The Glenn Branca Challenge

Glenn Branca is a musician/composer known for bridging the gap between the more academic/serious experimental music of people like Phillip Glass, John Cage, and Steve Reich and the wierd downtown art-rock of late 70s-early 80s New York, most famously Sonic Youth. J. Neal of Allmusic places him in the "fringe between the edgier end of art music and the artsier end of rock." Among his works: a symphony for 100 electric guitars performed at the base of the World Trade Center in 2000.

Anyways, quoth same in his New York Times blog (web-and-members-only TimesSelect edition, hence the cutting annd the pasting):

"Yes, this is a contest.

And it’s open to any and everyone.

Here are the rules. Write and record up to three minutes of startlingly new and original instrumental chords. They can be scored in any fashion whatsoever, using any instrumentation or sound producing devices. You can submit a static series of chords or you can perturb the chords in any fashion. You can just submit one big gorgeous chord if you wish.

The submissions can be sent . . . in the form of a posted link to a site where a recording of the piece can be heard (like MySpace, for example).

At the end of the month I will announce the winners on my last blog entry.

I was hoping to be able to have some kind of small rewards for the winners, but it’s not possible at this time. The links to all of the entries will stay posted in the comment section so that people can judge for themselves if they don’t like my choices. But I will only post entries that seem to be within the spirit of the contest.

[Legal Note: By submitting a link to music you represent and warrant that the music found there is your original creation and that it does not infringe on any existing copyright.]

Anyone who can’t post an entry because they’re not a member of TimesSelect can just send the link to me at glenn@glennbranca.com and I’ll post it.

In searching for lost chords there can only be one method, and that is the method that eschews all pre-existing methods."

Wow. That last line is a real doozy, right?

Glenn Branca's website, and a picture of a truly insane guitar, can be found here.