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 particularly interested in Asian music,
particularly the Javanese gamelan, after he worked with K. P. H. Notoprojo
(also known as Pak Cokro).

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, of course, fascinated
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.”
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 this year through the Los
Angeles area, with a concert in Pasadena’s Boston Court, his interludes to 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).
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