Alan Hovhaness lived in Seattle, and so did I in the early 1970's. One evening I boarded a packed city bus in rush hour, and there before me sitting was Alan, calmly absorbed in composing something right there in the chaos, totally unaffected by the noise and bustle. What a man! Also, I climbed Glacier Peak, the most wildly beautiful mountain I ever climbed, in the middle of a wilderness.
@@WilliamFord972 I owned several LP recordings of his, one of which included Mysterious Mountain. I was familiar with his face from pictures that I'd seen, and I knew he lived in Seattle. He was composing music in a large hardbound notebook using a pen. He appeared to be about 60 years old, and had a very calm and dignified demeanor.
I worked on staff at Holden Village, on the east edge of the Glacier Peak Wilderness, in the fall of 1980. We often got through hikers in the Village. My son and his friends, including his wife, have climbed Glacier. I am content to admire it from afar.
The twentieth century is over and atonality and serialism are on the way out. In the 21st century it is, once again, acceptable of composers to write beautiful and spiritual music. See, for example, Ola Gjeilo and Eric Whitacre. Therefore it is high time that Hovhaness be brought out of his undeserved obscurity and be recognized as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century.
I really don't get where the anger or frustration comes from for those who don't like or enjoy "serial" music and further need to declare it dead or moribund. In any event to deny a sense of spirit, religious or otherwise, to any number of composers including but not limited to: Mahler, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Stravinsky, Bartok, Carter, Babbitt, Wuorinen, Knussen, Feldman, and these are only the most obvious ones, are shutting themselves off from opportunities to experience the "sunlight of the spirit."
If you reject completely serialism and atonality you'll be making the same mistake the atonalists did for tonal music when they were the dominant force.
When I studied "Music Appreciation" in college, mid 1960s, teachers were not pushing that, but music critics were. I really tried to absorb atonalism, but found there was no "anchor". Nothing I could link my feelings to. Yes, FEELINGS. Music was a language of emotion long before the first organized civilizarion; before the first evolved language. Interesting, is it not?
There is something mysterious in this work. It speaks of being alone but not of loneliness. It sounds so peaceful and cool at times, adventurous in other moments, climbing vertiginous heights. Masterpiece, indeed.
True, mystery abounds.....but disentanglement and waywardness too, as if (in T.S.Eliot's words) broaching the question, "....Would it have been worth while...If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say: “That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all.” [Greetings from San Agustinillo]
@@steveegallo3384 Oh, yeah, disentanglement and waywardness seem to be present in T. S. Eliot's works too. As for "That is not what I meant at all"... Most of the times we have no clue what a work of art (whichever it may be) might mean in the eyes of who creates it; we interpret it according personal insights and the immediate impression caused by what we see or hear. A work of art is individual and unique, so it is the impression rising inside the ones who contemplate it. Greetings from Germany!
I attended a concert of his music performed in Seattle in 1978, if memory serves, conducted by Alan. I went because my older sister was in the chorus, but all these years later I can still sing a line or two from the works presented. Such unusual harmonic rhythms and creeping, rolling parts moving in a sober and reverent soundscape. And he was prolific! 67 symphonies!! Thanks so much for uploading this!
I first heard of Alan Hovhaness when Mysterious Mountain was performed at Milligan College in NC.. I have been an admirer ever since. I'd like to see ' Fred the Cat' on RUclips.
The composer Lloyd George wrote in a tonal manner and once said that "atonal music made composers forget how to sing." I think he is right. Sure there are atonal aspects to many modern pieces, but they are not written by forumula. Thank you Alan, for singing in a world of chaotic noise.
Although I have not been to Glacier Peak, with this music I feel as if I have experienced its' beauty and grandeur! It is a great score that seems to breathe the fresh mountain air. Many fine features are here, the instrumental solos, the surprising march, the impressive fugue capped by a majestic coda among other felicities. This is a delightful symphony, a late success by a composer whose quantity of output perhaps necessitated some variance in its' quality. . .
Never heard of him until Ian Skelly on BBC's Radio 3 programme played a piece of his - October Mountain? - this September (2020). Brilliant. Multi-layered and mood producing. I look forward to hearing all his work.
