Howard Who?

Glenn Branca is a Minimalist. Don’t believe me? Listen to the man himself describe his association to the Minimalist movement:

Glenn Branca on Minimalism (mp3) (April 1, 2006)

Of course, he is probably the only one of those Minimalists that he mentions that actually admits to liking the “ism,” but for Branca it is an anti-establishment badge of honor. They paved the way to do things their way with their own ensembles outside of the institutions and traditions. And while Riley, Reich, and Glass all got their starts doing European classical compositions in the Second Viennese style, Branca was playing in rock bands. He explains that everything changed when he started listening to Mahler, whose symphonies really pushed the form pretty much into a corner. If Beethoven threw the floodgates open, Mahler filled it with so much that even the floodgates themselves were gone.

And now Branca writes symphonies almost exclusively with unorthodox groups and cryptic though engaging works. His Symphony 13, titled “Hallucination City,” (pictured above at the Walt Disney Concert Hall) was for 80 electric guitars, 20 bass guitars, and a lone drummer. I guarantee you nothing in Disney Hall has ever been louder or less conventional. My original review of that concert appeared on this blog.

Three days later, Branca gave the interview where he declares himself a Minimalist. And a little while later, he improvises on his harmonics guitar, which is a guitar tuned to the harmonic series. For those who don’t know, the harmonic series is basically the natural vibration pattern of any string that creates a musical tone and it has formed the basis for harmony and melody since the days of the Greeks and possibly before. Amazingly enough, it is a big enormous sound even though it was literally Branca on stage with his guitar and an amp (visually the word “minimalism” comes to mind).

Improvisation on Harmonics Guitar (mp3) - Glenn Branca.

For those who find the previous music impenetrable, Branca’s influence found a more popular vein in the music of Sonic Youth. Most of the members played with Branca in early 1980s, and you can hear it in their songs that play around with noise sculptures. Here is an early example of it from their classic album Evol:

Tom Violence (mp3) - Sonic Youth.

That’s not where the trail ends though folks. SY brought it all back to minimalism in one of their “Goodbye 20th Century” albums including works by John Cage and Steve Reich. The fact that they live in the same New York apartment complex as Reich probably didn’t influence them necessarily, at least the way Reich puts it, but they nevertheless recorded their rendition of Reich’s Pendulum Music.

Pendulum Music (mp3) - performed by Sonic Youth, composed by Steve Reich.

That version is almost the exact same length (5:50 and change) as Reich’s own 1977 version of it.

Pendulum Music (mp3) - Steve Reich.

It is about as funny a piece of music as Reich ever did. In the tradition of Mozart, Reich calls it a musical joke. A few years ago I heard the Kronos Quartet perform it as their concert opener, and they basically just walk out, drop the mic, and let the pendulum motion of the cable to swing them. As they swing in front of speakers, the feedback becomes the source of musical interest and creates fascinating hiccuping patterns that eventually slow into monotone. Yes, it was funny, and yes, people did laugh.

When was the last time that happened at a classical concert?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 13th, 2006 at 5:06 am and is filed under Uncategorized, Classical Music, Pop Music, Minimalism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.