Robert Stolarik for The New York Times
My friend Haim Avitsur participated in a performance of “Orbits” for 80 trombones, soprano, and organ. (Haim was not the soprano, and he doesn’t play the organ!) The piece is by Henry Brant (1913–2008) and was performed at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
In a New York Times review of the concert, the critic Anthony Tomassini writes that Brant
…regarded space as the fourth dimension of music, along with pitch, time and timbre.
As you can see from the picture, the space of the Guggenheim is quite an evocative arena to make use of space as a compositional element! I have argued in my audio podcast that the “missing element” of music is form, but I thought I would toss this in — space — as another possible element of music for composers to consider experimenting with.
ah. that image brings back memories. The setting for one of my favourite films of all time — Cremaster 3. Sweet.
Gosh, I would have loved to see this. Brant’s concepts of spatial music is so interesting. What a loss when he died last year.
I was just in the Guggenheim last night and was struck by the acoustics there. I wonder if anyone has ever heard live music there and can report back? (I’ve heard a jazz combo, but that was with sound amplification and is not quite the same.)