Editing Henry Brant (section)

==Music==
Beginning with the 1953 score ''Rural Antiphonies'' (predating Stockhausen's [[Gruppen]] of 1955–57 but coming thirty-five years after [[Charles Ives]]'s [[Symphony No. 4 (Ives)|Fourth Symphony]] of 1912–18 and [[Rued Langgaard]]'s [[Music of the Spheres (Langgaard)|''Music of the Spheres'']] of 1916–18), Brant developed the concept of [[spatial music]], in which the location of instruments and/or voices in physical space is a significant compositional element. He identified the origins of the concept in the [[antiphonal]] music of the late [[renaissance]] and early baroque, in the antiphonal use of four brass ensembles placed in the corners of the stage in the [[Requiem (Berlioz)|Requiem]] of [[Hector Berlioz]] and, most importantly, in works of [[Charles Ives]], in particular ''[[The Unanswered Question]]''.<ref>Lewis, Uncle Dave. "[{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=q7095/biography|pure_url=yes}} Henry Brant. Biography.]", ''AllMusic.com''. Retrieved September 11, 2008.</ref> Henry Brant was America's foremost composer of acoustic spatial music.<ref name="Harley">Harley, Maria Anna. "An American in Space: Henry Brant's "spatial Music"". American Music 15.1 (1997): 70–92.</ref> The planned positioning of performers throughout the hall, as well as on stage, was an essential factor in his composing scheme and a point of departure for a radically expanded range and intensity of musical expression. Brant's mastery<ref name="Harley"/> of spatial composing technique enabled him to write textures of unprecedented polyphonic and/or polystylistic complexity while providing maximum resonance in the hall and increased clarity of musical detail for the listener. His catalogue comprises over 100 spatial works.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.carlfischer.com/composer/brant-henry/|title=Brant, Henry {{!}} Carl Fischer Music|website=www.carlfischer.com|language=en-US|access-date=2018-03-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322082056/https://www.carlfischer.com/composer/brant-henry/|archive-date=2018-03-22|url-status=dead}}</ref>
 
In keeping with Brant's belief that music can be as complex and contradictory as everyday life, his larger works often employ multiple, contrasting performing forces, as in ''Meteor Farm'' (1982) for symphony orchestra, large jazz band, two choruses, West African drum ensemble and chorus, South Indian soloists, large Javanese [[Gamelan]] ensemble, percussion orchestra and two Western solo sopranos. Brant's spatial experiments convinced him that space exerts specific influences on harmony, polyphony, texture and timbre. He regarded space as music's "fourth dimension," (after pitch, time and timbre). Brant experimented with new combinations of acoustic timbres, even creating entire works for instrumental family groups of a single timbre: ''Orbits'' for 80 trombones, organ and sopranino voice, ''Ghosts & Gargoyles'' for 9 flutes, and others for multiple trumpets and guitars. This predilection for ensembles of a single tone quality dates from ''Angels and Devils'' (1932) for an ensemble of 11 flutes. His experimentation was not always successful however. His 1972 piece Immortal Combat staged outside Lincoln Center was drowned out by traffic noise and a thunderstorm.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/essay_gann05.html|title=American Mavericks: If You Build it, they will come|last=Media|first=American Public|website=musicmavericks.publicradio.org|language=en|access-date=2018-03-21}}</ref> With the exception of pieces composed for recorded media (in which he used over-dubbing or acoustical sound sources), Brant did not use electronic materials or permit amplification in his music.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Henry Brant Interview with Bruce Duffie . . . . . . . . . |url=https://www.bruceduffie.com/brant.html |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=www.bruceduffie.com}}</ref>

He is perhaps best known for his compositions ''Verticals Ascending'' (conceptually based on the architecture of the [[Watts Towers]] in [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]]) and ''Horizontals Extending''. A "spatial opera", ''The Grand Universal Circus'' (Libretto: Patricia Gorman Brant) was premiered in 1956.<ref>"[http://www.juilliard.edu/libraryarchives/pdfs/review/jre_03_03.pdf PDF]", ''Juilliard.edu''.</ref> Brant won the [[Pulitzer Prize for Music]] in 2002 for his composition ''[[Ice Field]]''. In addition to composing, he played the violin, flute, tin whistle, percussion, piano, and organ and frequently included soloistic parts in his large works for himself to play.

