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
- George Barati Papers
- Ernest T. Kretschmer Archive
Related Collections
Additional information may be found in these related collections held by other
repositories
- Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University
- San Jose State University School of Music & Dance
- Lou Harrison Archive at Mills College
- The John Cage Music Manuscript Collection, Henry Cowell Collection, New Music Society
Archives, at the Music Division of the New York Public Library
- Northwestern University Music Library, Special Collections - John Cage
Collection
Other Finding Aids
- Lou Harrison Notebooks
- 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.
box-folder 1:1
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.
box-folder 1:1
Folio 4 pages. 1 page autograph sketches/score for
Waterfront. 3 pages autograph score
Sonata 4th
(unpublished / not authorized for performance).
1934
box-folder 1:2
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.
box-folder 1:2
13 pages, copy of original score from notebook.
1942
box-folder 1:2
20 pages autograph score. [Music notation and title page not in
composer's hand. Performance notes in composer's hand].
box-folder 1:3
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.
box-folder 1:3
Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score.
box-folder 1:4
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
box-folder 1:4
Folio, 6 pages. 3 pages autograph score.
box-folder 1:4
4 pages, photocopy of autograph score (different from above) with
performance markings.
box-folder 1:5
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.
box-folder 1:5
Folio, 12 pages. 10 pages autograph score, 1941, with sparse additional
notes.
1963
box-folder 1:5
8 pages autograph score with performance notes.
ca. 1963
box-folder 1:5
13 pages autograph material: 1 pages color schema notes, 12 pages
"Declamations".
ca. 1963
box-folder 1:6
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
box-folder 1:6
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.
box-folder 1:6
Movement II
Lord of the Night: pg. 1-11 [accordion
fold]
box-folder 1:6
Movement III
Battle: pg. 1-6
box-folder 1:6
Movement IV
Earth's Invitation: pg. 1-2
box-folder 1:6
Movement V
Vernal Dance: pg. 1-10
box-folder 1:6
Movement VI
Saturnalia: pg. 1-6
box-folder 1:6
Movement VII
Rekindling of the Fire: pg. 1
box-folder 1:6
Movement VIII
The Rolling of the Wheel: pg.
1-8
box-folder 1:6
Movement IX Finale,
Blaze of Day: pg. 1-9 [accordion
fold]
box-folder 1:7
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
box-folder 1:7
8 pages autograph score.
ca. 1951
box-folder 1:7
5 pages copy of autograph score (different from above) with autograph
pencil additions ca. 1985 (Movements I-IV only).
ca. 1951
box-folder 1:7
5 pages autograph piano score.
ca. 1985
box-folder 1:7
7 pages autograph, vocal settings.
ca. 1985
box-folder 1:7
3 pages typed vocal and choral parts with autograph notes (Movements II-V
only).
box-folder 1:8
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
box-folder 1:8
4 pages autograph score in ink.
1947
box-folder 1:9
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
box-folder 1:9
1 page autograph sketches.
box-folder 1:9
4 pages computer printed score with notes and admonishments by
composer.
box-folder 1:10
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.
box-folder 1:10
Movement I, Prelude: 1 page autograph score, pencil. 1 page autograph
sketches.
box-folder 1:10
Movement II, Allegro: 4 pages autograph score/schema, ink. 2 pages
autograph sketches.
box-folder 1:10
Movement III, Scherzo: 1 page autograph score, pencil. 1 page autograph
sketches.
box-folder 1:10
Movement IV, Ductia: 5 pages autograph score, pencil.
box-folder 1:10
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.
box-folder 1:10
Movement VI, Chromatic Rhapsody: 3 pages autograph score, pencil; 2 pages
autograph sketches.
box-folder 1:10
Movement VII, Romantic Waltz: 3 pages autograph score, ink. 3 pages
autograph sketches.
box-folder 1:10
Movement VIII, Fox Trot: 4 pages autograph score, pencil. 1 page
autograph sketches.
box-folder 1:10
Movement IX, Threnody: 4 pages autograph score, pencil.
box-folder 1:10
Movement X, In Honor of Prince Kantimir: 6 pages autograph score, pencil;
2 pages autograph revised measures for insert; 3 pages revised.
box-folder 1:10
Movement XI, 5 - Tone Kit: 1 page autograph score/schema, pencil. 1 page
autograph sketches.
box-folder 1:10
Movement XII, Round-Dance: 8 pages autograph score, pencil; 2 pages
autograph sketches.
box-folder 1:10
Autograph score: 4 pages photocopy with slight autograph revision
notes.
box-folder 1:10
Sketches: 3 pages unidentified sketches
box-folder 1:10
1 page fax from Margaret Fisher with autograph music notation by
composer
box-folder 1:11
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.
box-folder 1:11
Small 4 page folio. 2 pages autograph score for Chorale. 2 pages
autograph sketches, signed Lou Harrison, BMK [Black Mountain College],
1951
box-folder 1:11
Photocopies of Lou Harrison autograph scores from the Litz Collection,
New York Public Library:
1951
box-folder 1:11
Adjustable Chorale: 1 page (different from
above).
