Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an
American composer. He was a student of
Henry Cowell,
Arnold Schoenberg, and
K. P. H. Notoprojo (formerly called K.R.T. Wasitodiningrat, informally called
Pak Cokro).
Harrison is particularly noted for incorporating elements of the music of non-Western cultures into his work, with a number of pieces written for Javanese style gamelan instruments, including ensembles constructed and tuned by Harrison and his partner William Colvig. The majority of his works are written in just intonation rather than the more widespread equal temperament. Harrison is one of the most prominent composers to have worked with microtones.
Biography
Harrison was born in Portland, Oregon, but moved with his family to a number of locations around the San Francisco Bay Area as a child. He graduated from
Burlingame High School in
Burlingame, California in 1934, then he moved to San Francisco. While there he met
Charles Ives, became his friend, and did a good deal in bringing Ives to the attention of the musical world, which had largely ignored him up to that point. With the assistance of his mentor Cowell, Harrison prepared and conducted the premiere of Ives's
Symphony No. 3, and in return received help from Ives financially. When Ives won the
Pulitzer Prize for Music for that piece, he gave half of the money to Harrison. Harrison also edited a large number of Ives's works, receiving compensation often in excess of what he billed (Miller and Lieberman 1998).
As well as Ives, Harrison supported and promoted the music of other unconventional American composers, including Edgard Varèse and Carl Ruggles as well as Alan Hovhaness. Later during his time in North Carolina, Harrison taught at Black Mountain College. In 1947, he suffered a nervous breakdown, and moved back to California.
Following in the path of Canadian composer Colin McPhee, who had done extensive research in Indonesian music in the 1930s and wrote a number of compositions incorporating Balinese and Javanese elements, Harrison's style began to change, showing the influence of gamelan music more clearly if only in timbre: "It was the sound itself that attracted me. In New York, when I changed gears out of twelve tonalism, I explored this timbre. The gamelan movements in my Suite for Violin, Piano, and Small Orchestra [1951] are aural imitations of the generalized sounds of gamelan" (ibid, p. 160). Virgil Thomson (with whom Harrison also studied) gave him a copy of Harry Partch's book on musical tuning, Genesis of a Music, which prompted Harrison to start writing music in just intonation. He did not abandon equal temperament altogether, but often expressed a desire to do so. In an oft-quoted comment referring to the frequency ratios used in just intonation, he said, "I'd long thought that I would love a time when musicians were numerate as well as literate. I'd love to be a conductor and say, 'Now, cellos, you gave me 10:9 there, please give me a 9:8 instead,' I'd love to get that!"
Although much influenced by Asian music, Harrison did not visit the continent until a 1961 trip to Japan and Korea and a 1962 trip to Taiwan (ibid, p. 141). He and his partner William Colvig later constructed a tuned percussion ensemble, using resonated aluminum keys and tubes, as well as oxygen tanks and other found percussion instruments. They called this "an American gamelan," in order to distinguish it from those in Indonesia. gamelan-type instruments tuned to just pentatonic scales from unusual materials such as tin cans and aluminium furniture tubing. He wrote "La Koro Sutro" for these instruments and chorus, as well as "Suite for Violin and American Gamelan." In addition, Harrison played and composed for the Chinese guzheng zither, and presented (with Colvig, his student Richard Dee, and the singer Lily Chin) over 300 concerts of traditional Chinese music in the 1960s.
He was a composer-in-residence at San Jose State University in San Jose, California during the 1960s. The university honored him with an all-Harrison concert in Morris Daley Auditorium in 1969, featuring dancers, singers, and musicians. The highlight of the concert was the world premiere of Harrison's depiction of the story of Orpheus, which utilized soloists, the San Jose State University a capella choir, as well as a unique group of percussionists.
Like many other 20th-century composers, Harrison found it hard to support himself with his music, and took a number of other jobs to earn a living, including record salesman, florist, animal nurse, and forestry firefighter.
