 4 Pianos (1986); Ghost Nets for Double Bass and 2 Chamber Orchs. (1988); Flight Over a Global Map for 50 Trumpets (1989); Rainforest for 4 Solo Singers, String Ensemble, Piano, Harp, Percussion, Woodwind Quartet, and Brass Trio (1989); Rosewood for Guitar Orch. (1989); Prisons of the Mind for 2 Orchs., 2 Concert Bands, 2 Brass Sextets, and 2 Steel-drum Ensembles (1990); Skull & Bones for Chorus, Orch., Large Jazz Band, Large Flute Ensemble, and 5 Solo Voices (1991); The Old Italians Dying for Narrator and 2 Orchs. (1991); 500: Hidden Hemisphere for 3 Concert Bands and Caribbean Steel-drum Ensemble (1992); Fourscore for 4 Quartets of Violin, Viola, Tenor Cello, and Cello (1993); Homeless People for Piano, String Quartet, and Accordion (1993); Seventy for 3 Concert Bands (1994); Dormant Craters for 16 Percussion (1995); Plowshares and Swords, total orch. environment (1995); Festive 80 for 26 Brass, 18 Woodwinds, and 4 Percussionists (1997); Mergers for Orch., Organ, Mezzo-soprano, and Baritone (1998). non-spatial:Angels and Devils for Flute Solo and Flute Orch. (1932); Partita for Flute and Piano (1932); Requiem in Summer for Woodwind Quintet (1934); Duo for Cello and Piano (1937); Hommage aux Frères Marx for Tin Whistle and Chamber Ensemble (1938; publ, as The Marx Brothers, 1996); Two Lyric Interludes for String Orch. (1938); Whoopee in D for 10 Instruments or Orch. (1938); Clarinet Concerto (1939); Concerto for Saxophone or Trumpet and 9 Instruments (1941); Fantasy & Caprice, violin concerto (1941); 2 syms.: No. 1 (1945) and No. 2, Promised Land (1947); Jazz Clarinet Concerto (1946); All Souls’ Carnival for Flute, Violin, Cello, Piano, and Accordion (1949); Street Music for Winds and Percussion (1949); Millennium I for 8 Trumpets, Chimes, and Glockenspiel (1950); Origins for Percussion Orch. and Optional Organ (1952); Signs and Alarms for 3 Woodwinds, 5 Brass, and 2 Percussion (1954); Ice Age for Ondes Martenot or Clarinet, Piano, and Percussion (1953); Conversations in an Unknown Tongue for Violin, Viola, Tenor Cello, and Cello (1958); Sky Forest for Accordion Quartet (1960); Concerto with Lights for Violin Solo, 10 Instruments, and 5 Musicians (1961); Feuerwerk—Words Over Fireworks for Solo Woman Speaker and 9 Instruments (1961); From Bach’s Menagerie for 4 Saxophones (1963); Consort for True Violins (1965); The Big Haul for Cello (1973); The Thunderbolt for Men’s Chorus and Percussion (1980). other: Orchestration of Ives’s Concord Sonata as A Concord Symphony (Ottawa, June 16, 1995); Completion of Schubert’s B minor Sym. (Vienna, Oct. 14, 1997).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire