Brian Dennis

Brian Dennis was an English experimental music[1] composer,[2] and author[3] born in Marple, Cheshire in May 1941 and died in June 1998.

Brian studied with Stockhausen, Berio, Earle Brown and Cathy Berberian at The Cologne Course for New Music and was a lecturer in Composition and Contemporary Music at Royal Holloway College, University of London.[4]

Brian wrote two books in the 1970s: Experimental Music in Schools (ISBN 978-0193231955)[5] and Projects in Sound (ISBN 978-0900938450),[6][7] which propose a new graphical form of Musical notation, showing instruments as images representing their sound, rather than traditional notation on a stave. For example, the notation of a scraping wood Güiro would be shown as zig-zag lines. Both books have been used extensively in classrooms[8][9] and became part of the National Curriculum of England, Wales and Northern Ireland

He also featured in BBC documentary Music in Schools and has inspired Dan Mayfield's School of Noise.

His compositions include approximately 150 songs many of which are settings of Chinese poems[10] with lyrics in English prepared by the composer, as well as a number of piano pieces. He completed a trilogy of one-act operas based on Japanese Noh plays as well as an unfinished three-act opera based on The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen.

References

[11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

  1. Virginia DeVere Anderson (1983). British experimental music: Cornelius Cardew and his contemporaries. University of Redlands.
  2. Reed Business Information (19 April 1973). New Scientist. Reed Business Information. pp. 178–. ISSN 0262-4079.
  3. John Tilbury (November 2008). Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981): a life unfinished. Copula.
  4. Dr Keith Potter; Dr Pwyll ap Siôn; Professor Kyle Gann (28 December 2013). The Ashgate Research Companion to Minimalist and Postminimalist Music. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 156–. ISBN 978-1-4724-0278-3.
  5. The Musical quarterly. 1969.
  6. Contact. University of London Goldsmith's College. 1980.
  7. Robert Walker (1984). Music education: tradition and innovation. Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Limited. ISBN 978-0-398-04861-7.
  8. Kent, Ashley (19 December 2013). School Subject Teaching: The History and Future of the Curriculum. Taylor & Francis. pp. 159–. ISBN 978-1-317-84493-8.
  9. Peter Manning Professor of Music University of Durham (29 January 2004). Electronic and Computer Music. Oxford University Press, USA. pp. 147–. ISBN 978-0-19-534929-0.
  10. D. J. Hoek (15 February 2007). Analyses of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Music, 1940-2000. Scarecrow Press. pp. 92–. ISBN 978-1-4617-0079-1.
  11. Dr Pwyll ap Siôn (28 December 2013). Michael Nyman: Collected Writings. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 153–. ISBN 978-1-4724-3048-9.
  12. David M. Cummings (2000). International Who's Who in Music and Musician's Directory. Psychology Press. pp. 116–. ISBN 978-0-948875-53-3.
  13. Robert Walker (2007). Music Education: Cultural Values, Social Change and Innovation. Charles C Thomas Publisher. pp. 222–. ISBN 978-0-398-08544-5.
  14. Ruth Wright (2010). Sociology and Music Education. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 127–. ISBN 978-0-7546-6801-5.
  15. John Paynter; Janet Mills (25 August 2008). Thinking and making: selections from the writings of John Paynter on music in education. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-335591-0.


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