Lou Harrison Papers: Music manuscripts

Charles Hanson, Marueen Carey
University of California, Santa Cruz
2005
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz 95064
speccoll@library.ucsc.edu


Contributing Institution: University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Lou Harrison Papers: Music manuscripts
Creator: Harrison, Lou, 1917-2003
Identifier/Call Number: MS.132.Ser. 1
Physical Description: 30 Linear Feet 35 flat boxes
Date (inclusive): 1927-2003
Abstract: Series 1: Music Manuscripts contains complete autograph music scores, sketches, revisions and fragments produced by Harrison during his seventy five years of writing music.
Language of Material: Languages represented in the collection: English, Latin, Esperanto.

Access

The collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

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.

Preferred Citation

Lou Harrison Music manuscripts. MS 132, ser.1. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Acquisition Information

Gift from Lou Harrison 1991-2003.

Biography

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

The Lou Harrison Music Manuscripts series consists of autograph music scores, sketches, and revisions. Organized in categories by genre according to the Grove's Music Dictionary, the entries include instrumentation, dates of composition, movement titles and premiere dates as well as cross references and notes. These details are provided by the Harrison works catalogue created by Leta Miller and Charles Hanson for the Miller/Lieberman book Lou Harrison: Composing a World (Oxford, 1998). In addition to his performed works, the collection includes numerous unfinished works, works in process, small "gift" pieces, and experimental sketches. There are transcriptions of traditional Asian pieces, musical examples from workshops, and experimental works using specified tones and tunings. These pieces, unpublished and not authorized for performance, are inventoried by description, such as, 7-tone equal temperament sketch, unfinished 3-tone song, Just Intonation sketches, but not by specific date or genre.
Pieces within each genre are listed chronologically by date of completion unless otherwise stated. Complete works later used as movements of larger works are listed separately because (1) they were complete compositions at the earlier date and remain as separate viable compositions on their own; and (2) new material was added when they were incorporated into the later composition.
The Music Manuscript collection contains over 113 complete representations of the variety and styles that the composer achieved in his 75 years of writing music. Included are the earliest juvenilia from age ten that Harrison himself said "are perfectly dreadful" as well as the percussion and dance compositions from the 1930's and 40's that are still considered signature pieces and as Lou also said " still hold the boards". Harrison continued composing until his last day of February 2, 2003. He was on his way to a festival of his music which included yet another revision of his Third Symphony. His final work, Scenes from Nek Chand, for American Steel Guitar , shows his faltering hand after decades of a beautiful calligraphic script and notation. In various stages of his life, Harrison's script changed dramatically and was to become one of the factors in helping to identify, and date, fragments and scores.
The Music Manuscript materials are filed in order of movements with entries indicating pages or folios, scores and sketches. Pages are numbered at the top right in parenthesis. Harrison is known for his continual revision process and his "mining" of earlier materials to incorporate in to new works. To that effect, the manuscripts in this collection were carefully studied, versions compared, and sketches identified so that the most complete picture of his compositional process could emerge. In extreme cases of cross-referenced manuscripts (such as the Political Primer where material ended up in the Elegiac and Third symphonies), all folios and sketches are retained in the original work with pencil indications where fragments and themes were extracted and to which work they were taken. In other instances of multiple revisions, such as the Fourth Symphony, bound published scores are included because they contain autograph revision sketches. In cases where entire movements are taken out and replaced (such as First Suite for Strings/New First Suite for Strings 1937, 1948, 1995), all materials extant can be directly identified in the cross-reference section of the notes. In the few instances where one of the "revisions" is simply an exchange of movement order, manuscript materials are listed in the original order so as to avoid confusion where numbering occurs. Where possible, program and performance notes, written by the composer, are included.
Harrison often used his preferred spellings of certain words as in Simfony in Freestyle , Labrynth, Short Set from Lazarus Laughed (or Set for 4 Haisho which was eventually reverted to Suite to avoid cultural confusion). He was an early proponent of the universal language Esperanto. Several of his works are titled in Esperanto and several vocal pieces are written to be sung or recited in this language. His Kon-certo por la violono kun perkuta orkestro ( Suite for Violin with Percussion Orchestra), Nova Odo ( New Ode), and La Koro Sutro (the Buddhist Heart Sutra , translated to Esperanto and sung to the accompaniment of an American gamelan) are examples of what the visitor to this collection might encounter.

Funding

Special Collections, with appreciation, has received funding to acquire and process the Lou Harrison Archive. The Rex Foundation and the Unbroken Chain, two foundations established by members of the Grateful Dead, generously contributed to the acquisition of Lou Harrison material for the Archive. Members of the Grateful Dead had a long association with Harrison, having performed together on several occasions at San Francisco Symphony programs, and they recognized the importance of Harrison's musical contributions. Without their support some of Harrison's essential manuscripts and recordings would not have been part of the Archive. Special Collections also acknowledges Richard Faggioli for his contributions towards the archiving and preservation of music at UCSC and for his continued interest shown to Special Collections' holdings. We are particularly grateful to the
Title: Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation
of New York for awarding a grant to Special Collections to support preparing the inventory and preserving Lou Harrison's music manuscripts. Delmas Foundation support has allowed for the construction of this detailed electronic finding aid of the music manuscript collection available through the Online Archive of California. We thank the Delmas Foundation for assisting us in making this special resource accessible to the public and for their continued efforts to support scholarly resource sharing beyond institutional boundaries.
We are particularly grateful to Charles Hanson, longtime personal archivist to Lou Harrison, who patiently identified the music manuscripts within the Archive and prepared the inventory provided in this Finding Aid.

Processing Information

Initial processing by Charles Hanson; Final processing by M. Carey, completed 2005. EAD encoded findng aid by UCSC OAC Unit, Final encoding by M. Carey. Note that many of the subseries descriptions are in Harrison's words.

Processing Information

This finding aid was revised in the Reparative Archival Redescription Project. Previous versions of this finding aid are available upon request.

Related Material

  1. George Barati Papers
  2. Ernest T. Kretschmer Archive

Related Collections

Additional information may be found in these related collections held by other repositories
  1. Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University
  2. San Jose State University School of Music & Dance
  3. Lou Harrison Archive at Mills College
  4. The John Cage Music Manuscript Collection, Henry Cowell Collection, New Music Society Archives, at the Music Division of the New York Public Library
  5. Northwestern University Music Library, Special Collections - John Cage Collection

Other Finding Aids

  1. Lou Harrison Notebooks
  2. Lou Harrison Papers: Correspondence

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
Harrison, Lou, 1917-2003

Box 1-8

1. Dramatic Works 1941-1996

Scope and Content Summary

25 titles. Lou Harrison Music Manuscripts are categorized by broad genre, with subdivisions, according to the Groves Music Dictionary and the Lou Harrison Catalogue of Works created by Leta Miller and Charles Hanson. Dramatic genre includes subseries Dance, Incidential and Film and Opera.
Box 1

1.1 Dance Scores 1941-1996

Scope and Content Summary

15 titles. Dramatic: Dance genre includes musical compositions for regulating the movements of a dance, or music composed in a dance rhythm - choregraphed music.
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Waterfront 1934

Physical Description: 4 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Percussion
Movements: Three "phases": speed-up, strike, Bloody Thursday
Date: ca. 1935-36
Premiere: Boxing ring, Longshoremen's Union headquarters, San Francisco, CA, date unclear; Second performance: May 17, 1936, Veterans' Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
Choregrapher: Carol Beals
Publisher: Partial manuscript score in composer's archives.
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Folio 4 pages. 1 page autograph sketches/score for Waterfront. 3 pages autograph score Sonata 4th (unpublished / not authorized for performance). 1934

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In Praise of Johnny Appleseed 1942

Physical Description: 33 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: 3 percussion (One percussion part includes wooden flute). Composer also approved performances with 4 or more players per part
Movements: (1) The Trumpets of Heaven (2) Seed (3) Coronation (4) The Battle with Bunyan (5) Fruition (6) Meeting with the Ancient of Days (7) Ode (8) Whoops for Johnny
Date: 1942
Premiere: May 7, 1942, Holloway Playhouse (Fairmont Hotel), San Francisco, CA: Lou Harrison, John Cage, and ensemble
Choregrapher: Carol Beals
Publisher: Warner Brothers
Length: Variable (see notes)
Notes: A kit in which the players may assemble phrases in any order with various amounts of repetition.
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13 pages, copy of original score from notebook. 1942

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20 pages autograph score. [Music notation and title page not in composer's hand. Performance notes in composer's hand].

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Gigue and Musette 1943

Physical Description: 4 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano
Date: 1943 (before move to New York City in summer)
Premiere: May 8, 1944, "Evenings on a Roof", Los Angeles, CA: Frances Mullen
Choregrapher: Melissa Blake
Publisher: Unpublished
Cross References: Orchestrated and used in Rhymes with Silver , Movement IIIa (1996)
Notes: Score has composer's autograph signature from later date indicating composition date as 1941.
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Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score.

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Changing Moment - Dance for Jean Erdman 1946

Physical Description: 10 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano
Date: February 13-15, 1946
Premiere: 1946, New York, NY (Jean Erdman, Helaine Blok, Elizabeth Sherbon, dancers)
Choregrapher: Jean Erdman
Publisher: Unpublished
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Folio, 6 pages. 3 pages autograph score.

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4 pages, photocopy of autograph score (different from above) with performance markings.

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Jephtha's Daughter (A Theatre Kit) 1941

Physical Description: 33 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Flutes, percussion, other optional instruments
Movements: Theater kit with dramatic readings, 3 melodies for flute, 4 rhythms for percussion, drones, theater realization
Dates: 1st version: February 26, 1941 (percussion, reader, dance); expanded kit: March 1963 (flute parts and other material added; see notes)
Premiere: March 9, 1963, Cabrillo College, Aptos, CA: David Johnson, music director
Choregrapher: Carol Beals
Publisher: Unpublished
Length: Variable
Notes: A kit in which the composer approves any combination of flute pieces, percussion pieces, drones, chords, colors, etc., interspersed with the dramatic readings. A wedding present for Carol Genieve and Jose Sevilla.
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Folio, 12 pages. 10 pages autograph score, 1941, with sparse additional notes. 1963

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8 pages autograph score with performance notes. ca. 1963

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13 pages autograph material: 1 pages color schema notes, 12 pages "Declamations". ca. 1963

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Solstice 1950

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

1 folio.
The ballet Solstice, composed for the dancer and choreographer Jean Erdman, depicts a myth conceived by Erdman herself relating to the sun and the rotation of the seasons. The work opens in the warmth of summer with the "sun lion" rendered by a luxurious sweeping melody played by flute and cello in octaves. Soon, however, the lord of the night enters in the form of a moon bull and a battle ensues between the principles of darkness and light. The sun lion, temporarily the victor, dances with five animal nymphs during the Earth's Invitation and, in his triumph over the bull, carries off the bride of spring in the Vernal Dance . In part 2, however, the moon bull returns and in his attempt to take the sun out of its season, throws the world into total darkness. He charges the throng of sun, bride, and nymphs in the frenzy of orgiastic Saturnalia, ushering in the darkest days, the winter solstice. The gear of falling into never-ending darkness now demands magical powers to regenerate the life giving sun. The flute appears alone in desolation, calling in a haunting incantation to rekindle the lost light. Slowly the wheel of the seasons turns as the lion and the bull turn to face each other. But instead of battle, the two forces join in a spiritual reconciliation, and the work concludes in the harmony of the blaze of day. Although Harrison calls for traditional instruments in this composition, they are at times used in non-traditional ways. The piano is prepared in advance by inserting tacks in the hammers, thus accentuating the instrument's percussive qualities. During the Entrance of the Moon Bull and the Earth's Invitation, the string bass player abandons his bow and instead beats the strings of his instrument below the bridge with sticks. Combining this effect with the tack piano (and at times with the celesta) Harrison is able to effectively imitate the sound of an Indonesian gamelan. Though an octet, Solstice often gives the impression of a much larger ensemble due in part to the strongly reinforced bass (the second cello frequently doubles the string bass in octaves).
Leta Miller
Instrumentation: Flutes, oboe, trumpet, 2 cellos, contrabasso, tack piano, celesta
Movements: (1) Garden of the Sun (2) Entrance of the Moon Bull (3) Battle (4) Earth's Invitation (5) Vernal Dance (6) Saturnalia (7) Rekindling of the Fire (8) Turning of the Wheel (9) Blaze of Day
Date: Begun 1949, Composition completed: before January 22, 1950
Premiere: January 22, 1950, Hunter Playhouse, New York, NY: Erdman dance troupe
Choregrapher: Jean Erdman
Publisher: Peer, 1978
Length: 27 minutes
Recording: CD: MusM 60241X: Dennis Russell Davies, conductor
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Copy of original score (not in composer's hand) Movements II-IX only. Score has autograph movement titles and music notation additions in composer's hand.

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Movement II Lord of the Night: pg. 1-11 [accordion fold]

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Movement III Battle: pg. 1-6

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Movement IV Earth's Invitation: pg. 1-2

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Movement V Vernal Dance: pg. 1-10

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Movement VI Saturnalia: pg. 1-6

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Movement VII Rekindling of the Fire: pg. 1

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Movement VIII The Rolling of the Wheel: pg. 1-8

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Movement IX Finale, Blaze of Day: pg. 1-9 [accordion fold]

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Prometheus and Io 1951

Physical Description: 24 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano (revised version for chamber ensemble with vocal parts)
Movements: (I) Tableau; (II) Dance of Anxiety; (III) Lament; (IV) Response; (V) Dance of Defiance.
Date: 1951; revised 1985 (vocal parts added)
Premiere: July 9, 1951, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO: David Tudor. Revised version: September 7, 1985, Athens, Greece
Choregrapher: Jean Erdman
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
Notes: Score originally titled Prometheus Bound . Vocal parts are variable in performance
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8 pages autograph score. ca. 1951

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5 pages copy of autograph score (different from above) with autograph pencil additions ca. 1985 (Movements I-IV only). ca. 1951

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5 pages autograph piano score. ca. 1985

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7 pages autograph, vocal settings. ca. 1985

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3 pages typed vocal and choral parts with autograph notes (Movements II-V only).

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Western Dance 1947

Physical Description: 4 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: (a) Piano (b) flute, bassoon, trumpet, piano, violin, cello
Date: Fall 1947
Premiere: December 14, 1947, Hunter College, New York, NY
Choregrapher: Merce Cunningham
Publisher: (a) Only: Unpublished
Length: 4 minutes
Note: Dance title: The Open Road
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4 pages autograph score in ink. 1947

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Tandy's Tango 1992

Physical Description: 7 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Tandy's Tango was composed for use by the delightful dancer Tandy Beal. I had always wanted to write a tango, and when she told me that she was choreographing a sizable number of pieces for the Pickle Family Circus, I took the opportunity to compose this piece for her. It comes from my subconscious memories of the slinky kind of tango sometimes seen in the movies of the 1920s and 1930s. Those were the days in which couples danced in one-another's arms, learned formal dance-steps, could recognize music to dance to by their metrics and melodies and, of course, preceded the days when people simply stood and wiggled at one another.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Piano
Date: June 1992
Premiere: November 27, 1992
Choregrapher: Tandy Beal
Publisher: Various Leaves: A Collection of Brief Works for Piano by Contemporary American Composers (Fallen Leaf Press, Berkeley, 1992)
Length: 3.5 minutes
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2 pages autograph score.

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1 page autograph sketches.

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4 pages computer printed score with notes and admonishments by composer.

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Rhymes with Silver 1996

Physical Description: 71 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Rhymes with Silver was commissioned by Mark Morris and premiered in 1996 with Yo-Yo Ma. Mark had already choreographed several of my works, including Grand Duo and Homage to Pacifica and this request was for a piece specifically for his company, his musical ensemble and for the virtuosity of cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Mark is a trained musician, which was very important to me in the writing of this work. It allowed me to feel the music kinetically, as he does, and also allowed me to use rhythmic shapes with confidence in Mark's musical expertise. In that respect, I had quite a bit of structure within which to work as well as the fact that Mark tours with a set musical ensemble (violin, viola, cello, piano, and percussion). All of the material in the twelve movements that make up the piece is new, though I did borrow the Gigue and Musette from 1943. I recall that this piece was written during my Los Angeles period, when I was studying with Arnold Schoenberg, and that he liked the piece. In Honor of Prince Kantemir is dedicated to a Romanian prince who maintained a palace in Istanbul. Himself a composer, he had an immense enthusiasm for Ottoman music, and was the first to write a major theoretical work about it, which is still in use. Several of the other movements, for instance Romantic Waltz, Fox-trot, and Round Dance, were written specifically for Mark's musicality and knowledge of these forms and rhythms. The "Allegro" utilizes a particular method which I absorbed from Henry Cowell in the late 1930s. During Henry's San Quentin imprisonment he wrote elastic forms for Martha Graham and was commissioned by Marion Van Tuyl of Mills College, California for an adjustable piece, which I then assembled appropriately to Miss Van Tuyl's choreography. Another example of a kit, as these flexible performance scores in which elements can be rearranged at the pleasure of the performer's are called, is Ariadne, for flute and percussion, written for my friend Eva Soltes. Indian music generally is based on the relation's between a fixed rhythmic scheme and a melodic flow. The Turkish "Usul" is again a fixed rhythmic scheme, but unlike the Indian "Tal" which is varied in such way as to thicken the plot, the Turkish "Usul" is an invariant rhythmic, pattern which, as it were, sustains the melody as pillars of the piece.
Lou Harrison
In Rhymes with Silver there are two kits--- Allegro and Five tone Kit, in the recording of which the realization of each is by Mark himself.
Instrumentation: Violin, viola, cello, piano, percussion
Movements: (1) Prelude (2) Allegro (3) Scherzo (4) Ductia (5) Gigue and Musette (6) Chromatic Rhapsody (7) Romantic Waltz (8) Fox Trot (9) Threnody (10) In Honor of Prince Kantemir (11) 5-Tone Kit (12) Round Dance
Date: November 1996. Movement 3b: 12-95 completed December 1995
Premiere: March 6, 1997, Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley, CA: Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Choreographer: Mark Morris
Publisher: Peer
Length: ca. 22 minutes
Cross references: Movement V arrangment of Gigue and Musette (1942-43)
Note: For Mark Morris and Yo-Yo Ma.
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Movement I, Prelude: 1 page autograph score, pencil. 1 page autograph sketches.

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Movement II, Allegro: 4 pages autograph score/schema, ink. 2 pages autograph sketches.

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Movement III, Scherzo: 1 page autograph score, pencil. 1 page autograph sketches.

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Movement IV, Ductia: 5 pages autograph score, pencil.

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Movement V, Gigue and Musette: 5 pages autograph score, pencil; 2 pages photocopy of autograph score of Gigue and Musette for piano with autograph sketches for version for Rhymes with Silver.

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Movement VI, Chromatic Rhapsody: 3 pages autograph score, pencil; 2 pages autograph sketches.

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Movement VII, Romantic Waltz: 3 pages autograph score, ink. 3 pages autograph sketches.

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Movement VIII, Fox Trot: 4 pages autograph score, pencil. 1 page autograph sketches.

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Movement IX, Threnody: 4 pages autograph score, pencil.

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Movement X, In Honor of Prince Kantimir: 6 pages autograph score, pencil; 2 pages autograph revised measures for insert; 3 pages revised.

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Movement XI, 5 - Tone Kit: 1 page autograph score/schema, pencil. 1 page autograph sketches.

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Movement XII, Round-Dance: 8 pages autograph score, pencil; 2 pages autograph sketches.

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Autograph score: 4 pages photocopy with slight autograph revision notes.

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Sketches: 3 pages unidentified sketches

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1 page fax from Margaret Fisher with autograph music notation by composer

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Adjustable Chorale for Katherine Litz 1951

Physical Description: 16 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Music used for Chorales for Spring, Black Mountain College, November 29, 1951.
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Small 4 page folio. 2 pages autograph score for Chorale. 2 pages autograph sketches, signed Lou Harrison, BMK [Black Mountain College], 1951

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Photocopies of Lou Harrison autograph scores from the Litz Collection, New York Public Library: 1951

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Adjustable Chorale: 1 page (different from above). 1951

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Chorale for Spring: 1 page. 1951

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Little Gamelon for Katherine Litz to teach with: 1 page. 1951

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The Glyph: 5 pages. 1951

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A Thought on the anniversary of Katherine Litz & Charles Oscar, July 26, 1951 : 1 page with small autograph notation by composer ca. 1996. 1951

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Note to Juilan [Teck] with birthday piece to Garrick: 1 page undated

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Praises for Hummingbirds and Hawks (aka Suite for Small Orchestra) 1952

Physical Description: 21 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Chamber orchestra
Movements: Set of 5 pieces
Date: 1952
Premiere: April 23, 1952, Brooklyn High School for Homemaking, Brooklyn Music School for Dancers series: students of South Broughton (information from Harris, Arts at Brooklyn Music College?)
Choregrapher: Shirley Broughton
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript. Not authorized for performance.
Notes: Commentary by Broughton. Also known as Suite for Small Orchestra
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Autograph score with autograph sketches in pencil: 2 pages blueprint copy

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First Praises for the Beauty of Rivers: 3 pages

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Praises for the Beauty of Hummingbirds: 7 pages; 1 page autograph short score

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Little Circus: 2 pages

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2nd Trio - Hawks: 5 pages

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Second Praises for the Beauty of Rivers: 1 page

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1 page autograph short score Praises for the Beauty of Hawks .

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New Moon 1986

Physical Description: 44 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Some years ago my friend Eric Hawkins asked for a new work for choreography for his company. He had already done beautiful solo choreography to some of my already composed pieces, and he was an old friend whom I had much admired. I began a work for him and composed a set of movements for the curious and interesting orchestra which the company maintains. This is not a "pickup" orchestra in each city but rather a company orchestra that travels with the group. An exchange of letters and thoughts and tryouts in his studio in New York produced changes, omissions, and one completely new movement before the work was completed. It has turned out that this ballet of Eric's in later years has been acclaimed as a masterpiece, and I am proud and moved that my music is part of his work.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Flute, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, violin, contrabasso, percussion
Movements: (1) Alabado: largo (2) Usul: moderato (3) Bright call: slow but free (4) Barcarole (5) Stampede: molto allegro (6) Epilogue
Date: Begun: May 1986. Movements I, II, III, Movement V completed June 16, 1986; Movement VI completed September 5, 1986. Movement IV completed before November 1989 (replacement for rejected movement from 1986)
Premiere: November 28, 1989, Joyce Theater, New York, NY: Hawkins Dance Company
Choregrapher: Erick Hawkins
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 22.5 minutes
Cross Reference: Rejected fourth movement ( Song) used as basis for Fourth Symphony, Movement I (1990)
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Movement I-VI - 20 pages autograph score w/replaced Movement IV (Barcarole)

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Movement I, Alabado: 2 pages autograph sketches.

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Movement II, Usul: 2 pages autograph sketches; 1 page autograph revisions.

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Movement III, Bright Call: 1 page with autograph revisions.

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Movement IV, (Song): 13 pages autograph score of rejected Movement IV (Song)

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Movement V, Stampede: 1 page autograph version of "drum pattern".

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Movement VI, Epilogue: 1 page with autograph revisions.

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1 page, fragment of unidentified sketch.

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1 page, autograph introductory notes before Movement IV replacement.

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1 page, photocopy of letter from composer to choreographer.

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Ariadne 1987

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

1 notebook. Ariadne was composed in 1987 for my friend Eva Soltes to choreograph. Her long background in Barata Natayam dancing suggested to me a modal and "talic" work which I then composed in the form of a "kit" for flute and a percussionist. This may be "assembled" in a number of ways so that the dancer, or the musicians, or both, may order the work to their heart's desires.
The first performance was given by Eva (with flutist David Colvig and percussionist William Winant) at Mills College on the night of my seventieth birthday. A suggestion towards an interesting variety that I have heard... in the first movement the alto flute was used in the low section with the vibes low part. In the "triumph" a sizable section was played on the alto or bass, then a sizable section on the usual flute, and finally a brilliant and extended ending on the piccolo. The effect of these changes was quite wonderful.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Flute, 1 percission (plus dancer)
Movements: (1) Ariadne Abandoned (2) The Triumph of Ariadne and Dionysos
Date: March 30, 1987
Premiere: May 14, 1987, Mills College, Oakland, CA: William Winant, percussion, David Colvig, flute, Eva Soltes, dancer.
Choregrapher: Eva Soltes (Barata-natyam dance)
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: variable (approximately 9 minutes or longer)
Notes: Movement II is a musical kit: flute and percussion lines may be played in any order or any combination.
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See Series 2 Notebooks: Notebook no. 33.

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The Perilous Chapel 1948-1949

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

1 notebook. The Perilous Chapel was composed by Lou Harrison in 1948 as a ballet for Jean Erdman. Exploring the struggles of the subconscious, the work pits the force of anarchy against the power - the ultimate triumph - of the divine. Although the ballet comprises six movements, the concert version sounds as three large sections, since Movements I and II and Movements III to V are to be played without break. The sixth movement, in itself a third the length the composition, stands alone, exemplifying, in Harrison's words "a dance on the floor of heaven". The entire work may be viewed as an emotional arch, beginning an ending in tranquil serenity. The forces of evil, portrayed in the barbaric dance of Movement III, reach the height of their power in the middle of Movement V, a musical representation of chaos. The dramatic close of this section is then abruptly countermanded by the heavenly transfiguration of the final Alleluia.
According to Harrison, the instrumentation of The Perilous Chapel was inspired by Persian miniatures; the title draws from the works of William Blake. A tetrachordal motive pervades the composition, found in the accompanimental figures of Movement I and V, in the repeated ground bass motive of Movement VI, as part of the melodic figuration of Movement I, and, with octave displacement, in the flute line of Movement III.
Leta Miller, 1989
Instrumentation: Flute, cello, harp, 1 percussion
Movements: (1) Prelude: andante (2) Poco maestoso (3) Barbaro (4) Brilliante (5) Energico (6) Alleluia: Poco adagio
Date: 1948-49; revised 1989
Premiere: January 23, 1949, Hunter Playhouse, New York, NY: Erdman Dance Group
Choregrapher: Jean Erdman
Publisher: Peer, 1990
Length: 13 minutes
Cross Reference:
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See Series 2 Notebooks: Notebook no.21 - Schirmer's Manuscript Music Book, 24 pages.

General

Note: This notebook contains only sparse sketches of The Perilous Chapel. It also includes the first autograph score of Homage to Milhaud for piano.
Box 2

1.2 Incidental Music 1994

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

5 titles. Dramatic: Incidental music is music played as an accompaniment or 'background' to a play, film, or other performance or entertainment.
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Marriage at the Eiffel Tower 1949

Physical Description: 56 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

In 1921 Jean Cocteau composed the text and designed the decor for a Swedish ballet presentation of his The Marriage at the Eiffel Tower. A ballet with words, the work caused a scandal at once. The music was composed by members of "Les Six" (The Six Composers). Roughly 36 years ago, Bonnie Bird and John Cage presented the ballet at the Cornish School in Seattle. At John Cage's request, a group of U.S. composers composed another group-score for the work. In 1949, at the summer session of Reed College in Portland, Oregon, Bonnie Bird again produced The Marriage at the Eiffel Tower , and for that occasion I composed what is, I believe the only complete score for the ballet which is written by one person. Be that as it may, in 1961 I made a suite from the music and scored it for light orchestra on the occasion of the Santa Cruz Symphony's participation in a new art festival. The Wedding at the Eiffel Tower was a full ballet with a surrealist text spoken by two men on either side of the stage. It contains many narratives and curiosities.... among them that the camera of the wedding's photographer doesn't function properly....things come out of it instead of going in to make an image. Of the stories, I've retained only the one about the death of the general.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: (a) Chamber ensemble (flute, clarinet, trumpet, violin, cello, contrabasso, piano, 1 percussion)
Movements: Suite: (1) Overture; (2) Manager and Photographer (before Wedding March); (3) Wedding March; (4) Waltz; (5) Speech by the General; (6) Trouville Bathing Beauty; (7) Funeral of the General; (8) Quadrille.
Date: Summer 1949
Premiere: Chamber ensemble: July 29, 1949, Reed College, Portland, OR, Harrison, conductor
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
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Movement I, Overture: Two 4 page folio's comprising 4 pages autograph score.

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Movement III, Wedding March: Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score with orchestration markings in pencil ca. 1961. Additional 4 page folio with 1 page partial score. ca. 1949

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Movement VII, Funeral of the General: 2 pages autograph sketches and short score.

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Movement VIII, Quadrille: Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score with orchestration markings in pencil. ca. 1961

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"Art Dealer's Music": 1 page autograph score for piano.

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Parts:

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Piano: 6 pages. 5 pages autograph score for Movements I, II, IV, VI, VII, VIII.

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Flute: Folio, 4 pages, 2 pages autograph score for Movements I, VII, VIII.

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Clarinet: Folio, 4 pages, 3 pages autograph score for Movements I, III, VII, VIII.

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Trumpet: Folio, 4 pages, 3 pages autograph score for Movements I, III, V, VII, VIII.

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Viola/Violin: 1 page autograph score for Movements VII, VIII.

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Violoncello: Folio, 4 pages, 3 pages autograph score for Movements I, III, IV, VII, VIII.

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Contrabass: Folio, 4 pages, 3 pages autograph score for Movements I, III, VII, VIII.

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Snare Drum: 1 page autograph score for Movement V.

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Additional material: These materials are the 1961 orchestration of the 1949 work. The sketch of a "Valentine Polka" does not come from this work.

