Glenn Branca | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Branca performing atHallwalls (circa 1980) | |
| Born | (1948-10-06)October 6, 1948 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | May 13, 2018(2018-05-13) (aged 69) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, musician, luthier, playwright |
Glenn Branca (October 6, 1948 – May 13, 2018) was an Americanavant-gardecomposer, guitarist, andluthier. Known for his use of volume,alternative guitar tunings,repetition,droning, and theharmonic series, he was a driving force behind the genres ofno wave,totalism andnoise rock.[1] Branca received a 2009Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.
Born inHarrisburg, Pennsylvania, Branca started playing the guitar at age 15. He also created a number of tapesound art collage pieces for his own amusement. After attendingYork 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 atEmerson College inBoston. In 1973, he moved fromBoston toLondon 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 anexperimental theater group called Bastard Theatre in 1975. Working out of a loft onMassachusetts Avenue they wrote and produced the music/theater pieceAnthropophagoi for a two-week run. In 1976, The Bastard Theatre's second production wasWhat Actually Happened at a new loft in Central Square, Cambridge and later at The Boston Arts Group. Considering the unconventional and sometimes confrontational nature of the productions, the shows still received interested reviews from thePhoenix andThe Boston Globe. All music for Bastard Theatre productions were original compositions by Branca or Rehberger and were performed live by the actor/musicians.[2]
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In 1976, Branca moved toNew York City to continue in experimental theater. He encountered the N. Dodo Band and watched their rehearsals inChelsea, 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 asSuicide. The two began forming a theater group when Branca decided he wanted to form a band, which he called The Static and laterTheoretical 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. ArtistDan Graham booked the band atFranklin Furnace for its first performance.[4] The group reformed in 1977 withWharton Tiers as its drummer.[4][5] Branca also recordedBarbara Ess's bandY Pants for their debut release on99 Records and performed withRhys Chatham'sGuitar Trio on occasion from 1977 to 1979,[6][7] anoise music experience that was very important in the development of his compositional voice (Branca 1979). In 1982, Branca launched his ownrecord label,Neutral Records, releasing Y Pants' LP and the first few records by New Yorknoise rockersSonic Youth.[8]
In 1978, Branca participated in the inception of theNo Wave movement by participating twice in a five night no wave music festival atArtists Space organized by artistsMichael Zwack andRobert Longo. It featured tenpost-punk New York City bands; includingRhys Chatham'sThe Gynecologists, Communists, Branca'sTheoretical Girls, Terminal, Chatham's Tone Death (performing his composition for electric guitarsGuitar Trio)[9] and Branca's Daily Life (withBarbara 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, includingThe Ascension (1981) andIndeterminate 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 composingsymphonies for orchestras of electric guitars and percussion, which blendeddroning industrialcacophony andmicrotonality with quasi-mysticism and advanced mathematics. In 1982 he worked withZ'EV for Branca's Symphony No. 2 in which Z'EV had a solo segment swinging with metal can overhead, and rattling chains and sheets of steel. With Symphony No. 3 (Gloria) (1983), he began to systematically compose for theharmonic series, which he considered to be the structure underlying not only all music but most human endeavors.[13] In this project, Branca was initially influenced by the writings ofDane Rudhyar,Hermann von Helmholtz, andHarry Partch.
Early members of his group includedThurston Moore andLee Ranaldo ofSonic Youth,Page Hamilton ofHelmet,Phil Kline ofThe Del-Byzanteens, and several members ofSwans includingMichael Gira,Dan Braun, andAlgis Kizys.[14]
To further develop his compositions based on the harmonic series Branca built severalelectrically amplified instruments of his own invention, expanding his ensemble beyond the guitar. A few of these instruments werethird bridgezithers he calledharmonics guitars. He also built instruments with many strings which he referred to as "mallet guitars" because they werepercussion instruments played with drumsticks and monotone electriccymbaloms with an additional third bridge onresonating positions. Many of these instruments can be seen in the live performances that appeared on the DVDGlenn Branca - Symphonies 8 & 10 - Live at The Kitchen.
In the early 1990s, David Baratier attempted to document Branca's teaching style inThey Walked in Line. In September 1996, The Glenn Branca Ensemble played at the opening ceremony for theAarhus Festival in Denmark. The ceremony took place in the Musikhuset Opera House, and in the audience were the Queen ofDenmark, the mayor ofAarhus and other dignitaries. After the composer received more than 25 major commissions starting in 1981 until the time of his death in 2018, Branca's music has started to receive academic attention. Some scholars, most prominentlyKyle Gann, consider him (andRhys Chatham) to be a member of thetotalist school ofpost-minimalism.
Beginning with Symphony No. 7, Branca began composing for traditionalorchestra, although he never abandoned theelectric guitar. Branca also playedduets for excessively amplified guitars with his wife, Reg Bloor, and conducted his 13th symphony for 100 electric guitars at the base of theWorld Trade Center in New York City on June 13, 2001, less than three months before the center's destruction in theSeptember 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, entitledThe Harmonic Series, which is performed by a traditional orchestra. The first (and only completed) movement of this symphony, named2,000,000,000 Light Years From Home premiered in St. Louis performed by theSt. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted byDavid 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 theFoundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award as well as a CAPS grant in 1983, an award from theNational Endowment for the Arts in 1988 and aNYSCA grant in 1998, all for music composition. In 2010, BBN Music re-released Branca's 1981 albumThe Ascension as a special edition on 180 gram vinyl and Branca wrote a pieceThe Ascension: The Sequel, which was released in the same year on the label Systems Neutralizers. This follow up piece led to new interest in his work and notable performances atPrimavera Sound Festival 2011 andVillette Sonique 2011.
In October 2014, Branca premieredAscension 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 atCité de la Musique in Paris.The Light (forDavid) for four guitars, bass and drums, premiered in October 2016 at theRoulette in Brooklyn.[15]
On May 14, 2018, Reg Bloor's official Facebook page revealed in a post that Branca had died fromthroat cancer the night before.[16] He was 69.[17]
Branca was featured in 2023 at theCentre Pompidou in a Nicolas Ballet curated exhibition entitledWho You Staring At: Culture visuelle de la scène no wave des années 1970 et 1980 (Visual culture of the no wave scene in the 1970s and 1980s).[18]