Harrison was outspoken about his political views, such as his pacifism (he was an active supporter of the international language Esperanto), and the fact that he was gay. He was also politically active and informed, including knowledge of gay history. He wrote many pieces with political texts or titles, writing, for instance, Homage to Pacifica for the opening of the Berkeley Headquarters of the Pacifica Foundation, and accepting commissions from the Portland Gay Men's Chorus (1988 and 1985) and by the Seattle Men's Chorus to arrange (1987) his Strict Songs, originally for eight baritones, for "a chorus of 120 male singing enthusiasts. Some of them good; some not so good. But the number is so fabulous" (ibid, p. 98). Lawrence Mass (ibid, p. 190) describes:
:With Lou Harrison...being gay is something affirmative. He's proud to be a gay composer and interested in talking about what that might mean. He doesn't feel threatened that this means he won't be thought of as an American composer who is also great and timeless and universal.
Janice Giteck (ibid, p. 194) describes Harrison as:
:unabashedly androgynous in his way of approaching creativity. He has a vital connection to the feminine as well as to the masculine. The female part is apparent in the sense of beingness. But at the same time, Lou is very male, too, ferociously active and assertive, rhythmic, pulsing, and aggressive.
On November 2, 1990, the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra premiered Harrison's fourth symphony, which he titled Last Symphony. He combined native American music, ancient music, and Asian music, tying it all together with lush orchestral writing. A special inclusion was a series of Navajo "Coyote Stories." He made a number of revisions to the symphonies before completing a final version in 1995, which was recorded by Barry Jekowsky and the California Symphony for Argo Records at Skywalker Ranch in Nicasio, California in March 1997. The CD also included Harrison's Elegy, to the Memory of Calvin Simmons (a tribute to the former conductor of the Oakland Symphony, who drowned in a boating accident in 1982), excerpts from Solstice, Concerto in Slendro, and Double Music (his collaboration with John Cage).
Harrison and Colvig built two full Javanese-style gamelan, modeled on the instrumentation of Kyai Udan Mas at U.C. Berkeley. One was named Si Betty for the art patron Betty Freeman; the other, built at Mills College, was named Si Darius/Si Madeliene. Harrison taught at Mills College for several years, where one of his students was Jin Hi Kim.
Personal life
Harrison lived for many years with Bill Colvig in
Aptos, California. He and Colvig purchased land in
Joshua Tree, California, where they designed and built a
straw bale house. He died in
Lafayette, Indiana, from a
heart attack while on his way to a festival of his music at
The Ohio State University.
Harrison's music
Many of Harrison's early works are for percussion instruments, often made out of what would usually be regarded as junk or found objects such as garbage cans and steel brake drums. He also wrote a number of pieces using Schoenberg's twelve tone technique, including the opera
Rapunzel and his
Symphony on G (Symphony No. 1) (1952). Several works feature the
tack piano, a kind of
prepared piano with small nails inserted into the hammers to give the instrument a more percussive sound.
Harrison's mature musical style is based on "melodicles", short motifs which are turned backwards and upsidedown to create a musical mode the piece is based on. His music is typically spartan in texture but lyrical, and harmony usually simple or sometimes lacking altogether, with the focus instead being on rhythm and melody. Ned Rorem describes, "Lou Harrison's compositions demonstrate a variety of means and techniques. In general he is a melodist. Rhythm has a significant place in his work, too. Harmony is unimportant, although tonality is. He is one of the first American composers to successfully create a workable marriage between Eastern and Western forms." Listeners to Harrison's music are often surprised that such a modern, innovative composer actually wrote lyrical melodies and often richly harmonized and orchestrated them, much in the tradition of the late Romantic composers.
Another component of Harrison's aesthetic is what Harry Partch would call corporeality, an emphasis on the physical and the sensual including live, human, performance and improvisation, timbre, rhythm, and the sense of space in his melodic lines, whether solo or in counterpoint, and most notably in his frequent dance collaborations.
Among Harrison's better known works are the Concerto in Slendro, Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra, Organ Concerto with Percussion (1973), which was given at the Proms in London in 1997; the Double Concerto (1981–82) for violin, cello, and Javanese gamelan; the Piano Concerto (1983–85) for piano tuned in Kirnberger #2 (a form of well temperament) and orchestra, which was written for Keith Jarrett and a Concerto for Piano and Javanese Gamelan; as well as four numbered orchestral symphonies. He also wrote a large number of works in non-traditional forms. Harrison was fluent in several languages including American Sign Language, Mandarin and Esperanto, and several of his pieces have Esperanto titles and texts, most notably La Koro Sutro (1973).