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3 pages - Script for Speakers 1 & 2

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27 pages autograph score, parts

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1 page autograph sketch "Valentine Polka" not part of "Eiffel Tower"

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The Only Jealousy of Emer 1949

Physical Description: 10 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Flute, cello, contrabass, tack piano, celesta
Movements: Incidential music for drama: (1) Music for the Unfolding of the Cloth (2) Eithne Inguba (3) Emer's story; the Evil of Bricriu (4) Emer's Incantation; the Woman of the Sidhe (5) Music for the Folding of the Cloth.
Date: Summer 1949
Premiere: July 29, 1949, Reed College, Portland, OR
Choregrapher: Bonnie Bird
Text: William Bulter Yeats, Four Plays for Dancers
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
Length: 28.5 minutes includes spoken text
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10 pages autograph score on red lined paper, in titled folio

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Unrelated autograph sketches located in back of folio: Ingula's entrance. Music for the unfolding of the cloth; Andante. Through entrance of Eithne Inguba; Emer's Story; The Evil of Bricriu; Emer's Incantation; The Woman of the Sidhe; Sketches for the Woman of the Sidhe; Music for the folding of the cloth

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Incidental Music for Cinna 1955-1956

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

33 pages, 1 folio (46 pages) Instrumentation: Tack piano
Movements: (1) Medium fast (2) Slow (3) Fast (4) Medium slow (5) Medium: grand
Date: 1955-56
Premiere: August 4, 1968: Old Spaghetti Factory, San Francisco, CA: Donald Pippin
Text: Pierre Corneille
Publisher: Xenharmonikon v.3:1 (Spring 1976); Music of the United States of America, v.8, editor Leta Miller
Length: 12 minutes
Notes: Revised title, 1976: Suite for Tack Piano . Sequence of pieces to be performed as prelude, conclusion, and between the acts of Corneille's play. For Henry Allen Moe and the Guggenheim Foundation.
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Movement I: Folio: 8 pages. 6 pages autograph score including title page and tuning schema.

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Movement II: 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score.

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Movement III: Folio, 6 pages. 5 pages autograph score and sketches.

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Movement IV: Folio, 4 pages. 1 page autograph score.

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Movement V: Folio, 6 pages. 3 pages autograph score.

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Folio, 46 pages. 40 pages autograph sketches and notes.

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Autograph score: 12 pages in ink ca. 1976

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Tuning schema: 1 page ca. 1976

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Payatamus - The Rainbow Boy and the Corn Maiden 1975

Physical Description: 29 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Vocal soloists, unisex choir, recorder, flute, viola, harp, percussion
Movements: (1) Prelude and Chant (2) Rainbow Boy's Entrance (3) Drought Music (4) Dance (5) Rainbow Boy's Grief (6) Rain Dance
Dates: ca. 1975-79
Text: Elsa Gidlow
Publisher: Unpublished
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Autograph score: 12 pages.

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Autograph sketches: 10 pages.

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Autograph notes & directions: 2 pages

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Printed libretto: 2 pages photocopy; 3 pages galley proof w/corrections.

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Lazarus Laughed 1994

Physical Description: 45 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Flute, oboe, trombone, harp, percussion, strings
Movements: Incidental music for radio broadcast of Eugene O'Neill's play
Date: 1994
Premiere: Downlinked to PBS in Winter 1995 for Spring broadcasts on public radio stations. Produced and directed by Erik Bauersfeld and Edward Hastings.
Text: Eugene O'Neill
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Scores

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Act I: 8 pages autograph score; Opening phrase, music for recorded tracks, Musicalized Laugh, 1st Dance, 2nd Dance, Choruses

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Act II: 13 pages autograph score; Opening phrase, music for strings, Caligula's Dance, March, Musicalized Laugh, Choruses

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Act III: 6 pages autograph score; Opening phrase, Miriam, Crucified Lion, Caligula's Dance

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Act IV: 4 pages autograph score, Opening phrase, Musicalized Laugh, Clangor, Final Ascent

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Additional Materials

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Complete printed script with autograph notes and sketches by Harrison. Includes 11 small papers pieces from each player's score with instrument in composer's calligraphic writing in separate envelope.

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Computer generated score and parts for March in Movement II

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Caligula's Punic War Song: 2 pages autograph sketches and score

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Whole play harp "cut-offs" and "Horn calls": 2 pages autograph score

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Act I: 5 pages autograph sketches, Opening phrase and Dances

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Act II: 3 pages autograph sketches, March, Caligula's Dance, Mariam (from Scene III, IV)

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Act III: 7 pages autograph/copy of autograph, sketches; Opening phrase, Caligula's Dance, Mariam

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Act IV: 3 pages autograph/copy of autograph, sketches; Opening phrase

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Percussion schema: 1 page autograph phrases

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General melodies for each act: 1 page autograph sketches

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Additional sketches: 3 pages autograph including names of players

Box 3:1

1.3 Film Scores 1968-1987

Scope and Contents

3 titles
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Nuptiae - Wedding Song from Nuptiae 1968

Physical Description: 15 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: 2 part chorus, Filippine kulintang
Movements: Music for film
Date: November 27, 1968
Premiere: May 20-22, 1969
Filmmaker: James Broughton
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
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Autograph score: 5 pages

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Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score, rough draft, including title page

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2 pages autograph score of "Chant Version", rough draft

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1 page autograph score of "Chant Version", final copy

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Sketches: 3 pages

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Time sheets: 3 pages

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Discovering the Art of Korea 1979

Physical Description: 20 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Variety of East Asian instruments, harp, bells, miscellaneous percussion.
Movements: Set of movements for film
Date: 1979
Filmmaker: David Myers
Publisher: Unpublished
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18 pages autograph sketches and fragments for various instruments.

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2 pages autograph sketches, Celadon music, Buddha music.

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Air from the Scattered Remains of James Broughton - Air for the Poet 1987

Physical Description: 64 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

I met the poet and filmmaker James Broughton in the 1940's after one of my percussion concerts. Many years later James asked me to write for his film The Scattered Remains of James Broughton. The film was created by James himself and his friend Joel Singer.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: (a) Metallophone, drum (b) solo instrument with 2 ostinati (c) orchestra
Movements: Music for film
Date: Autumn 1987
Filmmaker: James Broughton and Joel Singer, The Scattered Remains of James Broughton
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 3.5 minutes
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Versions (a) and (b); 3 pages photocopy and autograph score with pasted over revisions. 3 pages photocopy with autograph sketches toward version (c).

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Version (c) 24 pages autograph score.

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Version (c) photocopy of autograph score with pencil markings.

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Version (c) Parts (34 pages total)

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Flute: 4 pgs

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Percussion I, II: 6 pgs

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Marimba: 2 pgs

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Vibraphone: 2 pgs

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Piano: 2 pgs

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Harp: 2 pgs

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Violin I: 4 pgs

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Violin II: 4 pgs

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Viole: 4 pgs

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Violincello & contrabassoon: 4 pgs

Box 4-8

1.4 Opera 1941-1996

Scope and Content Summary

3 titles. Dramatic: Opera is a dramatic musical work in which singing forms an essential part, chiefly consisting of recitatives, arias, and choruses, with orchestral accompaniment.
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Rapunzel 1952

Physical Description: 1 folder

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note: "I tore this up one night in '53, along with a painting by Joseph Fiore. Remy Charlip helped me piece together Joe's painting & then he approved it."
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Orchestra, full autograph score, torn up and taped back together [some pieces of pages missing 5/18/2012].

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Scene: 6 pgs autograph score

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Row Chart for Rapunzel: 1 pg autograph

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"A Fiftieth Birthday Canon for Stefan Wolfe": 2 pages autograph score

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Title Page: 1 pg autograph

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Act I: 9 pgs autograph score, pg. 7 has loose parts, some missing

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Act II: 13 pgs autograph score

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Act III "From the tower": 7 pgs autograph score

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Act III "In the Tower in the evening": 24 pgs autograph score

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Act IV "Nocturne": 3 pgs autograph score

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Act V "Morning in the wood": 7 pgs autograph score

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Act VI "Afterwards in the palace": 15 pgs autograph score

Box 5-7

Young Caesar [Puppet version] 1970

Physical Description: 3 boxes

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

This Opera is based on actual events in the early life of Julius Caesar, who became a Roman statesman and one of the greatest military commanders in world History. Part I takes place in Italy, starting in c. 86 B.C. Part II is set in Bithynia, an ancient country of northwestern Asia (now Turkey). Bithynia was an independent kingdom for two-and-one-half centuries, from the death of Alexander the Great until 74 B.C., when King Nicomedes willed it to Rome. Young Caesar has fourteen scenes, seven in each part.
Instrumentation: (a) 5 instrumentalists playing a variety of Asian, European instruments, including American Gamalan; 5 puppeteers, 5 singers; (b) arranged for orchestra (flute, oboe, trumpet, organ, harp, tack piano, 5 percussionists, strings) by Kerry Lewis
Movements: Opera (2 acts, 14 scenes)
Date: Begun 1970; completed October 1971; (b) November 1977
Premiere: (a) November 5, 1971, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (premiere of entire opera; excerpts performed prior to this date)
Text: Robert Gordon
Publisher: Peer (both versions)
Length: 2 hours
Cross Reference: Revised and made into standard opera version with chorus added, 1988. See listing in 1988
Note: Commissioned for Encounters (Pasadena, CA) by the Judith S. Thomas Foundation.
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Part I "Beginning of Young Caesar": 1 page autograph score; Scene I(a), Scene I(b) "Prelude" and "Prelude II": 3 pages autograph score; Scene I(c) "Introduction": 1 page autograph score.

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Scene I(d) "Overture" for five players: 3 pages autograph score; Scene I(d) "Overture" for seven players: 7 pages autograph score; Scene I(d) "Overture": 4 pages autograph sketches

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Scene I(e); Libretto, "To the Atrium, Exit All": 17 pages autograph score; 2 pages autograph sketches.

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Scene II "Prelude": 10 pages autograph score, includes 4 pages Scene II "Music for Shadow Scene of Pisa" and the "Funeral", voice and instruments; Scene II : 7 pages autograph sketches.

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Scene II "Procession": 5 pages autograph score.

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Scene III, "Noon on the Campus Martius">: 10 pages autograph score.

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Scene IIII, "Overture". Scene IIII(a), "Narrator", Scene IIII(b) "Cossutia's Despair": 11 pages copy of autograph score; 3 pages autograph sketches.

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Scene V, Libretto and Lullaby: 5 pages autograph score; 1 page autograph sketches.

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Scene VI: 10 pages autograph score with revision markings in red; 16 pages autograph score, revised; 3 pages autograph sketches.

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Scene VII pt.II: 33 pages autograph score; 3 pages autograph sketches.

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Part II, "Overture for five players": 4 pages autograph score; Scene III, "Second Overture for seven players", used in Episodes from Young Caesar : 4 pages autograph score.

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Scene VIII with "Procession": 10 pages autograph score.

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Scene IX with "Palace Music": 7 pages autograph score; 2 pages autograph sketches.

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Scene X with "Whirling Dance" and "Acrobat": 10 pages autograph score; Scene X & XI: 7 pages autograph sketches.

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Scene X, "Eroticon": 9 pages autograph score; 1 page autograph sketch.

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Scene XI Vocal sheets and instrument sheet: 10 pages autograph score; Scene X & XI: 3 pages autograph sketches.

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Scene XII, with "Procession": 12 pages autograph score; 5 pages autograph sketches.

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Scene XIII: 29 pages autograph score; 16 pages autograph sketches/score.

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Scene XIIII: 13 pages autograph score; 2 pages autograph sketches.

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"At the Monument to Archytas": 19 pages autograph score.

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Sketches, general: 29 pages autograph sketches; Unidentified score: pgs.2-11 only - 10 pages autograph score.

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Narration scripts - Alvin Johnson, Narrator, Robert Gordon, Libretto - Johnson - 19 pgs w/correctons; 38 pages w/some changes; Gordon: 23 pages copy of narration w/additions, corrections.

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Ephemera: List of puppets for Young Caesar; captions; misc. notes.

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Programs: Performances at Cal Tech, Pasadena, CA, 1971; Cabrillo College, Aptos, 1971; Portland, Oregon, 1988 1971, 1988

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Reviews. 1971-1990

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Technical sketches by William Colvig.

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Drawings by Harrison.

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Scene designs by Harrison.

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Rick Young sketches - costume & set designs.

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Photographs [18]

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Notebook #3 Harrison: 4 pages autograph sketches

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Episodes from Young Caesar by Lou Harrison

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Movement I, "First Overture": 5 pages autograph score by Kerry Lewis.

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Movement II, "Procession": 6 pages autograph score by Kerry Lewis.

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Movement IV, "Second Overture": 5 pages autograph score by Kerry Lewis (incomplete).

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Sketches: 8 pages, autograph & copies

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Der Junge Caesar: 2 Librettos translated into German for a proposed production which did not occur; Scene XIII: German Translations.

Box 8

Young Caesar [standard Opera version] 1988

Physical Description: 1 box

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

This Opera is based on actual events in the early life of Julius Caesar, who became a Roman statesman and one of the greatest military commanders in world History. Part I takes place in Italy, starting in c. 86 B.C. Part II is set in Bithynia, an ancient country of northwestern Asia (now Turkey). Bithynia was an independent kingdom for two-and-one-half centuries, from the death of Alexander the Great until 74 B.C., when King Nicomedes willed it to Rome. Young Caesar has fourteen scenes, seven in each part.
Instrumentation: Male and female soloists, male chorus, chamber orchestra (flute, oboe, trumpet, organ, harp, tack piano, 5 percussionists, strings)
Movements: 14 scenes
Date: 1988
Premiere: April 9-10, 1988, Portland, OR: Portland Gay Men's Chorus, Virtuosi della Rosa, Robert Hughes, conducting.
Text: Robert Gordon
Publisher: Peer
Length: 2 hours
Cross Reference: Based on 1970 Puppet version
Box 8:1

Autograph score: 198 pages

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Spiral bound score of Part I: 86 pages with additions and corrections with autograph further revision notes.

Box 8:3

Scene I, "Exit All": 9 pages, copy of score with autograph addition of chorus.

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Scene II and Scene II: "Prelude": 16 pages autograph score; 11 pages final revisions

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Scene III "Julia's Aria": 2 pages autograph short-score; 2 pages sketches

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Scene V "Lullaby" & "Duet": 9 pages

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Scene VII Final Revisions: 2 pages

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Scene VIII "Processions": 7 pages copy with autograph addition of chorus.

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Scene IX "Caesar's 1st Aria": 4 pages autograph sketches, 2 pages autograph short-score; 2 pages final revisions - not yet performed.

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Scene IX "Caesar's 2nd Aria": 2 pages autograph short-score; 2 pages sketches; 3 pages final revisions - not yet performed.

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Scene IX "Caesar's Aria": 1 page autograph sketch; 1 page lyric; 2 pages autograph short-score; 4 pages photocopy of autograph full score; 3 pages final revisions - not yet performed.

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Scene XI "Nicomedes' Aria": 1 page autograph sketch. 1 page lyric. 2 pages autograph short-score. 4 pages photocopy of autograph full score, final revisions - not yet performed.

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Scene XIII "Nicomedes' Aria": 2 pages autograph short score: 4 pages sketches, final revisions - not yet performed.

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Scene XIV "Sailor's Chorus": 1 page sketch (pencil) ; 6 pages autograph score (pencil) ; 19 pages score w/corrections, additions (ink); 12 pages final revisions.

Box 9-18

2. Orchestral 1942-1997

Scope and Content Summary

25 titles. Orchestral works are listed by Full Orchestra (Symphonic orchestra), Chamber Orchestra (small orchestra), and String Orchestra.
Box 9:1-7

Elegiac Symphony 1942

Physical Description: 1 box

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Harrison had already begun work on his Elegiac Symphony [in 1945], but it would be another quarter-century before he finished it. The first sketch for the symphony is dated October 11, 1942, but it was not completed until 1975. It is dedicated to the memory of the longtime conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky, and his wife Natalie. Harrison credits another great conductor (who was also associated with the Boston Symphony Orchestra), Pierre Monteux, with encouraging the creation of movements two and five. There is a strong spiritual impulse to Harrison's music. The five movements of the Elegiac Symphony are titled " Tears of the Angel Israfel", " Allegro, poco presto", "Tears of the Angel Israfel II", "Praises for Michael the Archangel", and " The Sweetness of Epicuros". "The large orchestra includes two harps, a piano, and a tack piano", Harrison has written. " Serge Koussevitzky was a brilliant virtuoso on the contrabass viola, and that fact is reflected in my writing for two solo contrabassi in the third movement (the second of the "Tears of the Angel Israfel") only on harmonics; they play a mode first noted down by Claudius Ptolemy in third-century Alexandria.
"The angel of music, Israfel ('whose heartstrings are a lute' - Edgar Allan Poe ) stands with his feet in the earth and his head in the sun," Harrison further has written. "He will blow the last trumpet. Six times daily he looks down into hell and is so convulsed with grief that his tears would inundate the earth if Allah did not stop their flow. For three years he ministered to Mohammed before Gabriel took this office, although Israfel in nowhere mentioned in the Koran". Harrison has added two particularly poignant epigrams: Epicuros said of death: "Where Death is. we are not; therefore, Death is nothing to us"; and, perhaps even more revealing, from Horace: "Bitter sorrows will grow milder with music"
Here is beautiful music - straightforward, deeply felt, expertly made yet far removed from deliberate cleverness, serene, affirmative, even holy.
Tim Page - CD: Music Masters 6020 4K American Composers Orchestra: Dennis Russell Davies, conductor
Instrumentation: Orchestra (3-3-3-3; 4-3-3-1; timpani-3 percussion-piano-tack piano-2 harps-organ-celesta-vibrafone; strings)
Movements: (1) Tears of the Angel Israfel (2) Allegro, poco presto (3) Tears of the Angel Israfel 2 (4) Praises for Michael the Archangel (5) The Sweetness of Epicurus
Date: Movement I begun 1958; Movements II, V, begun 1942; Movement IV, 1946-47. See Cross Reference: Symphony completed November 15, 1975; revised 1988
Premiere: December 7, 1975, Paramount Theater, Oakland, CA: Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, Denis de Coteau, conductor
Publisher: Peer, 1977, 1988
Length: 33.5 minutes
Cross References: Movement I: revised version of overtures II or III from the Political Primer (1958). Movement II: revised version of Canticle #6, Movement I (1942). Movement IV: revised and orchestrated for organ work with same name (1947). Movement V: revised version of Canticle #6, Movement II, Passacaglia; 1942
Notes: Commissioned by Koussevitzky Foundation. To the memory of Natalie and Serge Koussevitzky.
box-folder 9:1

Movement I, Tears for the Angel Israfel:

box-folder 9:1

11 pages, photocopy of autograph score of original version before revisions. [See also manuscript materials in Political Primer ]

box-folder 9:2

Movement II, Allegro poco presto:

 

16 pages copy of autograph score

box-folder 9:2

Movement I, "Allegro", from Canticle #6 - Folio, 4 pages piano sketches.

box-folder 9:2

Folio, 4 pages. 1 page autograph sketches of Allegro from Canticle #6 , with 3 pages unrelated material including fragment from Suite for Cello and Piano , Movement II

box-folder 9:2

Folio, 20 pages autograph full score of Allegro from Canticle #6

box-folder 9:2

Movement II, Elegiac Symphony - 1 page autograph score. First 5 measures.

box-folder 9:3

Movement III, Tears for the Angel Israfel (2):

box-folder 9:3

16 pages copy of autograph score, original version before revisions

box-folder 9:3

15 pages photocopy of autograph score, original version with autograph revision markings

box-folder 9:3

12 pages copy of autograph revised score

box-folder 9:3

Movement III of Elegiac Symphony - 1 page tuning schema for contra bassi

box-folder 9:3

Movement III, Elegiac Symphony - 1 page autograph partial score/sketch, with letter to Gibson Walters on reverse

box-folder 9:3

Movement III, Elegiac Symphony - 1 page short score

box-folder 9:4

Movement IV, Praises for Michael the Archangel:

box-folder 9:4

22 pages blueprint copy of autograph. Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph sketches for organ version of Praises for Michael the Archangel

box-folder 9:4

1 page unidentified sketches

box-folder 9:4

Movement IV, Elegiac Symphony - 1 page autograph score. Opening measures

box-folder 9:4

Movement IV, Elegiac Symphony - 1 page blueprint copy of page 4. Revision markings in red pencil

box-folder 9:5-6

Movement V, The Sweetness of Epicuros:

box-folder 9:5

14 pages blueprint copy of autograph score

box-folder 9:5

Folio, 16 pages. 15 pages autograph full score of Passacaglia (Movement II) from Canticle #6

box-folder 9:6

Folio, 32 pages including piano score of Rondo, Movement III of Canticle #6. Autograph full score of Rondo, Movement III of Canticle #6. Title page of Canticle #6 and performance notes

box-folder 9:6

1 partial page tuning schema for "Bells for Elegiac Symphony"

box-folder 9:6

1 page tuning schema for contra bassi in Movement III of Elegiac Symphony

box-folder 9:6

1 page autograph score. First 5 measures of Movement II, Elegiac Symphony

box-folder 9:6

1 page autograph partial score/sketch of Movement III, Elegiac Symphony , with letter to Gibson Walters on reverse

box-folder 9:6

1 page short score of Movement III, Elegiac Symphony

box-folder 9:6

1 page autograph score. Opening measures of Movement IV, Elegiac Symphony

box-folder 9:6

1 page blueprint copy of page 4, Movement IV, Elegiac Symphony . Revision markings in red pencil

box-folder 9:7

Spiral bound photostat copy of autograph score of Canticle #6 with revision notes in pencil

Box 10:1

Alleluia, Motet, Triphony, 1943-1945

Physical Description: 1 folder

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Includes autograph scores for: Alleluia for Small Orchestra, 1945 - pages 6-13; Motet for the Day of Ascension 1945 - pages 20-31.
 

Folio, 54 pages Manuscript music book. Autograph short-score. 8 pages autograph short-score:

Box 10:2

Alleluia for Small Orchestra 1945

Physical Description: 104 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Chamber orchestra (2 flutes, 2 oboes, clarinet, bass clarinet, 2 horns, harp, strings)
Date: Begun August 1943, completed January 1945
Premiere: May 8, 1951, McMillin Theater, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.: Manhattan School Chamber Orchestra, Harris Danziger, conductor
Publisher: New Music Quarterly, XXI/2, January 1948
Notes: Notebook also includes Motet for the Day of Ascension and Triphony
Box 10:2

Cardboard bound folio, 36 pages. 30 pages autograph score

Box 10:2

8 pages autograph short-score

Box 10:2

6 pages autograph parts

Box 10:2

New Music Quarterly, XXI:2 1948

Box 10:3

Motet for the Day of Ascension 1945

Physical Description: pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Chamber orchestra (4 violins, 2 cellos, contrabass, harp)
Date: Begun February 1945, completed May 16, 1945
Premiere: April 5, 1946, New York, NY, Little Symphony: Lou Harrison, conductor
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
Notes: Notebook also includes Alleluia and Triphony
Box 10:3

Folio, 12 pages autograph score with revision markings and notes

Box 10:3

Folio, 8 pages. 1 page title and 2 pages autograph revisions marked "Revisions I" and "Revisions II"

Box 10:3

Seven 4 page folios with autograph parts

Box 10:4

Symphony on G 1947-1964

Physical Description: 137 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

The title itself (on G, not in G) refers to the fact that the whole work, though serially composed with twelve tones, is nonetheless centered on the note G. In the first three movements the technique is classical 12-tone procedure, but in the Finale I have ignored the forbiddance concerning octave-conjunction, and have written freely in the "grand-manner". This Finale was composed especially for Gerhard Samuel, whose interest in the work brought the symphony to its present state, and to whom it is dedicated. Beginning in 1948 (during recovery from a breakdown) I worked on various sections of it, off and on, until 1954. Later, Robert Hughes brought me together with Maestro Samuel who then premiered the Symphony in its first state - with the old Finale - at the Cabrillo Music Festival in 1964. Although it was well received, I was nevertheless dissatisfied with the full shape of the piece, and, when the conductor wished to program it for his regular Oakland Symphony season in 1966, I took advantage of the occasion to make a new, and final Finale. Thus, the second "premiere" was the first full one. The Scherzo "section" is actually a whole little Suite, in four movements - Waltzes, Polka, Air, and Rondeau - an idea that is already incipient in the classical Minuet with Trio, or Scherzo and Trio. Here I have simply expanded it a bit, and in the Rondeau, made a piece for only a trio of Piano, Tack-Piano, and Harp, which, as it were, stands as a kind of "cadenza" for the whole Symphony, just before the Finale. The Allegro Deciso, Largo, and the Finale are according to common symphonic practice. One 12-tone Row was used throughout, and instrumentation is for medium forces, without bassoons or tubas but including both piano and the tack piano.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Orchestra (2-3-3-0; 2-2-2-0; timpani-percussion-piano-tack piano-2 harps; strings)
Movements: (1) Allegro deciso (2) Largo (3) Scherzo (a. Waltz, b. Polka, c. Song, d. Rondeau) (4) Largo - Molto allegro, vigoroso, poco presto.
Date: 1947-64, revised 1966 (new finale). Movement I: short score, December 26, 1947. Parts of Movements II and III: Summer/Fall 1947. Movement IIIb: short score, October 9, 1953. Completed first version: 1964. New finale, 1966.
Premiere: August 23, 1964, Cabrillo Music Festival, Gerhard Samuel, conductor; Revised version, February 8, 1966: Oakland Symphony, G. Samuel, conductor.
Publisher: Peer, 1975
Length: 35 minutes
Cross References: Movement IIIc: short score completed 1947; revised in 1949 as Movement IV of Suite for Cello and Harp; revised and orchestrated for completion of symphony in 1964.
Notes: Movement IIIc for John Cage; Movement IIId for Jack Heliker; Movements IIIa-b for "Leona" and "Janet", patients at Presbyterian Hospital, New York, N.Y.
Box 10:4

1 page autograph row chart.

Box 10:4

2 pages. "Some Rows" row chart and sketches.

Box 10:4

Movement I: Folio, 24 pages. 14 pages autograph short score with some sketches and notes.

Box 10:4

Movement II: Folio, 14 pages. 8 pages autograph short score with sketches and revisions. 2 pages autograph sketches.

Box 10:4

Movement III a (Waltz). Folio, 10 pages. 6 pages autograph score with sketches and revisions.

Box 10:4

Movement III b ( Polka). Folio, 8 pages. 3 pages autograph short score with sketches and revisions.

Box 10:4

Movement III c ( Song). Folio, 6 pages. 2 pages autograph short score with sketches and revisions.

Box 10:4

Movement III d ( Rondeau). Folio, 6 pages. 3 pages autograph score with notes. 1 page autograph sketches. Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages sketches.

Box 10:4

Movement IV ( original before revised).Folio, 28 pages. 16 pages autograph short score with sketches. 1 page autograph sketches.

Box 10:4

Movement IV ( revised). Folio, 20 pages. 14 pages sketches for new Finale.

Box 11:1

First Suite for Strings 1948

Physical Description: 45 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: String orchestra
Movements: (1) Allegro moderato (2) Adagio cantabile (3) Molto moderato (4) Poco lento, affetuoso (5) Allegro
Date: 1946-48. Movement II: March - August 10, 1947; Movement III: May 14, 1946 (based on earlier works; see cross references). Rest of work begun 1947, completed 1948. Movement II revised 1991.
Premiere: May 21, 1948, National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, N.Y. (now the American Insitute and Academy of Arts and Letters)
Publisher: Peer, 1978 and 1991
Cross References: Movements I and II: incorporated without alteration into New First Suite (1995). Movement III based on a series of revisions as follows: Passacaglia completed 1937; revised version used in Canticle #2, Movement I (1942); heavily revised version, titled Ground for Strings: Version for two pianos, completed May 14, 1946; this Ground is a piano version of First Suite for Strings, Movement III. In New First Suite for Strings (1995), this movement is abandoned. Movement IV: expanded from 12mm to 47mm for New First Suite. Movement V: replaced by new movement in New First Suite.
Notes: Entire work supplanted by New First Suite for Strings (1995)
Box 11:1

Folio, 18 pages, Autograph score of Canticle #2. Movement I, pages 3-6, used in original Movement III.

Box 11:1

2 folios, 8 pages each. 12 pages autograph score for Ground for Strings version for 2 pianos.

Box 11:1

Folio, 12 pages. 5 pages autograph score of Movement I, Moderato.

Box 11:1

Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score of Movement II, Adagio.

Box 11:1

5 pages unidentified sketches.

