Henry Brant

with Vincent Plush

Santa Barbara, California

May 11, 1983

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Side ee                                                                                                            pp. 1-19

Childhood in Montreal‑‑music in the home‑‑father a professional violinist‑-early attempts at composing‑‑Copland's comment‑‑Hardhouse Quartet‑‑Bartok, Bloch‑‑orchestra of neighborhood children‑‑Salvation Army bands, hand organ players, military buglers‑‑interest in pitch‑‑composing techniques‑-"hearing" or "imagining" music vs. using instrument‑‑training by "solid" Englishmen‑‑disdain for conventional pedagogy‑‑Bloch's comments‑‑jazz‑studying various styles by imitation‑‑move to New York‑‑Henry Cowell‑-“oblique harmony"‑‑Juilliard‑‑Rubin Goldmark‑‑Angels and Devils‑‑Leopold Mannes‑‑Cowell‑‑ Wallingford Riegger‑‑prizes at Juilliard.

Side ff                                                                                                            pp. 19-38

Oblique harmony in New Music Quarterly‑‑introduction to Copland‑‑initial prejudice against jazz‑‑Gershwin‑‑Music for a Five and Ten Cent Store‑-Benny Goodman‑‑notation for jazz vs. legitimate musicians‑‑American subject matter‑‑first Yaddo Festival, 1932‑‑study with George Antheil‑‑WPA concert‑Five and Ten Cent Store‑‑study with Copland, F. Mahler, Reiner‑‑"neutral survival style" in 1930s‑‑group of young composers meets at Copland's‑‑evenings at Yaddo‑‑Bernard Herrmann‑‑Milhaud‑‑Paul Bowles‑‑American Composers' Alliance‑‑Ives.

Side gg:                                                                                                            pp. 38-56

Concert by Young Composers Group‑‑Elie Siegmeister‑‑Copland’s comments on Mahler, "oblique harmony”‑‑his straightforward attitude‑‑his ability to play his own music‑-Ives accompaniments‑‑score reading‑‑The Second Hurricane‑‑cultural life in Greenwich Village‑‑Brecht and Weill, Threepenny Opera‑‑Blitzstein, The Cradle Will Rock-‑Hommage aux Freres Marx‑‑Thomson, Four Saints in Three Acts‑‑The Great American Goof ballet‑‑concert with Harry Partch‑‑Cowell‑-Percy Grainger‑‑Carl Ruggles at Bennington‑‑Sun‑Treader‑‑paintings by Ruggles‑‑his idea of melody.

Side hh:                                                                                                            pp. 56-74

Copland ["Off the record"]‑‑work in radio‑‑problems of live broadcast‑-film, "My Father's House"‑‑Jewish music‑‑The Promised Land performed in Cincinnati‑‑film scores for Office of War Information‑‑Alex North‑‑move to California‑‑ jazz influence‑‑Symphony in B Flat‑‑teaching at Columbia‑-lack of academic credentials‑‑Ives influence‑‑Slonimsky concert‑‑failure to meet Ives‑‑Homage to Ives‑‑orchestration of Concord Sonata‑‑textbook on orchestration.

Side ii:                                                                                                            pp. 74-92

Spatial music‑‑disdain for electronic music‑‑Antiphony I‑‑"very oboe sound"‑‑technical problems‑‑genesis of spatial music idea‑‑variety of simultaneous styles‑‑Grainger, "Warriors"‑‑Stockhausen, Xenakis, Britten‑-difficulties of electronic spatial music‑‑David Jaffe‑‑Solar Moth‑‑Fire Underwater‑‑recording problems‑‑John Cage‑‑Kingdom Come‑‑Orbits‑‑Meteor Farm‑‑mixing of cultures‑‑Prix Italia for December‑‑design for new concert hall‑‑mobile spatial music‑‑moving musicians on hydraulic lifts.

Side jj:                                                                                                            pp. 92-108

Moving musicians‑‑metric calendar‑‑teaching at Bennington‑‑list of awards‑-Brant's insufficient promotion‑‑move to California‑‑70th birthday‑‑projected joint symphonic work with Eric Stokes‑‑"instant music"‑‑non‑coordinated rhythm‑‑association with Holland Festival‑‑problems with musicians in 1950s‑‑ New York composers: Uptown vs. Downtown‑‑Stokes and Jaffe‑‑critics of Brant‑‑self‑classification‑‑virtuoso recital on tin whistle.

AMERICAN MUSIC SERIES                                                                                    74 kk-nn

Henry Brant

with Eva Soltes

Santa Barbara, California

December 18, 1997

TABLE OF CONTENTS

[DAT 1 begins]

Cassette Side kk                                                                                                             pp. 1-15

Composing for musicians moving around in the audience--Bran(d)t aan de Amstel: boats, street organs, bands, carillons, musicians, choruses, rehearsals--Meteor Farm--Prisons of the Mind--Henry Cowell--Antiphony I--Conlon Nancarrow--Mass for June 16--Harry Partch.

Cassette Side ll                                                                                                            pp. 15-29

More on spatial music--immortality--Autumn Hurricanes--Northern Lights over the Twin Cities--Fischer [publisher]--radio shows--Concord Sonata orchestration--Dennis Russell Davies--Spatial operas--film--Aaron Copland--book on orchestration: chapter titles.

[DAT 1 ends]

[DAT 2 begins]

Cassette Side mm                                                                                                            pp. 29-45

Four Mountains in the Amstel--An Era Any Time of Year--Invisible Rivers--Original Sacred Harp--Henry Cowell--Sonata by Sándor Veress--Brant’s father--Aaron Copland--Grand Universal Circus--Ghost Nets--Bert Turetzky--Flight Over a Global Map--Millennium II--Orbits--Rosewood--Prisons of the Mind--film--Harry Partch--spatial effects--Homeless People--Concord Sonata Orchestration--Synthetic Immortality--Festive 80--beauty in modern music--Pathways to Security.

Cassette Side nn                                                                                                            pp. 45-59

Composers and isolation--William Kraft--500: Hidden Hemisphere--Angels and Devils--family--cooking--system of cards to specify characteristics of a piece.

[DAT 2 ends]