BRANCA Glenn
Symphony N° 5

Fy 7007


Newtone Records
USA Stati Uniti

 

GLENN BRANCA's SYMPHONY No. 5 is here for the first available on disc.
Written and record in 1984 SYMPHONY NO. 5 has been composed for a ten-pieces ensemble with an instrumentation including electric guitars, keyboards, bass and drums, all home made and tuned on the natural harmonic scale. A very intense sonic wave of great impact and force built around the resonance of the natural harmonics. The result is majestic.
The symphony is divided in 6 movements. After the opening, first movement, very soft and meditative, with the second the presence of a strong rhythmic beat gives to the music a very intense sound that we can find thru all the work. There are superficial resemblance with the industrial music, but here the aim is the musical ecstasy, the pure sound. It is almost a prayer to the absolute vibration. Very powerrful is the last movement with a strong crescendo very moving. Symphony No. 5 is surely one of the peak of the BRANCA's compositive carrier.

Glenn BRANCA, born in Pennsylvania in 1948, lives today in New York. His musical beginnings are with the punk bands, two in particular are noteworthy: The Theoretical Girls and The Static. Later on BRANCA is fascinated and influenced by his encounter of Minimalism, in both his streams the repetitive (Philip Glass) and the drones one (La Monte) and in particular by the music of Steve Reich. At the end of the seventies he records his first LPs under his name where he fuses the strong beat of punk-rock bands with the refined researches of Minimalism music. Lesson n.1 and The Ascension are the best examples, founds his own ensemble, with a great prevalence of guitars and a very seminal list of collaborators: Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Ned Sublette (Peter Gordon's LOLO) , Anthony Coleman, David Linton, Z'ev. Up today BRANCA has composed 10 symphony all, except one for guitars ensemble. More recently he has written mainly for classical orchestras and ensembles both concerts and ballet pieces.