Box 11:2

New First Suite for Strings [supplants First Suite For Strings , 1948, revised 1991, 1995 1991-1995

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

18 pages, 1 bound partial score. Although it had been played at a meeting of what is now the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and been made available by the publisher "Peer " I had never really been satisfied that the work was all that it could have been. About four years ago I revised the slow second movement and a performance in Portland persuaded me that I was on the right track. Back and forth over compositional time I went: the dance movement which is movement three reaches back to the Thirties for its main tune and is written in an interesting mode, the final chaconne reaches back to the early Fifties for its beginnings, the fourth movement finally received the intensification that it originally needed. The alternation of modal and chromatic composition was intended from the beginning and the use of counterpoint based for the most part on the second and the fourth does indeed allow melodies to go where they want to go, singly more often than not. Thus my reflections on Jenkins, Coperario, Frescobaldi, and other of the earlier baroque come to a modern concert version. My dedication of the work is to Mary Woods Bennett and is meant to express my thanks and admiration to her and also my thanks and admiration to Mills College which she so long and so well served.
Lou Harrison
New First Suite for Strings (1948; revised 1995)
Asked once how he knew when a composition was finished, Harrison responded, "When it stops itching." The First Suite for Strings, now finally completed to his satisfaction, itched for over a half century. It all began in 1937 with the composition of a Passacaglia for piano; five years later he revised the work and coupled it with a Ricercare on Bach's Name to form Canticle #2. Still dissatisfied with the Passacaglia in 1946, Harrison reworked it a third time into a Ground for Strings which became the third movement of his First Suite for Strings. Harrison "completed" his First Suite for Strings in 1947 and it was premiered at the National Institute of Arts and Letters in May 1948 when the organization awarded him a creative grant. The piece was published in 1978 and republished in 1991 (with alterations). Even then, however, the old Passacaglia - now in its third metamorphosis - still itched, as did several other movements. In 1995 Harrison revised the Suite one final time. In doing so, he threw out the old Passacaglia- Canticle #2- Ground for Strings as well as the finale from 1947 and replaced them by two new movements; he expanded the Lento fourth movement from 12 to 47 measures; and he graced the whole with a revised title. It seems that his itch has been satisfied - at least for the time being.
Leta Miller, 1997
Instrumentation: String orchestra
Movements: (1) Fantasia (2) Chorale (3) Round-Dance (4) Threnody (5) Chaconne
Date: Movements I, II: from First Suite for Strings , Movement III: completed February 12, 1995 on tune from the 1930s. Movement IV: revision of First Suite for Strings; Movement IV (expanded from 12 to 47 mm), November 17, 1994. Movement V completed ca. 1950, revised 1994.
Premiere: September 8, 1995, Majorca, Spain: Stuttgart Chamber Ensemble, Stuggart, Germany; Dennis Russell Davies, conductor
Publisher: Peer
Length: 16 minutes
Cross References: Revised version of First Suite for Strings (1948).
Notes: Dedicated to Mary Woods Bennett.
Box 11:2

Movement III, Round Dance, 6 pages autograph score.

Box 11:2

Movement IV, Threnody, 2 pages autograph score.

Box 11:2

Movement V, Chaconne, 4 pages autograph score.

Box 11:2

Folio, 6 pages. 4 pages autograph sketches of Movement V.

Box 11:2

Spiral bound computer printed partial score with autograph revisions and notes.

Box 11:3

Suite #2 for Strings 1948

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

8 pagers, 1 bound score. Instrumentation: String orchestra (string quartet approved by composer)
Movements: (1) Adagio, molto cantabile (2) Allegro moderato (3) Allegro moderato, tranquillo
Date: 1948
Premiere: March 15, 1949, McMillin Theatre, Columbia University, New York, NY: Orchestra of Greenwich House Music School
Publisher: Merrymount Music Press, 1949
Length: 10.5 minutes
Notes: Composed for Fritz Rikko's Greenwich House ensemble.
Box 11:3

Movement I. Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph sketches. 1 page autograph sketches.

Box 11:3

Movement III. Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph sketches.

Box 11:3

Spiral bound copy of autograph score signed by the composer in New York with pencil additions and revisions.

Box 11:4

Seven Pastorals for Chamber Orchestra 1949-1951

Physical Description: 42 pages
Box 11:4

Title page, Pastoral I, 4 pages, March 17, 1950

Box 11:4

Pastoral II, 1 page, October 4, 1949

Box 11:4

Pastoral III, 1 page (in folio only), August 1950

Box 11:4

Pastoral IV, 2 pages, March 13, 1950

Box 11:4

Pastoral V, 1 page sketches only, October 1951

Box 11:4

Pastoral VI, 2 pages autograph score, July 1, 1950

Box 11:4

Pastoral VII, 3 pages, August 1951

Box 11:4

2 pages autograph unknown sketches ca. 1949-1951

Box 11:4

26 pages folio Composers Facsimile Edition, "Suite, Number III (Pastorale) by Lou Harrison" [ Seven Pastorals] ca. 1950-1951

Box 11:5

Suite for Violin, Piano, and Small Orchestra 1951

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

In 1951, the wonderful Ajemian sisters, Anahid and Maro, commissioned my Suite for Violin, Piano, and Small Orchestra . It is an assembly from sketches and ideas that I was at that time most interested in. The choice of instruments in the orchestra reflects my wish to reveal and emphasize the sounds of the two soloists. The overture, aria, and chorale were worked from preliminary sketches that I made for a possible oratorio on a text by Charles Peguy. The two movements titled "Gamelan" reflect my long-time interest in the magnificent music of Indonesia. Interestingly enough, the mode used in the "first Gamelan" is derived from a mode charmingly used by Roy Harris in his Second String Quartet thus realizing a conjunction between the work of an older American composer and my own ravishment by Gamelan. The "second Gamelan" is a "tourist's - ear" impression of the Balinese Wayang Gender ensemble. The "Elegy" was inspired by the tiny, sometimes sad paintings of Paul Klee, but the contrasts between the mystic fields of France and the glamour and heat of Bali are the formal generating powers of the piece. Recordings of the work have been made under Leopold Stokowski and also Robert Hughes...the latter with Keith Jarrett and Lucy Holtzman.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Solo violin, solo piano, chamber orchestra (2 flutes, oboe, harp, tack piano, celesta, tam-tam, 2 cellos, 2 contrabass)
Movements: (1) Overture: Allegro poco maestoso (2) Elegy: Adagio (3) First Gamelan: Allegro (4) Aria: Lento espressivo (5) Second Gamelan: Allegro moderato (6) Chorale: Andante moderato
Date: 1951
Premiere: January 11, 1952, Carnegie Hall, New York, NY: Maro and Anahid Ajemian; Lou Harrison, conductor
Publisher: Associated Music Publishers, 1955; Peters 1985
Length: 18.5 minutes
Notes: Commissioned by Maro and Anahid Ajemian.
Box 11:5

1 page autograph sketches.

General

All contents missing 9/14/2014
box-folder 12:1-2

Suite no.2 for Strings, 1948 1968

Physical Description: folders

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: string orchestra (string quartet approved by composer)
Movements: (1) Adagio, molto cantabile (2) Allegro moderato (3) Allegro moderato, tranquillo
Dates: 1948, 1968
Publisher: Merrymount Music Press, 1949
Length: 10.5 minutes
Notes: Composed for Fritz Rikko's Greenwich House ensemble.
Box 12:1-2

Complete score done by Harrison, ca, 1968 in special edition for William Colvig. Accordian fold, autograph score (29 pages) w/board covers, presented in hand bound, cloth covered box. ca. 1968

Box 12:1-2

3 color photocopies of complete score done by Harrison ca, 1968, in special edition for William Colvig. ca. 1968

box-folder 13:1-2

Suite for Symphonic Strings 1960

Physical Description: 110 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: String orchestra
Movements: (1) Estampie (2) Chorale: "Et in Arcadia Ego" (3) Double Fugue, "In Honor of Heracles" (4) Ductia: "In Honor of Eros" (5) Lament (6) Canonic Variations: "In Honor of Apollo" (7) Little Fugue: "Viola's Reward" (8) Round: "In Honor of Hermes" (9) Nocturne
Dates: Movements I, IV, VI: 1960; Movements II, III, V, VII, VIII, IX revisions or arrangements of previous works (see cross references).
Premiere: October 18, 1961: University of Louisville Symphony, Louisville, KY; Robert Whitney, conductor.
Publisher: Peters, 1961
Cross References: Movement II: revised version of Chorale for Spring (1951; new middle section added); Movement III: revised version of Double Fugue (1936); Movement V: revised version of Triphony (1945) and Trio (1946); Movement VII: orchestration of Fugue for David Tudor (1952); Movement VIII: taken from Almanac of the Seasons (1950); Movement IX: revised version of Nocturne, Movement I (1951).
Notes: BMI 20th annual commission; for Carl Haverlin, president, BMI.
box-folder 13:1

Movement I.

box-folder 13:1

Movement II: 1 page autograph score of Chorale for Spring , 1951

 

1 page autograph sketches.

 

4 pages autograph score, ca. 1960

 

6 pages autograph parts, ca. 1960

box-folder 13:1

Movement III: Folio, 12 pages. 9 pages autograph score of Double Fugue , 1936, with revisions and orchestrations, ca. 1960

box-folder 13:1

Movement IV: 7 pages autograph score. 8 pages autograph parts. 8 pages, blueprint copy of autograph with autograph notes and tuning schema. Folio, 6 pages. Autograph sketches.

box-folder 13:1

Movement V: 5 pages autograph sketches on 8 pages. 1 page autograph score, end of movement.

box-folder 13:1

Movement VI: Folio, 18 pages. 10 pages autograph sketches.

box-folder 13:1

Movement VII: Folio. 10 pages. 8 pages autograph sketches and related material.

box-folder 13:1

Movement VIII:

box-folder 13:1

Movement IX: Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score of Nocturne for Victor Sprague . 2 Movements scored for tack-piano and harp. Movement I orchestrated for Suite for Symphonic Strings.

box-folder 13:1

Folio, 4 pages. 1 page score of Nocturne. 3 pages unrelated material.

box-folder 13:1

6 pages, partial parts, title page, autograph.

box-folder 13:2

Additional materials

 

Folio, 16 pages. 12 pages autograph sketches for various movements.

 

Folio, 16 pages. 13 pages autograph sketches. Unidentified but relating to Suite for Symphonic Strings.

box-folder 13:3

At the Tomb of Charles Ives 1963

Physical Description: 8 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Trombone, 2 psalteries, 2 dulcimers, 3 harp, tam-tam, 5 violins, voila, cello, contrabass.
Date: November 20, 1963
Premiere: July 23, 1970, Aspen Music Festival, Aspen, CO
Publisher: Xenharmonikon 1 #2 (Fall 1974); Peer 1978
Length: 4 minutes
Recordings: LP: Gramavision GR-7006, Brooklyn Philharmonic, L. Foss, conductor
Cross Reference: See Ser. 2 Notebooks: Notebook #24
Notes: Parts in "Free Style": tuning tape available from publisher. John Cage, Suite for Toy Piano: orchestrated by Harrison in 1963
See Notebook #24 also.
box-folder 13:3

7 pages blueprint copy of autograph score.

box-folder 13:3

1 page blueprint copy of performance notes.

box-folder 13:4

Suite for Toy Piano (John Cage, Suite for Toy Piano: orchestrated by Harrison in 1963) 1963

Physical Description: 26 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Score is copy of autograph score by John Cage with orchestration notes in pencil by Lou Harrison.
box-folder 13:4

Original published score, Henmar Press Inc. 1960

box-folder 13:4

1 page "Orchestra" orchestration notes, ca. 1960-1963

box-folder 13:4

25 pages photocopy of autograph by John Cage. ca. 1963

box-folder 13:5

Charles Ives, Christmas Music 1977

Physical Description: pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Notes: Arranged for chorus/orchestra by Lou Harrison 1977.
box-folder 13:5

Movement I, Adeste Fidelis. Folio, 14 pages. 7 pages autograph score.

 

2 pages photocopy of published Ives score with autograph orchestration notes in pencil by Harrison.

box-folder 13:5

Movement II, December. 2 pages autograph score.

box-folder 13:5

Movement III, A Christmas Carol. Folio, 6 pages autograph score.

 

1 page photocopy of published Ives score with autograph orchestration notes in pencil by Harrison.

Box 14:1-5

Third Symphony 1982

Physical Description: 5 folders

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

My Third Symphony was written for Dennis Russell Davies on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Cabrillo Music Festival. Since it was commissioned by the Festival it was clear that many of my friends had contributed to making it possible and therefore I expressed my hope that their various tastes would find at least something pleasurable. I also had continuously in mind Dennis's immense conducting powers and the goodness of his personality. Movement I is a simple A B A form because in composing it, it flatly refused to become a symphonic sonata shape, in a sense, the whole center section is the second thematic. Following the idea that I used in my Symphony on G, the scherzo section is a little suite consisting of a Reel in Honor of Henry Cowell and A Waltz for Evelyn Hinrichsen and an Estampie for Susan Summerfield . The Largo Ostinato which constitutes the 3rd movement was commenced in San Francisco in 1937 and reached its completion in 1982. This in keeping with my pretense that civilization may go on and therefore I might take time to try to make a good thing. The 4th movement has undergone two full revisions. I regard the writing of a symphony as, at least in some part, the creation of a world and one which to my mind needs the balance of humor, seriousness, and both drama and lyricism.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Orchestra (3-3-3-3; 4-3-3-1; celesta, tack piano, harp, percussion, strings)
Movements: (1) Allegro moderato (2) a. A Reel in Honor of Henry Cowell; b. A Waltz for Evelyn Hinrichsen; c. An Estampie for Susan Summerfield (3) Largo Ostinato (4) Allegro
Dates: August 9, 1982, revised 1985
Premiere: August 29, 1982: Cabrillo Music Festival, Aptos, CA: Dennis Russell Davies, conductor
Publisher: Peters, 1982
Length: 33 minutes
Cross References: Movement I: revised version of Overture 2 or 3 of the Political Primer (1958; manuscript sketches in composer's archives fail to clarify which movement). Movement IIa: revised and orchestrated version of Reel: Homage to Henry Cowell (1939). Movement IIb: orchestration of Waltz for Evelyn Hinrichsen (1977). Movement IIc: revised and orchestrated version of Estampie for Susan Summerfield (1981). Movement III: revised and orchestrated version of Largo Ostinato (1937, revised 1970). Movement IV: revised version of Overture 1 from Political Primer (1958).
Notes: Additional materials for this Symphony are included in the Political Primer files.
Box 14:1-5

Movement I, Allegro:

 

Folio, 16 pages. 13 pages autograph score.

 

1 page autograph sketches.

Box 14:1-5

Movement II:

 

(a) A Reel in Honor of Henry Cowell: Folio, 16 pages. 13 pages autograph score.

 

(b) A Waltz for Evelyn Hinrichsen: Folio, 6 pages. 4 pages autograph score.

 

(c) An Estampie for Susan Summerfield: Folio, 36 pages. 25 pages autograph score (in different hand from composer with corrected paste overs in composer's hand). 10 pages photocopy of original work for organ with orchestration markings (short-score).

Box 14:1-5

Movement III, Largo Ostinato:

 

Folio 8 pages. 6 pages autograph score.

 

4 pages blue-print copy autograph original work for piano, with autograph short-score in pencil. Folio, 6 pages. 3 pages autograph sketches.

 

1 page autograph score of final revisions, five new measures from measure 45.

 

1 page photocopy of autograph revisions with additions in pencil.

 

1 page autograph short-score measures 34-42 with initial movement references.

Box 14:1-5

Movement IV, Allegro:

 

36 pages autograph score, including paste-over revisions. 1 page autograph score: addition of two medium drums, measures 224-319.

 

Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score from an unfinished work, ca. 1953, that was absorbed into the Political Primer and then to the Third Symphony.

 

1 page autograph sketches/score: A Happy Journey to Jack Heliker on his third trip to Italy , absorbed into Movement IV of this Symphony.

 

3 pages autograph score of final revisions, measures 35-68.

Box 14:1-5

Additional materials

 

Published score, copy of autograph with notes and revisions in pencil and ink; composer's hand.

box-folder 15:1

Elegy, to the Memory of Calvin Simmons 1982

Physical Description: 4 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Calvin Simmons was the brilliant young conductor of the Oakland Symphony. In 1982 he died in a boating accident and I wrote this elegy as a tribute to him. Two days after its completion it was premiered at the Cabrillo Music Festival in Aptos CA , a two week summer festival highlighting contemporary music.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Oboe, celesta, vibraphone, harp, horn, gong, violin, viola, 2 cellos, contrabass
Date: August 22-24, 1982
Premiere: August 26, 1982: Cabrillo Music Festival, Aptos, CA
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 2.5 minutes
box-folder 15:1

Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score.

box-folder 15:1

Oboe - 1 part autograph score.

box-folder 15:1

Celestra, Gong - 1 part autograph score

box-folder 15:1

Vibraphone - 1 part autograph score

box-folder 15:1

Harp - 1 part autograph score

box-folder 15:1

Horn - 1 part autograph score

box-folder 15:1

Violin I - 1 part autograph score

box-folder 15:1

Viola - 1 part autograph score

box-folder 15:1

Violincello I - 1 part autograph score

box-folder 15:1

Vioncello II - 1 part autograph score

box-folder 15:1

Contrabass - 1 part autograph score

box-folder 15:2-7

Piano Concerto with Selected Orchestra 1983

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

6 folders, 89 pages. My Piano Concerto with Selected Orchestra is so called for the reason that it is composed in my favorite keyboard temperament -- Kirnberger's #2, and this meant that I wanted only to use such orchestral instruments as could correctly play the tones of this tuning. Thus I had to forgo the woodwinds and the valved brass. To my pleasure it turns out that the three slide trombones used, because of the majesty of their tones actually give a rich, full-orchestra sound to the ensemble, and indeed the reduced orchestra has made the piece accessible to community orchestras, at least to those which can gather a few extra percussion players. I composed the piece for Keith Jarrett and Dennis Russell Davies (who introduced the two of us) and who first introduced the work in Carnegie with the American composer's orchestra. The "well temperament" heard has on the white keys an almost perfect C major in just intonation (only the tone "a" is very slightly high) and then a whole lovely opalescence of intervals as one reaches out to more remote keys. I have exploited this range of tones in many ways throughout the piece. I am happy, too, that tuners, who nowadays are mostly condemned to watching electronic cues for tuning equal temperament, are even gathering pictures and comment in newspapers for tuning something more interesting. In the second movement I have made use of an "octave-bar" which will produce all of the tones of a full octave at once, while slightly emphasizing the octave interval. I have left the two-octave clusters to the forearm, as did Henry Cowell. In my second concerto for piano the keyboard is tuned to the tones of a full Javanese gamelan , both slendro and pelog sections . I doubt that I will write a piano concerto in equal temperament -- I'm not that fond of it. Keith Jarrett has recorded live this first concerto with Naoto Otomo and the new Japan Philharmonic.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Piano, orchestra (3 trombones, percussion, harp, strings)
Movements: (1) Allegro (2) Stampede: allegro (3) Largo (4) Allegro moderato
Date: Begun May 1983; completed July-August 1985 (Movement I: July 29; Movement II: July 13; Movement III: August 5; Movement IV: August 9)
Premiere: October 20, 1985, Carnegie Hall, New York, NY: Keith Jarrett, American Composers Orchestra, Dennis Russell Davies, conductor
Publisher: Peters, 1985
Length: 29.5 minutes
Cross References: Movement II: heavily revised version of Faust , Movement VIII (1985)
Notes: For Keith Jarrett. Commissioned by Betty Freeman. Piano in Kirnberger's #2 tuning.
box-folder 15:2

Front matter

box-folder 15:2

1 "Title page" autograph page, ink

box-folder 15:2

1 "Notes" autograph page, ink

box-folder 15:2

1 page autograph tuning ratios for Kirnberger #2

box-folder 15:3

Movement I

box-folder 15:3

Allegro: 34 pages autograph score, ink

box-folder 15:3

1 page autograph sketch

box-folder 15:4

Movement II

box-folder 15:5

Stampede: 39 pages autograph score, ink

box-folder 15:5

Sketch - Folio, 1 page autograph sketch.

box-folder 15:5

Movement III, Largo

box-folder 15:5

6 pages autograph score, ink.

box-folder 15:5

2 pages autograph sketches.

box-folder 15:5

2 pages photocopies of autograph sketch

box-folder 15:6

Movement IV, Allegro moderato: 9 pages autograph score, ink.

box-folder 15:7

1 page autograph sketch

box-folder 16:1-12; 17:1-8

Symphony No. 4 (Last Symphony) 1990

Physical Description: 12 folders

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Originally called Last Symphony my chronologically fourth was prepared for Dennis Russell Davies, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. As is very usual to me I found that I was right away wanting to change the piece. In the first place it needed paring down from fifty minutes and a number of other things. Having worked it over again for a performance at the Cabrillo Music Festival I was still restless about it and made more alterations for Basle and have, I hope, reached a final version. I regard a symphony as a kind of world---and it does take some time and thought to make a world. It also needs variety and inter-relationships among its parts. Here two of my movements are chromatic and intervallic and two of them are modal - both six-tone and five-tone. I have also written three Amerindian stories into the work, one of them especially written for me by Daniel Harry-Steward, who lives in Seattle and is of California Wintu ancestry.
As a matter of fact now the piece begins with a kind of "prelude" composed using Javanese methods but in European chromatic style and then moves to a vigorous "stampede" in a medieval European form, in two rarely used six-toned modes. The following slow movement is chromatic in European style, has a little melodic procession in it, and leans toward a resigned sort of ending. The last movement asks for a baritone to sing and rhythmically recite three Coyote Stories, thus bringing the whole symphony home to essential America.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Baritone (originally tenor), orchestra (3-3-3-3; 4-3-3-1; 4 percussion-tack piano-celesta; strings)
Movements: (1) Largo (2) Stampede: poco presto (offered to William Colvig) (3) Largo (4) Introduction "Coyote's Path" Story I; "Coyote's Path" Story II; "Coyote's Path"; Story III Finale
Date: August 31, 1990, revised 91, 93 and 95. Movement IV, orchestration and expansion of work from 1984 (see cross references).
Premiere: November 2, 1990, Brooklyn Academy Opera House: Brooklyn Philharmonic, New York, N.Y.; Dennis Russell Davies, conductor; Damon Evans, tenor
Text: Movement IV: stories 1 and 3: traditional American Indian tales (see listing for Coyote Stories, 1987); story 2: Daniel Harry-Steward
Publisher: Peer, 1993
Length: ca. 48 minutes
Cross References: Movement I: based on rejected fourth movement of New Moon (1986). Movement IV: outer parts of the movement are an orchestration of the Foreman's Song Tune (1984) with two of the Coyote Stories (1987); new middle section added with text by Harry-Steward.
Notes: Commissioned by Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra and Brooklyn Academy of Music. For Dennis Russell Davies. Movements II and IV previously reversed; listing here reflects latest version. Archive materials are organized by original placement of movements to avoid confusion.
box-folder 16:1

3 pages, autograph title page and performance notes

box-folder 16:2-4

Movement I, Largo:

box-folder 16:2

#2: 25 pages autograph score, revisions pasted over original version.

box-folder 16:3

#3: 6 pages copy of autograph/autograph revisions.

box-folder 16:4

#4: 12 pages photocopy over rejected Movement IV from New Moon with autograph revision markings for Fourth Symphony.

box-folder 16:5-7

Movement II, Coyote Stories:

box-folder 16:5

9 pages autograph score; introduction, Coyote's Path.

box-folder 16:6

3 pages autograph revisions. 4 pages autograph sketches.

box-folder 16:7

Story I:

box-folder 16:7

2 pages typed words with autograph music notation for tenor.

box-folder 16:7

Story II

box-folder 16:7

1 page typed words with autograph pitched music notation for tenor (original version).

box-folder 16:7

3 pages typed words with autograph sketches for rhythmic structure; non pitched.

box-folder 16:7

3 pages typed words with autograph rhythmic structure with percussion notation (final version).

box-folder 16:7

Story III:

box-folder 16:7

2 pages typed words with autograph music notation for tenor.

box-folder 16:7

2 pages typed words with autograph music notation for baritone.

box-folder 16:8-10

Movement III, Largo:

box-folder 16:8

7 pages autograph score with revisions pasted over original score.

box-folder 16:9

1 page autograph sketches; 6 pages autograph/photocopy with score/sketches with comment by composer.

box-folder 16:10

7 pages autograph score.

box-folder 16:11-12

Movement IV, Stampede

 

43 pages autograph score.

box-folder 16:12

11 pages autograph short score/sketches.

box-folder 17:1-8

Additional Materials

box-folder 17:1

First published score: Copy of autograph with autograph revisions.

box-folder 17:2

Copies of autograph score with revisions added.

box-folder 17:3

First engraved score with revisions added.

box-folder 17:4

Revised version of Movement I. 1992

box-folder 17:5

Engraved score with revised Movement I with autograph new revisions.

box-folder 17:6

Engraved score with autograph corrections and revisions.

box-folder 17:7

Engraved score with corrections and revisions added.

box-folder 17:8

Four Coyote Stories. 7 pages typed words with autograph music notation.

General

Originally added to The Foreman's Song Tune (1983) in March of 1987. Four Native American tales quoted from Bruce Walter Barton, The Tree at the Center of the World . Two of these tales, "People" and "Children yet to Come" are used in the Fourth Symphony. Story #2 in the Symphony is by Daniel Harry-Steward.
box-folder 18:1

A Parade for MTT (A Parade for Michael Tilson Thomas) 1995

Physical Description: 41 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

When Michael Tilson Thomas asked me to make a "fanfare" for him to open his season, he actually meant a kind of opener or festive beginning for his "reign" -- "Use anything you want" he said, "a boys choir, a gamelan, whatever, and of course, the San Francisco Symphony". Such largesse of means was a bit intimidating, but I finally summoned courage and committed a little tune. It did not want to be a fanfare but rather a parade march such as I had heard in my youth in San Francisco, splendidly stepping along with a "bell-lyra" group.
I somehow remember Chinese women playing the hip-borne bell-lyras long ago. This in turn led to a more singing passage and then my early hearing of Japanese Gagaku in San Francisco emerged. In short, I could see that my San Francisco memories were passing as a parade and so I celebrated that for Michael's arrival. I found that I needed my great oxygen-tank bells, my three "ranch triangles" a sweet bell-tree (gentorak), the very large Javanese gong that I myself built for Mills College and for which the artist Mark Bullwinkle provided the flange, and, of course, my accustomed "octave-cluster-bars" for the piano and celesta to make brilliance with. I hope that the timpanist will forgive me, but I can't really like the modern tympani, otherwise I think that I've written for the orchestra in a straight-forward way. I am grateful to the San Francisco Symphony for commissioning me and rejoice that it has had the wisdom to establish M.T.T. (Michael Tilson Thomas) in his wonderful brilliance, as music director.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Orchestra (4-4-4-4; 4-4-4-1; 4 or 5 percussion-celesta-piano-organ-harp; strings)
Premiere: September 6, 1995, Davies Hall, San Francisco, CA: San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor
Date: June 1, 1995
Publisher: Peer, 1995
Length: 6 minutes
Cross References: See also Ser.2 Notebooks: Notebook #26
Notes: Commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony.
box-folder 18:1

1 page copy of autograph title page.

box-folder 18:1

28 pages copy of autograph score with slight pencil additions by composer.

box-folder 18:1

12 pages copy of additional organ part.

Box 18:2

Concerto for P'i-p'a with String Orchestra 1997

Physical Description: 6 folders

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Having just completed a work for unaccompanied Japanese Sangen, I began my Concerto for Chinese P'i-p'a with String Orchestra by writing single tones chromatically. Something felt uncomfortable so I constructed a set of six-tone modes and asked Wu Man if they were okay on the p'i-p'a. She said that they were, so I designed their use in five movements, their home-tones falling on the open strings of the p'i-p'a plus on one more tone which is a good "key" also.
It was Dennis Russell Davies who asked me for such a work over a several year period, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Inc. who generously supported its composition. Therefore, the Concerto is dedicated to Dennis Russell Davies, Wu Man, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: P'i-p'a, string orchestra
Movements: (1) Allegro moderato (2) Bits and Pieces: a. Troika; b. Three Sharing; c. Wind and Plum, an Elegy for Liu Tien Hua; d. Neapolitan (3) Threnody to the Memory of Richard Locke (4) Estampie
Date: March 3, 1997
Premiere: April 26, 1997, Lincoln Center., New York, N.Y.: Wu Man and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Dennis Russell Davies, conductor
Publisher: Peer
Length: 27 minutes
Box 18:2

Movement I, Allegro:

 

7 pages autograph score, pencil.

Box 18:2

Movement II, Bits and Pieces:

 

(a) Troika; 3 pages autograph score, pencil.

 

(b) Three Sharing; 2 pages autograph score, pencil.

 

(c) Wind and Plum; 1 page autograph score, pencil.

 

(d) Neapolitan; 2 pages autograph score, pencil.

Box 18:2

Movement IV, Estampie: 11 pages autograph score, pencil

Box 18:2

Spiral bound music notebook. 14 pages autograph sketches and notes.

Box 18:2

5 inserted pages including sketch revisions, modes of the Concerto, obituary for Richard Locke.

Box 18:2

10 pages autograph sketches, large format paper.

box-folder 18:3

Charles Ives Transcriptions undated

Physical Description: 20 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Notes: Transcriptions from Charles Ives manuscripts made for Milton Feist.
 

Psalm 25 [XXV]. Folio, 16 pages. 14 pages autograph score.

 

Psalm 100 [C]. Folio, 4 pages autograph score.

