Brant is best known for his composition of “spatial” music, which specifies the exact placement of ensembles within a concert environment. Some might think this a gimmick, a less important musical “parameter” than most, but I can testify that way back (1979 in Buffalo to be exact), I heard an evening of Brant’s music, and the concept really worked. The key is the “unthreading” of dense polyphony. Brant is a very “Ivesian” composer, in that he loves to juxtapose and overlay extremely different kinds of music. In a conventional setup, the result can be muddy, but with different musics coming at one from different directions (even above!), suddenly the contrasting strands parse out, and processing them, reassembling them in your mind, becomes easier.

Having said that, these works use the spatial concept more sparingly, but they are emblematic of Brant in a different way. In 1931, he wrote his greatest “hit,” Angels and Devils, for flute choir. It is recognized as the first significant work for the genre, and has received thousands of performances. As such, it’s the piece that probably inspires the greatest name recognition for the composer, and this disc brings together that work with two others that constitute his entire output for massed flutes.

Angels and Devils is a charming work. Scored for solo flute, three piccolos, five C flutes, and two altos (this is a re-mastering of CRI’s historic 1956 recording with Brant conducting and Frederick Wilkins as soloist), it’s a spirited, irrepressibly good-natured work. There are jazzy chords and circus-like riffs. The whole thing feels a little like a calliope run amok, albeit good-naturedly. Mass in Gregorian Chant for Multiple Flutes dates from 1984, and couldn’t be more different. Scored for as many flutes as possible, a fifth of which should be piccolos (we have 21 on this recording), the piece works from a very simple concept. The original Gregorian chants to be sung on June 16 are stated by the flutes in unison at the start of each movement, and then the players begin to move, each through his/her respective line, with increasing independence. The result is a delicate heterophonic blur, which Brant likens to the effect of rich reverberation in a Gothic cathedral. The effect is gentle, soulful, and contemplative.

Ghosts and Gargoyles (2001) is the “sequel” to Angels and Devils. It uses a double octet of flutes (two each of piccolo, C flute, alto, and bass), plus a soloist (Robert Aitken plays that role as well as conducting). It’s in 10 short movements, and is moodier than its predecessor is. The music alternates between groovier riffs (there’s also a jazz drummer in the ensemble), neo-Baroque chorales, and keening lines that suggest a sort of non-Western chant.

All the pieces are ingratiating, fresh, imaginative, and superbly crafted. Brant knows this medium inside out: he can get a very pure and full, homogeneous sound, as in the mass or a great range of timbre and texture, as in the other two works. Each piece also has a clearly defined and different personality; there’s no stale repeating of previous success here. And Brant has an ability to write adventurous music that is immediately engaging and comprehensible. Part of it comes from his use of idioms other than modernist (though he doesn’t shy from that either), and part is the completely free and nondogmatic way he presents his ideas.

I also have one criticism, which has been the case for me for as long as I’ve known the composer’s work. The actual musical ideas, while always clear, usually are less distinctive than I’d like. In a way, they seem almost symbols for different types of music, than they are living entities in their own right. I always enjoy Brant’s music as I’m listening, but I rarely can remember any specific tune or motive (one exception in this collection being the “dying” gestures of the solo flute in the conclusion of Ghosts and Gargoyles). In this sense, he reminds me a bit of Mauricio Kagel, another eclectic, fertile, and unpredictable composer, who seems at least as in love with the “metaprogram” of his pieces as with their moment-to-moment unfolding.

But enough; I had to state the above to stay honest. I really enjoy and admire Brant’s work. He has been, and continues to be, an inspiration to us all, and I suspect his great open spirit will continue to reverberate in decades to come. These works are a marvelous sampling of some of his best and are highly recommended. (Please note also that Innova has been undertaking a large-scale Brant project, including many of the huge ensemble works—usually in live performance recordings—that warrants exploration.) The New York Flute Club is a “Who’s Who” of the city’s flute scene, and its members play with almost unnerving ensemble. Moreover, it is, of course, great to have the original Angels and Devils back in circulation.

FANFARE: Robert Carl