From: Leslie Shill (icehouse_at_redshift.com)
Date: 2003-02-05 05:04:48
The great composer Lou Harrison died in Aptos yesterday. Lou was one of
the shining stars of the American musical firmament. His works were
inspiring and inspired, he used the creative forces inside himself to the
best advantage possible and established himself over the years as someone
who not only was creative but also as someone who stood by his firm
beliefs in no uncertain terms. Lou was born in 1917 in Portland, Oregon
and he studied with a diverse group of teachers ranging from Henry Cowell,
Arnold Schoenberg, Virgil Thomas and Howard Cooper and this is only a
partial list! He was as much a theorist as he was a creative force and he
supported many artists as they battled to form their own perspectives of
the musical universe. Lou received grants and awards from a long list of
admiring artistic patrons and he was commissioned to create music for an
esteemed congregation of musical stars, from Merce Cunningham to the Mark
Morris Company, Lester Horton, Jean Erdman and for many of the great
orchestral companies in the world. Aside from his musical output, Lou
Harrison was also an accomplished poet and a calligrapher of note.
Harriosn played a leading role in introducing the Indonesian Gamelan to
the USA and, with his partner William Colvig he constructed two large
gamelan now in use at San Jose State University and Mills College. The
written work produced by Harrison has been translated into many languages
and his book, "Music Primer" was re-published in Japanese and English in
1994. Lou Harrison has been championed by many leading conductors, amongst
them Michael Tilson Thomas and Dennis Russell Davis who presented
Lou's "New First Suite For Strings" in its premiere just this past
November. Lou produced a large body of work over the 50 years that he
composed music. He studied jazz piano and he was known as an accompanist
and dancer of note. Charles Ives came into contact with Lou and took a
serious interest in his work and compositions and Ives supported Harrison
supporting him through some hard times and his composition "Rapunzel" won
him the Twentieth Century Masterpiece Award which was presented to him byu
Stravinsky. When Ives won the Pulitzer Prize he shared the prize with Lou
Harrison who had just finished preparing the score for Ives' Symphony No.3
and conducting its premier. Lou believed that music is a pleasure and that
one has sometimes to pay for that pleasure and during his life he worked
as many different things, from florist, record store clerk, animal nurse
and forester in order to keep himself going and to pay his bills! To give
you anidea of the breadth of his comnpositions and musical scope, read the
following which I gratuitously copied from the web so that I would not
have to re-write it, this covers only his "other works" and does not even
touch his more formal compositions!
Pacifika Rondo fuses together ideas and instruments from many traditions
in movements dedicated to Korea, Mexico and the Aztec empire, the Sinitic
Area, the colonial days of California, the dolphins and ocean, and a
protest against the bomb and the destruction of Pacific life.
La Koro Sutra (The Heart Sutra) incorporates a chorus, organ, Gamelan,
harp, percussion, and bells combining 4 five-tone modes, 2 six-tone modes,
and 2 twelve-tone modes
Third Symphony blends American folk dances, a Gamelan, and an estampie
Ariadne uses an octatonic scale as a raga-like pitch collection; the solo
flute line resembles an alap (improvised melody within mode)
Philemon and Baukis blends a solo violin and Javanese Gamelan.
Some of his compositions are based on twelve-tone rows, but in a chromatic
fashion. Serial opera Rapunzel incorporates a row based on upper leading
tones moving to the tonic.
Many of his works remain unpublished. Haiku incorporates, a mixed chorus,
harp, wind-chimes, gong, and shiao (vertically notched Chinese flute).
This one-page work follows the structure and spirit of a haiku.
-Peace Piece Two is a meditation contemplating President Lyndon Johnson's
decisions about America's role in Vietnam. It features a tenor chanting
over the continuous percussion ostinato. The various tempi are not meant
to coincide; they "cosound." At the climax, the strings are given specific
pitches on which they improvise rhythms. This creates a 'textured' or
rhythmically active chord.
Wrote Piano Concerto for Keith Jarrett. At first Harrison was reluctant
because the conventional form would make him part of the establishment,
but then he decided to compose in Kirnberger's #2 well-temperament
Lou Harrison was one of those marvels of humanity who worked away at his
art and chosen form of creativity, his intelligence and sense of humour
runs through the creativity of all those who came to know him. It always
surprise me just how many people who are serious music fans fail to even
raise an eyebrow when they hear the name Lou Harrison, for most people he
just does not register and yet much of the ideas he brought to his music
are now part of the modern musical lexicon and people do not even think
twice about them he was truly on of the great composers of the last
hundred years and I take this moment to salute Lou Harrison!
leslie Shill
The LSDJ - The Power of
Sound