Box 19-22

3. Vocal 1939-1992

Series Scope and Content Summary

24 titles. This series includes pieces written for voice and are listed by Choral (chorus or choir) and Solo Voice with a large variety of instrumental accompaniment.
box-folder 19:1

Mass to St. Anthony 1939-1952

Physical Description: 3 folders

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Chorus, trumpet, harp, string (original version; Chorus and percussion begun 1939 completed 2001)
Movements: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei
Dates: Begun September 1, 1939; completed March 12, 1952 (percussion for Kyrie and Gloria and all vocal parts completed 1939)
Premiere: January 24, 1954, Carl Fischer Hall, New York, N.Y.: Collegium Musicum and Cantata Singers, Fritz Rikko, conductor
Text: Catholic mass ordinary
Publisher: Peer, 1962 and 1974
Length: 25.5 minutes
Notes: Fromm Music Foundation Award, 1955
box-folder 19:1

Original composer's notebook. Folio, 34 pages. 30 pages autograph score and sketches, 1939

box-folder 19:1

Published score: Spiral bound, 35 pages, blueprint of autograph, ca. 1952

box-folder 19:1

Revised Kyrie: 8 pages autograph score, November 11, 2000

box-folder 19:1

Revised Gloria: 8 pages autograph score, January 6, 2001

box-folder 19:1

3 pages sketches, ca. 2000

box-folder 19:1

5 pages blueprint copy of "Chorus", ca. 2000

box-folder 19:2

Pied Beauty 1940

Physical Description: 5 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Baritone, cello, 1 percussion
Date: October 28, 1940
Premiere: October 6, 1963, Old Spaghetti Factory, San Francisco, CA: Robert Hughes et al
Text: Gerard Manley Hopkins
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 2.5 minutes
Notes: For William Brown (later Weaver).
Cross Reference:See Ser. 2 Notebooks: Notebook #213
box-folder 19:2

4 pages autograph score.

box-folder 19:2

1 page autograph part for flute.

box-folder 19:3

Sanctus 1940

Physical Description: 8 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Contralto, piano
Date: 1940
Premiere: November 14, 1940, San Francisco, CA., Museum of Art: Radiana Pazmor
Text: Catholic mass ordinary
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 5.5 minutes
box-folder 19:3

Folio, 8 pages. 7 pages autograph score including title page.

box-folder 19:4

May Rain 1941

Physical Description: 5 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

May Rain was written for my friend William Weaver to sing. The beautiful poem is one from a sequence titled From Alba Hill by the wonderful Elsa Gidlow. It first appeared in the very early thirties and currently is printed in her Sapphic Songs Seventeen to Seventy (Diana Press, 1976). The music was printed in the first issue of Peter Garland's Soundings.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Baritone, piano, percussion
Date: October 30, 1941
Premiere: February 17, 1963, Sticky Wicket, Aptos, CA.
Text: Elsa Gidlow, From Alba Hill #3
Publisher: Lou Harrison Reader; Soundings Press 1 (January 1972)
Length: 3 minutes
Notes: For William Weaver.
box-folder 19:4

Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score including title page, 1941

box-folder 19:4

1 page autograph score in from later date, ca. 1963

box-folder 19:5

Easter Cantata 1943

Physical Description: 74 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Solo contralto, SATB chorus, 2 trumpets, 2 trombone, glock, chimes, harp, strings.
Movements: (1) Sinfonia: (2) Aubade, Chorale en Rondeau; (3) Mary's Song at the Tomb; (4) Narrative (5) Alleluia.
Date: Begun Summer-Fall 1943; completed 1966.
Premiere: April 3, 1966, Hartnell College: Vahé Aslanian, conductor
Text: Paraphrase of Luke 24
Publisher: Frog Peak
Notes: Commissioned by Hartnell College Student Body Association.
box-folder 19:5

23 pages autograph score, ink. 2 pages autograph title page and movements.

box-folder 19:5

Parts

box-folder 19:5

"Chorus" - 7 pages

box-folder 19:5

"Trumpet I" - 3 pages

box-folder 19:5

"Trumpet II" - 3 pages

box-folder 19:5

"Trombone I" - 3 pages

box-folder 19:5

"Trombone II" - 3 pages

box-folder 19:5

"Glockenspiel" - 2 pages

box-folder 19:5

"Chimes" - 3 pages

box-folder 19:5

"Harp" - 4 pages

box-folder 19:5

"Violin I" - 6 pages

box-folder 19:5

"Violin II" - 5 pages

box-folder 19:5

"Viola" - 5 pages

box-folder 19:5

"Cello-Bass" - 5 pages

box-folder 19:6

Onward Christian Soldiers 1945

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Trumpet, organ, unison chorus
Date: ca. 1945
Premiere: United Methodist Church, Bronx, New York, N.Y., ca. 1945
Text: Protestant hymn
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
Notes: For Edward McGowan, minister, United Methodist Church, New York, N.Y.
box-folder 19:6

1 page autograph score.

box-folder 19:7

Fragment from Calamus 1946

Physical Description: 4 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Baritone, piano (originally baritone, string quartet)
Date: 1946
Text: Walt Whitman, Calamus #43
Publisher: Bomart 1950; A Lou Harrison Reader , Peter Garland, ed. (Santa Fe: Soundings Press, 1987).
Length: 1 minute
Cross References: Revised and orchestrated for Three Songs for Male Chorus , Movement II (1985)
box-folder 19:7

Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score including title page.

box-folder 19:8

Alma Redemptoris Mater 1949-1951

Physical Description: 7 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Baritone, violin, trombone, tack piano
Dates: Begun 1949; completed 1951, Black Mountain College, NC.
Premiere: May 20, 1962, Nepenthe, Big Sur, CA.
Text: Catholic liturgy
Publisher: Peer, 1962
Length: 1.5 minutes
box-folder 19:8

3 pages copy of autograph score, with sparse composer's notes.

box-folder 19:8

4 pages photocopy - 1 page text, 3 pages sketches

box-folder 19:9-10

Strict Songs 1950

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

4 folios, 58 pages. Instrumentation: (a) 8 bar (in 2-3 parts), chamber orchestra (2 trombones, pianp, harp, percussion, strings); male chorus approved by composer; (b) bar solo, SATB [Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass] chorus, chamber orchestra (1992)
Movements: Four untitled movements. Text beginnings: (1) Here is Holiness; (2) Here is Nourishment; (3) Here is Tenderness; (4) Here is Splendor.
Dates: Movement I begun 1951, completed 1955; Movement II: July 13, 1955; Movement III, undated (1955); Movement IV: June 1,1955
Premiere: Version (a) January 18, 1956, University of Louisville Orchestra, Lousiville, KY, Robert Whitney, conductor; version (b) November 20, 1992, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA
Publisher: Association of Music Publishers, 1956
Text: Joys and Perplexities: Selected Poems of Lou Harrison; Lou Harrison (Winston-Salem: Jargon Society, 1992), 34-35
Length: 19 minutes
Notes: Commissioned by University of Louisville Orchestra. Movement I: revision of "Gloria" from an unfinished mass (1951 - March 18,1954). Movement III dedicated to composer's father. Choreography by Mark Morris, 1987
box-folder 19:9-10

(1): Folio, 18 pages autograph score, sketches (manuscript originally for an unfinished "Gloria").

box-folder 19:9-10

(2): Folio, 4 pages, 3 pages autograph short-score with tuning schema. Three Folio's 4 pages each. 11 pages autograph sketches with some unrelated material.

box-folder 19:9-10

(3): Folio, 12 pages. 8 pages autograph short-score. Folio, 4 pages autograph sketches. 1 page sketches. Folio, 12 pages. 3 pages autograph tuning schema and bar sketches.

box-folder 19:9-10

(4): Folio, 4 pages autograph short-score. Folio, 6 pages. 4 pages autograph sketches.

box-folder 19:9-10

18 pages autograph and photocopy score for version (b) vocal parts.

box-folder 19:9-10

6 pages with 3 pages sketches.

box-folder 19:9-10

1 page, photocopy sketches.

box-folder 19:9-10

Included in materials is a complete but rejected autograph short-score for Movement II. Folio 12 pages. 8 pages autograph score and sketches.

box-folder 19:9-10

21 pages, complete autograph score.

box-folder 19:11

Holly and Ivy 1951-1962

Physical Description: 11 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

My song Holly and Ivy which is actually a Christmas carol, was composed on a text given to me at Reed College in 1948 or 1949. Unfortunately, I lost the original paper and have asked several poets who were at Reed College whether any one of them gave me the text. So far no one has said "yes". A composer is in danger who uses a poet's text without permission so I hope that someday the author will come forward to be recognized and I also hope that he will forgive me!
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Tenor, harp, 2 violins, cello, contrabass (or choral tenors and mezzo-sopranos, harp, string orchestra)
Dates: Begun 1951; completed 1962
Premiere: February 17, 1963: Sticky Wicket, Aptos, CA.
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 2 minutes
box-folder 19:11

6 pages autograph score, ca. 1962

box-folder 19:11

Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph partial score/study, ca. 1951

box-folder 19:11

1 page sketches, ca. 1951

box-folder 19:12

Vestiunt Silve 1951-1994

Physical Description: 17 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Mezzo soprano, flute, 2 violas, harp
Dates: Begun April 4, 1951, completed July 4, 1994
Premiere: August 18, 1994, Dartington International Summer School and Festival, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon, England
Text: "A Summer Song of Birds": Goliardic song from the Cambridge Songs Manuscripts, ca. 1050. See The Cambridge Songs, editor, Karl Breul (Cambridge University Press, 1915); for a translation see The Goliard Poets , translation George F Whicher, 1949.
Publisher: Music in the United States of America (MUSA), v.8 (Madison: A-R Editions, 1998)
Length: 4 minutes
Notes: For Wilfrid Mellers's 80th birthday.
box-folder 19:12

6 pages autograph score. ca. 1994

box-folder 19:12

Folio, 6 pages. 3 pages autograph sketches ca. 1994

box-folder 19:12

Folio 4 pages. 1 page autograph sketches ca. 1994

box-folder 19:12

1 page autograph sketches ca. 1951

box-folder 19:13

Peace Pieces 1953-1968

Physical Description: 32 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

This subseries includes 3 pieces written for peace.
box-folder 19:13

Peace Piece 1: Invocation for the Health of all Beings 1968

Physical Description: 18 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Unison chorus, chamber orchestra (trombone, 3 percussion, 2 harps, reed organ, strings)
Date: March 14, 1968
Premiere: April 7, 1968, First Unitarian Church, Berkeley, CA.
Text: Buddhist Metta Sutta
Publisher: Soundings Press (July-October 1972); A Lou Harrison Reader , ed. Peter Garland (Santa Fe: Soundings Press, 1987)
Length: 6 minutes
Notes: To the memory of Martin Luther King.
box-folder 19:13

17 pages autograph score including title page with notes.

box-folder 19:13

1 page autograph sketches

box-folder 19:13

Peace Piece 2: Passages 25 1968

Physical Description: 10 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Tenor, chamber orchestra (3 percussion, 2 harp, strings)
Dates: March 31, 1968
Premiere: April 7, 1968, First Unitarian Church, Berkeley, CA.
Text: Robert Duncan, Passages 25
Publisher: Soundings 3-4 (July-Oct 1972)
Length: 6.5 minutes
Box 19:13

9 pages autograph score including title page with notes.

box-folder 19:13

1 page autograph part for strings.

box-folder 19:13

Peace Piece 3: Little Song on the Atom Bomb 1953

Physical Description: 4 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Voice (alto or bartione), 2 violins, viola, harp
Dates: 1953, revised 1968
Premiere: August 17, 1968, Cabrillo Music Festival, Aptos, CA.
Text: Lou Harrison
Publisher: Soundings 3-4 (July-October 1972)
Length: 2 minutes
Notes: See also notebooks
box-folder 19:13

2 pages autograph score

box-folder 19:13

2 pages autograph parts for viola, harp

box-folder 20:1

Nak Yang Chun - Spring in Nak Yang [Joint composition with Lee Hye-Ku], 1961

Physical Description: 48 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Chorus, 3 flutes, 3 trombones, celesta, harp, piano, 2 percussion, strings
Dates: Late 1961
Text: Translation in Joys and Perplexities: Selected Poems of Lou Harrison ; Lou Harrison (Winston-Salem: Jargon Society, 1992), 99
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
Notes: Original Korean work from 960-1279 A.D.; Korean orchestra version survives from notation from the 18th century and later but original choral parts lost. Restoration of choral parts by Harrison and Lee Hye-Ku and arranged for orchestra of western instruments.
box-folder 20:1

10 pages autograph score, arranged for European instruments. Plus Blueprint copy, 10 pages autograph score arranged for European instruments.

box-folder 20:1

8 pages, additional autograph score, arranged for European instruments (in different hand).

box-folder 20:1

13 pages autograph parts for chorus and European instruments.

box-folder 20:1

6 pages autograph parts for Asian instruments.

box-folder 20:1

1 page autograph score for "Melody", "Bells", and "Pak"

box-folder 20:1

2 pages autograph score for Korean Orchestra with notes.

box-folder 20:1

Folio, 8 pages, 2 pages sketches.

box-folder 20:2

Nova Odo 1961-1968

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

54 pages, 2 folios. Instrumentation: Male chorus, reciting chorus, orchestra (3-3-3-3; 4-3-3; piano, tack piano, celesta, organ, harp, percussion [includes pak]; strings), 7 p'iris [alternative: English horn, saxophones, clarinets]
Movements: (1) quar=ca.144; (2) Largo, cantabile, solenel (3) quar=132-144
Dates: Parts 1-2 completed 1961-63; part 3: August 10, 1968
Premiere: Parts 1-2: read-through by Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Soeul, Korea, 1962. Completed work: August 17,1968, Cabrillo Music Festival, Aptos, CA.: Gerhard Samuel, conductor
Text: Lou Harrison, English and Esperanto, Joys and Perplexities: Selected Poems of Lou Harrison ; Lou Harrison (Winston-Salem: Jargon Society, 1992), 115-20
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 20.5 minutes
Notes: To Rockefeller Foundation For Composers' Workshop of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the San Francisco Symphony and Enrique Jorda.
The Prelude for P'iri and Reed Organ (1962) from this piece can be performed as an independent work.
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Movement I (Part 1): 16 pages autograph score.

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Movement II (Part 2): 21 pages autograph score.

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Movement III (Part 3): 17 pages blueprint of autograph score, 1 page autograph score.

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Folio, String bound music lined notebook, 64 pages with approximately 31 pages sketches and notes.

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Folio, 6 pages, 4 pages autograph sketches.

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Haiku 1967

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Unison mixed chorus, shiao, harp, wind-chimes, gong
Dates: February 7 - March 14,1967
Text: Kay Davis
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
Length: 37 measures
Notes: To William Erlendson.
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1 page autograph score.

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La Koro Sutro 1972

Physical Description: 12 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

La Koro Sutro is the official title in Esperanto referring to the Heart Sutra, which is among the most used and popular basic texts of Buddhism. My Heart Sutra is a work which comes from many sources. I visited Korea, Taiwan and Japan in the early 60's because of an international conference about music. I was already enormously interested in Korean and Chinese music and had formed an admiration for Buddhism which has remained with me since.
Buddhism is not, properly speaking, a religion because it demands no faith in extraterrestrial or any other kind of power. It is a philosophy, a science of how to be happy if you want to be. Although the formulas for happiness exist, both in Buddhism and Epicureanism, a surprising number of people still choose not to be happy, but to go on as usual. It is fascinating that this Buddhist philosophical writing seems to be about contemporary with the same intellectual impulse in the Byzantine world. The famous mantram "Hail, the Jewel is in the Lotus" is the final line of the Heart Sutra whose entire text can be printed on a postcard. It is a condensed version of another work, the "Divine Wisdom" or "Hagia Sophia", which consists of over 100,000 lines.
I began this work in 1972 in response to a request from Cathy Schulze that I help organize a concert at San Francisco State University for such people as wanted to visit the city after the world Esperanto Conference in Portland. When composing the Heart Sutra I knew that it deserved a language of wide potential understanding. Western religion and governments have (until recently) used the archaic and formal Latin language. Rather than using a holy language, Buddhism has always expressed itself in the vernacular - so I decided to use Esperanto. My friend, Bruce Kennedy, was a master of various Languages (I found out recently that he also knew sign language!), so I asked him to translate the text of the Heart Sutra in to Esperanto so that I might use it in composing. He achieved this beautifully by comparing several different language versions including "Pali".
The first concert of the Sutra was very well received and has since had a great number of performances. La Koro Sutro was performed in Sapporo, Japan. The week before our concert there had been a monumental earthquake during which one island was totally destroyed and many people died. It was a shocking and terrible circumstance. Since we were preparing the Heart Sutra, and Japan is in many senses a Buddhist country, I asked a friend to translate into Japanese a brief paragraph in which we dedicated the performance to the memory of those who died and to their survivors.
For this work, my friend and partner, William Colvig, created many instruments. The small tube and slab gamelan, which is used with other percussion instruments, has become know as "Old Granddad" Gamelan for it is the first of the Western American Gamelan to employ aluminum tubes and slabs (handsomely resonated with #10 Billy cans collected from back doors of restaurants), which have since been used in the building of many Gamelan. Bill and I tuned the Gamelan to a perfect Northwest Asian (European) natural scale; that is to say, much like a C Major would be if you sang it or played it on string instruments, although the gamelan is actually in D major. It is a joy to sing with because the orchestra tuning is the same as you would use with your voice. Towards the end, (in the next to the last movement), I needed another key system to contrast the basic scales that I had been using. I didn't have the heart to ask Bill to create a new set of instruments so I threw in a harp! This has proven to be a good choice because it works well with the other instruments and provides a pleasant contrast.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: (a) SATB chorus, small organ, harp, American Gamelan; (b) arranged for chorus and orchestra (piano, celesta, 2 harps, 3 percussion, strings) by Kerry Lewis.
Movements: (1) Kunsonoro Kaj Gloro (2)-(8) Paragrafo 1-7 (9) Mantro Kaj Kunsonoro.
Date: July 29, 1972; arranged for string orchestra, ca. 1977
Premiere: August 11, 1972, San Francisco State University, Donald Cobb, conductor.
Text: Esperanto translation of Buddhist Heart Sutra by Bruce Kennedy
Publisher: Peer
Length: 29 minutes
Cross Reference: For Vahé Aslanian.
 

Fragments

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Movement I, Kunsonoro Kaj Gloro: 1 page autograph partial sketches for gender and lali.

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2a Paragrafo: 2 pages autograph partial part for gender.

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4a Paragrafo: 5 pages autograph score.

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7th Paragrafo: 1 page autograph sketches for chorus.

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1 page copy of autograph harp part with pencil sketch for new ending.

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2 fragments with new harp ending for 7th Paragrafo with note to Margaret Fisher.

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Mass to St. Cecilia (Mass for St. Cecilia's Day) 1983

Physical Description: 23 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: unisex chorus; optional drone and/or figuration on organ, harp
Movements: (1) Introitus; (2) Kyrie; (3) Gloria; (4) Graduale; (5) Alleluia; (6) Offertory; (7) Sanctus; (8) Agnus Dei; (9) Communion; (10) Hymn; (11) Ite Missa Est
Date: Kyrie: October 25, 1983; complete mass, 1986
Premiere: Introitus, Gloria, Hymn: November 15, 1987, California State Sacramento, CA: Completed mass: November 18, 1988, Santa Cruz Chamber Players, Santa Cruz, CA
Text: Catholic mass ordinary and the proper for the Feast of St. Cecilia (November 22).
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 22 minutes
Notes: Monoph mass in Gregorian chant style. For Saint Cecilia Society for the Preservation and Restoration of Gregorian Chant and the Peking Opera of Santa Cruz, CA.
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10 pages autograph score, title page, notes and decorations used to create a composer's limited edition serigraph with Chris Daubert.

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Movement I: Introitus: 2 pages photocopy of autograph sketches (from notebook) with Revisions in pencil. 1 page copy of final score with slight ink design additions.

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Movement II: Kyrie: 1 page photocopy of autograph first version (from notebook).

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Movement IV, Graduale: 1 page photocopy of autograph original sketches with slight revisions in pencil.

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Movement V, Alleluia: 2 pages photocopy of autograph original sketches with revisions in pencil and pen and pasteover.

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Movement VI, Offeratory: 1 page photocopy of autograph sketch with slight revisions markings in pencil.

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Movement VII, Sanctus: 2 pages photocopy of autograph original sketches with revisions in pencil and ink.

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Movement VIII, Agnus Dei: 1 page photocopy of original sketch with slight notes in pencil.

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Movement X and Movement XI, Hymn and Ite: 2 pages photocopy of autograph sketches with revisions in pencil.

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1 page autograph (William Colvig) percussion accompaniment.

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Faust 1985

Physical Description: 51 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Soprano, tenor, bass soloists; chorus; chamber orchestra (4 flutes, trumpet, 4 percussions, piano, 2 harp, organ, strings), Sundanese gam degung
Movements: (1) Opening scene in heaven; (2) Fire spirit's chant; (3) Easter music; (4) Witch's Song; (5) Wine-Love Song; (6) Three dances for two harps; (7) Gretchen's Spinning Song; (8) Estampie ("Walpurgisnacht"); (9) Gamelan works: Lagu Pa Undang, Lagu Elang Yusuf; (1) Miscellaneous percussion interludes.
Dates: Movement I: March 12,1985; Movements II, III, IV, V, VII, IX: undated; Movement VI: March 19,1985
Premiere: May 9,1985, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA.
Text: Adaptation of Goethe's text by Kathy Foley
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
Cross References: Movement VII adapted for The Clays' Quintet , Movement III (1987; same music with different instruments and no text). Movement VIII heavily revised and used in Piano Concerto, Movement II (1985)
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37 pages autograph score, without gamelan pieces.

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3 pages photocopy of Gretchen's Spinning Song with composer's revisions for inclusion to The Clay's Quintet.

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1 page photocopy of Three Dances for 2 Harps with revisions for inclusion in The Clay's Quintet.

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Folio, 6 pages autograph score of Gretchen's Spinning Song, not in composer's hand.

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Three songs for Male Chorus 1985

Physical Description: 43 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Male chorus, chamber orchestra (piano, organ, strings, percussion)
Movements: (1) King David's Lament for Jonathan; (2) Oh You Whom I Often and Silently Come; (3) When I Heard at the Close of Day
Dates: (1) October 8, 1941, revised June 18, 1985; (2) 1949, revised June 1985; (3) June 1985
Premiere: September 28, 1985: Portland Gay Men's Chorus, Gilbert Seeley, conductor
Text: (1) II Samuel; (2) and (3) Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass "Calamus")
Publisher: Peer, 1985
Length: 10 minutes
Cross References: Movement I: revised version of 1941 work of same name. Movement II: revised version of Fragment from Calamus (1946)
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Movement I

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Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score, King David's Lament, 1941.

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Folio, 4 pages autograph score and sketches, Lycida's Lament (Milton).

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Folio, 6 pages, 3 pages autograph score, 1 page sketches.

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7 pages autograph score (including title page), plus 2 sets of photocopies of 7 pages autograph score # 2, #3. 1985

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1 page autograph vocal part set in Hebrew by Larry Polansky.

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1 page photocopy of vocal part set

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1 page photocopy of Hebrew & text "Second Samuel".

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Movement II:

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4 pages autograph score plus 2 sets of photocopies of 4 page score #2, #3

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1 page autograph sketches.

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Movement III 1985.

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17 pages autograph score. plus 2 sets of photocopies of 17 page score #2, #3.

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Folio, 8 pages. 6 pages autograph sketches and notes.

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Homage to Pacifica 1991

Physical Description: 25 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Javanese gamelan (slendro and pelog), bassoon, 1 percussion, harp, psaltery, chorus, solo voice, narrator
Movements: (1) Prelude; (2) In Honor of the Divine Mr. Handel; (3) In Honor of Mark Twain; (4) Interlude; (5) Ode; (6) Interlude; (7) Litany; (8) In Honor of Chief Seattle
Date: 1991
Premiere: October 4, 1991
Text: Movement III: Mark Twain, taken from Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States. Movements V and VII: Joys and Perplexities: Selected Poems of Lou Harrison; Lou Harrison (Winston-Salem: Jargon Society, 1992), 60 and 63; Movement VIII: attributed to Chief Seattle (Chief Sealth)
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 37 minutes
Notes: Commissioned by Gerbode Foundation for inauguration of new building of the Pacifica Foundation. Two movements subsequently choreographed by Mark Morris in World Power (premiere: October 27, 1995)
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1 page autograph title and movements.

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1 page autograph psaltery patterns.

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Movement I: Prelude: 2 pages autograph score. Page 1, gamelan. Page 2, harp.

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Movement II: In Honor of the Divine Mr. Handel: 5 pages autograph score. Pages 1-2, gamelan. Pages 3-5, harp.

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Movement III: In Honor of Mark Twain: 4 pages autograph score. Pages 1-3, gamelan. Page 4, gamelan and chorus.

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Movement IV: Interlude: 2 pages autograph score.

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Movement V: Ode: sheets missing as of 5/13/2013.

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Movement VI: Interlude: 1 page autograph score.

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Movement VII: Litany: 6 pages autograph and photocopy score (6 pages of recitatives with meter and solo/choral designations).

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Movement VIII: In Honor of Chief Seattle: 3 pages autograph score. Pages 1-2, gamelan. Page 3, harp.

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Now Sleep the Mountains All 1992

Physical Description: 11 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Chorus, percussion, 2 pianos
Date: February - March 1992
Premiere: April 6, 1992, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA.: Charlene Archibeque, director
Text: Fragment 89 from Alkman, translation Andrew Bowman
Publisher: Unpublished
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10 pages autograph score.

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1 page autograph sketch.

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White Ashes - Gobunsho 1992

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Chorus, keyboard
Date: March 1992
Text: Buddhist hymn by Rennyo Shonin
Publisher: Shin Buddhist Service Book (Buddhist Churches of America, 1994)
Length: 1.5 minutes
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1 page autograph score.

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3 pages photocopies of autograph score.

Box 21

Political Primer [incomplete] 1951-1959

Physical Description: 225 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Overtures: orch; recitatives (baritone), occasional percussion
Movements: Movements completed: 3 overtures (monarchy, republic, democracy) later used in Third Symphony and Elegiac Symphony ; 4 recitativess (Movement I: Dedication; Movement V: First Comment, with two timely remarks; Movement IX: Second comment; and Movement XIII: Last comment with remark and salutation).
Dates: Begun 1951; overtures and recitatives completed 1958.
Premiere: Recitatives only: May 23/24, 1959, University of Buffalo, N.Y., Herbert Beattie, baritone.
Text: Lou Harrison (alternative texts in English and Esperanto), Frog Peak Anthology (Hanover, N.H.: Frog Peak Music, 1992), 77-83.
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript of recitatives and overture 1; remainder: sketches only.
Cross References: Overtures later revised for use as Elegiac Symphony, Movement I (1975) and Third Symphony , Movements I and IV (1982).
Notes: Choruses never completed. Recitatives in "Free Style".
Box 21

Text

Box 21

#1: Text in Esperanto. "First Proof": 21 pages typed manuscript with autograph notes and revisions in Esperanto by author/composer in blue ink. Additional notes and comments by G. Alan Conner, General Secretary of the Esperanto Society of North America, in red ink and pencil.

Box 21

#2: "Revised May 12, 1958": 21 pages typed manuscript with introductory letter from author/composer to G. Alan Conner. Additional comments and notes in red ink by Conner.

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#3: Text in English. 24 pages autograph manuscript in ink. 3 pages autograph manuscript from earlier version.

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#4: 20 pages blue-print of autograph manuscript with pencil and ink revisions.

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#5: 1 page typed introduction, 1990.

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1 page photo copy of autograph tuning schema and section numbers.

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7 pages typed manuscript (final version)

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#6: Section I, Dedication: Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score, pencil.

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1 page autograph score, ink.

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#7: Section II, Overture: Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph sketches, pencil.

Box 21

1 pages autograph title page, ink. 27 pages autograph full score, ink.

Box 21

34 pages autograph parts, ink, for: Trombones I, II, Celesta, Harp, Piano, Tack piano. I, II, Percussion, Violins I-IV, Viola, Cello I-III, Contrabass.

Box 21

#8: Section V, First Comment with Two Timely Remarks: Five Folio's, 20 pages, 14 pages autograph score, pencil. 16 pages autograph score, ink.

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#9: Section IX, Second Comment: Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score, pencil. 2 pages autograph score, ink.

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#10: Section XIII, Last Comment, with Remark; Salutation.

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Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score pencil. 2 pages autograph score, ink.

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1 page autograph sketches with sketches for "1a Ario" on reverse.

Box 21

Additional Materials

Box 21

#11: 3 pages, photo copy of letter to Mr. Beattie with tuning explanations for recitatives.

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#12: 2 pages autograph score of Section XI, Overture, ink.

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#13: Blueprint copies of parts for Section II, Overture.

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#14: Blueprint copy of Section II, Overture, with autograph markings in composer's hand. Composer also indicates that this work is absorbed into the Elegiac Symphony Movement V, which is incorrect. It is absorbed in to the Third Symphony Movement IV.

Box 21

#15: Autograph sketches in 13 portfolio's comprising 112 pages. Folio's are numbered consecutively. Harrison drew from these materials which became absorbed in other works. Primarily the Elegiac Symphony and the Third Symphony. Where possible identifications are indicated. Other sketch materials not identified at this time.

Box 21

Folio #1, 12 pages. 9 pages autograph sketches. Various pages identified as Third Symphony, Movement IV and Elegiac Symphony , Movement I.

Box 21

Folio #2, 6 pages autograph sketches. Various pages identified as Third Symphony, Movement IV and Elegiac Symphony , Movement I.

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Folio #3, 12 pages. 9 pages autograph sketches from Section 10 of the Political Primer, Overture.

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Folio #4, 14 page autograph sketches currently unidentified.

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Folio #5, 16 pages. 13 pages autograph sketches including fragments of Aria's and comments.

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Folio #6, 12 pages. 11 pages autograph sketches. Various pages identified as Third Symphony, Movement IV.

