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Home » Composers » Hovhaness, Alan (1911-2000 USA)

Hovhaness, Alan (1911-2000 USA)

Saturday, 17 September, 2005

Biography

Alan Hovhaness ranks among the most intriguing of figures in 20th century classical music. He was one of the most recorded and lauded American composers in the 1950 and 60s, and since the 1990s continues to enjoy something of a revival on CD. However, there is a dearth of serious scholarly commentary on Hovhaness despite a wealth of radical individuality in some phases of his six decades of creativity. This is somewhat surprising given that during the 1940s and 50s he was firmly entrenched within that maverick group of composers (others included Henry Cowell, Jonn Cage and Lou Harrison) who spearheaded one of the great shifts in twentieth century American music, namely that of looking to non-Western cultures for creative renewal in art music.

With little published reference material on Hovhaness, at a time when serious investigation is long overdue, this site seeks to reduce the informational ‘void’ on the man and his music.

No claim is made here that the composer’s 500-odd works constitute a canon of masterpieces (any more than do the hundreds of works by Martinu or Henry Cowell) but as Leonard Bernstein remarked in 1960, “Some of Hovhaness's music is very, very good”. Half a century on, most of those works are still a well-kept secret from audiences and performers alike. Musicologists are not aware of the composer's quasi-aleatoric innovations in the 1940s. Hovhaness’s best works stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those of America’s most lauded composers, and many are more original. This is not surprising given that Hovhaness was an outsider by temperament and choice, his artistic credo impermeable to musical fashion and his aesthetic intent often more in sympathy with the Orient than Occident.

Investigation of Hovhaness’s best music (1944 to c.1970) reveals a unique and thoroughly convincing assimilation of highly disparate traditions coming to the fore and receding over the course of his career (e.g. Renaissance polyphony, South Indian classical music, Japanese Gagaku music, Korean Ah-ak music). Of course, many 20th century composers flirted with such exotica, but in Hovhaness they find perhaps the most seamless alchemy of all because it was more than mere flirtation. It was a musical engagement on an aesthetic as well as technical level.

[This biography is copied from http://www.hovhaness.com/]

Works for Guitar

Op. 251
Khorhoort Nahadagats (Holy Mystery of the Martyrs) for oud (or lute or guitar) & string orchestra (or quartet). 1972. 45m Peer

Op 279
The Way of Jesus (oratorio) for soprano, tenor, bass, chorus (SATB), chorus (baritones in unison) & orchestra. 1975 c.86m-100m Peer
[Orch: 3222 4331 timp perc(4) hp guitars(3) strings]

Op. 291
Suite for E flat alto saxophone & guitar. 1976. 6m Peer

Op. 300
Suite for flute & guitar. 1977 15m Fuji

Op. 316
Sonata 1 for guitar. 1978. 11m AB

Op. 321
Symphony 39 for guitar & orchestra. 1978. 30m Fuji [Orch: 3322 4331 timp perc (2) hp strings]

Op. 325
Concerto for guitar & orchestra. 1979. 30m Fuji [Orch: 3322 4331 timp perc(3) strings]

Op. 329
Sonata 2 for guitar. 1979. 8m AB

Op. 374
Spirit of Trees (sonata) for harp & guitar. 1983. 24m Ms

Op. 394
Concerto 2 for guitar & strings. 1985. 14m Ms

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