1951
box-folder 1:11
Chorale for Spring: 1 page.
1951
box-folder 1:11
Little Gamelon for Katherine Litz to teach with: 1
page.
1951
box-folder 1:11
A Thought on the anniversary of Katherine Litz & Charles
Oscar, July 26, 1951
: 1 page with small autograph notation by composer
ca. 1996.
1951
box-folder 1:11
Note to Juilan [Teck] with birthday piece to Garrick: 1
page
undated
box-folder 1:12
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
box-folder 1:12
Autograph score with autograph sketches in pencil: 2 pages blueprint
copy
box-folder 1:12
First Praises for the Beauty of Rivers: 3
pages
box-folder 1:12
Praises for the Beauty of Hummingbirds: 7 pages; 1 page
autograph short score
box-folder 1:12
2nd Trio - Hawks: 5 pages
box-folder 1:12
Second Praises for the Beauty of Rivers: 1
page
box-folder 1:12
1 page autograph short score
Praises for the Beauty of
Hawks
.
box-folder 1:13
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)
box-folder 1:13
Movement I-VI - 20 pages autograph score w/replaced Movement IV
(Barcarole)
box-folder 1:13
Movement I, Alabado: 2 pages autograph sketches.
box-folder 1:13
Movement II, Usul: 2 pages autograph sketches; 1 page autograph
revisions.
box-folder 1:13
Movement III, Bright Call: 1 page with autograph revisions.
box-folder 1:13
Movement IV, (Song): 13 pages autograph score of rejected Movement IV
(Song)
box-folder 1:13
Movement V, Stampede: 1 page autograph version of "drum
pattern".
box-folder 1:13
Movement VI, Epilogue: 1 page with autograph revisions.
box-folder 1:13
1 page, fragment of unidentified sketch.
box-folder 1:13
1 page, autograph introductory notes before Movement IV
replacement.
box-folder 1:13
1 page, photocopy of letter from composer to choreographer.
box-folder 1:14
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.
box-folder 1:14
See Series 2 Notebooks: Notebook no. 33.
box-folder 1:15
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:
box-folder 1:15
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.
box-folder 2:1
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
box-folder 2:1
Movement I, Overture: Two 4 page folio's comprising 4 pages autograph
score.
box-folder 2:1
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
box-folder 2:1
Movement VII, Funeral of the General: 2 pages autograph sketches and
short score.
box-folder 2:1
Movement VIII, Quadrille: Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score with
orchestration markings in pencil.
ca. 1961
box-folder 2:1
"Art Dealer's Music": 1 page autograph score for piano.
box-folder 2:1
Piano: 6 pages. 5 pages autograph score for Movements I, II, IV, VI,
VII, VIII.
box-folder 2:1
Flute: Folio, 4 pages, 2 pages autograph score for Movements I, VII,
VIII.
box-folder 2:1
Clarinet: Folio, 4 pages, 3 pages autograph score for Movements I, III,
VII, VIII.
box-folder 2:1
Trumpet: Folio, 4 pages, 3 pages autograph score for Movements I, III,
V, VII, VIII.
box-folder 2:1
Viola/Violin: 1 page autograph score for Movements VII,
VIII.
box-folder 2:1
Violoncello: Folio, 4 pages, 3 pages autograph score for Movements I,
III, IV, VII, VIII.
box-folder 2:1
Contrabass: Folio, 4 pages, 3 pages autograph score for Movements I,
III, VII, VIII.
box-folder 2:1
Snare Drum: 1 page autograph score for Movement V.
box-folder 2:1
Additional material: These materials are the 1961 orchestration of the
1949 work. The sketch of a "Valentine Polka" does not come from this
work.
box-folder 2:1
3 pages - Script for Speakers 1 & 2
box-folder 2:1
27 pages autograph score, parts
box-folder 2:1
1 page autograph sketch "Valentine Polka" not part of "Eiffel
Tower"
box-folder 2:2
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
box-folder 2:2
10 pages autograph score on red lined paper, in titled folio
box-folder 2:2
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
box-folder 2:3
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.
box-folder 2:3
Movement I: Folio: 8 pages. 6 pages autograph score including title page
and tuning schema.
box-folder 2:3
Movement II: 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score.
box-folder 2:3
Movement III: Folio, 6 pages. 5 pages autograph score and
sketches.
box-folder 2:3
Movement IV: Folio, 4 pages. 1 page autograph score.
box-folder 2:3
Movement V: Folio, 6 pages. 3 pages autograph score.
box-folder 2:3
Folio, 46 pages. 40 pages autograph sketches and notes.
box-folder 2:3
Autograph score: 12 pages in ink
ca. 1976
box-folder 2:3
Tuning schema: 1 page
ca. 1976
box-folder 2:4
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
box-folder 2:4
Autograph score: 12 pages.