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Folio #7, 10 pages. 9 pages autograph sketches. Various pages identified as Elegiac Symphony, Movement I.

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Folio #8, 4 pages autograph sketches. 1 page identified as Third Symphony, Movement IV. 1 page identified as from Cinna.

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Folio #9, 6 pages autograph sketches. Partially identified as Third Symphony, Movement IV.

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Folio #10, 4 pages autograph sketches. Partially identified as Third Symphony, Movement IV.

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Folio #11, 6 pages autograph sketches. Fragments of Aria's and 1 page identified as Elegiac Symphony, Movement I.

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Folio #12, 4 pages autograph sketches. Composer's hand partially identifies Third Symphony, Movement I.

Box 21

Folio #13, 6 pages. 4 pages autograph sketches partially identified as Third Symphony, Movement I.

Box 22

Orpheus - for the Singer to the Dance 1969

Physical Description: 391 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

The work is based on the theme from the Greek myth of Orpheus however; it is dances in the contemporary time and in abstract style.
Synopsis: The story begins with a praise to Orpheus who represents love and music and praise to Orpheus and his wife, Eurydice. Orpheus and Eurydice represent perfect love. Eurydice is then killed by a snake and Orpheus is left alone. Orpheus goes to Hell to get Eurydice and with his beautiful music from his lyre, he convinces the devils to let him take Eurydice back. The grant is given provided he does not and look at Eurydice as she follows him out. However, the devils trick him and when he turns back Eurydice disappears. Orpheus, knowing he has lost Eurydice for good, prays to the father for help, transforms himself into a bird and flies away. In his search for Eurydice, the women of the town condemn and kill him for losing Eurydice. Orpheus is reborn and begins life anew. He no longer remembers his wife and seeks to find a new love. His new love is a young Greek boy. The two lovers join the group of dancers, who appear as both sexes. His new love also disappears, as Eurydice had before and Orpheus is, again, left alone to take his place among the group of dancers.
In 1941 I began a large composition called Labyrinth for percussion orchestra which was intended to be orchestral, not just a large group of soloists, but with doublings and couplings which mean orchestra rather than chamber ensembles. At about the halfway point I moved from San Francisco, and, as life goes, I forget about the work, though somewhere along the line I sent the completed portions to the Philadelphia Free Library. It was well received in New York during the fifties when Paul Price played it. Gerhard Samuel played it in 1967 at the Cabrillo Music Festival, and by this time I had already found the poet Robert Duncan's beautiful Set of Romantic Hymns orphic in nature, and realized that a whole work would result from his verse and my unfinished composition.
Orpheus understood in several possible old and new ways is the subject, so highly meaningful to any musician, and a "sung ballet" is the result. The sustained two-year labor of achieving this new piece was in large part supported by the Phoebe Ketchum Thorne Music Fellowship, and the work is dedicated to Francis Thorne, friend and fellow composer, among whose bright ideas is the award itself, the highest award granted to a composer in the United States.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Ten solo, SATB chorus, 15 percussion
Movements: (1) Sweet tone, vibrant wing (2) Ode (3) Passage thru dreams (4) Fountain of forms (5) Seed (6) The lyre's ablaze (7) In praise of Orpheus (8) Image in the soil.
Date: Completed 1969, revised 1996
Premiere: May 22, 1969, San Jose State University Percussion Ensemble, San Jose, CA; Anthony Cirone, director; Robert Buchanan, tenor
Text: Robert Duncan, A Set of Romantic Hymns
Publisher: Unpublished
Length: 38 minutes
Cross References: Expansion of Labyrinth #3 (1941). Movement II is a revised version of Labyrinth, Movement I; Movement III is virtually identical to Labyrinth, Movement II; Movement V is a revised version of Labyrinth, Movement III; Movement VIII loosely based on Labyrinth, Movement IV.
Note: To Francis Thorne.
Box 22

Movement I, Sweet Tone Vibrant Wing: 10 pages autograph score, ink (1-10)

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Movement II, Ode: 16 pages autograph score (11 - 26)

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Movement III, Passage Thru Dreams: 6 pages autograph score (27 - 32)

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Movement IV, Fountain of Forms: 8 pages autograph score (33-40)

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Movement V, Seed: 21 pages autograph score (41 - 61)

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Movement VI, The Lyre's Ablaze: 4 pages autograph score (62-65) with slight performance markings in pencil; 3 pages autograph score for voice, glock., pfte [pianoforte], 2 bass drums (ink).

Box 22

Movement VII, In Praise of Orpheus: 6 pages autograph score (66-70); 1 page autograph score, different format.

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Movement VIII, Image in the Soil:

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24 pages autograph score (71-94) w/slight performance revisions in pencil,

Box 22

23 pages photocopy of autograph with paste-over revisions (all photocopies), December 26 1996

Box 22

Folio: 14 page. 11 pages autograph sketches for choruses and solos.

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Folio: 8 pages. 7 pages various sketches including unrelated transcriptions: "Ming Idiom" and "Taryung".

Box 22

Folio: 6 pages. 5 pages autograph sketches.

Box 22

Folio: 5 loose pages with 8 pages autograph sketches. 1/2 page autograph sketches; 2 pages autograph sketches for chorus.; 1 page autograph sketches for percussion.

Box 22

Additional materials: Complete blueprint copy of autograph score with slight performance markings in pencil. Blueprint copy of Movements VI, VII, VIII, with autograph revisions and additions in pencil.

Box 22

Photocopies of autograph scores includes a title page & explanation page for most of the following: Vibes (4), Percussion I (9), Percussion II (13), Percussion III (9), Percussion IV (4), Percussion V (8), Percussion VI (7), Percussion VII (8), Percussion VIII (9), Percussion IX (9), Percussion X (8), Percussion XI (8), Xylophone (5), Glockenspiel (8), Marimba (5)

Box 22

Photocopy of autograph score for Chorus (33 pgs)

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Unidentified pages

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1 pg - autograph notes w/notation

Box 22

1 pg - autograph score

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2 pgs - autograph score "Duncan Hymn II"

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1 pgs - autograph score "VII"

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Folio - 4 pgs - autograph score

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8 pgs - autograph score (ink)

Box 23-26

4. Western Instrument Ensemble 1934-1999

Series Scope and Content Summary

29 titles. Western Instrument Ensemble works include pieces written for a variety of instrumental groupings. They are divided in this catalogue as 5 or more, 3-4, and 1-2 players.
Box 23:1

Binary Variations on "Oh Sinner Man" 1934-1977

Physical Description: 16 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Renaissance instrument ensemble (soprano/alto/tenor recorders and crumhorns; harpsichord; sackbut; treble/bass viol; alto shawm; dulcian)
Dates: Begun 1934; completed January 10, 1977
Premiere: February 25, 1977, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA.: independent concert directed by Philip Collins
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
Length: 6 minutes
Box 23:1

16 pages autograph score. 3 pages autograph sketches.

Box 23:2

String Quartet Set 1940-1978

Physical Description: 56 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

I was happy to receive a commission from Canada; Robert Aitkin's "New Music Concerts" of Toronto, along with the Canada Council. At one point in rehearsal of my String Quartet Set by the Orford Quartet who premiered the work in Toronto, I had to leave the room (broken up -- tears in the eyes and the whole bit) because I had not imagined that it could be played so beautifully. My friend the percussionist William Winant pointed out to me that the English stampede is cognate with the French estampie and really means a general "bru-ha-ha" and excitement. Fortunately it is a useful and interesting form to compose in and I have made a number of them. For years before my Variations, I had loved, and composed quintal counterpoint to, the beautiful Palestinian Song by Walter von der Vogelweide . My Variations are hard to play, because (contrary to popular belief) the Pythagorean intonation suitable is quite hard to produce on the violin family, which more easily plays the soft thirds of the "just diatonic".
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: String quartet (string orchestra version in progress)
Movements: (1) Variations on the Song of Palestine by Walther von der Vogelweide (2) Plaint (3) Estampie (4) Rondeau (5) Usul
Dates: (1) Opening sketched in 1940s; completed January 24, 1978; (2) March 24, 1978; (3)-(5)
Premiere: April 28, 1979, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada: Orford Quartet
Publisher: Peer, 1980
Length: 26.5 minutes
 

Movement I, Variations on Song of Palestine: 7 pages autograph score.

Box 23:2

Movement II, Plaint: 5 pages autograph score.

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Movement III, Estampie: 12 pages autograph score. Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph sketches/schema.

Box 23:2

Movement IV, Rondeau: 10 pages autograph score. Five 4 page folios comprising 9 pages autograph sketches/schema/short-score.

Box 23:2

Movement V, Usul: Five 4 page folios comprising 7 pages autograph sketches/schema/short-score.

Box 23:2

1 page tuning schema and sketch of title.

Box 23:2

1 page autograph tempi.

Box 23:3

Labrynth for oboe, percussion, piano 1940

Physical Description: 21 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Oboe, percussion, piano
Date: 1940 San Francisco, CA
Publisher: Not authorized for performance.
Notes: Harrison reportedly showed the manuscript to Pierre Monteux in San Francisco who said, "If this was Paris …".
Box 23:3

21 pages copy of autograph score.

Box 23:4

Serenade for Three Recorders 1943

Physical Description: 4 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: 3 recorders (S, A, T)
Movements: (1) Allegro moderato (2) Largo (3) Gigue and Rondeau
Date: December 25, 1943
Publisher: Laureate Music Press, 1997
Length: 7 minutes
Notes: For Henry and Sidney Cowell
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Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score for Serenade. 2 pages unidentified short score.

Box 23:5

Schoenbergiana 1944-1962

Physical Description: 41 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: (a) String quartet; (b) 2 flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn (arranged Robert Hughes)
Movements: Version a: (1) Allegro (2) Siciliana (3) Theme and Variations; Version b: Movements I-II reversed
Dates: (a) Begun May 1944; completed November 17, 1944; (b) 1962
Premiere: Woodwind version: April 1, 1962, Sticky Wicket, Aptos, CA.: Robert Hughes and ensemble
Publisher: String version: unpublished manuscript. Woodwind version: Frog Peak
Notes: Sketches list title as Second String Quartet.
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Version (a)

Box 23:5

Movement I, Allegro: 1 page autograph row-chart for II String Quartet .

Box 23:5

2 pages autograph short score sketches.

Box 23:5

6 pages autograph score, incomplete.

Box 23:5

1 page autograph score through measure #19

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Movement II, Siciliana: 1 page autograph short-score and sketches.

Box 23:5

Movement III, Theme and Variations: Folio, 16 pages. 11 pages autograph score and sketches. 1 page fragment Opus 6c.

Box 23:5

Version (b)

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Movement I, Siciliana: 2 pages autograph score by Robert Hughes, ca. 1962

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Movement III, Theme and Variations: 12 pages autograph score by Robert Hughes.

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Trio (String Trio) 1946

Physical Description: 8 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

My little Trio for violin, viola, and cello was first composed as a piano piece in which the cross-rhythms were very complicated. It occurred to me that the piece might sound well for strings, so I simplified the rhythms so that they might be more easily performed by cooperating musicians and changed very little else. I included aspects of it for much larger group in my Suite for Symphonic Strings . All three versions have been performed and recorded (except for the original keyboard one) and several years ago an entire afternoon was given over to studying and perfecting it and even a computer realization...all this at the wonderful large Musachino College of Music in Tokyo. The substance of the piece is of course secundal counterpoint, and the impulse was from studying the more rapturous side of Carl Ruggles. The time span of the evolution of this piece is from the mid-forties in New York to my settling in Aptos in the mid-fifties.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Violin, viola, cello
Movements: Single movement
Premiere: January 26, 1947, New School for Social Research, New York, NY: New Music String Quartet
Date: 1946
Publisher: Peters, 1961
Length: 4.5 minutes
Recordings: LP and CD: New World 319 and 382-2: New Musical Consort
Cross References: Arrangment of Triphony (1945). Revised and used in Suite for Symphonic Strings, Movement V (1960).
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3 fold out pages, copy of autograph parts.

Box 23:6

Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph part for violin.

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1 page autograph sketches/ short score.

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Air in G minor 1947

Physical Description: 13 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

This piece was originally written in New York City for the then-famous yacht designer Olin Stephens Jr. who had taken up the recorder. Its model is of course the tri-partite Elizabethan form with a variation for each part. I attempted for several years to make an accompaniment for it; homophonic, polyphonic, consonant, complex...and none of them worked. I finally found that a simple drone was suitable. The Air has also been played by massed violins (again with drones) but it is clear that the Air is best heard on horizontal flute with drone. This was a curious problem, and reminded me of a solo dance choreographed in the thirties by my friend Carol Beals. I made two different scores to it, and found that I at least was unable to either add or subtract from the work. She danced the work in solo silence from then on. My Air is, of course, basically a baroque work but with the drone reminds that the baroque turned up in different ways in different parts of the world and in different ages.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Flute, drone
Dates: 1947; revised 1970
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 4.5 minutes
Cross References: Unused sketch material for this piece later incorporated into Suite for Cello and Piano (1995)
Notes: Originally for recorder; written for yacht designer, Olin Stevens. Composer originally approved violin or strings in place of flute, but now approved only flute.
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Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph sketches/ study, ca. 1947

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Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score, sketches, notes, ca.1947

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Folio, 4 pages. 1 page autograph partial score,

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1 page unrelated autograph material,

Box 23:7

1 page autograph score with notes, ca. 1970

Box 23:7

2 pages photocopied/ blueprint autograph score, undated

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Suite for Cello and Harp, 1949

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

87 pages, 1 published score. This piece was composed for Seymour Barab for a concert in New York's Townhall. The third movement was originally composed for the 'cello alone but Seymour sensibly arranged it in its more usable form. The Air is an arrangement from the scherzo section of my Symphony on G and is in serial technique as is the entire Symphony. The Choral and Pastoral are both taken from a score that I composed at the request of a Time/Life staff member for use in a film about the Lascaux caves. Since the score was not used (recordings in those days made dubbing-in cheap) I have been able to mine the music in several instances. There is more left but the Choral and Pastoral are representative. I must add that the cave art authority, Douglas Mazonowicz, was alerted by Bob Hughes to the cave music in this suite and he then arranged a slide show to go with the whole suite of paintings from the caves. He even went so far as to take a fine recording of this work to Lascaux, played it in the caves and re-recorded it with the acoustics of the caves. What a destiny!
In 1995, the delightful choreographer and my long time friend, Remy Charlip, created a work Ludwig and Lou which used the Suite as well as Beethoven's Contra Dances...good company indeed!
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Cello, harp (arranged for string orchestra by Robert Hughes, 1997)
Movements: (1) Chorale; (2) Pastorale; (3) Interlude; (4) Aria; (5) Chorale reprise D Movement IV: completed 1947 (for Symphony on G), revised 1949 for use in Suite. Other movements completed 1949 (after July). Movement II revised July 1994.
Premiere: April 15, 1950, McMillin Townhall, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.: Seymour Barab, Lucille Lawrence
Publisher: Peer, 1954
Length: 11 minutes
Cross References: Movements I-II taken from sketches for a Time/Life film on Lascaux caves wall paintings which never materialized. Movement IV taken from short score for Symphony on G, Movement IIIc ( Song, 1947); revised and orchestrated in 1964 for completion of symphony.
Notes: Composed for Barab and Lawrence. Movement III originally for cello solo; arranged for cello/harp by Barab.
Box 23:8

Bound manuscript book, 38 pages. 13 pages autograph score with revisions.

Box 23:8

26 pages autograph score with notes and revisions, proof for publication.

Box 23:8

Folio, 8 pages. 4 pages, autograph short-score for chamber ensemble of Movement II (Pastorale). 1 page sketches.

Box 23:8

Folio, 6 pages. 3 pages autograph sketches of Movement II (Pastorale).

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2 pages autograph sketches.

Box 23:8

Folio, 4 pages autograph cello part with revisions.

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Published score with composer notes on cover.

Box 23:8

5 pages photocopy of autograph Movement II, with revisions.

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Group on a Row the Same 1951

Physical Description: 87 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: (1) Keyboard; (2) vibraphone, trombone (3) voice, viola, piano(4); bassoon
Movements: 3 number movements: (1) Prelude; (2) Poco allegro; (3) Veritas Veritatum; unnumbered 4th movement; additional sketches (for cembalo).
Dates: Movements I-III: 1951; Movement IV: 1960s.
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
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1 page, photocopy of row-chart (original in the collection of Michael Tilson Thomas).

Box 23:9

Movements I-III: Folio, 8 pages. 6 pages autograph score and sketches (numbered consecutively).

Box 23:9

Folio, 4 pages. Additional autograph sketches for cembalo.

Box 23:10

Praises for the Beauty of Hummingbirds 1952

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: flute, 2 violins, celesta, percussion
Premiere: 1966, Old Spaghetti Factory, San Francisco, CA
Date: April 5, 1952
Publisher: Peer, 1975
Length: 2 minutes
Notes: Title on printed score reads "Praise"; Harrison prefers "Praises"
Box 23:10

1 page autograph score (fragment).

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Serenade for Frank Wigglesworth 1952

Physical Description: 5 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Guitar (harp also approved by composer)
Dates: February 12, 1952
Publisher: Music for Harp (Salvi, 1978); Lou Harrison Guitar Book (D. Tanenbaum, ed. Columbia Music, 1994)
Length: 2 minutes
Notes: Written in a letter to Frank Wigglesworth.
Box 23:11

2 pages, photocopy of original letter to Frank Wigglesworth with score.

Box 23:11

1 page autograph score with revisions, 1952

Box 23:11

1 page autograph score with performance and tuning notes and revisions.

Box 23:11

1 page autograph score with tuning schema.

Box 24:1-1A

Simfony in Freestyle 1955

Physical Description: 8 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Specially constructed plastic flutes in Just Intonation, viols with movable or independent frets, harps, tack piano, trombones
Dates: October 8, 1955
Premiere: Never performed as specified; digitally realized by David Doty, 1992
Publisher: Peters, 1977
Length: 4 minutes
Notes: For Henry Allen Moe and the Guggenheim Foundation.
box-folder 24:1

Folio, 6 pages. 4 pages autograph short-score. 1 page sketches from Strict Songs. 1 page unidentified sketches.

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1 fragment of tuning schema.

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1 page, blueprint copy with notes and tuning schema.

box-folder 24:1A

Cloth bound autograph score

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Photocopies of score (5)

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Concerto in Slendro 1961

Physical Description: 78 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

The Concerto in Slendro was mostly composed in 1961 aboard the S. S. New York en route to Japan. It is filled with my eager anticipation of a first taste of the beauty and bustle of Asia. The title derives from the fine Indonesian theoretical term denoting any five-tone mode in which the "seconds" are roughly "major" (or large) and the "thirds" "minor' (or small). A complimentary term "pelog" refers to the opposite kind of mode - "seconds" small and "thirds" wide. This Concerto uses two Slendro type modes only: the "Prime Pentatonic" (if you will) and its associated "minor". These two modes are perhaps the most common and generally loved of all modes - the first is practically the "Human Song". I intended that the two modes are in correct "just intonation" on a general basis 25/24 below A440.
Instrumentation of the Concerto in Slendro is for specially tuned celesta and two "tack pianos" similarly tuned, with two percussionists playing 6 triangles, 6 gongs, and 4 galvanized iron garbage cans (an American metal drum). In the slow movement, two keyboard players use claves and iron pipes, reverting to their keyboards in the final movement.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Solo violin, 2 tack pianos, celesta, 2 percussion
Movements: (1) Allegro vivo; (2) Molto adagio; (3) Allegro, molto vigoroso.
Dates: April 6, 1961; revised 1972
Premiere: January 21, 1962, Santa Cruz, CA.: Zelik Kaufman; Robert Hughes, conductor
Publisher: Peters, 1978
Length: 9.5 minutes
Notes: For Richard Dee
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Folio, 32 pages with autograph sketches and partial score; some unrelated sketches.

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Folio, 8 pages various sketches; some unrelated, including 1 page of Sonata for Psaltery.

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Sketches - 16 additional pages.

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Large format published score [copy of composer's autograph] with notes for performance and recording sessions, 22 pages.

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A Majestic Fanfare 1963

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: 3 trumpets, 2 percussion
Dates: January 20, 1963 (2:15-3:00 p.m.)
Premiere: March 7, 1963
Publisher: Unpublished
Length: Variable
Notes: For the opening of the Art and Music Department of the San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA. The repeat may be "ignored, observed or multiplied at pleasure".
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1 page autograph score.

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Avalokitshvara 1964

Physical Description: 16 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Harp or grand psaltery, percussion (guitar also approved by composer).
Date: December 29, 1964
Publisher: Music for Harp (Salvi, 1978) without percussion; Lou Harrison Guitar Book (D. Tanebaum, ed. Columbia Music, 1994), guitar and percussion parts.
Length: 2 minutes
box-folder 24:4

Folio, 16 pages. 10 pages autograph score, revisions, tuning schema, sketches.

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Elegy for Harpo Marx 1964

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Harp
Date: October 4, 1964
Premiere: Never performed
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
Length: 2.5 minutes
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1 page autograph score, pencil.

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In Memory of Victor Jowers 1967

Physical Description: 6 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

My good and jovial friend, Victor Jowers, died pathetically and slowly of blood cancer. He had been made to watch atom bomb tests in Nevada. Gradually we learn little bits of information about U.S. use of citizens as subjects of lethal experiments. We will never know all of such done in the past, nor, indeed, of what is presently being committed. It is heartrending to know this.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Clarinet (or English horn), piano (or harp)
Date: November 1967
Premiere: November 19, 1967, Unitarian Fellowship, Aptos, CA. (for the Jowers memorial service)
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 3.5 minutes
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4 autograph pages: 1 page sketch. 1 page unrelated ( Beverly's Troubadour Piece ). 1 page clarinet part. 1 page score.

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Festive Movement 1972

Physical Description: 67 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano
Dates: Begun June 1972; completed October 15, 1972
Premiere: November 13, 1972, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York, N.Y.: Aeolian Chamber Players
Publisher: UNPUBLISHED - NOT AUTHORIZED FOR PERFORMANCE.
Length: 10.5 minutes
Notes: Premiere: benefit for Francis Thorne Fund 1973
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30 pages autograph sketches, with titles page.

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37 pages autograph score plus title page.

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Jahla for Leopold Stowkowski (Jahla in the Form of a Ductia to Pleasure Leopold Stokowski on his Ninetieth Birthday) 1972

Physical Description: 3 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

A friend of mine alerted me to the fact that the friendly conductor, Leopold Stokowski was about to enjoy his 90th birthday, and that various composer friends were writing little pieces to play during rehearsals at that time. I very quickly composed my Jahla to Pleasure Leopold Stokowski on his Ninetieth Birthday, copied it out in two colors on Whatman paper (when that wonderfully-fine English paper was still available) and quickly mailed the piece off. I believe it was played, as were the other affectionate tributes, during a rehearsal at about the time of his birthday.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Harp, percussion (guitar also approved by composer)
Date: March 28, 1972
Publisher: Music for Harp (Salvi, 1978); Lou Harrison Guitar Book (D. Tanebaum, ed. Columbia Music, 1994)
Length: 2 minutes
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2 pages: 1 page autograph score and sketches for harp. 1 page autograph score, sketches and notes for percussion ostinato.

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Sonata in Ishartum 1974

Physical Description: 2 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Harp (guitar also approved by composer)
Dates: April 14 ("Easter Sunday"), 1974
Publisher: Music for Harp (Salvi, 1978); Lou Harrison Guitar Book (D. Tanebaum, ed. Columbia Music, 1994)
Length: 1.5 minutes
Notes: To Randall Wong. Written in ancient Babylonian mode
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2 pages: 1 page autograph score, with tuning schema. 1 page autograph score before revision.

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Varied Trio 1986

Physical Description: 19 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

During American Music Week of 1986, Bill and I had the happiness to tour in a program entitled "Three Generations in American Music" with David Abel, Julie Steinberg, and William Winant. As composer, I was full of admiration for the way in which our friends played my music and we had a wonderful time. Julie did not hesitate to pick up the African Mbira, David played with accuracy and elegance, intervals not customarily required, and Willie, expert percussionist that he is, used the second alternative in a movement of works by Henry Cowell which asks for either porcelain bowls or metal bowls. For that reason, in the second movement of this piece I have written for a set of porcelain bowls as a kind of substitute pleasure. Not long before the premiere of Varied Trio, Bill and I noticed in a kitchen supply store window, a set of baking tins and both of us said at once, "Those are instruments!" So we got a set, and they turn up in the final Dance in this work.
For David and Julie, I have written and ornamented an expressive rhapsody in the Elegy , which is the third movement, and the Rondeau, which is in honor of the great French painter Fragonard. It was always intended that this work be completed as a trio only for David, Julie, and Willie, and I left the making of that version to those three capable artists... a version which has proved very successful and delightful.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Violin, piano, percussion
Movements: (1)Gending; (2)Bowl Bell; (3)Elegy; (4)Rondeau in honor of Fragonard; (5)Dance
Date: Begun 1986; completed February 4, 1987 (Rondeau)
Premiere: Quintet version (including Harrison and Colvig on harp and bells): February 28, 1987, Hertz Hall, Berkeley, CA; trio version: May 14, 1987, Mills College, Oakland, CA: both performed by Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio
Publisher: Frog Peak; projected for MUSA.
Length: 15 minutes
Recordings: CD: NA 015 and 036: Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio.
Notes: Originally a quintet with harp, bells.
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Original version for quintet only:

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Movement I, Gending: 3 pages autograph score.

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Movement II, Bowl Bells: 4 pages autograph score.

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Movement III, Elegy: 1 page autograph score.

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Movement IV, Rondeau: 2 pages autograph score.

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Movement V, Dance: 8 pages autograph score.

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Additional materials: 1 page sketches for virginal Movements I and III.

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Grand Duo 1988

Physical Description: 46 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

In a fine Japanese restaurant in Philadelphia one day in 1988 I told Dennis Russell Davies that I was going to compose for him and his friend Romuald Tecco a polka. We had been talking for a while about my composing for the two of them a largish concert piece. The polka turned out to be the finale. In Portland Oregon I began a richly rhapsodic section that became Movement IV, and that consciously, though quite naturally, contains an Ivesian hymn-tune like section which is repeated. I say "consciously", because when the part appeared out of my material I thought "oh, this is very Ivesian" but saw no reason to abjure it, any more than I have abjured passages that remind of other composers. Since I was writing for Dennis who is a very dear and long-time friend, it occurred to me to include, as movement three, a developed version of a "round" that I had composed in his home in Stuttgart for his two daughters to play on violins. Then I thought to ask Romuald whether he had a tune or melody that he liked that I could also weave into this composition for two good friends. He suggested the barcarolle from Tales from Hoffman. This will be found, just the beginning of it, in the opening bass of the first movement. In two movements the pianist needs to play with a padded bar which exactly depresses all the keys of an octave. It makes for brilliance and gives two tone-colors; both the white-key set, and the black-key set, thus enriching the texture. Naturally Dennis immediately christened the bar a "piano-banger". The original artists have recorded the work, many others have played it, and I am happy that the choreographer Mark Morris has created a massively powerful ballet for it.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Violin, piano
Movements: (1) Prelude: moderato; (2) Stampede: allegro; (3) A Round (Annabelle and April's): molto moderato, generally tender; (4) Air: slow and sometimes rhapsodically; (5) Polka.
Dates: Movements I-II: 1988. Movement III: begun May 29-31, 1981; completed May 1988. Movement IV: May 5, 1988. Movement V: May 30, 1988.
Premiere: July 28, 1988, Cabrillo Music Festival, Aptos, CA: Romuald Tecco, violin; Dennis Russell Davis, piano.
Publisher: Lou Harrison: Keyboard and Chamber Music, 1937-1994, Leta Miller, ed. In Music in the United States of America (A-R Editions, 1998)
Length: 35 minutes
Cross References: Opening motive of Movement V related to Reel:, Homage to Henry Cowell (1939).
Notes: Commissioned by Cabrillo Music Festival. Movements I, II, III, and V subsequently choreographed by Mark Morris (1993).
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3 title pages.

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Movement I, Prelude:

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2 pages autograph score.

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3 pages autograph sketches.

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Movement II, Stampede:

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9 pages autograph score. 1 page autograph partial score, 1st version.

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3 page copy of autograph with revisions in pencil.

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Movement III, Round:

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2 pages autograph score.

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1 page copy of autograph, first version, with pencil revisions. Revisions incorporated into above autograph score.

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2 pages copy of original autograph score of Round for violins with pencil revisions for violin and piano.

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Movement IV, Slow:

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6 pages autograph score.

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5 pages copy of autograph with pencil revisions; 1st, 2nd, 3rd.

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Movement V, Polka:

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6 pages autograph score.

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2 pages autograph sketches.

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1 page copy of autograph with small change in dynamic in pencil.

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Piano Trio 1990

Physical Description: 28 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

My only piano trio was commissioned in 1989 by the Mirecourt Trio. It is the second of my works commissioned by the group, the first being the Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with Javanese Gamelan . The third movement of the work is a little suite of solos for the three musicians...they are again united in the finale. With the exception of the one chromatic movement which is dedicated to the memory of Virgil Thomson, all of the remaining movements are modal in character and the entire work is melodic. This was the first work that I composed after triple-bypass heart surgery, and it was interrupted by a major earthquake and the death of my good friend and mentor, Virgil Thomson...thus, it has a complex history. The premiere performance took place with the Mirecourt Trio at the Menil Museum in Houston during the Veneralia of 1990.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Violin, cello, piano
Movements: (1) Molto moderato; (2) Slow; (3) a. Dance, b. Rhapsody, c. Song; (4) Allegro.
Dates: Movement I: September 3, 1989; Movement II: October 6, 1989; Movement III: no date; Movement IV: February 22, 1990
Premiere: April 3, 1990, Da Camera Society, sponsored at the Meril Collection, Houston, TX: Mirecourt Trio.
Publisher: Peters
Length: 23 minutes
Notes: Commissioned by Mirecourt Trio. Movement II dedicated to Virgil Thomson. Several movements subsequently choreographed by Mark Morris in Pacific for the San Francisco Ballet
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Movement I: 7 pages autograph score.

