ANTHONY BRAXTON'S TRICENTRIC THOUGHT UNIT CONSTRUCT AND POST WAR WESTERN ART MUSIC

Kobe Van Cauwenberghe

The perception of the canon of post-war Western art music today is still strongly determined by a constructed dichotomy which keeps Western art music separate from evolutions and radical experiments in jazz and African-American music. The very extensive oeuvre and philosophical body of thought of the American composer Anthony Braxton, what he calls his Tri-Centric Thought Unit Construct (TCTUC), can be seen as the metaphorical elephant in the room. This unique oeuvre has been largely ignored to this day within the repertoire, discourse and performance practice associated with the canon of post-war Western art music. This research project takes Anthony Braxton's TCTUC as a starting point to see how I, as an interpreter of Braxton’s music, can contribute to a broadening of this canon. My intention with this research is to provide artistic responses to the gaps within the existing discourse on post-war Western art music (see Braxton, Lewis, Piekut, Born, a.o.) by approaching a wide selection of Braxton’s compositions on his own terms. By putting these works as specific case studies on the agenda of relevant actors such as the conservatory, contemporary music festivals and concert series and through recordings and other media, I aimed to make a canon broadening possible through my practice as an interpreter. The results of this research, presented in the form of concerts, lectures, articles, workshops and recordings, are collected in this Research Catalogue website.

Ghost Trance Septet

Ghost Trance Music with Plus-Minus Ensemble

Ghost Trance Solo

Three short excerpts from the performance in DE SINGEL, showing three different multi-hierarchical performance situations. Filmed from the audience by Mariam Rezaei (raw audio):

The Ghost Trance Septet consists of Elisa Medinilla (piano), Niels Van Heertum (euphonium), Teun Verbruggen (drums), Steven Delannoye (Saxophone), Anna Jalving (violin), Frederik Sakham (bass) and Kobe Van Cauwenberghe (guitar)1

Royal Conservatoire Antwerp Creative Orchestra

Darmstadt Creative Orchestra

Live at Concertgebouw Brugge

as part of the concert program "Forces in Motion", 16/11/20232

Composition No. 151 + 6f, 307, 147, 69q, 63, 40f and Language Music.

Conductor: Ilan Volkov - 2nd conductor: Kobe Van Cauwenberghe - 3rd conductor: Henry Raudales

Live at VISITATIONS

09-10/12/2022, Rataplan, Antwerp

Set 1: Composition No. 255 (+40f +108a +34 +6f +23h)

Ghost Trance Music with Ictus & Rosas

Live at Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik

After a four day workshop, Darmstadt, 15/08/2023

Composition No. 151 + 100, 59, 63, Language Music. (audio only)

Conductors: Anthony Braxton, Kobe Van Cauwenberghe, Katherine Young

Ictus & Brussels Philharmonic Creative Orchestra

Set 3: Composition No. 193 (+ 6f, Trillium E, 101, 69q, 48)

Ghost Trance Septet plays Anthony Braxton (eNR105) - studio album

el Negocito Records, release date 02/06/2022

Composition No. 255, 358, 193 & 264

Live at Café Oto

Composition No. 255, Café Oto, London, 18/02/2022

Plus-Minus: Mark Knoop (piano), Vicky Wright (bass clarinet), Mira Benjamin (violin), Alice Purton (cello), Joe Richards (percussion).

Broadcasted on BBC 3's "New Music Show" on 16/04/2022 with an extensive introduction by Kate Moleson, here included.

Live at DE SINGEL International Arts Center

RCA student orchestra, Blauwe Zaal, DE SINGEL, Antwerpen, 05/06/2022

Composition No. 59, 69q, 56, 58 + Language Music

Conductor: Kobe Van Cauwenberghe

Conductor, violinist and Summer Course participant Sinead Hayes followed the four-day Creative Orchestra workshop in Darmstadt and made the podcast "Stepping into Anthony Braxton's Musical Universe: Darmstadt Creative Orchestra":

Live at Articulate Research Days

24/10/2019, Royal Conservatoire Antwerp

Composition No. 285 (+40f, 108a, 304, 40b, 40o, 69q)

Live at Rainy Days

13/11/2021, Philharmonie de Luxembourg

Composition No. 255 (+ 6f, 40b, 40f, 358, 58, 34, 304)

Live at DE SINGEL International Arts Center

as part of the concert program "Forces in Motion", Blauwe Zaal, DE SINGEL, 17/11/2023

Composition No. 151 + 6f, 307, 147, 69q, 63, 40f and Language Music. (audio only)

Conductor: Ilan Volkov - 2nd conductor: Kobe Van Cauwenberghe - 3rd conductor: Henry Raudales

In March 2021 I gave a workshop for students of the Ictus advanced master program and members of the Ictus ensemble which was a served as a prequel to the Rosas collaboration. After a two-day workshop we gave a performance of Composition No 255 which can be seen here.

Excertp from an online Zoom rehearsal in October 2020 to test the EEMHM set-up.

With Carl Testa (electronics), Steven Delannoye (saxophone), Hampus Lindwall (small synths), Niels Van Heertum (euphonium) and Kobe Van Cauwenberghe (guitar).

Live in Darmstadt

Composition No. 264 (+ 40f, 358, 23h, 55, 108a, 6f, 69q, 108d)

This captation was the second of two performances that took place on 18/08/2023 as part of the Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Darmstadt.

Ictus: Jean-Luc Plouvier (keyboard), Nabou Claerhout (trombone), Niels Van Heertum (euphonium), Kobe Van Cauwenberghe (guitar)

Guest musicians: Andreas Borregaard (accordion), Katherine Young (bassoon)

Dancers: Sophia Dinkel, Marie Goudot, Mark Lorimer, Michaël Pomero

ECHO ECHO MIRROR HOUSE MUSIC

EVENT SPACE

Live at Articulate Research Days

01/02/2021, Royal Conservatoire Antwerp (live stream)

Composition No. 381

with Winnie Huang (violin), Steven Delannoye (saxophone), Niels Van Heertum (euphonium), Hampus Lindwall (piano) and Kobe Van Cauwenberghe (guitar); conducted by Carl Testa (from his home in New Haven)

Introduction by Carl Testa (Tri-Centric Foundation)

Live at DE SINGEL

05/06/2022, Blauwe Zaal, DE SINGEL, Antwerp

Composition No. 255 (+ 40b, 108a, 58, 6f, 358, 34)

EVENT SPACES

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GHOST TRANCE MUSIC - CREATIVE ORCHESTRA - ECHO ECHO MIRROR HOUSE MUSIC

GHOST TRANCE MUSIC

EVENT SPACE

CREATIVE ORCHESTRA

EVENT SPACE

Short excerpt from a rehearsal of Composition No. 100 with Anthony Braxton conducting (raw audio):

Ghost Trance Music documentary

Behind the scenes at the rehearsals and performance of the concert at Rainy Days, Philharmonie de Luxembourg. Camera: Kobe Wens.

Set 4: Composition No. 264 (+ Trillium E, 101, 40b, 48, 108c, 23h)

Set 2: Composition No. 358 (+ 40o, 69k, Trillium A, 40b, 304, 108d)

Ghost Trance Solos (ATD10) - studio album

all that dust - Released 05/11/2020

Composition No. 255, 284 & 358

Soundmaking ep. 83

I was invited to talk about the Septet studio album in the podcast Soundmaking by Håkon Stene and Matthew Shlomowitz, where composers and performers discuss the how and why of music they created. Listen below.

Pre-concert talk with Mark Delaere (click to play).

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