box-folder 2:4
Autograph sketches: 10 pages.
box-folder 2:4
Autograph notes & directions: 2 pages
box-folder 2:4
Printed libretto: 2 pages photocopy; 3 pages galley proof
w/corrections.
box-folder 2:5
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
box-folder 2:5
Act I: 8 pages autograph score; Opening phrase, music for recorded
tracks, Musicalized Laugh, 1st Dance, 2nd Dance, Choruses
box-folder 2:5
Act II: 13 pages autograph score; Opening phrase, music for strings,
Caligula's Dance, March, Musicalized Laugh, Choruses
box-folder 2:5
Act III: 6 pages autograph score; Opening phrase, Miriam, Crucified
Lion, Caligula's Dance
box-folder 2:5
Act IV: 4 pages autograph score, Opening phrase, Musicalized Laugh,
Clangor, Final Ascent
box-folder 2:5
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.
box-folder 2:5
Computer generated score and parts for March in Movement II
box-folder 2:5
Caligula's Punic War Song: 2 pages autograph sketches and
score
box-folder 2:5
Whole play harp "cut-offs" and "Horn calls": 2 pages autograph
score
box-folder 2:5
Act I: 5 pages autograph sketches, Opening phrase and
Dances
box-folder 2:5
Act II: 3 pages autograph sketches, March, Caligula's Dance, Mariam
(from Scene III, IV)
box-folder 2:5
Act III: 7 pages autograph/copy of autograph, sketches; Opening phrase,
Caligula's Dance, Mariam
box-folder 2:5
Act IV: 3 pages autograph/copy of autograph, sketches; Opening
phrase
box-folder 2:5
Percussion schema: 1 page autograph phrases
box-folder 2:5
General melodies for each act: 1 page autograph sketches
box-folder 2:5
Additional sketches: 3 pages autograph including names of
players
Box 3:1
1.3 Film Scores
1968-1987
Scope and Contents
3 titles
box-folder 3:1
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
box-folder 3:1
Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score, rough draft, including title
page
box-folder 3:1
2 pages autograph score of "Chant Version", rough draft
box-folder 3:1
1 page autograph score of "Chant Version", final copy
box-folder 3:2
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
box-folder 3:2
18 pages autograph sketches and fragments for various
instruments.
box-folder 3:2
2 pages autograph sketches, Celadon music, Buddha music.
box-folder 3:3
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
box-folder 3:3
Versions (a) and (b); 3 pages photocopy and autograph score with pasted
over revisions. 3 pages photocopy with autograph sketches toward version
(c).
box-folder 3:3
Version (c) 24 pages autograph score.
box-folder 3:3
Version (c) photocopy of autograph score with pencil
markings.
box-folder 3:3
Version (c) Parts (34 pages total)
box-folder 3:3
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.
Box 4:1
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."
box-folder 4:1
Orchestra, full autograph score, torn up and taped back together [some
pieces of pages missing 5/18/2012].
box-folder 4:1
Scene: 6 pgs autograph score
box-folder 4:1
Row Chart for Rapunzel: 1 pg autograph
box-folder 4:1
"A Fiftieth Birthday Canon for Stefan Wolfe": 2 pages autograph
score
box-folder 4:1
Title Page: 1 pg autograph
box-folder 4:1
Act I: 9 pgs autograph score, pg. 7 has loose parts, some
missing
box-folder 4:1
Act II: 13 pgs autograph score
box-folder 4:1
Act III "From the tower": 7 pgs autograph score
box-folder 4:1
Act III "In the Tower in the evening": 24 pgs autograph
score
box-folder 4:1
Act IV "Nocturne": 3 pgs autograph score
box-folder 4:1
Act V "Morning in the wood": 7 pgs autograph score
box-folder 4:1
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.
box-folder 5:1
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.
box-folder 5:2
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
box-folder 5:3
Scene I(e); Libretto, "To the Atrium, Exit All": 17 pages autograph
score; 2 pages autograph sketches.
box-folder 5:4
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.
box-folder 5:5
Scene II "Procession": 5 pages autograph score.
box-folder 5:6
Scene III, "Noon on the Campus Martius">: 10 pages autograph
score.
box-folder 5:7
Scene IIII, "Overture". Scene IIII(a), "Narrator", Scene IIII(b)
"Cossutia's Despair": 11 pages copy of autograph score; 3 pages autograph
sketches.
box-folder 5:8
Scene V, Libretto and Lullaby: 5 pages autograph score; 1 page autograph
sketches.
box-folder 5:9
Scene VI: 10 pages autograph score with revision markings in red; 16
pages autograph score, revised; 3 pages autograph sketches.
box-folder 5:10
Scene VII pt.II: 33 pages autograph score; 3 pages autograph
sketches.
box-folder 5:11
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.
