Lou Harrison: An American Original

[@chrisharrison809]

Gnarly. This channel is insane. Good job man.

[@barbaraarlen2882]

Thank you for this. It has prepared me for Chatter's concert with Old Grandad #4, American Gamelan set, on Sat. June 10 at CCA in Santa Fe, NM. and Sun. June 11, 2023 in ABQ.

[@chino_jap0nes]

Great video!! I was looking for gamelan influenced pieces and Lou Harrison was on the list. Thank you so much for this video.

[@stephenjablonsky1941]

A highly informative lesson. Harrison's success as a composer varied widely depending on style and instrumentation. Today is Lou's birthday so I am immersing myself in his music.

[@exoplanet11]

Thanks for this wonderful video on a wonderful composer, one of my favorite. I'm glad you mentioned the highly influential Pak Cokro, whose music was sent into space on the Voyager spacecraft (seriously...look it up!) I met Pak Cokro in Yogyakarta in 1999 or 2000. By the way, his name is pronounced more like "Chokro". My favorite Harrison composition is "Threnody for Carlos Chavez"

[@twigsfloat2773]

One of my two favorite composers. Thank you so much for the overview.

[@nyc88s]

This lesson was absolutely fascinating! Thank you so much.

[@Jerkcurb1]

Thank you so much for this. I’ve been mesmerised by the music of Lou Harrison for some time

[@kkdesignservices183]

I got to know Lou and Bill, starting in the 1990s. Lovely people and a great inspiration to me.

[@exerciserelax8719]

This was very interesting. I remember Harrison being mentioned briefly in my intro to music class as basically "the gamelan guy" in the brief section on "American mavericks." I never really delved into his work. After seeing this video I listened to his piano concerto and thought it was wonderful! Such a shame he's so overlooked. Unlike, say, Cage or Feldman, he seems to have quite a few pieces that are "accessible" enough to be regularly programmed by American symphonies, but I rarely see him on programs, nor new recordings of his pieces. I do wonder if his non-Western influences risk being heard as exploitation/appropriation by modern ears, despite his very sincere and respectful engagement with these traditions, as you showed in the video. Nonetheless, maybe it's time for a Harrison revival!

[@thekathal]

Interesting composer and nice music, he’s also pretty good looking as well!

[@GmT0Curwen]

Fantastic video! Only discovered this channel now, looking forward to watch more.

[@chino_jap0nes]

Could you please let me know the name of the piano piece playing from 27:02-28:42?

[@zacharydetrick7428]

Really lovely work Thomas. Great video on one of my heroes.

[@charleslyall5857]

Great music indeed.

[@garretkaplan]

Will you ever make a video on Philip Glass, Steve Reich, or John Cage?

[@ClassicalNerd]

I don't do videos on composers with ongoing careers, and due to the nature of composition, this prevents me from covering living composers. I did a very short video on Cage a long time ago, but that's one I'm planning on redoing because it's old, short, and has poor production quality compared to the work I do now.

[@Listenerandlearner870]

This is tremendous.

[@pawncube2050]

6:33 I've tried this before(wrote a prelude and was gonna try to write other pieces). I knew probably someone already did this, I was just wondering who.

[@philipm3173]

3:47 Based

[@sprucescentedschizoid]

My man Thomas actually did a video on Lou Harrison. God bless.

[@alkanista]

Lou was also interested in Esperanto (was there anything he wasn't interested in, I wonder?). He wrote a fantastically beautiful choral work in that language. Here's a link - kzbin.info/www/bejne/pIW5dph5eaZnras

[@brentmarquez4157]

One more question - what is your or anyone's favorite Mozart Biography to read?

[@ClassicalNerd]

Of all the books on my shelf, Mozart is missing; I built my video of him off of dissertations and other library resources, so I quite literally do not have an opinion on this.

[@CCymposting]

So as an aspiring composer, I was curious if you were planning on doing another "introduction" to a style video (like your minimalism and serialism video). I've been trying to understand Spectralism, but I've had no luck so far. If you're not planning on making a video on it, do you have any recommendations of how I can learn more about it?

[@CCymposting]

Also, I forgot to thank you for the Boulez and Gershwin videos so here's a very late thank you!

[@ClassicalNerd]

I would love to do a dive into spectralism, and your request has been noted at lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html

[@Listenerandlearner870]

You could do talks on Eisler and Pfitzner.

[@ClassicalNerd]

Duly noted: lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html

[@Drumhead10100]

awesome videos! I'd love to see one on Elliott Carter

[@ClassicalNerd]

Duly noted: lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html

[@medicatedjay5698]

Can you make a video on Hans Rott?

[@ClassicalNerd]

Duly noted: lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html

[@gabrielgan2971]

Hi can you do a video on Franz Liszt, I realised you haven't made any videos on him, unless I am mistaken.

[@ClassicalNerd]

I've done a Liszt video in the past but took it down because it wasn't up to my standards; I ended up focusing too much on his life as opposed to balancing his life and work, and the production quality was overall quite poor. I plan on remaking several earlier videos at some point, including Liszt.

