Hovhaness: Symphonies Nos. 1, 'Exile Symphony' and 50, 'Mount St. Helen'
1/3/2013, 7 Tracks, 1:05:17
Featuring
Gerard Schwarz
Ron Johnson
Seattle Symphony
Alan Hovhaness
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Composer Biography
Alan Hovhaness, born in 1911, was an American composer of Armenian and Scottish descent who began composing as a boy.
Composition History
Hovhaness's Symphony No. 50, 'Mount Saint Helens,' written in 1982, was inspired by the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens in Washington state.
Composition History
Hovhaness's First Symphony, 'Exile,' was composed in 1936, expressing his sympathy for Armenian refugees forced to flee by the Ottoman Turks after World War I.
Compositional Technique
Hovhaness's music often features chant-like melodies, Eastern scales, and modal harmonies, giving it an almost timeless quality, while also incorporating Western imitative counterpoint.
Composition History
The 'Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints' was composed in 1965, following Hovhaness's studies of traditional Japanese court and ceremonial music during a Rockefeller Grant visit to Japan.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Hovhaness rejected the cosmopolitan modernism of his time, opting instead for a style influenced by Armenian hymns, folk tunes, and other ethnic musics like Indian, Japanese, and Korean.
Performer Biography
Gerard Schwarz, the conductor on this album, served as Music Director of the Seattle Symphony for 26 years and has an extensive discography of over 350 releases.