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Movement II: 5 pages autograph score.

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Movement III:

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A - 1 page sketch.

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B - 3 pages autograph score.

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C - 1 page autograph score.

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Movement IV: 11 pages autograph score.

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2 pages autograph sketches.

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Threnody to the Memory of Oliver Daniel [For Donald Ott] 1990

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Harp
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1 page, harp.

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Songs in the Forest 1992

Physical Description: 11 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Flute, violin, piano, vibraphone (with narrative)
Movements: (1) Slowish (2) Fastish (3) Largo
Dates: Begun 1951, revised and completed 1992 (before March)
Premiere: March 7, 1992, De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA: Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio.
Text: Lou Harrison, Joys and Perplexities: Selected Poems of Lou Harrison (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Jargon Society, 1992), 12.
Publisher: Peer
Length: 9.5 minutes
Notes: Revised for Black Mountain College reunion, 1992. Spoken text preceding each movement.
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Movement I: 2 pages autograph score.

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Movement II: 3 pages autograph score.

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Movement III:

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2 pages autograph score.

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2 pages photocopy of autograph score from notebook with pencil revisions.

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2 pages autograph poems (each page consists of all three poems used in performance).

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An Old Times Tune for Merce Cunningham's 75th Birthday , 1993

Physical Description: 5 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: String quartet, piano (arranged for piano solo by Michael Boriskin, approved by composer).
Dates: December 11, 1993 based on sketches from 1952.
Premiere: March 1, 1994, New York Street Theater, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York, N.Y.: White Oak Chamber Ensemble, Piano version: October 22, 1994, Cabrillo College, Aptos, CA: Michael Boriskin.
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 2 minutes
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Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score.

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1 page autograph sketch.

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Suite for Cello and Piano 1995

Physical Description: 12 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

My Suite for Cello and Piano was begun as a request from a good friend who was a music-loving physician. He played piano and wished for a work that he could play with a colleague doctor who played 'cello. It so happened that my notebooks contained two melodies begun in the late 40s which were possible, and I began with the use and development of them. At this point, and to our distress, Dr. Robert Korns died. Thus I composed an elegy in his memory, which became the middle movement of the suite. Dr. John Waters did indeed play the 'cello part during the memorial service for Robert Korns, a service completely designed and planned, even as to costumes, several years before, by the good Doctor Korns himself.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Cello, piano (arranged for string orchestra by Robert Hughes, 1997)
Movements: (1) Moderato (2) Elegy (3) Allegro
Dates: May 5, 1995 (Movements 1 and 3 based on sketches from 1947-48).
Premiere: May 13, 1995, All Saints Episcopal Church, Watsonville, CA (memorial service for Robert Korns).
Publisher: Peer
Length: 8 minutes
Cross References: Movement 1 from sketch of a rondeau, ca. 1948; Movement 3 from sketches (1947-48) originally envisioned as part of Air in G Minor
Notes: In honor of Robert Korns./
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8 pages autograph score.

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Folio, 4 pages - 3 pages autograph and photocopy sketches, some unrelated.

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Short Set from Lazarus Laughed 1999

Physical Description: 13 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

In 1994 I composed Incidental music to Eugene O'Neill's Lazarus Laughed at the request of Eric Bauersfeld, Director of Bay Area Radio Drama (BARD) to be used in his full scale production of the drama. We agreed that my fair amount of music might eventually be constituted as a symphonic suite. Then earlier this year, I was asked to contribute a piece, with this specific instrumentation, to a memorial concert honoring my good friend Ben Weber thus, this small set looks toward that.
Here, in the first movement only, I have used the Celesta as a percussion instrument, requiring in the right hand, the use of a snare-drum stick played upside down on the right hand handle of the Celesta, and, in the left hand, an octave bar playing on the keyboard.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Flute, cello, celesta
Movements: (1) Caligula's Dance; (2) Miriam; (3) Round Dance.
Date: 1999
Notes: For a concert in honor of Ben Weber.
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Movement I, Caligula's Dance:

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3 pages autograph score.

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2 pages copy of autograph from original Lazarus Laughed with autograph revisions.

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Movement II, Miriam:

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2 pages autograph score(1) and autograph part for flute(2).

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Movement III, Round Dance:

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3 pages autograph score.

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3 pages copy of autograph from original Lazarus Laughed with autograph sketches and revisions.

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Scenes from Nek Chand 2001-2002

Physical Description: 6 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: National Steel Guitar
Movements: (I) The Leaning Lady; (II) The Rock Garden; (III) The Sinuos Arcade with Swing in the Arches
Date: 2001-2002
Premiere: ?
Publisher: ?
Length: ?
Notes: See also MS 132 Ser.2 Notebooks: Notebook #28.
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Movement I: 1 page copy of autograph score dated "Xmas Eve, 2001"

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Movement II: 1 page copy of autograph score.

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Movement III: 2 pages autograph score signed and dated "L.H. 2001-2002, Aptos"

 

Additional materials:

box-folder 25:8

1 page autograph tuning schema.

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1 page photocopy of autograph tuning schema and ending of Movement III "written out, with best wishes, for Peter Muller from Lou Harrison".

Box 26:1-4

Party Pieces: Sonorous or Exquisite Corpses , 1944-1945

Physical Description: 39 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Any melody or keyboard instruments
Date: 1944-1945
Premiere and performer(s): Instrumentation by Hughes: August 1982 at Cabrillo Music Festival in Aptos, California, USA.
Publisher: Edition Peters 66500 © 1982 by Henmar Press. (instrumentation by Robert Hughes).
Length: 12'
Notes: The pieces were composed in collaboration with Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison and Virgil Thomson. One composer would write a bar of music plus two notes, fold the paper at the bar, pass it to the next composer, who would use the two notes as a base for continuing the composition.
Notes: (1st Series VT, HC, JC, LH)
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Sonorus or Exquisite Corpuses, 1st Series VT, HC, JC, LH - 12 pages, 4 pages autograph score. "Sonorous or Exquisite Corpses", autograph score, 6 pages.

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Party Pieces - 15 partial sheets 14 pieces, all autograph scores: #1 One with a dedication note to Virgil Thomson; one for HC, JC, LH Winds & PA; #2 For LH, JC, VT; #3 For HC, JC, LH; #4 For HC, JC, LH; #5 For VT, LH, JC; #6 For JC, LH; #7 For HC, JC, LH; #8 For HC, JC, LH; #9 For HC, JC, LH; [#10] 15th of Nov; [#11]"Pierre just emerging from his teens"; [#12] VT, JC, LH; [#13] VT, LH, JC; [#14] VT, LH, JC

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"Fantasia a 4" - 1 autograph sheet, one side only with lots of yellowed tape on the backside.

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Small sketches - Two birds, on attacking the other, on top of a big foot; big foot with bandaged big toe and ankle bracelet; large hand coming out of a "mermaid" body; strange female head, one eye open, one eye closed, etc.; 3 pages : 1 head coming down the page towards left bottom edge, signed by Virgil Thomson, John Cage; large hand, 3 folded fingers, signed by Virgil Thomson; top image round face with round eyes and nose signed by John Cage; large long arm with hand and ric-rack bar at bottom, signed with Virgil Thomson, Lou Harrison, John Cage.

Box 27

5. Percussion 1939-1972

Series Scope and Content Summary

12 titles. Percussion works (excluding gamelan) are listed for Large Ensemble, and Pieces for 2-5 players, with one work for solo performer. This listing includes works for percussion with solo instruments such as organ, violin, and flute.
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First Concerto for Flute and Percussion 1939

Physical Description: 13 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

It was Henry Cowell who first pointed out to me the fact that an enormous amount of the world's music consists of a melody with some sort of rhythmic support. In this Concerto the percussionists play short ostinati for each movement while the flute, often "crossing" the rhythms of the accompaniment, makes tune-like music for which only three intervals are used. The outer movements share the same set of intervals, while the middle movement explores another set.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Flute, 2 percussion
Movements: (1) Earnest, fresh, and fastish (2) Slow and poignant (3) Strong, swinging, and fastish
Date: April 15, 1939
Premiere: August 10, 1941, Bennington College, VT: Otto Luening (flute), Henry Cowell, Frank Wigglesworth (percussion)
Publisher: Peters
Length: 9 minutes
Notes: For Henry Cowell (composer prefers flute part in Movement I transposed up a 4th; in Movement III, up an 8ve).
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Folio, 8 pages. 7 pages autograph score in ink.

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Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score in pencil.

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1 page autograph sketch from Counterdance in Spring .

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Tributes to Charon: Counterdance in the Spring 1939

Physical Description: 17 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: 3 percussion
Date: March 29, 1939
Premiere: May 19, 1939, Cornish School, Seattle: John Cage, conductor
Publisher: Music in the United States of America (A-R Editions, 1998), Lou Harrison: Keyboard and Chamber Music, 1937-1994 , Leta Miller, ed.
Length: 3.5 minutes
Cross References: See Tributes to Charon (1982)
Notes: Subsequently choreographed by Jean Erdman as Creature on a Journey(1943)
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Folio, 8 pages. 5 pages autograph score, ink.

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Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph part for player I.

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1 page autograph part for player II.

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Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph part for player III.

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Tributes to Charon: Passage through Darkness 1939-1982

Physical Description: 5 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Tributes to Charon stands as a fine example of Harrison's pioneering work with the percussion ensemble during the 1930s, and shows as well the genre's continuing influence on him in later years. One movement (Counterdance in the Spring) was completed in 1939, prompted by a request from John Cage; the other was not written until 1982, though Harrison envisioned its form and instrumentation from the start. Although the entire piece is only seven minutes in length, Tributes clearly demonstrates Harrison's interests in timbral variety, motivic transformation, and formal coherence. Working within the confines of a small ensemble and writing (in the case of the earlier movement) for a group of most non-professional instrumentalists, he was nevertheless able to achieve technical virtuosity and a successful coupling of dynamism and melodicism. Although the work was not composed for dance, the kinetic influence of Harrison's dance training on Counterdance in the Spring is unmistakable; in fact, this movement has been performed most frequently as the accompaniment for choreography by Jean Erdman.
In a letter from Cage to Harrison in 1939, Cage told Harrison that he anxiously awaited the companion movement for Counterdance in the Spring, which Harrison had apparently promised. Harrison already had a title for it, Passage Through Darkness and envisioned the prominent use of alarm clocks. The two movements were to be linked under the title Tributes to Charon. (Charon is the mythological boatman of Hades).
Despite Harrison's plans, the opening movement for Tributes did not progress past the conceptual stage until 1982, when he finally composed it for percussionist William Winant - using both the original title and the alarm clocks.
Instrumentation: 3 percussion
Movements: (1) Passage through Darkness (2) Counterdance in the Spring
Dates: (1) May 6, 1982; (2) March 29, 1939
Premiere: Movement I: May 10, 1982, Mills College, Oakland, CA: William Winant and ensemble; Movement II: May 19, 1939, Cornish School, Seattle, WA: John Cage and ensemble.
Publisher: Music in the United States of America (A-R Editions, 1998), Lou Harrison: Keyboard and Chamber Music, 1937-1994 , Leta Miller, ed.
Length: 7 minutes
Cross References: See listing for Counterdance in 1939.
Notes: Movement I (includes title) envisioned in 1939, but not completed until 1982. Counterdance choreographed by Jean Erdman as Creature on a Journey (1943).
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Passage through Darkness

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4 pages photocopy of autograph from notebook, 1982

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1 page, photocopy of autograph sketches.

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Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra (Kon-certo por la violono kun perkuta orkestro) 1940-1959

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

40 pages, 1 score, 3 fragments. This work, though it is more immediately a romantic one and was noticeably inspired by the Berg Violin Concerto, nonetheless finds its solid groundwork and foundation in world music. It is among many of my compositions which follow the pattern of having a single melodic part accompanied (or enhanced) by rhythmic percussion, whether with or without additional drone. The model is, of course, world-wide. This is the standard usage in India, in Islam, in Sinitic folk (if not in the cultivated) music of Africa - and where not else?
The use of a modern European instrument as soloist, the mixture of "junk" instruments with standard ones in the percussion section, and the employment of romantic concerto form constitute the only novelties, from the world point of view. Quite full sketches of this Koncherto (the international language approved by UNESCO ) were made in 1940. In 1959 my friend Anahid Ajemin offered to premiere a completed version and I succeeded in readying it for her concert of that year. Subsequently the work has had multiple performances by Eudice Shapiro. For those who share my how-to-do-it interests, allow me to explain the most interesting feature of the solo part. From the beginning to the end of the composition, the violin plays only three melodic intervals: the minor second, the major third, and the major sixth - even the beginnings of phrases are connected to their predecessors by one of these intervals. From any tone, then, the compositional choice was one out of six possible ones. This method of "interval controls" I first conceived in the middle 1930s and have used in many works. It is, of course, a good way, other than Schoenberg's "12-tone System" with which to compose predominantly chromatic music.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Violin, 5 percussion
Movements: (1) Allegro maestoso (2) Largo: Cantabile (3) Allegro vigoroso, poco presto
Dates: Begun 1940 or 1941 as Concerto #5 for Violin ; completed 1959; revised 1974
Premiere: November 19, 1959, Carnegie Hall, New York, N.Y.: Anahid Ajemian; Paul Price, conductor
Publisher: Peters, 1961
Length: 20 minutes
Notes: Commissioned by Anahid Ajemian.
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Published score, 32 pages, accordion fold, with additional autograph notes, sketches and remarks by composer.

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Folio, 20 pages. 14 pages autograph score ink, ca. 1940, with pencil revisions, ca. 1959

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Folio, 6 pages, autograph sketches, ca. 1959

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Notebook 32 pgs "Superior Manuscript Book"; 27 pgs autograph score (pencil)

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3 fragments autograph percussion list and notes.

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Song of Quetzalcoatl 1941

Physical Description: 11 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

In the late 1930s and early 1940s I was, as have been many Californians, enamoured of Mexico. At about this time a small book of reproductions from Mexican codices, all in color, came into my possession and I immediately wanted to do something on the life of the culture-hero Quetzalcoatl which was there depicted. It was also a period in which one or two films were made in which the camera explored a painting in detail with musical accompaniment. Thus I immediately thought of such a thing in connection with the Mexican codices.
I did not have any access to film at the time, but went ahead enthusiastically to the composition of a score. This must have been a hint to Eric Marin several years ago, for in his excellent film about me and Bill, Cherish, Conserve, Consider, Create he made a passage in which part of the score is used with still photos of Mexican architecture and people.
I still believe that a complete film could be made based on my original idea. In any event, the score is played with fair frequency and I like to think it reminds audiences of the extraordinary and often very beautiful civilization of Mexico and its pre-Columbian history. The work was first performed at the California Club in San Francisco at a concert given by myself and John Cage. Included in the concert was Double Music which John and I composed together, and my 13th Simfony which was chosen by the audience to be recorded.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: 4 percussion
Date: February 6, 1941
Premiere: May 14, 1941, California Club, San Francisco, CA: Lou Harrison, John Cage, et al.
Publisher: Music for Percussion, 1962
Length: 6.5 minutes
Notes: Spelled "Quetzecoatl" on original manuscript
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11 pages, autograph score, ink.

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Canticle #3 1942

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

40 pages, 1 notebook. During the time during which I composed my Canticle # 3 I was intensely interested in the history of Mexico, in all its elaborately beautiful arts. I had long since heard and treasured the wonderful recordings by the great composer Carlos Chavez of his reconstructions of possible pre-Columbian music, replete with whistles, tongue-drums and the grandeur of blown conch-shells. I had also composed a piece for percussion ensemble which I hoped might accompany a photographic study of the Quetzalcoatl codex. The latter dream has never come true. The ocarina in this Canticle is intended to remind of ancient things, of Mexican pyramids and frieze carvings, while the shamelessly strummed guitar suggests a later, Hispanic mode. The musical texture is composed of a number of small rhythmicles and melodicles woven together (so to speak) into a form which is roughly a-b-a in shape. As the piece gained power and intensity it occurred to me that the climax would be a contrast between full silences and full sounds, thus the interruptions in the center. The ending suggests a kind of procession moving off into the high distance.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Ocarina, 5 percussion, guitar (guitar, ocarina parts may be played by two of the percussionists).
Dates: January-February 1942, revised 1989 (ocarina part ornamented)
Premiere: May 7, 1942, Holloway Playhouse (Fairmont Hotel), San Francisco, CA: Lou Harrison, conductor
Publisher: Music for Percussion, 1960
Length: 15 minutes
Notes: Music for Percussion score (and many subsequent sources) erroneously cite date as 1941. Composer prefers ocarina's 5-note scale to be "slendro" type: a third between the lowest two pitches and other notes separated by whole steps.
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Spiral bound notebook, 50 pages. 20 pages autograph score with performance cues and introductory notes.

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20 pages autograph parts, mounted with rubber cement to paper. Some with original art sketches on reverse.

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Fugue for Percussion 1942

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

1 notebook, 38 pages. Instrumentation: 4 percussion
Dates: 1942 (before move to Los Angeles in August 1942)
Publisher: Music for Percussion, 1962; republished 1982 with corrections by Gary Kvistad.
Length: 4 minutes
Notes: Harrison Music Primer, and other sources erroneously give date as 1941. Listed on program for New Music Society concert, New York, NY, May 10, 1951, but replaced by Canticle #3 at the last minute (review in New York Herald Tribune, May 12, 1951).
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Bound notebook, 58 pages: 8 pages autograph score, pencil. 26 pages, sketches for mobile ornaments for Johnny Appleseed, various notes for costumes. Various listings and sketches.

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Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph part for player II.

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Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph part for player III.

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1 page red serigraph of first 11 measures.

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Canticle #5 1942

Physical Description: 8 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: 5 percussion
Date: June 10, 1942
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
Cross References: Revised and used for Canticle and Round for Gerhard Samuel's Birthday , Movement I (1993)
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8 pages copy of original score of Canticle #5 from notebook.

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Canticle and Round in Honor of Gerhard Samuel's Birthday 1942-1993

Physical Description: 17 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: 3 percussion (Movement I: original 5 percussion; arranged for 3 by Allen Otte, approved by composer).
Movements: (1) Canticle (2) Round
Date: Movement I: June 10, 1942; Movement II: December 17, 1993
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
Cross References: Movement I is a reduction of Canticle #5 (1942) from 5 players to 3.
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Canticle: 8 pages copy of original score of Canticle …5 from notebook.

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Round: Folio, 8 pages. 4 pages autograph score, pencil, of Round for Gerhard Samuel.

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One page autograph sketches.

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Recording Piece For Concert Boobams, Talking drums, with other percussion instruments 1955

Physical Description: 21 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: 5 percussion
Movements: (1) ca. 108 (2) ca. 120
Dates: July 29, 1955
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
Notes: For multiple percussions with instructions about recording and electronic overlay.
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13 pages autograph score and performance instructions, ink.

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Folio, 8 pages sparse sketches.

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Solo for Tony Cirone (For D major tenor bells) 1972

Physical Description: 2 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: D major tenor bells
Date: April 2, 1972
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2 pages autograph score, pencil.

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Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra 1973

Physical Description: 19 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

In 1972, I was asked by Philip Simpson, who was then teaching organ at San Jose State University, for a work for his instrument. Within a day or so I also received a request from Anthony Cirone, director of the San Jose State University Percussion Ensemble, for a work for his year's concert. The two requests came so closely together that it occurred to me to try combining the two. It also seemed to me that since the percussion orchestra can make a lot of sound and the pipe organ can make a lot of sound too, to put them together and see what would happen. The work was premiered in 1973 and is dedicated to Gibson Walters, who made it possible, and to Anthony Cirone and Philip Simpson who asked for it.
For this work, Bill Colvig made for us some stunning new wooden drums...very large cube-like instruments suspended from a large rack, and he also added to the set of large gas cylinder bells which we had previously used in my Heart Sutra . Because the organ is a sustaining tonal instrument, and much of the percussion I wished to use was to be of abstract sound without specified fixed pitch, I felt that an intermediate group of percussion instruments of fixed pitch ought to be used. Thus, there is a chorus of piano, glockenspiel, vibraphone, celeste, and tube chimes which bridge between the organ and the abstract percussion section. My pleasure in the keyboard treatment of Henry Cowell lead me to the use of large sections of "cluster" writing for which Bill provided felt padded slabs and which require special techniques from the organist.
My feeling in the last movement was originally meant as a kind of homage to those syncopated sections in Caesar Frank. Although it is composed entirely in an inverted mode from ancient Greece, and is commonly construed by audiences as a sort of jazz festival, the central largo movement is another of my works using that 8-tone mode which runs half-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, etc...a mode which I always find a pleasure to use.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Organ, 8 percussion, piano, celeste
Movements: (1) Allegro (2) Andante: Siciliana in the Form of a Double Canon (3) Largo (4) Canons and Choruses (5) Allegro: Finale
Date: Movement II: 1951, revised 1973. Rest of work begun 1972, completed 1973.
Premiere: April 30, 1973: San Jose State University, Philip Simpson, organ, Anthony Cirone, director, percussion ensemble
Publisher: Peer, 1978
Length: 23 minutes
Recordings: LP and CD: Crys 858 and CD850: D. Craighead, L.A. Percussion Ensemble; W. Kraft, conductor
Cross References: Movement II is revised version of Double Canon for Carl Ruggles (1951)
Notes: To Gibson Walters, Anthony Cirone, and Philip Simpson. Partial materials only. Additional materials housed at San Jose State University, San Jose, CA.
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Movement I: 1 page (page 19) autograph score.

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Movement II: 2 pages copy of autograph score.

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Movement III: 9 pages autograph score. Folio 4 pages. 2 pages autograph part for piano.

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Movement IV: 5 pages autograph score.

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Full score - spiral bound.

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Additional materials:

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2 pages autograph tempi instructions.

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1 page autograph instrument key for players 6-10.

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1 page - I - "The Leaning Lady" - autograph score, pen.

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1 page - II - "The Rock Garden" - autograph score, pen.

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2 pages - III - "The Sinous Arcade with swings in the arches" - autograph score, pencil.

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1 page - "Tuning: 1) the instrument; 2) the Mode".

Box 28-29

6. Gamelan 1972-1997

Series Scope and Content Summary

25 titles. Gamelan works are listed by Javanese, Balinese and American. 'American' refers to pieces written for gamelons built by William Colvig based on traditional Indonesian instruments.
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Suite for Violin with American Gamelan 1972-1997

Physical Description: 126 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

It was in 1972 that our good friends Cathy and Bill Schulze asked us if we might organize a concert for Esperanto speakers after the International Conference in Seattle. We were happy to do this and I composed my Heart Sutra for chorus and Bill's first Gamelan. Richard Dee and I then cooperatively composed a "Chaconne" for our violinist friend, Loren Jakey, with the Gamelan that we had already used in the Heart Sutra. We felt that the success of the piece warranted going further and so we accepted a commission from the San Francisco Chamber Music Society for the present Suite which was then part of the Society's Christmas in the next year. I have always enjoyed working with other composers and my Double Music with John Cage attests to that, as well as works with Robert Hughes, this one with Richard Dee, and the fact that I have reconstructed sections of work by Charles Ives and by Henry Cowell...and worked with the latter...and so on. Co-op composition is fun if the rules are set up and nobody cheats.
Lou Harrison
NOTE: Harrison and Dee jointly composed the 'Chaconne' by " each of us composing a specific number of measures and then handing them back and forth ... adding on to the previous person's composition". The first performance of the Chaconne was at the premiere of La Koro Sutro in October 1972. Harrison and Dee co-wrote the Estampie in a similar way. Sketches in the extant manuscript collection are marked as to which composer's measures are used. Richard Dee composed, alone, the second Jahla and Harrison composed, alone, the Threnody as well as the first and third Jahla. Dee is the sole composer of the Air, based on an earlier work, the "Eros" a section of four settings of Harrison's Four Saints of the Palestra.
Instrumentation: (a) Solo violin, American Gamelan; (b) arranged for violin and orchestra (piano, celestra, 2 harps, strings) by Kerry Lewis
Movements: (1) Threnody (2) Estampie (3) Air (4) Three Jahlas (Moderato -Allegro poco presto- Adagio) (5) Chaconne
Dates: (a) Movement V: 1972; rest of work completed 1974; (b) 1977 (c) 1997
Premiere: Movement V: October 29, 1972, Hartnell College, Salinas, CA; Complete work, version a: December 9, 1974, Lone Mountain College, San Francisco, CA: Lauren Jakey, violin, version b: July 17, 1993, Pacific Music Festival, Sapporo, Japan: Chi Yun, violin, Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor.
Publisher: Peer (both versions)
Length: 28 minutes
Notes: Commissioned by San Francisco Chamber Music Society, Norman Fromm Composer's Award.
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Movement I, Threnody:

box-folder 28:1

3 pages autograph sketches.

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17 pages autograph score.

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Movement II, Estampie:

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49 pages autograph score. 6 pages autograph schema. 5 pages in Harrison's hand and 4 pages in Richard Dee's hand.

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Movement IV, Three Jahla's:

box-folder 28:1

Jahla 1:

box-folder 28:1

2 pages autograph sketches.

box-folder 28:1

2 pages autograph score for Gamelan.

box-folder 28:1

5 pages autograph score.

box-folder 28:1

Jahla 2:

box-folder 28:1

1 page autograph sketches and schema in Richard Dee's hand with additional sketches in Harrison's hand.

box-folder 28:1

5 pages autograph score.

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Jahla 3:

box-folder 28:1

2 pages autograph sketches.

box-folder 28:1

3 pages autograph scores.

box-folder 28:1

Movement V, Chaconne: 24 pages autograph score.

box-folder 28:1

Additional Materials:

box-folder 28:1

1 page " Suite Outline".

box-folder 28:1

1 page melodicle schema.

box-folder 28:1

1 folder, unidentified material.

box-folder 28:2

Gending Paul 1977

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 28:2

1 page autograph score

box-folder 28:3

Richard Whittington 1980-1982

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

1 notebook. Instrumentation: Gamalan, voice, narrator, and puppets.
Movements: Incidental music for narrative to the text by John Masefield (1931).
Date: 1980-1982
Premiere:December 9, 1982 at Mills College, Oakland, CA.
Publisher: Unpublished
Notes:Not authorized for performance. Manuscript is a compilation of gamelon works with vocal parts.
box-folder 28:3

See Box 28:3 - Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Gamelan 1981-82. .

General

96 page spiral bound music notebook with autograph score and sketches. Notebook also includes the work Richard Whittington
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Gending-Gending California 1981

Physical Description: 44 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Gamelan
Date: 1981
Notes:Gamelan works by several composers compiled by Lou Harrison and Trish Neilson. This is the autograph work-up that was used to print and publish. 1981
box-folder 28:4

44 pages. 42 pgs autograph booklet, paste-up.

box-folder 28:5

Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Gamelan 1981-1982

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

2 notebooks. In 1981 and 1982 I composed my Double Concerto especially for Kenneth Goldsmith, violin, and Terry King, cello, of the Mirecourt Trio. The symphonic nature of a large Javanese Gamelan suggested to me that it might take a similar role to a Western orchestra as co-operative accompaniment in a concerto. I had already composed my Scenes from Cavafy for a Western-style operatic baritone with Javanese Gamelan, and it was clear that these combinations of Western instrument with Gamelan would be attractive. Indeed, I had also composed a work for Western viola and a work for Western French horn with the smaller west-Javanese Gamelan Degung. The work for French horn with Gamelan Degung is titled Main Bersama-sama, which means "playing together" and is the term used when an instrument from another culture plays with an Indonesian Gamelan. It is of course a wonderful idea....playing together...and some of that spirit entered into my composition of the Concerto. Naturally, I such combination both traditions manifest themselves, so that in the first movement of the Concerto, a kind of Brahms-and Bach sound happens in the soloist, which combines suitably with the heroic style of the Gamelan in that particular mode. More recently I have composed a concerto for piano with Javanese Gamelan, and I wondered a little when I had completed it why the piano (although fully tuned to the [pitches of the Gamelan ) so frequently sounded like Hayden or Schubert. It dawned on me of course that in working with Javanese Gamelan one is involved in a truly classic kind of art. And so I was not then so surprised to realize that the presence of the Gamelan had invoked at least some form of classicism in the piano. To return to the Double Concerto... I was much worried about the problem of intonation between the strings and the Gamelan. The occasion arose to try two movements of it in a concert at the University of California at Los Angeles, making use of the gamelan Kyai Mendung, imported early on by our foremost Javanese music scholar Mantle Hood. To my delight, it seemed that the piece would work. Since I had treated the two soloists rather as the Javanese would, fairly simply in the other two movements, I wrote a virtuosic middle movement in the "half step-whole step" mode frequently used by Rimsky-Korsakov, Oliver Messaien, and others. It has the advantage of sounding chromatic although it uses only eight tones, which would provide a distinct difference from the traditional tunings of the outer movements, and still not allow a full encampment of Westernism in the central section. I used only two kendang, beduk, and gong ageng to support the soloists in the movement, and indeed they do their traditional function of marking off the various sections of the movement. The Concerto received its premiere in a handsome birthday concert given me by Mills College in May of 1982, and it was recorded (with the Mills Gamelan....Si Darius and Si Madelaine...built by William Colvig ) during the rehearsals.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Solo violin, solo cello, Javanese gamelan (pelog and slendro)
Movements: (1) Ladrang Epikuros (2)Stampede: Allegro molto, vigoroso (3) Gending Hephaestus
Date:Movements I and III: gamalan part, March 3, 10, 1981; violin/cello parts added before May 1982; Movement II: April 1982
Premiere: May 10, 1982, Mills College, Oakland, CA: Kenneth Goldsmith, violin; Terry King, cello; Mills College Gamelan, Oakland, CA.
Publisher: American Gamelan Institute
Length: 23 minutes
Cross Reference: Ladrang Epikuros and Gending Hephaestus (separate gamelan works, 1981) used as gamalan part in Movements I and III of Double Concerto.
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96 page spiral bound music notebook with autograph score and sketches. Notebook also includes the work Richard Whittington.

