Lou Harrison was one of the great composers of the twentieth century--a pioneer in the use of alternate tunings,
world music influences, and new instruments. Born in 1917 in Portland Oregon, he spent much of his youth moving around Northern California before settling in San Francisco. There he studied with the modernist pioneer of American Music, Henry Cowell, and, while still in his twenties, composed extensively for dance and percussion. He befriended another of Cowell's students, John Cage, and the two of them established the first concert series devoted to new music for percussion. They composed extensively for these concerts, including their still popular collaboration Double Music.
In 1942, Harrison moved to Los Angeles to study with the famous Arnold Schoenberg at UCLA. Steeped in the atonal avant garde of Schoenberg's school, he moved to New York the following year, where he made a name for himself not only as a composer, but also as a critic under the tutelage of composer/writer Virgil Thomson.
Harrison also worked at editing the scores of American composer Charles Ives and conducted the first performance of Ives's Third Symphony (which won Ives the Pulitzer Prize). Harrison also published a study of the music of atonal composer Carl Ruggles, and the influence of Ruggles and Schoenberg comes through in works such as Harrison's Symphony on G and his opera Rapunzel. However, the stress and noise of New York led to a nervous breakdown in 1947. To help his friend recover, Cage recommended him to Black Mountain College in rural North Carolina, where the quiet and idyllic setting proved conducive to studies in Harrison's new interests, Asian music and tuning.
In 1975, Harrison met Ki K.P.H. Wasitodiningrat, familiarly known as Pak Cokro, one of the great masters of the
Javanese gamelan orchestra in that century. Pak Cokro not only instructed him in the performance and theory of gamelan music,
but also encouraged him to compose for the ensemble. Over the next ten years, Harrison would produce a remarkable body of nearly
50 pieces for gamelan, often in combinations with Western instruments, such as Philemon and Baukis (violin and gamelan). Listen to Gamelon
style
Harrison was instrumental in bringing both Balinese and Javanese Gamelan ensembles to America; Gamelans instruments were imported into the San Francisco Bay Area, and a bamboo Gamelan is kept-In a climate-controlled environment under the auspices of Mickey Hart, of the Grateful Dead group, who purchased the ensemble instruments.
| At right, Photo of Gamelan Sekar Jaya, a Bay area local Balinese group; located in Berkeley CA. This group has been active in producing authentic Gamelon works for several decades. The introduction of World Music into North American institutions was facilitated by Paggy Guggenheim in the 1970s. She promoted and provided financial assets to the Berkeley group that established the first instance of authentic Balinese Gamelon music. |
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Harrison Compositions with Gamelan
| Violin with Gamelan orchestra | |
| Ode to Quetzalcoatl | |
| Gedang Pak Chokro | |
| Concerto II. "STAMPEDE" |