Lou Harrison Presentation

This is just a post that contains the information in my Lou Harrison presentation, in case anyone wanted to know anything more about him, or if they wanted to read my presentation for some reason.

So, who was Lou Harrison? If you had asked the man himself, he would describe himself as a myriad of people, some of which include a record salesman, an animal nurse, and a florist (otherminds.org). In his own words, an American composer was someone who had to be many things in order to do what they loved. But Lou Harrison managed to do all of these things, completing masterpieces of sound. Harrison's focus was much different than that of other composers and musicians which we have covered, being of a more structured nature, and focusing on a more avant-garde music style, which he studied under Arnold Schoenburg. He also studied atonal music, which heavily influenced his opera, Rapunzel.

However, Harrison suffered from a nervous breakdown with his music in 1947, and on the advice of a friend, John Cage, retired to Black Mountain College. It was there that he first began studying and working with Asian music and tuning, which became the focus of his later works, especially after a visit to Asian countries. Some works, such as Suite for Violin and American Gamelan, feature his distinct style in this theater, specifically atonality and one of the instruments that he himself favored, the gamelan. Harrison became famous for his views on atonality, and was honored in many festivals for his contributions to both Asian music styles and his theories on music. Unfortunately, on February 2, 2003, Harrison passed away from a heart attack while on his way to a festival in Ohio.

Information on Harrison:

List of Harrison's works

Short biography of Harrison

Longer biography of Harrison

Harrison Documentary (trailer)