box-folder 5:12
Scene VIII with "Procession": 10 pages autograph score.
box-folder 5:13
Scene IX with "Palace Music": 7 pages autograph score; 2 pages autograph
sketches.
box-folder 5:14
Scene X with "Whirling Dance" and "Acrobat": 10 pages autograph score;
Scene X & XI: 7 pages autograph sketches.
box-folder 5:15
Scene X, "Eroticon": 9 pages autograph score; 1 page autograph
sketch.
box-folder 5:16
Scene XI Vocal sheets and instrument sheet: 10 pages autograph score;
Scene X & XI: 3 pages autograph sketches.
box-folder 5:17
Scene XII, with "Procession": 12 pages autograph score; 5 pages autograph
sketches.
box-folder 5:18
Scene XIII: 29 pages autograph score; 16 pages autograph
sketches/score.
box-folder 5:19
Scene XIIII: 13 pages autograph score; 2 pages autograph
sketches.
box-folder 5:20
"At the Monument to Archytas": 19 pages autograph score.
box-folder 5:21
Sketches, general: 29 pages autograph sketches; Unidentified score:
pgs.2-11 only - 10 pages autograph score.
box-folder 5:22
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.
box-folder 6:1
Ephemera: List of puppets for Young Caesar; captions; misc.
notes.
box-folder 6:2
Programs: Performances at Cal Tech, Pasadena, CA, 1971; Cabrillo College,
Aptos, 1971; Portland, Oregon, 1988
1971,
1988
box-folder 6:4
Technical sketches by William Colvig.
box-folder 6:6
Scene designs by Harrison.
box-folder 6:7
Rick Young sketches - costume & set designs.
box-folder 6:9
Notebook #3 Harrison: 4 pages autograph sketches
box-folder 7:1
Episodes from Young Caesar by Lou Harrison
box-folder 7:1
Movement I, "First Overture": 5 pages autograph score by Kerry
Lewis.
box-folder 7:1
Movement II, "Procession": 6 pages autograph score by Kerry
Lewis.
box-folder 7:1
Movement IV, "Second Overture": 5 pages autograph score by Kerry Lewis
(incomplete).
box-folder 7:2
Sketches: 8 pages, autograph & copies
box-folder 7:3
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
Box 8:2
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.
Box 8:4
Scene II and Scene II: "Prelude": 16 pages autograph score; 11 pages
final revisions
Box 8:5
Scene III "Julia's Aria": 2 pages autograph short-score; 2 pages
sketches
Box 8:6
Scene V "Lullaby" & "Duet": 9 pages
Box 8:7
Scene VII Final Revisions: 2 pages
Box 8:8
Scene VIII "Processions": 7 pages copy with autograph addition of
chorus.
Box 8:9
Scene IX "Caesar's 1st Aria": 4 pages autograph sketches, 2 pages
autograph short-score; 2 pages final revisions - not yet performed.
Box 8:10
Scene IX "Caesar's 2nd Aria": 2 pages autograph short-score; 2 pages
sketches; 3 pages final revisions - not yet performed.
Box 8:11
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.
Box 8:12
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.
Box 8:13
Scene XIII "Nicomedes' Aria": 2 pages autograph short score: 4 pages
sketches, final revisions - not yet performed.
Box 8:14
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
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 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 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.
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.
Folio, 16 pages. 13 pages autograph score.
1 page autograph sketches.
(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.
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.
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
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
Allegro: 34 pages autograph score, ink
box-folder 15:5
Stampede: 39 pages autograph score, ink
box-folder 15:5
Sketch - Folio, 1 page autograph sketch.
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 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
#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
2 pages typed words with autograph music notation for
tenor.
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
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
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.
43 pages autograph score.
box-folder 16:12
11 pages autograph short score/sketches.
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
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
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 19:6
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 19:7
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 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.
box-folder 20:2
Movement I (Part 1): 16 pages autograph score.
box-folder 20:2
Movement II (Part 2): 21 pages autograph score.
box-folder 20:2
Movement III (Part 3): 17 pages blueprint of autograph score, 1 page
autograph score.
box-folder 20:2
Folio, String bound music lined notebook, 64 pages with approximately 31
pages sketches and notes.
box-folder 20:2
Folio, 6 pages, 4 pages autograph sketches.
box-folder 20:3
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.
box-folder 20:4
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.
box-folder 20:4
Movement I, Kunsonoro Kaj Gloro: 1 page autograph partial sketches for
gender and lali.
box-folder 20:4
2a Paragrafo: 2 pages autograph partial part for gender.
box-folder 20:4
4a Paragrafo: 5 pages autograph score.
box-folder 20:4
7th Paragrafo: 1 page autograph sketches for chorus.
box-folder 20:4
1 page copy of autograph harp part with pencil sketch for new
ending.
box-folder 20:4
2 fragments with new harp ending for 7th Paragrafo with note to Margaret
Fisher.