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32 page spiral bound music notebook with autograph score and parts including sketches for other various gamelan works and 2 pages sketches of Movement III, Piano Concerto with Selected Orchestra. See also Ser.2 Notebooks: Notebook #65.

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Gending in Honor of Aphrodite 1982-1986

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

7 pages and Notebook #149. My Gending in Honor of Aphrodite is not in the classic Javanese for such a work, but rather, written in a kind of free verse balance of phrases. I first used it in a theater work which I have since disbanded and then decoded to use the work as such. My friend, Mantle Hood, suggested that the work would be properly completed with the addition of voices, so I wrote the vocal sections. My words reflect the anguish of our daily threat in its appeal to Aphrodite to send the full strength of her powerful son, Eros, to help us with "unstrict affection".....unstructured by nationality, class, social ritual, and all those terrible hazards which may lead to the end....if simple accident doesn't. The words are congested with meaning, but I couldn't help it at the time!
Bright Lady, bird-drawn in the sky of light
Oh move us all to unstrict affection
Oh love of the great and broken smithy
Send the full blood of your beautiful Son
Against this Mars-worn, suiciding world.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Chorus, harp, Javanese gamelan (pelog)
Date: Gamelan part: October 11, 1982. Harp part added June 10, 1986
Text: Lou Harrison, Joys and Perplexities: Selected Poems of Lou Harrison (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Jargon Society, 1992)
Score: American Gamelan Institute
Cross Reference: See also Notebook #149 "In Honor of Aphrodite" gamelan notation.
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Harp part. 3 pages autograph and copy of autograph with pencil additions.

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Chorus. 2 pages autograph sketches.

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Gamelan. 2 pages autograph and copy of autograph score and sketches.

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Ketawang Wellington 1983

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Notes:Gamelan score by William Colvig.
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1 page Gambang score by William Colvig.

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Gamelan with Western Instrument (Philemon and Baukis) 1985-1987

Physical Description: 7 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Philemon and Baukis, the old loving couple who offered hospitality to Zeus and Hermes, are the subjects of many literary, musical, and visual works. The beautiful paintings by Adam Elsheimer and David Ligare concerning two different episodes of the legend are particularly dear to me. My friend Kathy Foley several years ago kindly asked me to compose a score for her very imaginative production of the entirety of Goethe's Faust. Towards the end of part II Goethe's disgusting episode about Philemon and Baukis caused me to compose a classic melody for Rebab and Sundanese Gamelan to sound as memory of the myth in direct contradiction to the violence of the events of the play. In the following year, I used this melody in more developed form for a dance choreographed by Remy Charlip for Tandy Beal. At the end of the dance her two male attendants needed a short episode and I built a faster melody directly on the same bass. My friend Dan Kobialka offered to play in a 70th Birthday concert in my honor presented by the Santa Cruz New Music Works and I seized the opportunity to complete for him the full version of my Philemon and Baukis, the beauty of his violin leading me on. The Javanese Gamelan with its rich methods supports the soloist throughout.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Violin, Javanese gamelan (slendro)
Date: Begun 1985, completed 1987
Premiere: May 17, 1987: All Saints Episcopal, Watsonville, CA: Dan Kobialka, violin, Gamelan Si Betty, Trish Nielson, director
Publisher: American Gamelan Institute
Length: 12.5 minutes
Notes: For Daniel Kobialka
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1 page autograph title page

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1 page autograph gamelan and violin schema/score ca. 1985-1986

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3 pages autograph score ca. 1987

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1 page autograph sketches ca. 1987

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1 page autograph program note sketch [msg 6/19/2015]

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A Cornish Lancaran 1986-1989

Physical Description: 3 pages
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3 pages autograph score.

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The Foreman's Song Tune/ Festive Form 1987

Physical Description: 2 pages
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2 pages autopgraph score.

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A Soedjatmoko Set 1989

Physical Description: 10 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Unison chorus, solo voice, Javanese gamelan (pelog)
Movements: (1) untitled; (2) Isna's Song; (3) untitled
Dates: December 1989
Premiere: January 13-14, 1990, Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR.: The Venerable Showers of Beauty gamelan
Publisher: Frog Peak
Notes: Commissioned by Peter J. Poole as an offering to the Soedjatmoko family of Indonesia.
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10 pages autograph score. Gamelan protocols, gamelan parts, and voices.

 

1 page "For Lou 1 july 90 Judy Diamond" & 1 page photocopy.

 

"After examining the boning melody …" 1 page.

 

II "Isna's Song" Vocal, IR.II - 1 page.

 

II, Vocal, 2 - 1 page.

 

III, A Irama II, Bonang (both together) - 1 page.

 

II "Allegro, mm" - 1 page.

 

I "Grave, mm" - 1 page.

 

III "Copy poem" - 1 page.

 

Protocols I A-C; II A-B; III A-C - 2 pages.

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A Round for Jafran Jones 1991

Physical Description: 1 page
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1 page autograph score

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Concerto for Piano and Javanese Gamelan 1986-1987

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Book Music 1994

Physical Description: 12 pages
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12 pages, used for incidental music between poetry readings.

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Gending Moon 1994

Physical Description: 9 pages
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9 pgs autograph score, sketches.

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For the Repose of my Friend James Broughton 1999

Physical Description: 1 page
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1 page autograph score.

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Gending Degung undated

Physical Description: 21 pages
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21 pages autograph score/sketches

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Gending, Sapphires in Leinster Ogam undated

Physical Description: 1 page
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1 page, ink.

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Threnody for Carlos Chavez (Main Bersama - Samos II with Viola) undated

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Gamelan and Viola
Notes:Originally titled Main Bersama-Sama II
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1 page autograph score, ink

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Gending Samuel undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
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2 pages autograph score w/paste-ups.

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Gending Pak Chokro undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
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2 pages, autograph score, ink.

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Bubaran Robert undated

Physical Description: 3 pages
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3 pages autograph score

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Gending Ptolemy undated

Physical Description: 3 pages
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3 pages autograph score

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Serenade undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
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2 pages Suling melody.

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Gending Max Beckman undated

Physical Description: 1 page
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1 page autograph score

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Ladrang Chelsea undated

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Notes: Gamelan, on a theme by Virgil Thomson.
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1 page, copy of Thomson's 16 measure notation with Harrison's Gamelan transcription.

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7. Non-Western Instruments 1940-1992

Series Scope and Content Summary

12 titles. This series contains pieces played with non-western instruments. Asian ensemble, Asian, African and Western combinations, followed by solo Asian instrument further divide Non-Western Instrument works.
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Air for Violin, Ya Cheng, and Gender 1940

Physical Description: 5 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Violin, ya cheng, gender
Dates: Undated (begun 1940, revised 1970s)
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
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4 pages. 2 pages autograph score. [1970]

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1 page autograph sketch. [1940], [1970]

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Moogunkwha, Se Tang Ak (Sharonrose, a New Song in the Old Style or A New Tang Melody) 1961

Physical Description: 26 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Korean court orchestra (cross-flutes, double reeds, viols, psalteries, percussion)
Date: June 1961
Premiere: Read-through by students at Korean National Classical Music Institute in Seoul, Korea, 1961 or 1962.
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
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Folio, 12 pages. 11 pages autograph score, 1 page autograph sketches (pencil).

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10 pages autograph score with title page and notes, (ink).

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Prelude for Piri and Reed Organ 1961

Physical Description: 4 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: P'iri, organ
Dates: Between August and November 1961
Premiere: November 12, 1961, StickyWicket, Aptos, CA: Lou Harrison
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
Cross References: Used in Nova Odo, Movement II (1968) and Homage to Messaien (1996).
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2 pages. 1 page autograph score (ink) - 1 page autograph sketch for Political Primer (not related), pencil.

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Folio, 4 pages 3 pages autograph sketches.

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Quintal Taryung 1961-1962

Physical Description: 4 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: (a) 2 Korean flutes, optional changgo (b) alto and tenor recorders, optional snareless drum
Date: Between September 1961 and June 1962
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
Notes: For Robert Hughes
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Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score with introductory notes.

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Sonata for Psaltery 1961-1962

Physical Description: 8 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Great psaltery (or cheng)
Dates: October 1961, revised 1962
Premiere: November 12, 1961, Sticky Wicket, Aptos, CA: Lou Harrison
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 2.5 minutes
Notes: For Liang Tsai Ping.
These four pages numbered consecutively
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1 page autograph score with revisions (Western notation).

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2 pages autograph notes, tuning schema, score ("Pan Sinitic" notation).

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1 page photocopy of autograph score and sketch.

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2 pages autograph score in ink w/ notes.

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2 pages blueprint copies of autograph score w/ notes.

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Pacifika Rondo 1963

Physical Description: 3 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Flute, trombone, organ, celesta, piano, vibraphone, percussion, strings; p'iris, sheng, psalteries, cheng, kayageum, pak, jahlataranga
Movements: (1) Family of the Court; (2) A Play of Dolphins; (3) Lotus; (4) In Sequoia's Shade; (5) Netzahualcoyotl Builds a Pyramid (Homage to Carlos Chávez); (6) A Hatred of the Filthy Bomb; (7) From the Dragon Pool
Date: May 1963
Premiere: May 26, 1963, University of Hawaii, Manoa, HI
Publisher: Peer
Notes: Commissioned by East-West Center, University of Hawaii. Dedicated to his parents.
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3 pages autograph score in Esperanto with tuning schema. Title page Movement II.

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The Garden at One and a Quarter Moons 1964

Physical Description: 12 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Great psaltery (or cheng)
Dates: December 21, 1964; revised November 9, 1966
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 2.5 minutes
Notes: For Robert Hughes
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Folio, 4 pages. 1 page title. 1 page score ("Pan-Sinitic" notation).

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Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score with tuning schema and notes ("Pan-Sinitic" and Western notation).

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Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score with revisions (Western notation).

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2 pages autograph score, blueprint copies, tuning schema and notes (Pan-Simitic and Western notation).

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Wesak Sonata 1964

Physical Description: 4 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Cheng
Movements: (1) Grave (2) Allegro
Dates: Movement I: April - May 1964; work completed, June 1964
Premiere: November 15, 1964, Old Spaghetti Factory, San Francisco, CA: Margaret Fabrizio
Publisher: Author's private edition
Notes: For Wesak day (April 8). "Author's Private Edition" used for limited serigraph edition.
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4 pages autograph score with tuning schema and introductory notes.

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Music for Violin with Various Instruments; European, Asian, and African 1967

Physical Description: 17 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

My Music for Violin with Various Instruments was written for Gary Beswick's graduation recital from San Jose State University. I was determined not to write a violin piece with piano accompaniment. Since I was collecting instruments for demonstrations and presentations for my World Music class, I chose a set to form the accompanying ensemble for the solo violin work. There are three movements. The first is called ductia and that is a form derived from a European form which resembles the estampie but differs from the latter in that it is rhythmically free and is generally of fewer strophes. Though it does preserve the idea of a theme followed by a half-cadence and then a repeat of the theme followed by a full cadence. In this movement I chose for accompaniment a reed-organ (Army leftover from World War II) which had been tuned in just Pythagorean tunings especially for the use which I put it here, droning. The psaltery here is a very large one of my own design which was based on the general principals of the Chinese cheng. It was built to my specifications by Morris Reynolds in 1961. In this instance the size is such that the instrument has its own "leg system", and the strings are so far apart that the use of octave and fifth chords in the accompaniment needed to be accomplished by the making of a plectrum holding three wires which project down to the strings and produce the required tones. The drums are of ordinary tom-tom kind.
Movement II uses the reed organ drone on the tonic, the 2nd degree, the 5th degree and the octave above the tonic. It sustains this chord through the 1st and last portions of the piece while reducing forces in the middle section. I have not hesitated here, because the organ is correctly tuned, to ask of the violinist correctly played 7th and 11th overtones. The effect of the violin with the organ in this movement suggests the sound of Japanese gagaku.
I was fortunate in my World Music class to have an African student who was able to build for me a group of mbiras - 2 for the upper register and 2 for the lower tones. The 1st mbira player plays the tune along with the violin but adding those sounds that an mbira player usually adds; slapping the back of the instrument and stomping his foot on the strong beats. Mbira's 2, 3, and 4, play the scales up and down in such a way that the more steadily progressing mbira 2 is supported by rich tonal brocade. All of the instruments play in the correctly tuned mode that they share with the violin. The form of the piece is generally antiphonal. The solo violin and mbira player #1 consorting together and then the entire ensemble resounding with harmonious support.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Solo violin, reed organ in Pythagorean tuning, 1 percussion, psaltery (alternative: tack piano or harpsichord), 4 mbiras (alternative: harp or marimba).
Movements: (1) Allegro vigoroso (2) Largo (3) Allegro moderato
Dates: 1967, revised 1969
Premiere: May 1, 1967, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA: Gary Beswick, violin.
Publisher: Peer 1972
Length: 10.5 minutes
Notes: For Gary Beswick.
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12 pages autograph score (ink).

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5 pages autograph sketches (pencil).

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A Phrase for Arion's Leap 1974

Physical Description: 8 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: 3 ya chengs (bowed psalteries), 2 harps, percussion
Dates: December 15, 1974
Publisher: [West coast] Ear 1 (Berkeley,CA; no date); Xenharmonikon 2 #1 (Spring 1975)
Length: 5 minutes
Notes: In Free Style. For Charles Shere.
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Folio, 4 pages. 1 page autograph score.

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Folio, 4 pages. 1 page autograph sketches. 2 pages unrelated sketches.

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Suite for Four Haisho 1992

Physical Description: 5 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: 4 haisho (Japanese panpipes), percussion, narrator
Movements: (1) qu= ca. 60 (2) qu= ca. 104 (3) Slow and free
Dates: Movements I, II: October - November 1992; Movement III: December 22, 1992
Premiere: January 14, 1993
Text: Lou Harrison, "Journeys" ( Reed Magazine , San Jose State University, San Jose, CA; v.47, 1993)
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 21 minutes
Notes: Movement II is a kit with 10 phrases for haisho and 10 for percussion that can be rearranged, repeated, or omitted at will. Texts, to be spoken in Noh drama style, inserted between movements.
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Movement I: 1 page autograph score.

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Movement II: 2 pages autograph score.

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Movement III: 2 pages autograph score.

General

Note: 1 page for Haisho solo is marked IIII. All pages numbered consecutively, 1-5.
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Suite for Sangen 1996

Physical Description: 9 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Shamisen
Movements: (1) Prelude (2) Estampie (3) Adagio (4) Round
Date: October 31, 1996
Premiere: December 6, 1996
Publisher: Frog Prak
Length: 18.5 minutes
Notes: For Akiko Nishigata.
When Akiko Nishigata came to San Francisco to ask me to compose a work for her for sangen, I was at once delighted and frightened. At first I thought of writing for one or two other instruments along with her own, but then decided to try an outright solo --- a single melody without even "double stops". My memory fetched up hearing the instrument onstage with the marvelous Japanese puppet theater as well as in theater works both in Tokyo and New York. Miss Nishigata sent me splendid recordings of her own wonderful performances on the instrument, along with basic information about tunings, range, and possibilities. Meanwhile the images of long-lutes from elegant old Egyptian paintings, from Persian miniatures and other global sources rose in my mind. Lately I have been fascinated by six-tone modes, and in this suite of four movements, I composed three of the movements in six-toned modes, the remaining section being chromatic and aria-like over drones on the open strings of the sangen. The second movement I wrote in the form of an estampie, the medieval instrumental, or even dance form, of which I am very fond. The adagio, which follows, is the chromatic piece that allows the melody to move by only three intervals, the minor second, the major third, and the perfect fifth. The work opens with a free=form prelude, and concludes with a dance-like and cheerful allegro.
Lou Harrison
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Movement I: 1 page autograph sketches.

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Movement II: 1 pages autograph sketches.

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Movement III: 2 pages autograph score.

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Movement IV: 5 pages autograph sketches and copy of autograph score.

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8. Keyboard 1934-1996

Series Scope and Content Summary

24 titles. This series contains works listed for "Piano" and "Other" including organ, cembalo, and harpsichord.
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Six Sonatas for Cembalo 1934-1943

Physical Description: 29 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Along with my Mass and one or two other works, my Six Sonatas for Cembalo are Mission-style pieces. They were directly stimulated by my studies about and feelings for the land, peoples, and history of California. Indeed, they are part of the "Regionalist" school of thought that was so prevalent and, for a young person, stimulating in the 1930s. These Six Sonatas reflect the romance and geometry of impassioned Spain, as well as the pastoral Indian imagery of native America in its Western life. The artistic model was, of course, Scarlatti and Manuel de Falla. The collection was first published by Henry Cowell's wondrous New Music Edition. Either in part or entire these sonatas have been played by Sylvia Marlowe, Ralph Kirkpatrick, and a number of other harpsichordists including Linda Burman-Hall who has recorded them on a Musical Heritage Society CD.
--Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Harpsichord or piano
Movements: (1) Moderato (2) Allegro (3) Moderato (4) Allegro (5) Moderato (6) Allegro
Dates: Begun 1934, completed 1943
Premiere: Of the entire set: January 24, 1944, Evenings on the Roof, Los Angeles, CA: Frances Mullen
Publisher: New Music Quarterly XVII/1, October 1943; new edition (with suggested ornamentation by Susan Summerfield): Peer, 1990
Length: 29 minutes
Notes: Sonata I used for Esther Ballou, Variations, Scherzo and Fugue on a Theme by Lou Harrison, 1959.
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Folio, 16 pages. Original publication of New Music Quarterly, October 1943 (copy of autograph) inscribed to family for Christmas. 1944

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11 pages, autograph score in ink. ca. 1990

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2 pages, autograph sketches for preparation.

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Ground in E Minor 1936 1970

Physical Description: 4 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano
Date: September 5, 1936; revised 1970
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
Length: 2 minutes
Cross References: Revised and used as A Summerfield Set , Movement II (1988).
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Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score, 1936, with revision markings. 1936, 1970

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Large Ostinato 1937, 1970

Physical Description: 8 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano
Dates: January 15, 1937; revised 1970
Publisher: Unpublished manuscript
Length: 4.5 minutes
Notes: Original manuscript says "piano or orchestra" but there is no orchestration from this period.
For John Dobson.
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Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score, including title page, 1937, with later pencil revisions. 1937

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4 pages autograph revised score. 1970

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Prelude for Grandpiano 1937-1938

Physical Description: 12 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano
Date: Completed September 16, 1937
Publisher: New Music Quarterly XI/4, July 1938
Length: 6.5 minutes
Notes: For Henry Cowell
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Folio, 12 pages. Pages 9-12 of original publication, New Music Quarterly 1938, inscribed "For Mother because of everything". 1937-1938

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Saraband 1937-1938

Physical Description: 12 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano
Date: Completed May 24, 1937
Publisher: New Music Quarterly, XI/4, July 1938
Length: 4 minutes
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Folio, 12 pages. Original publication, New Music Quarterly, inscribed to "For Mother because of everything". 1937-1938

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Third Piano Sonata 1938

Physical Description: 26 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

My Third Piano Sonata was composed in San Francisco in 1938. I edited the work in 1970. Technically, it expounds a method of composing which I have used many, many times. I separate out, say, three intervals, and compose the melodies using only those three intervals. I may also select three other intervals (the remaining ones if you consider there are really only six, all the others being inversions) and use the latter for harmonic purposes. The result in this sonata is a continuous fabric of minor seconds and major thirds in the melody and major seconds and fourths in the chords. The chords are thick in the second movement, and I described it as "fistfuls of notes". The first movement is declamatory in style, the second fast and excited, and the last movement a valedictory in nature.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Piano
Movements: (1) Slowish and singing (2) Fast and rugged (3) Very slow, very singing and solemn
Dates: 1938; edited December 3, 1970
Premiere: Radio performance, 1938: Lou Harrison
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 10.5 minutes
Notes: For Douglas Thompson.
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Folio, 18 pages. 15 pages autograph score/sketches, pencil. 1938

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8 pages autograph score, ink.

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Reel to Henry Cowell (Reel: Homage to Henry Cowell) 1939 1982

Physical Description: 8 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano
Dates: 1939
Publisher: 12 x 11: Piano Music in Twentieth Century America, Maurice Hinson, Editor (Chapel Hill: Hinshaw Music, 1979)
Length: 4 minutes
Cross References: Revised and orchestrated for use as Third Symphony, Movement IIa (1982). Also related to "Polka" from Grand Duo (1988)
Notes: Von Gunden, Music of Lou Harrison, gives 1936 for this work, based on Neil Rutman's thesis. However, the date of 1939 appears on the manuscript and is also given in Leslie Celso's San Jose State University master's thesis on the piano music, prepared under the composer's supervision.
box-folder 31:7

4 pages, copy of autograph with sparse revision markings. 1982

box-folder 31:7

4 pages, copy of published score with orchestration markings. 1982

box-folder 31:8

Suite for Piano 1943

Physical Description: 21 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

In 1942-43 I was working as a musician and teacher in the Dance Department of the University of California at Los Angeles and had indeed gone there in hopes that I might study, even a little, with Schoenberg. It proved that he was conducting a small seminar on one afternoon each week. I gathered up my courage and applied to his then assistant, Harold Halma, who took me directly to Schoenberg in his study. He had evidently been in deep concentration, and must have been startled, for he physically twitched during the introduction. I was relieved, though, to be accepted. I was told that he refused to examine any work in "12-tone technique". Firstly, then, I took my Saraband and also my Prelude for Grand Piano and played those for him. He said, in obvious pleasure, "This is music I understand," and, turning, asked my fellow seminarians, "Why do you not bring to me such music?" Meanwhile, I had been introduced by the lovely dancer Melissa Blake to Peter Yates and his wife, Frances Mullen. We shared intently many musical pleasures and, upon discovering that Frances Mullen was a fine concert pianist and sympathetic to new music, I began to concentrate on this Suite for Piano, to give her. I had composed much of it, and then found that I was composing myself into a corner in III, the Conductus. Emboldened by Schoenberg's own kindnesses, I arrived one afternoon with the work. I supposed that, for my bringing in a 12-tone work he might throw the three or four of us "out" permanently (as I was told he had done once or twice before in exasperation) - or that he might throw out at least me. I played the Prelude. There was a rather long silence, and then he asked me, thoughtfully, "Is it a 12-tone?" I simply said, "Yes." he reached for the page, saying, "It is good! It is good!" (What a relief! I was not going to be thrown out! ) He asked me to continue, and I played Movement II. Again, "It is good! It is good!" He seemed fascinated by the very wide soft spacing in measures 4-8. By the time I had played to the point of my blockage in Movement III, he plunged directly in, already aware of my structure, and, with splendid illuminating instructions, permanently disposed of for me not only that particular difficulty but also any of the kind that I might ever encounter. Many years ago I wrote a sentence, in a paper for the East-West Music Encounter in Tokyo, which suggests something of what I felt he was telling me about: "... that deft, light musicality which to us (as musicians) is the very happiest conjunction of our intellect and senses."
If, as I sometimes suspect, I was being "spoofed" about Arnold Schoenberg's patience, then I am nonetheless grateful for that, too, for obvious reasons. He was a lovely and delicate man, very nervous when airplanes flew over U.C.L.A.; who once hushed us, too, in order to hear a bird outside. There was more, and much of musical interest. When I was about to leave for New York, he asked me why I was going there and I replied that I did not really know. "I know why you are going," he said. " You are going for fame and fortune. Good luck! And, do not study anymore - only Mozart!"
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Piano
Movements: (1) Prelude (2) Aria (3) Conductus (4) Interlude (5) Rondo
Date: May 1943
Premiere: May 8, 1944: Evenings on the Roof, Los Angeles, CA: Frances Mullen.
Publisher: Peters, 1964
Length: 16.5 minutes
Notes: For Frances Mullen Yates
box-folder 31:8

21 pages accordion fold copy of autograph score. There are slight autograph markings/revisions in Movement III.

box-folder 31:9

Serenade in C 1944

Physical Description: 9 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: (a) piano (b) woodwind quintet (arranged Robert Hughes)
Dates: 1944 (Woodwinds arranged 1962)
Premiere: (a) Never performed (b) April 15, 1962, Sticky Wicket, Aptos, CA: Robert Hughes and ensemble.
Publisher: Version b: Frog Peak
box-folder 31:9

Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score. Inscribed "For Sonia's Birthday 1944, with love, Lou". 1944

box-folder 31:9

5 pages autograph score "arranged for wind quintet by Robert Hughes"

box-folder 31:10

A 12-Tone Morning After to Amuse Henry 1944-1945

Physical Description: 5 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano
Dates: ca. 1944-45
Premiere: March 25, 1997, 92nd St. 'Y' (Young Men's & Women's Hebrew Association), New York, NY: Michael Barrett
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: ca. 2 minutes
box-folder 31:10

4 pages. 2 pages autograph score with note to Henry Cowell.

box-folder 31:10

1 page with partial "Row Chart" and some unrelated sketches.

box-folder 31:11

New York Waltzes (Three Waltzes for Edward McGowan) 1944-1951 1994

Physical Description: 8 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano
Movements: (1) Waltz in C (2) Hesitation Waltz (3) Waltz in A
Dates: (1) September 16, 1945 (2) Fall 1951 (3) September 14, 1944
Premiere: October 22, 1994, Cabrillo College, Aptos, CA: Michael Boriskin.
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 4 minutes
Notes: For Edward McGowan.
box-folder 31:11

4 pages autograph.

box-folder 31:11

"Waltz in C", 1 page autograph score.

box-folder 31:11

"Hesitation Waltz", 1 page autograph score.

box-folder 31:11

"Waltz in A", 1 page autograph score.

box-folder 31:11

1 page unrelated sketch.

box-folder 31:11

Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score in ink. 1994

box-folder 31:12

Two Unused Pieces for Jose Limón 1945

Physical Description: 9 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano
Movements: (1) Polka (2) Allegro alla Jarabe
Date: December 6, 1945
Premiere: Scheduled April 28, 1997, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York, NY: Michael Boriskin.
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 5 minutes
Notes: These 2 movements were originally Movements V-VI of a longer composition; other movements are lost.
box-folder 31:12

Polka: Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph.

box-folder 31:12

1 page photocopy with slight revisions in red ink.

box-folder 31:12

Jarabe: Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score.

box-folder 31:13

Triphony 1945

Physical Description: 7 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano
Date: December 6,1945 William Masselos, date unknown
Publisher: Peters
Length: 4.5 minutes
Cross References: Arranged as String Trio (1946). Revised and used in Suite for Symphony Strings , Movement V (1960).
Notes: See also Series 2: Notebooks - notebook no. 53 and notebook in file for Alleluia (Chamber Orchestra) which includes autograph sketches for Triphony.
box-folder 31:13

5 pages copy of autograph score 1945

box-folder 31:13

2 pages autograph score 1994

box-folder 31:14

Praises for Michael the Archangel 1946-1947

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

1 score and 5 pages Instrumentation: Organ
Date: Begun January 1946; completed January 15, 1947
Publisher: Score - Music in the United States of America; Lou Harrison: Keyboard and Chamber Music, 1937-1944 , Leta Miller, editor
Length: 7 minutes
Cross References: Revised for use in Elegiac Symphony , Movement IV (1975)
box-folder 31:14

Copy of autograph score. [16 pages accordian fold]

box-folder 31:14

Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph sketches.

box-folder 31:14

1 page related sketches.

box-folder 31:15

Homage to Milhaud 1948

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano
Date: September 31, 1948
Publisher: 12 x 11: Piano Music in Twentieth Century America, Maurice Hinson, Editor (Chapel Hill: Hinshaw Music, 1979)
Length: 5 minutes
Cross Reference: See also: Notebook #21 - "Allegro Moderato" (Homage to Milhaud) September 31, 1948.
box-folder 31:15

1 page, copy of autograph score with autograph signature.

box-folder 31:16

Little Suite for Piano 1949

Physical Description: 7 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano
Movements: (1) Pastorale (2) Quadrille (3) Chorale
Date: November 8, 1949
Publisher: E.B. Marks, American Composers of Today, 1965
Length: 2.5 minutes
Notes: For Remy Charlip
box-folder 31:16

4 pages. 3 pages autograph sketches. 1949

box-folder 31:16

3 pages autograph score in ink. 1949

box-folder 31:17

Double Canon for Carl Ruggles 1951

Physical Description: 6 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano
Date: 1951
Publisher: Unpublished
Length: 1.5 minutes
Cross Reference: Revised and used in Concert for Organ with Percussion Orchestra , Movement II (1973)
box-folder 31:17

Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages, autograph score with revisions in pencil. 1951

box-folder 31:17

2 pages, photocopy.

box-folder 31:18

Festival Dance 1951, 1996

Physical Description: 16 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: 2 pianos
Dates: 1951, revised 1996
Premiere: March 18, 1997, Cooper Union College, New York, NY: Aki Takahashi, Sarah Cahill
Publisher: Unpublished
box-folder 31:18

4 pages autograph score in ink. 1951

box-folder 31:18

8 pages, blueprint copies of autograph with sparse notes by composer. 1951

box-folder 31:18

4 pages photocopy of autograph with revisions. 1996

box-folder 31:19

Fugue for David Tudor 1952

Physical Description: 4 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano
Dates: Begun 1947; completed 1952
Premiere: February 10, 1952, Cherry Lane Theater, New York, N.Y.: David Tudor
Publisher: Unpublished
Length: 3.5 minutes
Cross References: Orchestra for Suite for Symphony Strings, Movement VII (1960)
box-folder 31:19

4 pages, copy of autograph score

box-folder 31:20

A Summerfield Set 1936, 1970, 1988

Physical Description: 11 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

My friend Susan Summerfield offered to play a new work in a concert at Mills College. It was to be realized by almost any combination of two harpsichords and/or two organs played by two musicians. I chose to write in such a way that the score could be played in a number of different ways. The first movement developed from my love for the beautiful Hymn to Venus which opens Lucretius' De Rarumm Naturum. The image of an exhausted and tortured Lord of War seeking sympathy and solace from the Lady of Love is the basis of the movement. The Ground which follows evolved over a number of years and has a clear origin in the lovely Ground by Henry Purcell. The Round for the Triumph of Alexander in this quasi-classical context is often assumed to have to do with Alexander the Great. Well, we hope that he will be great for it was written for my namesake Alexander Harrison Summerfield in celebration of his growing up joyously.
Lou Harrison
Instrumentation: Piano or other keyboard instrument
Movements: (1) Sonata (2) Ground (3) Round for the Triumph of Alexander
Dates: Movement I: January 1, 1988; Movement II: September 5, 1936, revised 1970; Movement III: January 12, 1988
Premiere: February 28, 1988, Mills College, Oakland, CA: Susan Summerfield
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 11 minutes
Cross Reference: Movement II revision of Ground in E Minor (1936; revised 1970; further revised for A Summerfield Set )
Notes: For Susan Summerfield
box-folder 31:20

7 pages autograph score. 1988

box-folder 31:20

1 page autograph, revised version of Ground in E Minor. 1936, 1970

box-folder 31:20

3 pages copies of autograph sketches.

box-folder 31:21

Pedal Sonata for Organ 1989

Physical Description: 6 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Organ (pedals only)
Movements: (1) Chorale (2) As fast as possible (3) Jahla: Fast
Date: February 1989
Premiere: March 17, 1989, Central United Methodist Church, Stockton, CA: Fred Tulan
Publisher: Frog Peak
Length: 7 minutes
box-folder 31:21

6 pages: 1 page copy of autograph title page. 2 pages autograph score. 3 pages copy of autograph score.

box-folder 31:22

Homage to Messaien 1996

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Organ
Notes: Arrangment of Prelude for Piri and Reed Organ (1962) with added text by Harrison.
box-folder 31:22

1 page autograph score.

box-folder 31:23

Sonata for Harpsichord [Sonata for Keyboard] 1999

Physical Description: 6 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Keyboard
Movements: (1) Allegro moderato (2) Adagio (3) Estampie
Date: December 1999
Premiere: December 31, 1999
Publisher: Score: Peer
Cross Reference: See also Ser.2: Notebook #28.
Notes: For Linda Burman-Hall.
The Sonata for Harpsichord was composed by Harrison for Linda Burman-Hall to play on the eve of year 2000. It offers three contrasting moods based on modal scales: a bustling energetic opening with inner-voice trills, a warmly lyrical central meditation, and a flamenco-tinged "Estampie" dance accented by exuberant cluster chords. Harrison planned the work for the Baroque well-temperament Kirnberger II, which he also used to compose his Concerto for Piano with Selected Orchestra [1985]
box-folder 31:23

Movement II: 2 pages autograph score.

box-folder 31:23

Movement III: 4 pages autograph score. 1 page autograph sketches.

box-folder 31:24

Portrait of Abbey Shahn on her birthday, July 31, 1951 1951

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 31:24

1 page autograph score.

Box 32

9. Etcetera 1927-2003

Series Scope and Content Summary

44 titles. Sketches, studies, unfinished works, and small pieces gifted to friends. Manuscripts in this series contain unfinished works, sketches, teaching examples and studies. Examples of small gifted pieces include birthday melodies and pastorals. Also within this series are pieces written in collaboration with Robert Hughes that are not included in the Harrison Catalogue and small works by others and gifted to Harrison.
Note:This pieces in this series are arranged alphabetically by title.
box-folder 32:1

3 Hour Sketch for Orchestra, undated

Physical Description: 8 pages
box-folder 32:1

Folio, 8 pages. 5 pages autograph sketches, titled by composer.

box-folder 32:2

3 Tone Song, New York undated

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note : "Like a race the negro boy said, and I wasn't sure I heard. What race? He said it clear, gathering into his attention the auction inside. The room too hot, the seats theatre soft. His foot, the instant it crossed the threshold, as his voice, drawing the whites eyes of the silver set New Yorkers, passed along the rows for weight, feel the weight, leading summer idling evening fold to bid up dollar by dollar, I beside him in the door."
box-folder 32:2

1 page autograph score.

box-folder 32:3

12-tone sketch for glockenspiel, celesta, piano, harp, prepared piano undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 32:3

1 page autograph sketches with row chart.

box-folder 32:4

Academic Waltzes undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 19:4

1 page autograph music examples used to teach a class at Black Mountain College.

box-folder 32:5

Allegro Moderato undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 32:5

2 pages autograph short-score, 44 measures.

box-folder 32:6

An Aborted Exquisite Corpse undated

Physical Description: Folio, 4 pages
box-folder 32:6

1 page autograph sketches described by Harrison in title.

box-folder 32:6

2 pages autograph sketches for a Mass.

box-folder 32:6

1 page unidentified autograph rhythmic structures not in Harrison's hand.

box-folder 32:7

Concerto for Tenor Violin undated

Physical Description: 12 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note:Not authorized for performance.
box-folder 32:7

Folio, 12 pages. 9 pages autograph sketches of incomplete Concerto.

box-folder 32:8

Double Fanfare by Bob Hughes and Charles Shere [For clarinet, viola, cello, bassoon] 1977

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation:Alto and bass: Charles Shere 13 May 1977; Soprano and tenor: Bob Hughes 15 May 1977
Note: Double Fanfare equally distributed among the twelve tones for Lou Harrison.
box-folder 32:8

1 page autograph score.

box-folder 32:9

Duet by Jim Cleghorn undated

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note:Jim Cleghorn was a boyfriend of Harrison's in San Francisco, ca. 1935.
box-folder 32:9

1 page autograph score in Cleghorn's hand with note on reverse "Been here and gone, Jim Cleghorn".

box-folder 32:10

Just Intonation Sketches undated

Physical Description: 15 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note: "Sketches toward a large work in Just Intonation "
Comment by composer: "The world gets out of touch with me every so often. What does it want? Recognition? If so, it had best begin to behave properly!"
box-folder 32:10

Folio 15 pages. 8 pages autograph sketches with comment by composer.

box-folder 32:11

Mass sketch - "Beginning of a Mass in the style of Stravinsky" undated

Physical Description: 10 pages
box-folder 32:11

10 pages autograph sketches.

box-folder 32:12

Nocturne undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 32:12

2 pages autograph sketches. 1 page titled Nocturne.

box-folder 32:13

Pastoral, Saraband, Pastorale, for Remy Charlip 1951

Physical Description: 3 pages
box-folder 32:13

1 page color photocopy of Pastoral and Saraband with note from Remy Charlip.

box-folder 32:13

2 copies aluminum plate etching score of Pastorale to Remy Charlip "for strings preferably viols".

box-folder 32:14

Percussion score 1930-1939

Physical Description: 4 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note: Composer states "... from Percussion Concert at Mills College in 30's?"
box-folder 32:14

Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score and sketches.

box-folder 32:15

Ritmicas (Homago al Roldan) undated

Physical Description: 10 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note: "Double music by Lou Harrison and Robert Hughes"
box-folder 32:15

3 pages autograph score (incomplete Movement I) in Robert Hughes' hand.

box-folder 32:15

3 pages autograph score, moderato, in Robert Hughes' hand.

box-folder 32:15

Folio, 4 pages autograph sketches in Harrison's hand.

box-folder 32:16

Row Charts undated

Physical Description: 4 pages
box-folder 32:16

4 pages unidentified autograph row charts

box-folder 32:17

Sample (Asilomar Sample) undated

Physical Description: 4 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note: A sample used for experiment, at Asilomar, in "body sounds" on string instruments, under ASOL sponsorship.
box-folder 32:17

1 page autograph autograph score/sample.

box-folder 32:18

Seven Tone Sketch undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 32:18

1 page autograph sketches and row chart for the beginning of a 7-tone equal temperament serial piece.

box-folder 32:19

Shining Trumpets by Rudy Blesch undated

Physical Description: 4 pages

Scope and Contents

Note:Blues and jazz sketches by Harrison used for musical examples in book.
box-folder 32:19

Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph sketches.

box-folder 32:20

Sonata in D undated

Physical Description: 22 pages
box-folder 32:20

22 pages folio and loose pages. 11 pages autograph sketches for unfinished sonata.

box-folder 32:21

Sunrise Cadenza undated

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note: Not used and not authorized for performance.
box-folder 32:21

1 page autograph score.

box-folder 32:22

Three Poems of Lou Harrison undated

Physical Description: 7 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Voice and piano.
Movements: I: To Hades; II: To Persephone; III: About Tiresias.
Notes:Poems by Lou Harrison, music by Robert Hughes
box-folder 32:22

7 pages blueprint copy of autograph score in Hughes' hand.

box-folder 32:23

Happy Birthday Garrick undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 32:23

1 page copy of autograph score with note to Julian Beck.

box-folder 32:24

Three short movements for percussion undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 32:24

2 pages autograph score (Fast, Slow, Fast).

box-folder 32:25

Ductia for Soprano Recorder undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 32:25

1 page autograph score.

box-folder 32:26

"A Cowell Monument" undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 32:26

1 page autograph sketches.

box-folder 32:27

Adagio Grande undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 32:27

2 pages autograph sketches.

box-folder 32:28

"Agonies over the Bomb" undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 32:28

1 page autograph sketches and words.

box-folder 32:29

Air undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 32:29

1 page autograph score.

box-folder 32:30

Air by Richard Dee and Mass sketch by Lou Harrison undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 32:30

2 pages autograph sketches.

box-folder 32:31

Bode's Law undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 32:31

1 page autograph sketches.

box-folder 32:32

Canonic Studies undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 32:32

1 page autograph sketches.

box-folder 32:33

"For a Dance N.Y.C." undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 32:33

1 page autograph sketches

box-folder 32:34

Estampie for Serenade undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 32:34

1 page autograph sketches.

box-folder 32:35

A Fibonaci Mode/Fogliano, Just Meantone undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 32:35

2 pages autograph tuning schemas.

box-folder 32:36

Marcato undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 32:36

1 page autograph sketch.

box-folder 37:37

Mbira sketches undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 37:37

2 pages autograph sketches.

box-folder 32:38

Moderato undated

Physical Description: 3 pages
box-folder 32:38

3 pages autograph sketches.

box-folder 32:39

Ostinato undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 32:39

1 page autograph score.

box-folder 32:40

Ratio sketches undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 32:40

2 pages autograph sketches.

box-folder 32:41

Sketch for an Unfinished Song undated

Physical Description: 1 pages
box-folder 32:41

2 pages autograph sketches.

box-folder 32:42

Song sketch undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 32:42

1 page autograph sketch.

box-folder 32:43

Fantasia on a Theme by Lou Harrison by Anatole Sipin undated

Physical Description: 6 pages
box-folder 32:43

6 pages copy of autograph score for violin, viola, and cello.

box-folder 32:44

Afghan Fiddle Tunes 1968

Physical Description: 3 pages
box-folder 32:44

3 pages blue print score (2 copies) - "Indian songs", "Song of Badarshan" and "Afghan Fiddle Tunes"

box-folder 32:45

Small Pieces - Gifts undated

Physical Description: 3 pages
box-folder 32:45

"Thomas Johnson's Lullaby" - 1 page calligraphed autograph score

box-folder 32:45

"Heidi Gundlach's Lullaby", "Barry's Lullaby", "Thomas Johnson's Lullaby", "Judith Boetger's Lullaby" - 4 lullabies on 1 page - autograph pencil scores.

box-folder 32:45

"Morning Tune for Julio Cohig" - 1 page autograph score, pencil.

box-folder 32:46

Hades 1968

Physical Description: 3 pages
Box 33-34

10. Juvenilia 1927-1940

Series Scope and Content Summary

35 titles. Harrison's first compositions date from 1927, when he was ten years old. The Elegie was to become the first of many pieces memorializing friends, colleagues and people that were influential ( Threnody to Oliver Daniel, Elegy for Harpo Marx, Homage to Milhaud, In Memory of Victor Jowers , At the Tomb of Charles Ives ... to name a few). This first Elegie was dedicated to Helen Johnson a friend of the Harrison family. Much later in his life, Harrison discovered that he had "got the wrong one". It was Helen's sister who died in 1927.
Harrison became extremely prolific in his years in San Francisco. From 1934 through 1939 there are well over one hundred identified completed works which are housed at Mills College where Harrison worked from 1937 through 1940. The copies of works in this series are meant to be studied as examples of compositional progression and are not authorized for performance.
Note:No copies or photos. Not authorized for performance.
box-folder 33:1

Elegie: Dedicated to Helen Johnson undated

Physical Description: 4 pages
box-folder 33:1

2 pages autograph score for piano. Signed "Lou Silver Harrison, 10 years old"

box-folder 33:1

2 cover sheets with title and abstract watercolor

box-folder 33:2

Sonatina in G minor 1931

Physical Description: 8 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note: Composer's note: "begun Nov.10, 1931 - completed Nov. 11, 1931"
box-folder 33:2

Folio, 8 pages. 7 pages autograph score for piano with 1 page "notes"

box-folder 33:3

Organ Sonata No.I Opus 1932

Physical Description: 12 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note:"Begun May 12, 1932 - finished May 1932".
box-folder 33:3

Hand bound folio, 12 pages. 2 pages title, 3 pages autograph score (unfinished).

box-folder 33:4

Pianoforte Sonata No. VII Opus (Sonata No. VII in B flat major) 1932

Physical Description: 10 pages
box-folder 33:4

Hand bound folio, 10 pages: 1 title page, 5 pages autograph score.

box-folder 33:5

Sonata for Piano 1932

Physical Description: 14 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note: Harrison titled and signed this work at a much later date (ca. 1970) in his recognizable calligraphic hand.
box-folder 33:5

Hand bound folio, 14 pages: 1 title page, 9 pages autograph score.

box-folder 33:6

Sonata No.I in C 1932

Physical Description: 8 pages
box-folder 33:6

Folio, 8 pages: 7 pages autograph score for piano.

box-folder 33:7

Sonatina No. IV in A major 1932

Physical Description: 2 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Dates: Completed April 29, 1932; Andante completed May 6, 1932.
box-folder 33:7

2 pages autograph score for piano.

box-folder 33:8

Piano Sonata 1936

Physical Description: 10 pages
box-folder 33:8

10 pages, 7 pages autograph score.

box-folder 33:9

Last Music 1937

Physical Description: 4 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Contralto, strings, organ, harp, flute, and clarinet
Date: January 23, 1937
Note: "To John Dobson as always"
box-folder 33:9

4 pages copy of autograph score.

box-folder 33:10

Uneasy Rapture 1937

Physical Description: 7 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano, percussion
Choregrapher: Marion Van Tuyl
box-folder 33:10

5 pages copy of autograph score.

box-folder 3:10

2 pages copy of autograph percussion part.

box-folder 33:11

Suite for Recorder and Lute: Almar; Pavan; and Bouree 1941

Physical Description: 5 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note: To Eileen McCall Washington.
box-folder 33:11

5 pages photocopies of autograph score and parts.

box-folder 34:1

Prelude in C No. II/Prelude No. III in A major 1932

Physical Description: 4 pages
box-folder 34:1

Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score for piano.

box-folder 34:2

Psalm Sonata in C# minor 1932

Physical Description: 8 pages
box-folder 34:2

Folio, 8 pages. 5 pages autograph score for piano.

box-folder 34:3

Gothic Piece 1934

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Harpsichord
box-folder 34:3

1 page copy of autograph.

box-folder 34:4

Aubade for Gabriel 1935-1936

Physical Description: 13 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Percussion, Strings, and Voices
box-folder 34:4

13 pages photocopy of autograph score

box-folder 34:5

Moderato 1935-1936

Physical Description: 13 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Strings, Piano, Percussion, Voices
box-folder 34:5

13 pages copy of autograph score.

box-folder 34:6

Movement for Two Horns and Strings with Piano 1935

Physical Description: 4 pages
box-folder 34:6

4 pages photocopy of autograph score.

box-folder 34:7

Music for Handel in Heaven 1935

Physical Description: 6 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Violin, Viola, Cello
box-folder 34:7

6 pages copy of autograph score.

box-folder 34:8

Slowish and Serene 1935

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 34:8

2 pages photocopy of autograph score.

box-folder 34:9

Song: Pastoral night-piece; or A Request 1935

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Fiddle and Voice
box-folder 34:9

1 page photocopy of autograph score.

box-folder 34:10

The Geography of the Soul: Song, Excursion in Other Landscapes; Song, Unity in Strength; A Little Girl Walked 1935

Physical Description: 8 pages
box-folder 34:10

8 pages copy of autograph score for voice and piano, voice and string quartet, voice and harmonium.

box-folder 34:11

Three Dances of Conflict for Carol Beals 1935-1936

Physical Description: 13 pages
box-folder 34:11

13 pages photocopies of autograph score for piano.

box-folder 34:12

2 pieces and a letter to Henry Cowell 1936

Physical Description: 11 pages
box-folder 34:12

1 page photocopy of autograph letter to Henry Cowell.

box-folder 34:12

3 pages photocopy of autograph score; Apples (for piano) .

box-folder 34:12

7 pages photocopy of autograph score; (untitled piece for small ensemble).

box-folder 34:13

Allegro Maestoso 1936

Physical Description: 11 pages
box-folder 34:13

11 pages photocopy of autograph score for piano.

box-folder 34:14

Midnoon 1936

Physical Description: 12 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Violin, Viola, Cello, Harp
Date: April 1936
box-folder 34:14

5 pages copy of autograph score.

box-folder 34:14

7 pages copy of autograph parts.

box-folder 34:15

Overture for a Tragic Heroic Drama (such as certain Greek and Chinese classics) 1936

Physical Description: 6 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano, strings, percussion
box-folder 34:15

6 pages photocopy of autograph score.

box-folder 34:16

Piece for 2 players at a piano 1936

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 34:16

1 page photocopy of autograph score.

box-folder 34:17

Project No.2 for Piano May 1936

Physical Description: 8 pages
box-folder 34:17

Folio, 8 pages. 4 pages autograph score plus small inscription and title page.

box-folder 34:18

Second Suite for Solo Violin 1936

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note: To Sherry Slayback [Sherman]
box-folder 34:18

1 page photocopy of autograph score.

box-folder 34:19

Suite for Solo Violin 1936

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note: To Mervin Levy
box-folder 34:19

1 page copy of autograph score.

box-folder 34:20

Dance accompaniment for Eleanor Lauer 1937

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 34:20

1 page photocopy of autograph score.

box-folder 34:21

Electra(Incidental music) 1938

Physical Description: 13 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note: Mills College, Oakland, CA
box-folder 34:21

13 pages photocopy of autograph score and parts for various instruments.

box-folder 34:22

R.A.H. - for dance 1938

Physical Description: 4 pages
box-folder 34:22

4 pages photocopy of autograph score including R.A.H.'s Extatic Moment and R.A.H.'s Group Dance.

box-folder 34:23

Tribunal (Piano 4 hands) Spring 1938

Physical Description: 11 pages
box-folder 34:23

11 pages photocopy of autograph score.

box-folder 34:24

Exposition of a Cause May 1941

Physical Description: 11 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Instrumentation: Piano
box-folder 34:24

11 pages photocopy of autograph score to accompany dance.

Box 35

11. Asian Transcriptions and works by others for Asian instruments undated

Series Scope and Content Summary

46 titles. After returning from his first visit to Asia in 1961 and his stay in Taiwan with Liang Tsai-Ping, Lou sought out students to learn the cheng (Chinese psaltery). He first taught Richard Dee who took to the instrument immediately. Richard Dee and Lou played concerts of Chinese music at such places as the Nepenthe resort in Big Sur and the Old Spaghetti Factory in San Francisco. They both wrote original compositions for the instruments and integrated them with traditional pieces.
Later Bill Colvig and Lily Chin joined the ensemble and the instrumentation expanded. Richard, Bill, and Lily (and sometimes Lou) played hundreds of Young Audiences concerts over 8 years in every imaginable school system with such instruments as the sheng (mouth organ), erh-hu (a stringed instrument), ya-cheng (bowed psaltery), and various flute-like instruments.
The following manuscripts represent these concerts as well as a variety of pieces by friends and colleagues.
Note: The pieces in this series are arranged alphabetically by title.
box-folder 35:1

100 Birds Court the Phoenix undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 35:1

1 page autograph transcript, siao part.

box-folder 35:1

1 page blueprint copy of autograph transcription.

box-folder 35:2

A Bamboo Pole undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 35:2

1 page autograph score.

box-folder 35:3

Amitabha undated

Physical Description: 3 pages
box-folder 35:3

3 pages (three copies) autograph transcription.

box-folder 35:4

Ascending from the Tower undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 35:4

1 page blueprint copy of autograph score.

box-folder 35:5

At the Make-Up Stand undated

Physical Description: 7 pages
box-folder 35:5

7 pages autograph and photocopy of autograph score.

box-folder 35:6

Beautiful Fan Lady undated

Physical Description: 7 pages
box-folder 35:6

7 pages copy of autograph text for narration.

box-folder 35:7

Buddhist Chant undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 35:7

2 pages autograph and copy of autograph score and sketches.

box-folder 35:8

Celebrating the South - Chinese undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 35:8

1 page autograph transcription.

box-folder 35:9

The Chapter of Practicing the Tao by Fuchou undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 35:9

2 pages autograph transcription.

box-folder 35:10

Chinese Workshop Materials 1968

Physical Description: 9 pages
box-folder 35:10

9 pages materials from workshop with notes by Lou Harrison and William Colvig.

box-folder 35:11

Confucius Song undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 35:11

2 pages (2 copies) autograph transcription.

box-folder 35:12

Dragon Dance by Lily Chin undated

Physical Description: 4 pages
box-folder 35:12

4 page folio with 1 page autograph score and 2 inserted pages of Chinese characters.

box-folder 35:13

Faraway Land, Bamboo Pole, Tea Picker, Flower Drum Song undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 35:13

2 pages autograph score.

box-folder 35:14

Farewell undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 35:14

1 page autograph transcription by William Colvig.

box-folder 35:15

Five Glorias to the Buddha undated

Physical Description: 10 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note: "# based on such knowledge as could be had of art and life in the much earlier Chon Dynasty, which by Ming times held aureate nostalgia for all. An example of this style is here presented, in a transcription by William Colvig, of an Allegro phrase from the popular Five Glorias to the Buddha . It should be mentioned that present practice on the Sheng also allows (at will) the playing of single tones melodically (without organum)".
box-folder 35:15

6 page folio with 3 pages autograph score/sketch(transcription).

box-folder 35:15

4 page folio with 2 pages autograph score (transcription), 1 page transcription by William Colvig, 1 page autograph writing by Lou Harrison.

box-folder 35:16

Heavenly Happiness - Ming Dynasty undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 35:16

1 page autograph transcription.

box-folder 35:17

Hyi Mun (from the Civil Homage) undated

Physical Description: 6 pages
box-folder 35:17

6 pages autograph and copy of autograph score.

box-folder 35:18

In the Autumn Night; Deer Park Hermitage, Through the Yang Tsze Gorge, Song at Wei-Cheng, The Gold Threaded Robe undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 35:18

2 pages copy of score with autograph notes.

box-folder 35:19

Instructional Compilations undated

box-folder 35:19

2 bound copies of traditional pieces with autograph notes by Harrison and Colvig.

box-folder 35:20

Jipang Karaton undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 35:20

1 page autograph transcription.

box-folder 35:21

Lantern Dance for 2 chengs undated

Physical Description: 4 pages
box-folder 35:21

Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score, not in Harrison's hand.

box-folder 35:22

Litany undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 35:22

1 page autograph sketches.

box-folder 35:23

Liu Tien Wha's Soliloquy undated

Physical Description: 4 pages
box-folder 35:23

Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph transcription.

box-folder 35:24

Mahasthamaprapta undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 35:24

1 page autograph sketches.

box-folder 35:25

Moonlight Fantasy undated

Physical Description: 10 pages
box-folder 35:25

Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score, not in Harrison's hand, with sparse notes in Harrison's hand.

box-folder 35:25

Folio, 5 pages autograph score - "The Rising Moon"; "Silvery Splendour; Luminosity Fills the Space"; "Weaving Beauty"; "The Setting Moon"

box-folder 35:25

1 page insert, typed titles w/Chinese characters.

box-folder 35:26

Night Rain on Plantain Leaves undated

Physical Description: 1 page

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Arrangement: by Ming Yueh Liang
box-folder 35:26

1 page blueprint copy of transcription.

box-folder 35:27

Piece for Fang Hsiang in E minor undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 35:27

1 page autograph score.

box-folder 35:28

Running Brook undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 35:28

1 page autograph score. undated

box-folder 35:29

Sa li Hung Ba (Chinese Folk Song) undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 35:29

2 copies of score used for Young Audiences Concerts.

box-folder 35:30

Sang Youngsan, Jang Youngsan, Se Youngsan, Garag Diori, Sangyan Dodori, Yumbal Dodori, Taryung, Gunak undated

Physical Description: 16 pages
box-folder 35:30

Folio, 16 pages autograph score and sketches.

box-folder 35:31

Se Youngsan undated

Physical Description: 4 pages
box-folder 35:31

Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph sketches.

box-folder 35:32

Sheng Shih Hen undated

Physical Description: 4 pages
box-folder 35:32

4 page folio with 3 pages autograph score.

box-folder 35:33

Sinitic Concert Programs undated

Physical Description: 8 pages
box-folder 35:33

8 pages. Concert program titles and short address to Young Audiences.

box-folder 35:34

Six Instrumental pieces which are used in the Kuan Opera undated

Physical Description: 21 pages
box-folder 35:34

Folio, 12 pages autograph scores for: Old Six Beat, Celebrating the Southern Branch, Buddhist Chant, Minor Preliminaries, Mourning for Heaven, and The Grand Opening.

box-folder 35:34

9 pages blueprint copies of pieces.

box-folder 35:35

Song-Ku-Yo undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 35:35

1 page autograph score with additional sketches on reverse.

box-folder 35:36

Song of the Four Seasons undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 35:36

1 page autograph score.

box-folder 35:37

Song of the Tea Picker - Taiwan undated

Physical Description: 4 pages
box-folder 35:37

Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph transcription, not in Harrison's hand.

box-folder 35:38

Spring Dance - Canton 16th Century undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 35:38

1 page autograph score.

box-folder 35:39

Sprouting Mushrooms by William Colvig undated

Physical Description: 2 pages
box-folder 35:39

2 pages autograph score

box-folder 35:40

Tanso undated

Physical Description: 6 pages
box-folder 35:40

Folio, 6 pages. 3 pages autograph transcription.

box-folder 35:41

The Dawn by Ed Clamenco undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 35:41

1 page photocopy of autograph score.

box-folder 35:42

The White Snake Lady undated

Physical Description: 7 pages
box-folder 35:42

7 pages photocopy of autograph score with text.

box-folder 35:43

Universal Peace undated

Physical Description: 4 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note:Rearranged by Jung hsen Tung. "For Lou and Bill" from Tsai-Ping Liang, February, 1969.
box-folder 35:43

Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score.

box-folder 35:44

West Wind undated

Physical Description: 3 pages

Subseries Scope and Content Summary

Note: Arranged by Ming Yueh Liang
box-folder 35:44

3 pages autograph score.

box-folder 35:45

Yang Kwan San Tieh undated

Physical Description: 4 pages
box-folder 35:45

Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph transcriptions.

box-folder 35:46

Yi Dance undated

Physical Description: 1 page
box-folder 35:46

1 page autograph transcription.

box-folder 35:47

Misc. Unidentified pieces undated

Physical Description: 23 pages
box-folder 35:47

11 pieces.

box-folder 35:47

Looking Glass Rhapsody undated

Physical Description: 11 pages
box-folder 35:47

11 pages autograph score, unknown author. Written for Violin, Clarinet, Cello, Piano.

box-folder 35:47

Unidentified score for William Colvig/ Robert Duncan/ Wells undated

Physical Description: 4 pages
box-folder 35:47

4 pages, autograph score, ink on paper, probably by Harrison.