Tim Brady

Tim Brady (Canada, 1956) became known for the music for solo guitar and electronics of Imaginary Guitars (1992), Scenarios (1994), Strange Attractors (1997), the double-disc 10 Collaborations (2000), Go (2006). They had been preceded by the duets with John Abercrombie of Double Variations (Justin Time, 1990).

The prolific Brady also composed more ambitious works: the brief String Quartet Number One (1980): the brief Sextet (1981) for clarinet, horn, harp, violin, viola and cello; Concertino for Orchestra (1982); the multimedia event Sound Off (1983) for 40 saxophones, 30 trumpets, 30 trombones and 8 bass drums; the multimedia work Solo Games (1984) for six instruments and sound effets; Mobile (1984) for flute and classical guitar; the five-movement Visions (Justin Time, 1984) for flugelhorn (Kenny Wheeler) and orchestra; the first Chamber Concerto (1985); the Quintet (1987) for clarinet, horn, piano, viola and cello; the chamber trio In the Wake (1988); Ranei Te Take (1988) for guitar, voice, piano and percussion; the dance piece Inventions (1988 - 1989) for guitar, saxophone, piano, percussion, cello, three jazz improvisers and electronics, collected on the chamber concerto The Songline (1991); Inventions (Justin Time, 1991); the saxophone quartet Unison Rituals (1991), included in Unison Rituals (2003); the concerto for electric guitar and orchestra Loud (1993); Double Helix (1994) for piano, percussion, cello and saxophone; Dance Me To The End (1996) for string quartet, electric guitar and live electronics; the song cycles Revolutionary Songs (1994), included in Revolutionary Songs (1996), and The Knife Thrower's Partner (1997); the concerto for electric guitar The Body Electric (1997); Escapement (1997) for guitar, cello, percussion and soprano saxophone; the Saxophone Quartet (1998); Lightning Field (1999) for piano, soprano saxophone, violin, viola and double bass; Slow Dances (1999) for clarinet and string quartet; Scat (2000) for percussion (marimba, gongs, tam-tams and cymbals), clarinet, violin and double bass; Playing Guitar - Symphony #1 (2002) for electric guitar, sampler and 15 musicians; the multimedia work Hommage Rosa Luxemburg (2003) for string quartet, tape and video projection; Twenty Quarter Inch Jacks (Ambiances Magnetiques, 2002) for 20 teenage electric guitarists; the chamber operas Three Cities in the Life of Dr Norman Bethune (Ambiances Magnetiques, 2005), premiered in 2003, and The Salome Dancer (2005); Double Quartet (2005) for electric guitar, tenor and soprano saxophones, percussion, piano and sound effects; the chamber work SCAT (Ambiances magnetiques, 2007); the multi-media work My 20th Century (2008); the bass clarinet concerto Opposites Attract (2008); The Spontaneous Sonata Project (2008); Stages in the Search for Radium and Love (2009) for large chamber ensemble, based on the life of Marie Curie; En Amour en Hiver (2010) for voice and orchestra; The Choreography of Time - Symphony #2 (2010) for saxophone quartet and orchestra; Amplify Multiply Remix and Redfine - In Memory of Les Paul (2010) for 21 electric guitars and orchestra, which is a revision of The Body Electric; Requiem 21.5 (2012), a concerto for violin and string orchestra; Spin (2012) for percussion quartet; The Absence of Shelling is Almost Like Music (2013) for cello, video and orchestra; Journal - String Quartet #2 (2013); Viola Concerto (2013); Fast (2015) for percussion ensemble etc.

Atacama (ATMA, 2013) contains is Symphonie #3.

The How and the Why of Memory (Centrediscs, 2015) contains his Symphony #4.

The four-disc box-set 24 Frames (Ambiances Magnetiques, 2011) collects one of his longest works.

Instruments of Happiness (Starkland, 2016) contains music for electric guitar: Brady's Symphony No. 5 - The Same River Twice (2013) for four guitars and sound effects; Antoine Berthiaume's Fungi ; and Rainer Wiens' What Is Time? . Brady's Symphony No 5 is in four movements. The first one indulges in intricate minimalist repetition, erratically hijacked by sound effects, and ends in a Terry Riley-esque mode; and the second one lays down subliminal drones before intoning a fantasia that sounds like a somnolent remix of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.

A follow-up was the multi-media work Symphonie 5.1 (2016).

The Luxury of Time, his Symphony #6, was premiered in 2015.

Music for Large Ensembles (Starkland, 2018) contains the 26-minute Desir (2017), his third concerto for electric guitar and large chamber ensemble, and the 38-minute Eight Songs about Symphony #7 (2017), a tribute to Shostakovitch's Symphony #7 "Leningrad".