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Henry Brant
News
 On April 9, 2002 the Pulitzer Prize Board announced the awarding of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in Music to Henry Brant for his orchestral work, Ice Field. This citation is the capstone in the career of one of the most remarkable figures in contemporary music. Brant, the primary explorer and practitioner of spatial music, was born in Montreal in 1913 of American parents. He began to compose at the age of eight and settled in New York in 1929, where he made a career composing and conducting for radio, films, ballet and jazz ensembles. He began to experiment seriously with spatial music in his thirties. His spatial music, which initially involved the planned positioning of the performers throughout the performance space, quickly became a central factor in Brant's composing scheme. Dispersing performers (voices and/or instruments) throughout the performance space did not begin with Henry Brant, but he has both expanded and refined the concept, in some cases pitting whole ensembles against one another in vast frescoes of sound, designed for outdoor performance.
A multicultural and polystylist, long before these terms were even in current usage, Brant has incorporated Jazz, Gamelan music, Gospel, Bluegrass, African and Caribbean drumming into his works to an extent and degree unparalleled in the music of our or any time. Ice Field-Spatial Narratives for Large and Small Orchestral Groups was commissioned for Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony by "Other Minds" (a San Francisco-based organization devoted to promoting the music of innovative composers), with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation's Multi-Arts Production Fund. The world premiere took place on December 12, 2001 in Davies Hall, home of the San Francisco Symphony. The size of the orchestra called for is large but fairly conventional. However, two conductors are called for to coordinate the instrumental forces, which are arrayed on the stage and at specific places throughout the hall. The work also calls for a large pipe organ with a 32 foot stop (and preferably a 64 foot stop as well). The organ part, which is intended to be improvised, was performed by the composer at the premiere. As with most of Henry Brant's large works for orchestra, Ice Field was tailored to the expressive spatial possibilities of the space where the work would be first performed, Davies Symphony Hall. But experience has taught that it will work well in any suitably large concert venue. The work's title is related to an experience Brant had in 1926, when he was just twelve years old, on a transatlantic voyage to Europe with his family. The ship spent one whole day passing through a field of icebergs. Says Brant: "I claim that the memory of that experience is reflected in Ice Field, but it's only a title. I was thinking about this when I started to write it, but the idea of trying to depict an iceberg in sound is something I wouldn't want to attempt." A new brochure of the music of Henry Brant is in preparation and should be available soon. HENRY BRANT PERFORMANCES
March 2001
4/20/01
9/9/01
12/8/01
12/ 12-15/01
January 2002
3/18/02
4/21/02
5/5-12/02
5/26/02
Innsbruck, Austria
6/6/02
3/30/03
4/11/03
4/11/03
4/24/03
6/15/03
HENRY BRANT NINETIETH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION - HOLLAND 2003
The program for the six Dutch concerts will include: |