box-folder 20:5
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.
box-folder 20:5
10 pages autograph score, title page, notes and decorations used to create
a composer's limited edition serigraph with Chris Daubert.
box-folder 20:5
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.
box-folder 20:5
Movement II: Kyrie: 1 page photocopy of autograph first version (from
notebook).
box-folder 20:5
Movement IV, Graduale: 1 page photocopy of autograph original sketches with
slight revisions in pencil.
box-folder 20:5
Movement V, Alleluia: 2 pages photocopy of autograph original sketches with
revisions in pencil and pen and pasteover.
box-folder 20:5
Movement VI, Offeratory: 1 page photocopy of autograph sketch with slight
revisions markings in pencil.
box-folder 20:5
Movement VII, Sanctus: 2 pages photocopy of autograph original sketches
with revisions in pencil and ink.
box-folder 20:5
Movement VIII, Agnus Dei: 1 page photocopy of original sketch with slight
notes in pencil.
box-folder 20:5
Movement X and Movement XI, Hymn and Ite: 2 pages photocopy of autograph
sketches with revisions in pencil.
box-folder 20:5
1 page autograph (William Colvig) percussion accompaniment.
box-folder 20:6
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)
box-folder 20:6
37 pages autograph score, without gamelan pieces.
box-folder 20:6
3 pages photocopy of
Gretchen's Spinning Song with
composer's revisions for inclusion to
The Clay's Quintet.
box-folder 20:6
1 page photocopy of
Three Dances for 2 Harps with revisions
for inclusion in
The Clay's Quintet.
box-folder 20:6
Folio, 6 pages autograph score of
Gretchen's Spinning Song,
not in composer's hand.
box-folder 20:7
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)
box-folder 20:7
Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score, King David's Lament,
1941.
box-folder 20:7
Folio, 4 pages autograph score and sketches, Lycida's Lament
(Milton).
box-folder 20:7
Folio, 6 pages, 3 pages autograph score, 1 page sketches.
box-folder 20:7
7 pages autograph score (including title page), plus 2 sets of
photocopies of 7 pages autograph score # 2, #3.
1985
box-folder 20:7
1 page autograph vocal part set in Hebrew by Larry Polansky.
box-folder 20:7
1 page photocopy of vocal part set
box-folder 20:7
1 page photocopy of Hebrew & text "Second Samuel".
box-folder 20:7
4 pages autograph score plus 2 sets of photocopies of 4 page score #2,
#3
box-folder 20:7
1 page autograph sketches.
box-folder 20:7
17 pages autograph score. plus 2 sets of photocopies of 17 page score #2,
#3.
box-folder 20:7
Folio, 8 pages. 6 pages autograph sketches and notes.
box-folder 20:8
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)
box-folder 20:8
1 page autograph title and movements.
box-folder 20:8
1 page autograph psaltery patterns.
box-folder 20:8
Movement I: Prelude: 2 pages autograph score. Page 1, gamelan. Page 2,
harp.
box-folder 20:8
Movement II: In Honor of the Divine Mr. Handel: 5 pages autograph score.
Pages 1-2, gamelan. Pages 3-5, harp.
box-folder 20:8
Movement III: In Honor of Mark Twain: 4 pages autograph score. Pages 1-3,
gamelan. Page 4, gamelan and chorus.
box-folder 20:8
Movement IV: Interlude: 2 pages autograph score.
box-folder 20:8
Movement V: Ode: sheets missing as of 5/13/2013.
box-folder 20:8
Movement VI: Interlude: 1 page autograph score.
box-folder 20:8
Movement VII: Litany: 6 pages autograph and photocopy score (6 pages of
recitatives with meter and solo/choral designations).
box-folder 20:8
Movement VIII: In Honor of Chief Seattle: 3 pages autograph score. Pages
1-2, gamelan. Page 3, harp.
box-folder 20:9
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
box-folder 20:9
10 pages autograph score.
box-folder 20:10
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
box-folder 20:10
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
#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.
Box 21
#3: Text in English. 24 pages autograph manuscript in ink. 3 pages
autograph manuscript from earlier version.
Box 21
#4: 20 pages blue-print of autograph manuscript with pencil and ink
revisions.
Box 21
#5: 1 page typed introduction,
1990.
Box 21
1 page photo copy of autograph tuning schema and section
numbers.
Box 21
7 pages typed manuscript (final version)
Box 21
#6: Section I, Dedication: Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score,
pencil.
Box 21
1 page autograph score, ink.
Box 21
#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.
Box 21
#9: Section IX, Second Comment: Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score,
pencil. 2 pages autograph score, ink.
Box 21
#10: Section XIII, Last Comment, with Remark; Salutation.
Box 21
Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score pencil. 2 pages autograph
score, ink.
Box 21
1 page autograph sketches with sketches for "1a Ario" on
reverse.
Box 21
#11: 3 pages, photo copy of letter to Mr. Beattie with tuning
explanations for recitatives.
