Lou Harrison playing one of his homemade instruments.
“Can you ever have too much gamelan? Not with Lou. Lou Harrison’s La Koro Sutro isn’t exactly what you expect. Known for his wonderfully imaginative blend of Asian and Baroque styles, the late/great Lou Harrison much like the more known minimalists — Steve Reich, Terry Riley, etc. — used a profound interest in ‘eastern’ music as a gateway to explore the edges of western-based ideas by trying to forgo imitation for new creation. La Koro Sutro, a collection of three compositions ‘La Koro Sutro’, ‘Varied Trio’, and ‘Suite For Violin and American Gamelan’ recorded in 1987 at Herz Hall by the Chamber Chorus Of The University Of California At Berkeley, and with esteemed colleagues at the same school, brought to life that heavenly combination of the little known with the universally profound, found only through self-examination. Surprising to me, outside of a few classical circles, Lou Harrison isn’t a name that is shared by many this days. It’s hard to understand why. Openly melodic, forgoing dissonance and harmony, Lou’s aim were for ideas that are instantly getable. Somehow, some way, Lou seemed like he missed the greater audience he was destined for. His own destiny wouldn’t seem to speak to this at first. Born in Portland, Oregon but raised in the Bay area after the first World War, Lou from a young age took in all the melange of musical styles he heard on the radio in California. When he was old enough to do so he moved to LA where he began his career not as a composer but as a dancer and sometimes accompanist. As he discovered musical ideas from Europe — serialism, musique concrete, etc. — and began taking compositional lessons from none other than the creator such ideas, Arnold Schoenberg. As he grew on his own as a composer early vastly more studied works, gave way to other ideas. Growing up as a young gay man, in the ‘40s and ‘50s in an increasingly hostile cis male-dominated environment had pushed him to try to out-muscle the next composer. Even as he’d count as great experimental composers like John Cage, Henry Cowell, and Aaron Copland as friends, he knew he had music that had a different outlook. After he moved to New York to become a music writer and help champion composers like Charles Ives, Edgard Varèse he turned back into his own work. A series of personal failures in New York led him to realize that going back home might just be better for him in the long run. He’d come back to teach where he could be in a better place. …”
Fond/Sound (Video)
The Gamelan Works of Lou Harrison (Video)
Sounds and Sawdust: The Instrumental Love Affair of Lou Harrison and Bill Corvig (Video)
Discogs (Video)
W – Lou Harrison
YouTube: Pacifika Rondo (1963), Suite for Violin and American Gamelan, Gending Pak Chokro (1976)
1960s: Days of Rage
1960s: Days of Rage 