This is Glenn Branca's Symphony Number 3 (Gloria) Music for the First 127 Intervals of the Harmonic Series. Its an extract from a 1983 live performance by one of Branca's early guitar orchestras. This is a relatively small group compared to the ones he was composing for by the early '90s, some of which used up to a hundred guitarists. This particular performance featured a number of musicians who went on to become famous/notorious on the New York no wave/noise scene, including Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo (of Sonic Youth) and Michael Gira (of Swans/Skin). The first 20 minutes of this are pretty beautiful, kind of shimmering modern classical sounds, and quite slow moving and stately. Then the drums kick in and it all gets heavy heavy (but in a good way). If you like this then it might be worth checking out Kick to Kill's blog where you can find uploads of the Rhys Chatham box set (which is also very good).I've posted this as one long mp3 rather cos it works better that way, and you can get it here.
2 comments:
thank you! i'd never heard this particular piece before. like most of Branca's work, it's pretty amazing!
Yep, he makes a big noise. Glad you enjoyed it.
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