Lou Harrison: Music for Orchestra Ensemble & Gamelan

Fans will be ecstatic that these recordings return to the catalogue; newcomers will find a lot of attractive low-density music that always sounds beguiling and is easy to live with. — Gramophone Magazine, December 2010

Release Date: 27th Sep 2010
Catalogue No: NI25714
Label: Nimbus

Gramophone Magazine

December 2010

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Harrison, L: Seven Pastorales

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Brooklyn Philharmonic
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Harrison, L: New First Suite for Strings

Gamelan Si Betty
Brooklyn Philharmonic
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Harrison, L: Vestuint Silve (1994)

Gamelan Si Betty
Brooklyn Philharmonic
Dennis Russell Davies

Harrison, L: Gending Chelsea for Gamelan

Gamelan Si Betty
Brooklyn Philharmonic
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Harrison, L: Sanctus for Contralto and Piano

Gamelan Si Betty
Brooklyn Philharmonic
Dennis Russell Davies

Harrison, L: Suite from the ‘Marriage at the Eiffel Tower’

Gamelan Si Betty
Brooklyn Philharmonic
Dennis Russell Davies

Harrison, L: Philemon and Baukis

Gamelan Si Betty
Brooklyn Philharmonic
Dennis Russell Davies

Harrison, L: Cornish Lancaran

Gamelan Si Betty
Brooklyn Philharmonic
Dennis Russell Davies

Harrison, L: Gending Alexander

Gamelan Si Betty
Brooklyn Philharmonic
Dennis Russell Davies

Harrison, L: Homage to Pacifica

Gamelan Si Betty
Brooklyn Philharmonic
Dennis Russell Davies

Harrison, L: Bubaran Robert

Gamelan Si Betty
Brooklyn Philharmonic
Dennis Russell Davies

Harrison, L: Suite from the ballet ‘Solstice’

Gamelan Si Betty
Brooklyn Philharmonic
Dennis Russell Davies

Harrison, L: Ariadne (1987)

Gamelan Si Betty
Brooklyn Philharmonic
Dennis Russell Davies

Harrison, L: A Summerfield Set for solo piano

Gamelan Si Betty
Brooklyn Philharmonic
Dennis Russell Davies

Harrison, L: Canticle No. 3

Gamelan Si Betty
Brooklyn Philharmonic
Dennis Russell Davies

Harrison, L: Third Symphony

Commissioned by Cabrilio Music Festival, 1982
Gamelan Si Betty
Brooklyn Philharmonic
Dennis Russell Davies

Harrison, L: Grand Duo

Commissioned by Cabrilio Music Festival, 1988
Gamelan Si Betty
Brooklyn Philharmonic
Dennis Russell Davies

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About

Lou Harrison was born in Portland, Oregon in 1917. His musical style was shaped by the San Francisco of the 1930s. There he studied composition with Henry Cowell, and staged high profile percussion concerts with John Cage. He spent the year 1942-43 in Los Angeles where he studied with Arnold Schoenberg. In 1946, Harrison conducted the premiere of Ives's Third Symphony which he had edited from the manuscript score. The following year Ives was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for this work which he shared with Harrison.

During trips to Japan, Korea and Taiwan in 1961-62, he studied native instruments including the cheng and the p'iri. Back in California he enthusiastically presented concerts and lectures on Korean and Chinese music and experimented in his own works with hybrid instrumental ensembles. In 1975, Harrison began an intensive study of traditional Javanese gamelan techniques. He soon began to explore ideas of cross fertilization, adapting the concerto principle to the Indonesian orchestra by composing works for Western soloists accompanied by gamelan. Harrison died in Lafayette, Indiana, 2003, from a heart attack while on his way to a festival of his music at Ohio State University.

This 4 CD set brings together all the works recorded in the USA for the MusicMasters label during the early 1990s.

‘Harrison's compositions demonstrate a wild and willful variety of means and techniques … But in general Harrison is a melodist. Rhythm has a significant place in his work, though it is likely to be four-square. Counterpoint and harmony are unimportant’ Ned Rorem

Reviews

December 2010

Fans will be ecstatic that these recordings return to the catalogue; newcomers will find a lot of attractive low-density music that always sounds beguiling and is easy to live with.

Lou Harrison: Music for Orchestra Ensemble & Gamelan

4 CDs

Contents

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