Synopses & Reviews
Lou Harrison, who celebrated his 80th birthday in 1997, has often been cited as one of the America's most original and influential composers. In addition to his prolific musical output, Harrison is also a skilled painter, calligrapher, essayist, critic, poet, and instrument-builder. During his long and varied career, he has explored dance, Asian music, tuning systems, and universal languages, and has actively championed political causes ranging from pacifism to gay rights. As an articulate and outspoken observer of the contemporary musical scene, he is frequently quoted in the media; yet until now no comprehensive study of his life and works has been published.
The present book, supported by extensive archival research and nearly 70 interviews, examines the ideas that have shaped Harrison's creative output, as seen through the eyes of the composer and his associates. A detailed biographical section is followed by individual chapters focusing on Music and Dance, Intonation and Tuning, Instruments, Asian influences, Gamelan, Music and Politics, Music Criticism, and Compositional Processes. In a separate chapter, the authors describe the historical background of the San Francisco gay community, Harrison's literary and musical statements on gay rights, and possible "gay markers" on his musical style.
An annotated works-list details over 300 compositions, and a full-length CD illustrates the text in sound, including several unique and previously unrecorded works.
This engaging study of Harrison's life and works will be indispensable to students and scholars of American music and to performing artists and programmers.
Review
"The composer's own voice shines through, as do stories of influential encounters with seminal figures of 20th-century music such as Arnold Schoenberg, Charles Ives, Henry Cowell, Harry Partch, and Virgil Thomson....Warmly recommended for music and 20th-century culture collections."--Library Journal
"There is much strong scholarship to be found [here]; the authors' appreciation of the many formal risks that underlie Harrison's eclecticism, as of the deep humanity that drives it, allows for an unusually clear portrait of an artist whose restless pursuit of beauty has driven him from medium to medium, most often beyond the public eye."--Kirkus Reviews
"[Lou Harrison] is extraordinary because Miller and Lieberman...have succeeded in writing a biography that encompasses the immense breadth of this remarkable local artist's activities and accomplishments....[They] bring to our attention the uniqueness of Lou's artistry and the solid ethics that inform his endeavors, be they artistic or otherwise."--Bookshop Santa Cruz
"Garrulous and loving, remarkably successful in distilling abstruse musical manipulation, this is one of those rare musical biographies that draws you close to the subject with words of kindness."--San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle
"Highly recommended for collections serving general readers through professionals."--Choice
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 351-359) and index.
About the Author
About the Authors:
Musicologist and flutist Leta Miller has published articles, books, and critical editions of Renaissance, Baroque, and contemporary music and has been featured on thirteen solo recordings, including three CDs of music by Lou Harrison. Composer and ethnomusiclogist Fredric Lieberman has published compositions, articles, books, films, and recordings dealing with Chinese, Indian, and other Asian musics and on American popular music. Both authors are Professors of Music at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I: Biography
1. West Coast Prelude (1917 - 43)
2. East Coast Fugue (1943 - 53)
3. California Toccata (1953 - present)
Part II: The Artist's World
4. Music and the Dance
5. Tuning and Temperment
6. Instruments Foraged, Modified, or Invented
7. Lou Harrison and East Asian Music
8. The Gamelan Ideal: Imagined, Imported, Invented: co-authored with Jonathon Grasse
9. Sounding Off: Music and Politics
10. Harrison, Homosexuality and the Gay World
11. Assembling the Pieces: The Compositional Process
12. Not Just Music: Criticism, Poetry, Art, and Typography
Conclusion
Appendices
1. List of interviews
2. Lou Harrison's reviews in the 'New York Herald Tribune'
Catalogue of the Works of Lou Harrison: by Leta E. Miller and Charles Hanson
Editorial Procedures
Alphabetical Index by Title
Index by Medium and Genre
Chronological List of Works
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Compact Disc Contents