Later premieres included ''Wind, Water, Clouds & Fire'', for 4 choirs and instrumentalists, commissioned by Present Music and premiered on November 19, 2004, at The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, [[Milwaukee]], [[Wisconsin]]. ''Tremors'', for 4 singers and 16 instrumentalists, commissioned by the [[Getty Research Institute]], premiered on June 4, 2004, at the [[Getty Center]] in [[Los Angeles]].<ref>"[http://www.getty.edu/research/scholarly_activities/events/building_music.html Building music.]", ''Getty Research Institute.'' Retrieved September 11, 2008.</ref> ''Tremors'' was repeated in a Green Umbrella concert at LA's [[Walt Disney Concert Hall]] on November 1, 2004. ''Ghosts & Gargoyles'', a [[Flute concerto|concerto for flute solo]] with [[Flute choir|flute orchestra]], for New Music Concerts, [[Toronto]] had its premiere on May 26, 2002. ''Ice Field'', for large orchestral groups and organ, was commissioned by [[Other Minds (organization)|Other Minds]] for a December 2001 premiere by the [[San Francisco Symphony]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.otherminds.org/henry-brant-ice-field/|title=Henry Brant: Ice Field|website=Other Minds|access-date=February 15, 2024}}</ref>

Brant's handbook for orchestration, ''Textures and Timbres'', was published posthumously.
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===Orchestra/chamber orchestra===
*''An Adventure''
*Ballad (''The Half Songs'')
*''Decision''
*''Dedication in Memory of a Great Man''
*''Downtown'' Suite
*Symphony in B-flat (''The Nineteen-Thirties'')
*Symphony No. 2 (''Promised Land'')
*Variations on a Canadian Theme
*''Whoopee in D'' (1972)
*''Whoopee in D major: (Overture for a Fine Orchestra)''

===Solo instrument with orchestra/chamber orchestra===
*Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra
*Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra
*Fantasy and Caprice, for violin and orchestra
*Concerto for Alto Sax and Orchestra (1941)
*Concerto for Alto Saxophone Solo Or Trumpet Solo (1996)

===String orchestra===
*Saraband
*Two Choral Preludes
*Two Lyric Interludes

===Band/wind ensemble===
*''Millennium I''
*''Signs and Alarms''
*''Street Music (Three Places in Montreal)''
*''Whoopee in D major''

===Solo instrument with band/wind ensemble===
*Concerto for Alto Sax or Trumpet with Nine Instruments
*Concerto for Clarinet and Dance (Jazz) Orchestra
*''Statesmen in Jazz: Three Portraits''

===Solo instrument with chamber ensemble===
*''Violin Concerto with Lights''

===Vocal quartet with chamber ensemble===
*''Four Skeleton Pieces''
*''The Scientific Creation of the World''

===Chamber music===
====With soloist====
*''Divinity'', with solo harpsichord
*''Feuerwerk'', with solo female speaker
*''Newsflash'', with narrator
*''Piri''

====Two instruments====
*Ballad, for violin and piano
*Duo, for cello and piano
*Partita, for flute and piano
*''Two Rush Hours in Manhattan'', for violin and piano

====Three instruments====
*''Ice Age'', for clarinet, glockenspiel, and piano (1954)
*''Imaginary Ballet'', for piccolo, cello, and piano
*''Music for a Five and Dime''
*''Strength through Joy in Dresden: Introduction and Coda to a Theater Piece''

====Four instruments====
*''Conversations in an Unknown Tongue''
*''Four Mountains in the Amstel''
*''Fourscore''
*''From Bach's Menagerie''
*''Funeral Music for the Mass Dead''
*''Galaxy I''
*''Handorgan Music'' (1933 Version)
*''Handorgan Music'' (1984 Version)
*''A Requiem in Summer''
*Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann

====Five to nine instruments====
*''All Souls Carnival''
*''American Commencement''
*Aria with Thirty Variations
*''Galaxy II''
*''Hieroglyphics II''
*''Kitchen Music''
*''The Marx Brothers''
*''A Requiem in Summer''
*''Stresses''

===Percussion ensemble===
*''Origins'' (Symphony for Percussion)

===A cappella chorus===
*''December Madrigal''
*''Peace Music for U.N. Day''
*''The Three-Way Canon Blues''

===Two pianos===
*Four Choral Preludes
*Toccata on "Wachet Auf"

===Solo instrument===
*''The Big Haul'', for cello
*''Confusion in the Salon'', for piano
*''Country Tunes in Jazz'', for piano
*''Four Traumatics'', for piano
*''Mobiles 1'', for flute
*''Oases'', for cello
*''Two Conclusions'', for piano
*''Two Sarabandes'', for keyboard instrument

===Spatial works===
*''Orbits: A Spatial Symphonic Ritual'' (for 80 trombones, organ and sopranino voice) (1979)
*''Autumn Hurricanes, A Spatial Cantata for Widely Separated Vocal and Instrumental Groups'' (1986)<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Henry Brant Collection, Volume 5|url=https://www.innova.mu/sites/default/files/liner-notes/412.htm|access-date=2020-12-27|website=www.innova.mu}}</ref>

====Orchestra/chamber orchestra====
*''Antiphony I''
*''Antiphony I'' (chamber version)
*''Antiphony One''{{Clarify|date=July 2018}}<!--Is this actually a different composition from "Antiphony I" with a Roman numeral?-->
*''Curriculum ll: Spatial Tone Poem''
*''Desert Forests'' (2000)
*''[[Ice Field]]''
*''On the Nature of Things'' (1956)
*''Plowshares and Swords''
*''Prisons of the Mind''
*''Trinity of Spheres''
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