His scottish mother tried to keep him away from armenian church and community,but later on he got close to d armenian clerical music- lithurgy, indian,japanese.....
in re your description about your youtube user name: i think it is a very accurate summary of the development of youtube since i've been using it, ca. 1997. it has gone from a site where some good music could be found, just so it was under 11 minutes in length. so there are old uploads of some single works that consist of many many separate videos. then, the duration limit was extended to
Hovhaness composed at least 2 monumental MOUNTAIN symphonies & this one specifically for a Washington state peak that I hope to visit up close someday. Climbing it will not be possible for me, due to arthritis in my left knee & ankle but being near this wonderful mountain will have to suffice. At least I was able to climb St. Helens before it’s 1980 eruption. Hovhaness also paid tribute to St. Helens, however, for me the music is not as memorable as for either THE MYSTERIOUS MOUNTAIN or THE HYMN TO GLACIER PEAK. Maybe Hovhaness was under time pressure but the St. Helens Symphony has a too typical & cliched approach to the actual explosion despite some fine lyrical moments prior to it. The two great Mountain symphonies here are a wonderful & transcendent tribute to nature & have some of the moving spiritual qualities found in Hovhaness‘ THE PRAYER OF ST. GREGORY - perhaps the greatest 5 or so minute composition that I have yet to hear. The photos above are really appreciated & encourage me to visit Glacier Peak if only close to its base.
![Alan Hovhaness - Symphony No. 20, 'Three Journeys to a Holy Mountain', Op. 223 [Rockwell Kent]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/acIqUjW2jpI/mqdefault.jpg)
![Alan Hovhaness - Symphony No. 20, 'Three Journeys to a Holy Mountain', Op. 223 [Rockwell Kent]](/img/tr.png)
![Alan Hovhaness - A Rose Tree Blossoms, Op. 246 No. 4 [Rockwell Kent]](/img/1.gif)
Alan Hovhaness lived in Seattle, and so did I in the early 1970's. One evening I boarded a packed city bus in rush hour, and there before me sitting was Alan, calmly absorbed in composing something right there in the chaos, totally unaffected by the noise and bustle. What a man! Also, I climbed Glacier Peak, the most wildly beautiful mountain I ever climbed, in the middle of a wilderness.
How’d you recognize him? He doesn’t seem like the kind of person most people would be able to put a face to.
@@WilliamFord972 He has a very distinctive face
@@WilliamFord972 I owned several LP recordings of his, one of which included Mysterious Mountain. I was familiar with his face from pictures that I'd seen, and I knew he lived in Seattle. He was composing music in a large hardbound notebook using a pen. He appeared to be about 60 years old, and had a very calm and dignified demeanor.
I worked on staff at Holden Village, on the east edge of the Glacier Peak Wilderness, in the fall of 1980. We often got through hikers in the Village. My son and his friends, including his wife, have climbed Glacier. I am content to admire it from afar.
@@Captanuki He is half scottish half armenian.
Utube does not suck if this can be accessed here. Thank you, host, provider, whomever you are.
A very great composer.
The twentieth century is over and atonality and serialism are on the way out. In the 21st century it is, once again, acceptable of composers to write beautiful and spiritual music. See, for example, Ola Gjeilo and Eric Whitacre. Therefore it is high time that Hovhaness be brought out of his undeserved obscurity and be recognized as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century.
Atonality and serialism have been gone for almost 100 years. Get over it, already!
Serialism was gone before Boulez was even born? Sounds about right.
I really don't get where the anger or frustration comes from for those who don't like or enjoy "serial" music and further need to declare it dead or moribund. In any event to deny a sense of spirit, religious or otherwise, to any number of composers including but not limited to: Mahler, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Stravinsky, Bartok, Carter, Babbitt, Wuorinen, Knussen, Feldman, and these are only the most obvious ones, are shutting themselves off from opportunities to experience the "sunlight of the spirit."
If you reject completely serialism and atonality you'll be making the same mistake the atonalists did for tonal music when they were the dominant force.
When I studied "Music Appreciation" in college, mid 1960s, teachers were not pushing that, but music critics were. I really tried to absorb atonalism, but found there was no "anchor". Nothing I could link my feelings to. Yes, FEELINGS. Music was a language of emotion long before the first organized civilizarion; before the first evolved language. Interesting, is it not?
There is something mysterious in this work. It speaks of being alone but not of loneliness. It sounds so peaceful and cool at times, adventurous in other moments, climbing vertiginous heights. Masterpiece, indeed.