Like Charles Ives, Harrison completed four symphonies. He typically combined a variety of the musical forms and languages that he preferred. This is quite apparent in the fourth symphony, recorded by the California Symphony for Argo Records, as well as his third symphony, which was performed and broadcast by the Dennis Russell Davies and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
Films
1986 – Lou Harrison : "cherish, conserve, consider, create." Directed by Eric Marin.
1995 – Musical Outsiders: An American Legacy – Harry Partch, Lou Harrison, and Terry Riley. Directed by Michael Blackwood.
Works
Chamber Works
At the Tomb of Charles Ives, chamber orchestra
Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra, percussion ensemble, organ and ensemble
Concerto for Pipa with String Orchestra, Asian instrument and ensemble
New First Suite for Strings, string orchestra
Pacifika Rondo, chamber orchestra
Por Gitaro, guitar solo
Praise for the Beauty of Hummingbirds, mixed quintet
Rhymes with Silver, violoncello and ensemble, mixed quintet
Serenade for Guitar with optional Percussion, mixed duo, guitar solo
Seven Pastorales, chamber orchestra
Solstice, large mixed ensemble
Songs in the Forest, mixed quartet
String Quartet Set
Suite for Cello and Harp
Suite for Violin with American Gamelan
Suite for Violin with String Orchestra
Suite for Violoncello and Piano
Suites for Cello and String Orchestra
The Perilous Chapel, mixed quartet
Orchestral Works
A Parade
Elegiac Symphony
Music for Violin with Various Instruments, European, Asian, and African, string solo and orchestra
Symphony No. 4
Symphony On G
Vocal Works
Air from Rapunzel, high voice and ensemble
Alma Redemptoris Mater, low voice and ensemble
La Koro Sutro, mixed chorus and gamelan, mixed chorus and ensemble
Mass to Saint Anthony, mixed chorus and ensemble
Three Songs, men's chorus and ensemble
Piano Works
Six Sonatas for Cembalo, piano solo, harpsichord solo
Opera
Rapunzel
Young Caesar
References
Kennedy, Michael (2006), The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 985 pages, ISBN 0-19-861459-4
Miller, Leta E. and Lieberman, Frederic (1998). Lou Harrison: Composing a World. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511022-6.
External links
Archives
Lou Harrison Archive at the University of California, Santa Cruz
SJSU School of Music & Dance: Lou Harrison
Obituaries and remembrances
Obituary from the Musical Times
Remembrance by Don Gillespie, from NewMusicBox
I remember Lou, from Other Minds
Interviews
Duffie, Bruce. “Composer Lou Harrison: A Conversation With Bruce Duffie.” April 1987.
Golden, Barbara. “Conversation with Lou Harrison.” eContact! 12.2 — Interviews (2) (April 2010). Montréal: CEC.
Other links
Lou Harrison: Middle Period Works
New Albion Artists: Lou Harrison
Peermusic Classical: Lou Harrison Composer's Publisher and Bio
Lou Harrison artist page from Frog Peak Music site
Other Minds: Lou Harrison
Lou Harrison Documentary Project
Lou Harrison: an interview by Dr Geoff Smith
Rapunzel by William Morris, inspiration for Lou Harrison's opera
Listening
Art of the States: Lou Harrison seven works by the composer
Lou Harrison tribute from Other Minds Festival 9, 2003
Epitonic.com: Lou Harrison including tracks from Rhymes With Silver and La Koro Sutro
Del Sol Quartet:Tear with Harrison's Song of Palestine from String Quartet Set by Del Sol Quartet
Category:20th-century classical composers
Category:American composers
Category:Esperanto music
Category:Guzheng players
Category:Gamelan musicians
Category:Microtonal musicians
Category:American music critics
Category:People from Portland, Oregon
Category:LGBT musicians from the United States
Category:1917 births
Category:2003 deaths
Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction
Category:LGBT composers
Category:American Esperantists
Category:Contemporary classical music performers
