Henry Dreyfuss Brant (September 15, 1913 – April 26, 2008) was a Canadian-born American composer. An expert orchestrator with a flair for experimentation, many of Brant's works featured spatialization techniques.
Brant was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada of American parents in 1913, Henry Brant began composing at the age of eight, and studied first at the McGill Conservatorium (1926-29) and then in New York City (1929-34). The son of a professio...
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Henry Dreyfuss Brant (September 15, 1913 – April 26, 2008) was a Canadian-born American composer. An expert orchestrator with a flair for experimentation, many of Brant's works featured spatialization techniques.
Brant was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada of American parents in 1913, Henry Brant began composing at the age of eight, and studied first at the McGill Conservatorium (1926-29) and then in New York City (1929-34). The son of a professional violinist, Brant played violin, flute, tin whistle, piano, organ, and percussion at a professional level and was fluent with the playing techniques for all of the standard orchestral instruments. As a teenager, he was the youngest composer included in Henry Cowell's landmark book American Composers on American Music, demonstrating an early identification with the American experimental musical tradition. Brant was represented in Cowell's anthology by an essay on oblique harmony, an idea which presaged some techniques used in his mature...
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