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Harrison (Lou) Papers: Notebooks
MS.132.Ser. 2
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Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Lou Harrison Papers: Notebooks
Creator:
Harrison, Lou, 1917-2003
Identifier/Call Number: MS.132.Ser. 2
Physical Description:
12 Linear Feet
16 document boxes
Date (inclusive): 1934-2004
Abstract: This collection contains the notebooks
kept by Lou Harrison over the course of his life.
Language of Material: Languages represented in the
collection: English, Esperanto, Spanish.
Collection is open for research.
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by the Lou Harrison Estate.
Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair
use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility of the user to
determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions. For more
information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy on Reproduction and Use.
Lou Harrison Papers: Notebooks. MS 132 ser.2. Special Collections and Archives, University
Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.
Gift from Lou Harrison 1991-2003.
Lou Harrison (1917-2003) is recognized especially for his percussion music, his work with
just intonation tuning systems, and his syntheses of Asian and Western musics. His
compositions have combined instruments from various cultures and utilized many of his own
construction. His style is marked by a notable melodicism: even his percussion and 12-note
works have a decidedly lyrical flavor.
Harrison spent his formative years in northern California, where his family settled in
1926. In 1935 he entered San Francisco State College (now University), and in his three
semesters there studied the horn and clarinet, took up the harpsichord and recorder, sang in
vocal ensembles and composed works for early instruments. In Spring 1935 he enrolled in
Henry Cowell's course "Music of the Peoples of the World" and began composition lessons with
Cowell, who proved one of the strongest influences in Harrison's life.
Harrison also collaborated with West Coast choreographers and in 1937 was engaged by Mills
College in Oakland, California as a dance accompanist. At Mills in 1939 and 1940, and in San
Francisco, Harrison and John Cage staged high-profile percussion concerts, for one of which
they jointly composed Double Music for Four Percussionists.
In August 1942 Harrison moved to Los Angeles, where he taught music to dancers at
University of California, Los Angeles and enrolled in Arnold Schoenberg's weekly composition
seminar. The following year he moved to New York. There he wrote over 300 reviews for the
New York Herald Tribune, premiered (as conductor) Ives's Third Symphony, and composed works
in a dissonant contrapuntal style. But New York life proved difficult and in 1947 Harrison
suffered a nervous breakdown that ultimately served as a catalyst for a change in his
compositional language. Following this traumatic event, Harrison turned more deliberately to
melodicism and pentatonicism, and embarked on studies of tuning systems. After a two-year
residency at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, he returned to the West Coast. In
1954 he settled in Aptos, California where he remained for the rest of his life.
Studies in Korea and Taiwan in 1961-62 and an intensive exploration of Indonesian gamelan
beginning in 1975 inspired Harrison to bring Asian influences into his musical style and to
write works combining Eastern and Western instruments. In 1967 Harrison met William Colvig
(1917-2000), an electrician and amateur musician who became his partner and collaborator in
instrument-building and tuning experiments. Together they built three instrument sets
evoking the gamelan. In his last years, Harrison returned more avidly to composing for
Western instruments. He wrote four symphonies, various concerti, and numerous chamber
works.
Throughout his life, Harrison articulated political views of multiculturalism, ecological
responsibility and pacifism in both writings and musical compositions. He and Colvig were
also active politically in the gay rights movement. In addition to his musical compositions
and prose writings, Harrison, a published poet and a painter, was renowned for his
calligraphic script, and even designed his own computer fonts.
Leta Miller
Scope and Content of Collection
Lou Harrison was a man with a continuously unrestrained flow of thoughts and ideas, poetry,
music, and intellectual observances. The "Notebook" series, consists of over 140 legers,
artist's pads, and journals spanning 1934 to 2003.
Harrison would often pick up a notebook begun decades earlier and make new entries or
revising and adding to existing ones. Drafts of letters and papers, musical composition
sketches, and socio/political observances find themselves side by side with architectural
designs, calligraphic decorations, and figure studies.
Lou was fond of using the term "Item" as a designation for a certain thought or observance
(as is particularly noted in the
Music Primer). Within the contents
description the user will encounter such references as "Item: on John Cage", "Item: A
further thought on Kirnberger's Well Temperament" or "Item: An Indian Tal. First
instructions for composing".
In 1951 Lou began musical and poetry sketches for
Songs in the Forest. It
wasn't until 1992 that he returned to this work and completed it. Gamelan notation is
relatively simple and compact compared to Western instrument scoring. Lou could pull out a
small notebook while traveling and sketch ideas and revisions with ease. The notebooks are
filled with such scores, some that were abandoned or remain incomplete.
Poetry was also Harrison's passion. Early letters to his mother speak of his conflict and
indecision to devote more time to poetry or music. The notebooks are filled with examples
from 1934 right up to 2003 when he completed his second book of poetry,
Poems and
Pieces
.
Initial processing by Charles Hanson; Final processing by M. Carey, completed March 2012.
EAD encoded finding aid by UCSC OAC Unit.
Finding aid revision statement
This finding aid was revised in the Reparative Archival Redescription Project. Previous
versions of this finding aid are available upon request.
- George Barati Papers
- Ernest T. Kretschmer Archive
- Sticky Wicket Scrapbook
- Lou Harrison Papers: Music Manuscripts
- Lou Harrison Papers: Correspondence
- Lou Harrison Papers: Personal Materials
- Lou Harrison Papers: Writings
- Lou Harrison Papers: Printed Appearances
- Lou Harrison Papers: Photos and Media
- Lou Harrison Papers: Artwork
- Lou Harrison Papers: Realia
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Composers -- United States
Dramatic music
Dance music
Motion picture music
Orchestral music
Vocal music
Ensembles (Musical compositions)
Percussion music
Gamelan music
Keyboard instrument music