One conductor. Two levels. Three sections. Eighty-eight trombones.
Torrential showers could not thwart determined music appreciators from experiencing Orbits (1979) at the Guggenheim on Sunday, June 21st. The epic piece was composed by Pulitzer-Prize-winning Henry Brant and featured an organist (William Trafka), a soprano singer (Phyllis Bruce), and eighty individual parts for eighty-eight trombones. Sponsored by Make Music New York, the concert was free to all who dared to willingly be in a room with such an absurd number of noisy lower brass instruments — a surprisingly large group of audacious audience attendees (The entrance line went around 5th Ave., down 89th street, and continued down Madison Ave). [click to continue…]
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88 Trombones,
Henry Brant,
The Guggenheim Museum
Often, when wandering through the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, a viewer must wonder why the the museum was in a spiral shape. Surely, this shape might limit the art that could be displayed. What exactly was Frank Lloyd Wright‘s vision of the ideal occupants for his structure? Well, the performance of Henry Brant’s “Orbits: A Spatial Symphonic Ritual,” performed by eighty trombonists, an organist (William Trafka) and an unearthly soprano (Phyllis Bruce), certainly answered the questions posed by bemused museum goers (those sick of climbing a spiral and being uncertain as to what floor they are on). Henry Brant’s piece seemed to have been meant solely for performance in a gigantic spiral.
The Guggenheim was perfect for a concert of eighty trombones, apt to accommodate startled listeners, craning their necks as they stared at the impending doom above them. (The inevitable neck cramps were worth it.) [click to continue…]
Tagged as:
Henry Brant,
Orbits: A Spatial Symphonic Ritual,
The Guggenheim Museum
$5 Tickets
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