[@gabrielgan2971]

I see, I hope they can be released soon. Thank you : )

[@jameskaufmann765]

Much appreciated. I am working on a choreomusical analysis of a Lou Harrison/Erick Hawkins piece, and though I have more expertise in music than in dance, it is the music part that is giving me writer's block...(analysts block?)

[@ine6149]

Can you make a video about Lili Boulanger?

[@ClassicalNerd]

It's an older video, so it's shorter and the production quality's not as good, but I've made one on her: kzbin.info/www/bejne/omXIhISIqt6IedU

[@zacharydetrick7428]

is that "Double Music" behind the title card??

[@ClassicalNerd]

Nope-it's the _Fugue for Percussion._

[@neo-eclesiastul9386]

I will make a pilgrimage to your place just to worship at your Ives' shrine

[@harrisonhouse4612]

Visit louharrisonhouse.org to find a copy of the documentary LOU HARRISON: A World of Music and the strawbale house he built in Joshua tree now Harrison House Music, Arts & Ecology.

[@seanramsdell4117]

Lou Harrison's Tangled ;)

[@ll11111llone]

pettersson please

[@ClassicalNerd]

Duly noted: lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html

[@clarknicholscomposer]

Hey, there's a mistake in the video: at around 21:00 you say that Harrison studied with Pak Cokro, but he did not. He studied with Jody Diamond and some of Pak Cokro's students. Pak Cokro never taught Harrison directly because he saw it as unbecoming of their statuses as composers/equals. Harrison didn't quite realize this, hence why this misconception exists.

[@ClassicalNerd]

According to my sources for this video (as listed in the description), Pak Cokro was quite reticent to teach Harrison but ultimately _did,_ albeit on an unofficial basis once he was assured that Harrison did not see their lessons as actually being "lessons" so much as a genuine cultural exchange between artists. Pak Cokro might not have seen them as lessons, but Harrison certainly did (even if more formal studying did in fact come under some of his students).

[@clarknicholscomposer]

@@ClassicalNerd Your sources are incorrect. According to Midiyanto (one of Harrison's gamelan teachers), as well as Henry Spiller (in personal interviews), Harrison never studied directly with Pak Cokro. He did correspond with him, and talk music with him. Harrison may have learned from Cokro, but he was certainly never his student, and it would be incorrect to say Harrison studied with him.

[@brentmarquez4157]

Who wrote some great symphonic music depicting the American West? Copland is about the only one I've found, but my knowledge of American symphonic music isn't great. Ives is better for more New England evocations, though his Unanswered Question fits the desolate wide open West landscape well. Any other pieces/composers that fit the bill (thinking similar to Appalachian Spring/Billy the Kid/El Salon Mexico kind of vibe)? Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite was in my opinion not very evocative of the rugged beauty of the West and too "French" and John Williams, while great is not quite right and too "pop" (i.e. popular) for me as well, to give you a guage of my taste.

[@ClassicalNerd]

I can't think of any pieces to the degree of specificity that you're looking for, but Elliott Carter's First Symphony has that kind of general Americana about it (although for openness and wide-open spaces, the intervallic content of his Piano Sonata is more Coplandesque). The Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas is more inspired by Stravinsky and Varèse, but his work is also imbued (to my ears) with a tinge of what you might be looking for. And, while I'm not an expert in the work of Virgil Thomson, he was absolutely _crucial_ in the development of that sound. David Diamond and (if you're in the mood for something spicier) Carl Ruggles have some elements of that sound as well.

[@brentmarquez4157]

@@ClassicalNerd Excellent - thank you for the recommendations - I'll investigate and explore these composers. I'm surprised there hasn't been a composer that really captures the American West (Copland to my ears comes closest, along with some pieces by Ives maybe) like for instance Mahler or perhaps Wagner and Strauss captured and evoked to at least a certain extent the Dolomites/Alps or how Sibelius captured the Nordic landscape of Finland where they lived and composed. Would love to find an equivalent American composer (outside of maybe Copland).

[@ClassicalNerd]

Not to be a self-promoter, but kzbin.info/www/bejne/fXq9gqKda6qfiJY

[@brentmarquez4157]

@@ClassicalNerd lol, well someone's gotta do it. Thanks for the link - I'll enjoy. just fyi and for full disclosure, I've been going up into the mountains in the west and getting drunk bringing a staff paper notepad with me to give it a shot... so you don't have to worry about any competition.

[@ClassicalNerd]

They're great for inspiration!

[@pawncube2050]

First :) I'm a simple man. I see classical nerd I click

[@richardbeaubian5157]

Are you serious about that Bob Hope incident?

[@ClassicalNerd]

My sources are listed in the description.

[@richardbeaubian5157]

Classical Nerd Thanks, I just thought that fact was really funny

[@milkygorilla3527]

5th

[@harrisonhouse4612]

Also now that I see your program you have used copywrighted materials from other sources without permission. Not OK.

[@ClassicalNerd]

According to 17 U.S.C. § 107, "the fair use of a copyrighted work ... for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching ... scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright."