Composer And Leading Avant-Garde Guitarist Glenn Branca Has Died At 69
The composer and guitarist who merged noise and art music in sheer walls of sound died on May 13. His collaborators included a huge range of artists, from David Bowie to Kronos Quartet.
Glenn Branca, the guitarist and composer who merged noise and art music and who influenced a generation of New York artists, has died at age 69. His wife, the guitarist Reg Bloor, posted an announcement of his death on Monday afternoon, writing that Branca had died in his sleep of throat cancer on May 13.
Branca's work oversaturated audiences and players alike with walls of sheer sound, and he experimented with the and alternative tunings to visceral effect. Uptown critics didn't alwaysreviewer one of his symphonies "dull, brutal murk ... diffuse and shapeless." Regardless, his music influenced a huge range of other artists, and his collaborators included David Bowie, Kronos Quartet and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