Box 21
#12: 2 pages autograph score of Section XI, Overture, ink.
Box 21
#13: Blueprint copies of parts for Section II, Overture.
Box 21
#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.
Box 21
Folio #3, 12 pages. 9 pages autograph sketches from Section 10 of the
Political Primer, Overture.
Box 21
Folio #4, 14 page autograph sketches currently
unidentified.
Box 21
Folio #5, 16 pages. 13 pages autograph sketches including fragments of
Aria's and comments.
Box 21
Folio #6, 12 pages. 11 pages autograph sketches. Various pages
identified as
Third Symphony, Movement IV.
Box 21
Folio #7, 10 pages. 9 pages autograph sketches. Various pages
identified as
Elegiac Symphony, Movement I.
Box 21
Folio #8, 4 pages autograph sketches. 1 page identified as
Third
Symphony,
Movement IV. 1 page identified as from
Cinna.
Box 21
Folio #9, 6 pages autograph sketches. Partially identified as
Third Symphony, Movement IV.
Box 21
Folio #10, 4 pages autograph sketches. Partially identified as
Third Symphony, Movement IV.
Box 21
Folio #11, 6 pages autograph sketches. Fragments of Aria's and 1 page
identified as
Elegiac Symphony, Movement I.
Box 21
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)
Box 22
Movement II, Ode: 16 pages autograph score (11 - 26)
Box 22
Movement III, Passage Thru Dreams: 6 pages autograph score (27 -
32)
Box 22
Movement IV, Fountain of Forms: 8 pages autograph score (33-40)
Box 22
Movement V, Seed: 21 pages autograph score (41 - 61)
Box 22
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.
Box 22
Movement VIII, Image in the Soil:
Box 22
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.
Box 22
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)
Box 22
1 pg - autograph notes w/notation
Box 22
2 pgs - autograph score "Duncan Hymn II"
Box 22
1 pgs - autograph score "VII"
Box 22
Folio - 4 pgs - autograph score
Box 22
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.
Box 23:2
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 23:3
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
Box 23:4
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.
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
Box 23:5
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
Movement I, Siciliana: 2 pages autograph score by Robert
Hughes,
ca. 1962
Box 23:5
Movement III, Theme and Variations: 12 pages autograph score by Robert
Hughes.
Box 23:6
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).
Box 23:6
3 fold out pages, copy of autograph parts.
Box 23:6
Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph part for violin.
Box 23:6
1 page autograph sketches/ short score.
Box 23:7
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.
Box 23:7
Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph sketches/ study,
ca. 1947
Box 23:7
Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score, sketches, notes,
ca.1947
Box 23:7
Folio, 4 pages. 1 page autograph partial score,
Box 23:7
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
Box 23:8
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).
Box 23:8
2 pages autograph sketches.
Box 23:8
Folio, 4 pages autograph cello part with revisions.
Box 23:8
Published score with composer notes on cover.
Box 23:8
5 pages photocopy of autograph Movement II, with revisions.
Box 23:9
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
Box 23:9
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).
Box 23:11
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.
box-folder 24:1
1 fragment of tuning schema.
box-folder 24:1
1 page, blueprint copy with notes and tuning schema.
box-folder 24:1A
Cloth bound autograph score
box-folder 24:2
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
box-folder 24:2
Folio, 32 pages with autograph sketches and partial score; some unrelated
sketches.
box-folder 24:2
Folio, 8 pages various sketches; some unrelated, including 1 page of
Sonata for Psaltery.
box-folder 24:2
Sketches - 16 additional pages.
box-folder 24:2
Large format published score [copy of composer's autograph] with notes for
performance and recording sessions, 22 pages.
box-folder 24:3
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".
box-folder 24:4
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.
box-folder 24:5
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
box-folder 24:5
1 page autograph score, pencil.
box-folder 24:6
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
box-folder 24:6
4 autograph pages: 1 page sketch. 1 page unrelated (
Beverly's
Troubadour Piece
). 1 page clarinet part. 1 page score.
box-folder 24:7
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
box-folder 24:7
30 pages autograph sketches, with titles page.
box-folder 24:7
37 pages autograph score plus title page.
box-folder 24:8
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
box-folder 24:8
2 pages: 1 page autograph score and sketches for harp. 1 page autograph
score, sketches and notes for percussion ostinato.
box-folder 24:9
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
box-folder 24:9
2 pages: 1 page autograph score, with tuning schema. 1 page autograph score
before revision.
box-folder 24:10
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.
box-folder 24:10
Original version for quintet only:
box-folder 24:10
Movement I, Gending: 3 pages autograph score.
box-folder 24:10
Movement II, Bowl Bells: 4 pages autograph score.
box-folder 24:10
Movement III, Elegy: 1 page autograph score.
box-folder 24:10
Movement IV, Rondeau: 2 pages autograph score.
box-folder 24:10
Movement V, Dance: 8 pages autograph score.
box-folder 24:10
Additional materials: 1 page sketches for virginal Movements I and
III.
box-folder 25:1
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 pages autograph sketches.
