pacific music
by Douglas Messerli
Lou Harrison Lou Harrison: Music of the Pacific / Redcat
(Roy and Edna Disney/Cal Arts Center), performance I attended with Pablo Capra
was on December 9, 2017
Those acquainted with the music of
noted American composer Lou Harrison, will know that he was fascinated
throughout his life with international music and instruments, and that he was
interested in Asian music, particularly, after
he worked with K. P. H. Notoprojo (also known as Pak Cokro), in the Javanese
gamelan,
Last week, I attended my first Harrison concert, which was made up of
works both for Western instruments and, in the second half, his beloved
gamelans, bells, percussion instruments, and inverted bowls. The concert began
with what was described as “Chamber Music,” pieces for French horn, trumpet,
percussion, harp, and mandolin such as Clay’s
Quintet (performed by Erin Poulin, Nicolas Bejarano, Jonathan Hepfer, Leila
Bishop and Sean Hayward); a Varied Trio
with violin, piano, and percussion (Nigel Deane, Vera Weber, and Katie Eikam);
and Serenade for Guitar and Percussion (John
Schneider and T. J. Troy). These works from 1978 and 1987, represent an earlier
decade of his work when, after studying with both Arnold Schoenberg at UCLA and
Charles Ruggles, he composed his microtomical works.
But it was the second half of the concert when a much larger contingent
of performers that revealed the composer’s larger fascination with combining
more Western-based instrumentation (soprano saxophone, cello, and violin) with
the traditional Asian instrumentation. Each of the four later pieces—Philemon and Baukis (from 1992), Cornish Lancaran (1986), Basonto (1966, composed with Notoprojo),
and Double Concerto for Violin, Cello,
and Javanese Gamelan (1981-82)—were wonderful revelations.
Having myself played baritone saxophone in high school, I was intrigued by the German composer Ulrich Krieger’s wonderful playing of the soprano saxophone, as well as the choral chants of the members of the California Institute of Arts Contemporary Vocal Ensemble. But the true masterwork of this concert was the final, full-out combination of Western music traditions and the Asian instrumentation. Just to watch the vast group of performers rushing back and forth to share the percussional gongs, bowls, drums, and Javanese Gamelans, all combined with the cello playing of Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick and violin contributions of Andrew McIntosh was a musical enchantment that’s very difficult to describe in words. The highly rhythmic patterns of the ancient world melds with Western classicism in a way that truly does describe the concert’s subtitle “Music of the Pacific.”
While waiting in line to enter the Redcat theater, I spoke to the
red-haired woman in front of me, who told me that she and husband had just
driven in from the fire-plagued Ventura to attend the concert; her son—who I
believe must be multi-talented long-haired Sean Hayward—she explained had gone
to Indonesia to study the Gamelon. They should indeed be proud.
This year, the 100th anniversary of Harrison’s birth, has been
celebrated throughout the Los Angeles area, with a concert in Pasadena’s Boston
Court of his interludes, his opera Young
Caesar performed in June at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and other concerts in
Santa Cruz, and Joshua Tree, where Harrison spent many of the last years of his
life. I now wish I’d been able attend these other concerts as well, but feel
blessed to have attended this Redcat performance.
Los Angeles, December 17, 2017
Reprinted from USTheater, Opera, and Performance (December 2017).
