Lou Harrison

Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 - February 2, 2003) was an American composer. He was a student of Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg, and Pak Cokro.

Harrison's music

Many of Harrison's early works are for percussion instruments, often made out of what would usually be regarded as junk such as garbage cans and steel brake pans. He also wrote a number of pieces using Schoenberg's twelve tone technique, including the opera Rapunzel and his 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.

Related Topics:
Opera - Prepared piano

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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."

Related Topics:
Musical mode - Harmony - Rhythm - Melody - Ned Rorem

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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.

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Among Harrison's better known works are the 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 number of symphonies. He also wrote a large number of works in non-traditional forms. Harrison spoke several languages including American Sign Language, Mandarin and Esperanto, and several of his pieces have Esperanto titles and (notably La Koro Sutro, 1973) texts.

Related Topics:
Proms - London - Double Concerto - Violin - Cello - Javanese - Well temperament - Orchestra - Keith Jarrett - Symphonies - American Sign Language - Mandarin - Esperanto

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