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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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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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5 pages copy of autograph with pencil revisions; 1st, 2nd,
3rd.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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2 pages copy of autograph from original
Lazarus Laughed
with autograph revisions.
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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 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"
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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".
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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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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.
box-folder 27:10
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
box-folder 27:11
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.
box-folder 27:12
Movement I: 1 page (page 19) autograph score.
box-folder 27:12
Movement II: 2 pages copy of autograph score.
box-folder 27:12
Movement III: 9 pages autograph score. Folio 4 pages. 2 pages autograph
part for piano.
box-folder 27:12
Movement IV: 5 pages autograph score.
box-folder 27:12
Full score - spiral bound.
box-folder 27:12
2 pages autograph tempi instructions.
box-folder 27:12
1 page autograph instrument key for players 6-10.
box-folder 27:12
1 page - I - "The Leaning Lady" - autograph score, pen.
box-folder 27:12
1 page - II - "The Rock Garden" - autograph score, pen.
box-folder 27:12
2 pages - III - "The Sinous Arcade with swings in the arches" - autograph
score, pencil.
box-folder 27:12
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.
box-folder 28:1, box-folder 15:1
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.
box-folder 28:1
3 pages autograph sketches.
box-folder 28:1
17 pages autograph score.
box-folder 28:1
49 pages autograph score. 6 pages autograph schema. 5 pages in Harrison's
hand and 4 pages in Richard Dee's hand.
box-folder 28:1
Movement IV, Three Jahla's:
box-folder 28:1
2 pages autograph sketches.
box-folder 28:1
2 pages autograph score for Gamelan.
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
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
1 folder, unidentified material.
box-folder 28:2
Gending Paul
1977
Physical Description: 1
page
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
box-folder 28:4
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.
box-folder 28:5
96 page spiral bound music notebook with autograph score and sketches.
Notebook also includes the work
Richard Whittington.
box-folder 28:5
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.
box-folder 28:6
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.
box-folder 28:6
Harp part. 3 pages autograph and copy of autograph with pencil
additions.
box-folder 28:6
Chorus. 2 pages autograph sketches.
box-folder 28:6
Gamelan. 2 pages autograph and copy of autograph score and
sketches.
box-folder 28:7
Ketawang Wellington
1983
Physical Description: 1
page
Subseries Scope and Content Summary
Notes:Gamelan score by William Colvig.
box-folder 28:7
1 page Gambang score by William Colvig.
box-folder 28:8
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
box-folder 28:8
1 page autograph title page
box-folder 28:8
1 page autograph gamelan and violin schema/score
ca. 1985-1986
box-folder 28:8
3 pages autograph score
ca. 1987
box-folder 28:8
1 page autograph sketches
ca. 1987
box-folder 28:8
1 page autograph program note sketch [msg 6/19/2015]
Box 28:9
A Cornish Lancaran
1986-1989
Physical Description: 3
pages
Box 28:10
The Foreman's Song Tune/ Festive Form
1987
Physical Description: 2
pages
box-folder 28:10
2 pages autopgraph score.
box-folder 28:11
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.
box-folder 28:11
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.
III, A Irama II, Bonang (both together) - 1 page.
II "Allegro, mm" - 1 page.
III "Copy poem" - 1 page.
Protocols I A-C; II A-B; III A-C - 2 pages.
Box 28:12
A Round for Jafran Jones
1991
Physical Description: 1
page
box-folder 28:13
Concerto for Piano and Javanese Gamelan
1986-1987
box-folder 29:1
Book Music
1994
Physical Description: 12
pages
box-folder 29:1
12 pages, used for incidental music between poetry readings.
box-folder 29:2
Gending Moon
1994
Physical Description: 9
pages
box-folder 29:2
9 pgs autograph score, sketches.
box-folder 29:3
For the Repose of my Friend James Broughton
1999
Physical Description: 1
page
box-folder 29:4
Gending Degung
undated
Physical Description: 21
pages
box-folder 29:4
21 pages autograph score/sketches
box-folder 29:5
Gending, Sapphires in Leinster Ogam
undated
Physical Description: 1
page
box-folder 29:6
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
box-folder 29:6
1 page autograph score, ink
box-folder 29:7
Gending Samuel
undated
Physical Description: 2
pages
box-folder 29:7
2 pages autograph score w/paste-ups.
box-folder 29:8
Gending Pak Chokro
undated
Physical Description: 2
pages
box-folder 29:8
2 pages, autograph score, ink.
box-folder 29:9
Bubaran Robert
undated
Physical Description: 3
pages
box-folder 29:10
Gending Ptolemy
undated
Physical Description: 3
pages
box-folder 29:11
Serenade
undated
Physical Description: 2
pages
box-folder 29:12
Gending Max Beckman
undated
Physical Description: 1
page
box-folder 29:13
Ladrang Chelsea
undated
Physical Description: 1
page
Subseries Scope and Content Summary
Notes: Gamelan, on a theme by Virgil Thomson.
box-folder 29:13
1 page, copy of Thomson's 16 measure notation with Harrison's Gamelan
transcription.
box-folder 30:1-12
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.
box-folder 30:1
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
box-folder 30:1
4 pages. 2 pages autograph score.