True, mystery abounds.....but disentanglement and waywardness too, as if (in T.S.Eliot's words) broaching the question, "....Would it have been worth while...If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say: “That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all.” [Greetings from San Agustinillo]
@@steveegallo3384 Oh, yeah, disentanglement and waywardness seem to be present in T. S. Eliot's works too. As for "That is not what I meant at all"... Most of the times we have no clue what a work of art (whichever it may be) might mean in the eyes of who creates it; we interpret it according personal insights and the immediate impression caused by what we see or hear. A work of art is individual and unique, so it is the impression rising inside the ones who contemplate it. Greetings from Germany!
I attended a concert of his music performed in Seattle in 1978, if memory serves, conducted by Alan. I went because my older sister was in the chorus, but all these years later I can still sing a line or two from the works presented. Such unusual harmonic rhythms and creeping, rolling parts moving in a sober and reverent soundscape. And he was prolific! 67 symphonies!!
Thanks so much for uploading this!
I first heard of Alan Hovhaness when Mysterious Mountain was performed at Milligan College in NC.. I have been an admirer ever since. I'd like to see ' Fred the Cat' on RUclips.
Devastatingly beautiful music
Ascends and turns and twists in the light of inspiration. The spirit and the land made one.
+Roy Posner - Exactly ! Right words for the same feeling.
So nicely put. I think your dynamic metaphor says a lot. Music is sequential movement and to imagine it in the medium of light is a plus.
Grand and tranquil; dangerous and peaceful.
The composer Lloyd George wrote in a tonal manner and once said that "atonal music made composers forget how to sing." I think he is right. Sure there are atonal aspects to many modern pieces, but they are not written by forumula. Thank you Alan, for singing in a world of chaotic noise.
Although I have not been to Glacier Peak, with this music I feel as if I have experienced its' beauty and grandeur! It is a great score that seems to breathe the fresh mountain air. Many fine features are here, the instrumental solos, the surprising march, the impressive fugue capped by a majestic coda among other felicities. This is a delightful symphony, a late success by a composer whose quantity of output perhaps necessitated some variance in its' quality. . .
This is one of Hovhaness last symphonies. It shows that in his old age he had not lost his abilities as a great composer.
modern, yet soulful.
Many thanks for sharing it! 🙏❤
Never heard of him until Ian Skelly on BBC's Radio 3 programme played a piece of his - October Mountain? - this September (2020). Brilliant. Multi-layered and mood producing. I look forward to hearing all his work.
He is half scottish,half armenian
Fantastic and beautiful - thanks, Alan!
Just so beutiful
I went to Sea Symph in the 80's and saw them perform the Mt St Helens Symph.
This is the side of Hovhaness I like best...has a religious tone that is.
+Charles Grierson - Which piece of his works does not have/share/irradiate religiosity and misticism ?
His scottish mother tried to keep him away from armenian church and community,but later on he got close to d armenian clerical music- lithurgy, indian,japanese.....
Nice choice of images.
Thanks!
Beautiful symphony, but there are still more. Wish they were available.
Amazing!!!
thank you very much for posting this!
Bravo
one of his better pieces--thanks
Is anyone still visiting this page? Let's talk mystical 20th Century, Music, Arts..
nice
in re your description about your youtube user name: i think it is a very accurate summary of the development of youtube since i've been using it, ca. 1997. it has gone from a site where some good music could be found, just so it was under 11 minutes in length. so there are old uploads of some single works that consist of many many separate videos. then, the duration limit was extended to
Hovhaness composed at least 2 monumental MOUNTAIN symphonies & this one specifically for a Washington state peak that I hope to visit up close someday. Climbing it will not be possible for me, due to arthritis in my left knee & ankle but being near this wonderful mountain will have to suffice. At least I was able to climb St. Helens before it’s 1980 eruption. Hovhaness also paid tribute to St. Helens, however, for me the music is not as memorable as for either THE MYSTERIOUS MOUNTAIN or THE HYMN TO GLACIER PEAK. Maybe Hovhaness was under time pressure but the St. Helens Symphony has a too typical & cliched approach to the actual explosion despite some fine lyrical moments prior to it. The two great Mountain symphonies here are a wonderful & transcendent tribute to nature & have some of the moving spiritual qualities found in Hovhaness‘ THE PRAYER OF ST. GREGORY - perhaps the greatest 5 or so minute composition that I have yet to hear. The photos above are really appreciated & encourage me to visit Glacier Peak if only close to its base.
Thank you!
0:00 the music of smiling for its own sake
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