the Concord Symphony

Has anyone heard the Henry Brant's orchestration and arrangement of
the _Concord Sonata_ (i.e., the _Concord Symphony_)? If anyone has,
and would like to offer their views and opinions, please feel free to
respond off-list (as this is probably straying to far off-topic). I
really like Brant, and he would seem to me to be well suited for such
an undertaking, so I'm real curious as to whether anyone has heard
it...

Thanks,
Dan

Actually, I did attend the premiere at Carnegie Hall. Henry Brant and I had
been speaking and meeting about Ives' "Universe Symphony" and we were
remarking at how this was such a different kind of thing.

In a way it was a colorizing of a black and white film. But maybe the
broader strokes needed by an orchestra, especially brass and woodwinds, gave
it a kaleidoscopic effect. It was certainly enjoyable and one could hear a
lot, but I didn't hear it as the same piece so much as a take on a piece, a
speculative sand castle. It was not Ravel and Musorgsky "Pictures at an
Exhibition." It was more like a softening of the abstractness that is the
piano when compared to an orchestra. When I heard Paul Kim play the Thoreau
movement I preferred the piano.

But hey - Henry Brant did give all who attended the concert a richer
involvement with the "Concord" and he certainly brought us all closer to Ives
through the perspective brought out by the concert.

Johnny Reinhard
AFMM

[Johnny Reinhard:]
>Henry Brant and I had been speaking and meeting about Ives' "Universe
Symphony"

Neat. Any discussion about the possible intonational (or other)
interpretations of his note spellings?

Dan

I do not recall anyone talking about actual interpretation of Ives's written
notation. Likewise, I'm reading Kirnberger and he says J.S. Bach was the
ultimate expert in intonation. The keyboard was only a stepping stone from
the mind to the audience.

But for now, Happy Millennium interval!

Johnny Reinhard
and all the little folk at the
American Festival of Microtonal Music