[1970]
box-folder 30:1
1 page autograph sketch.
[1940],
[1970]
box-folder 30:2
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
box-folder 30:2
Folio, 12 pages. 11 pages autograph score, 1 page autograph sketches
(pencil).
box-folder 30:2
10 pages autograph score with title page and notes, (ink).
box-folder 30:3
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).
box-folder 30:3
2 pages. 1 page autograph score (ink) - 1 page autograph sketch for
Political Primer (not related), pencil.
box-folder 30:3
Folio, 4 pages 3 pages autograph sketches.
box-folder 30:4
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
box-folder 30:4
Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score with introductory
notes.
box-folder 30:5
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
box-folder 30:5
1 page autograph score with revisions (Western notation).
box-folder 30:5
2 pages autograph notes, tuning schema, score ("Pan Sinitic"
notation).
box-folder 30:5
1 page photocopy of autograph score and sketch.
box-folder 30:5
2 pages autograph score in ink w/ notes.
box-folder 30:5
2 pages blueprint copies of autograph score w/ notes.
box-folder 30:6
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.
box-folder 30:6
3 pages autograph score in Esperanto with tuning schema. Title page
Movement II.
box-folder 30:7
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
box-folder 30:7
Folio, 4 pages. 1 page title. 1 page score ("Pan-Sinitic"
notation).
box-folder 30:7
Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score with tuning schema and notes
("Pan-Sinitic" and Western notation).
box-folder 30:7
Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score with revisions (Western
notation).
box-folder 30:7
2 pages autograph score, blueprint copies, tuning schema and notes
(Pan-Simitic and Western notation).
box-folder 30:8
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.
box-folder 30:8
4 pages autograph score with tuning schema and introductory
notes.
box-folder 30:9
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.
box-folder 30:9
12 pages autograph score (ink).
box-folder 30:9
5 pages autograph sketches (pencil).
box-folder 30:10
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.
box-folder 30:10
Folio, 4 pages. 1 page autograph score.
box-folder 30:10
Folio, 4 pages. 1 page autograph sketches. 2 pages unrelated
sketches.
box-folder 30:11
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.
box-folder 30:11
Movement I: 1 page autograph score.
box-folder 30:11
Movement II: 2 pages autograph score.
box-folder 30:11
Movement III: 2 pages autograph score.
General
Note: 1 page for Haisho solo is marked IIII. All pages numbered consecutively,
1-5.
box-folder 30:12
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
box-folder 30:12
Movement I: 1 page autograph sketches.
box-folder 30:12
Movement II: 1 pages autograph sketches.
box-folder 30:12
Movement III: 2 pages autograph score.
box-folder 30:12
Movement IV: 5 pages autograph sketches and copy of autograph
score.
box-folder 31:1-24
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.
box-folder 31:1
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.
box-folder 31:1
Folio, 16 pages. Original publication of New Music Quarterly, October 1943
(copy of autograph) inscribed to family for Christmas.
1944
box-folder 31:1
11 pages, autograph score in ink.
ca. 1990
box-folder 31:1
2 pages, autograph sketches for preparation.
box-folder 31:2
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).
box-folder 31:2
Folio, 4 pages. 2 pages autograph score, 1936, with revision
markings.
1936,
1970
box-folder 31:3
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.
box-folder 31:3
Folio, 4 pages. 3 pages autograph score, including title page, 1937, with
later pencil revisions.
1937
box-folder 31:3
4 pages autograph revised score.
1970
box-folder 31:4
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
box-folder 31:4
Folio, 12 pages. Pages 9-12 of original publication,
New Music
Quarterly
1938, inscribed "For Mother because of everything".
1937-1938
box-folder 31:5
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
box-folder 31:5
Folio, 12 pages. Original publication,
New Music Quarterly,
inscribed to "For Mother because of everything".
1937-1938
box-folder 31:6
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.
box-folder 31:6
Folio, 18 pages. 15 pages autograph score/sketches, pencil.
1938
box-folder 31:6
8 pages autograph score, ink.
box-folder 31:7
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
"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
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 31:15
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 31:18
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 31:23
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 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 32:3
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 32:9
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 32:22
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 32:26
"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 32:30
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 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 32:40
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 32:43
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 35:3
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 35:14
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 35:28
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 35:37
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 35:39
Sprouting Mushrooms by William Colvig
undated
Physical Description: 2
pages
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 35:45
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
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.