From: Floyd Wige <[log in to unmask]>

>I'm sure most have heard by now, but the prolific composer Alan Hovhaness
>died yesterday in Seattle.  He was 89 and had been ill for a couple of
>years.
>
>He was a lovely, gentle, beautiful man.

Hovhaness was never a critical darling (too popular in the US - & too
unknown outside of the US - for that) & many listeners will never get
on his wavelength at all; but with Lou Harrison, he was the last great
survivor of the American mavericks tradition with started with Ives; &
continued with Cowell, Partch, Nancarrow, Thomson & Cage.  Like all of
these artists, Hovhaness was his own, gentle man, happiest creating
mysterious mountains & prayers of St Gregory & symphonies of metal
instruments with a glorious indifference to contemporary fashions...  &
the contemporary fashionists by & large didn't like that (they still don't
here in Australia...  the possibility of any nonstudent orchestra being
permitted to perform a Hovhaness score is frankly laughable; which is
Australia's loss, not Hovhaness's).

The modernists in particular absolutely hated him, of course; because
simply by being Alan Hovhaness he revealed the arrogance of so many 20th
century artistic conceits...  frankly:  in a time when aesthetic disputes
in modern art seemed more important to some artists than the mere details
of what was going on in the world which bankrolled them, Hovhaness's
crisis? what crisis? pantheistic optimism seemed to be asking some of
the deepest questions imaginable, without apparently meaning to ask
anything....

The increased awareness of his work outside the US following the success of
the Delos recording of the Mount St Helens symphony was a major discovery
for the rest of us.  I've been listening to some of his best scores - the
Mysterious Mountain, Celestial Gate & Magnun symphonies; the lovely Prayer
of St Gregory (i prefer the trumpet/organ arrangement) & of course, And God
Created Great Whales - over the last few days to toast his memory; & will
continue to give thanks for the pleasure Hovhaness's music - & artistic
example - continues to give.

I wonder when Naxos will get to Hovhaness in their wonderful American
Composers set; & what selection from that vast body of work they'll
choose....

All the best,

Robert Clements <[log in to unmask]>