Other Minds Presents Early Harrison Composition

A 1940 photograph of Lou Harrison on the cover of the album being discussed (courtesy of Other Minds)

Today Other Minds released its latest album available through its home page on Bandcamp. The entire album is devoted to one of Lou Harrison’s earliest compositions, his Opus 7 sonata for unaccompanied violin, composed in 1936. Performed by Kate Stenberg, the duration is only about seven minutes; but, given the rich program notes provided by Harrison biographer Bill Alves, this is a “must have” offering, not only for Harrison enthusiasts but for the perspective of what was happening in the United States during the second quartet of the twentieth century.

Harrison graduated from high school in 1934. As Alves’ notes put it, “he immediately immersed himself in the Bay Area’s vibrant, though provincial, world of innovative musicians, choreographers, artists, and bohemians.” That immersion would lead to his discovery of Henry Cowell, who provided Harrison with composition lessons even when Cowell was serving time for a morals charge in San Quentin State Prison. Those lessons led to an awareness of Arnold Schoenberg’s approach to giving equal treatment to all twelve tones of the chromatic scale. Alves describes Harrison’s interest in that approach as follows:

Although he would write several important works using Schoenberg’s method in the first half of his career, the young Harrison sometimes struggled with the necessity to write a C-sharp at a certain point when his melodic intuition demanded a C natural.

As a result Harrison developed his own technique based on intervals, rather than pitch classes. He applied that technique to the first and last of the three movements of his Opus 7 sonata, both in Largo tempo. While the middle movement of the sonata, Allegro Vigoroso, does not follow that technique, it is also based on interval content, focusing on major seconds and minor sixths. Alves’ examination of Harrison’s methods makes for absorbing and engaging reading; but one might still come away asking “Where’s the music?”

That question is answered by Stenberg’s performance. Through her interpretation, all of Harrison’s “marks on paper” emerge as a thoroughly engaging discourse. As the score progresses from one movement to the next, Stenberg’s expressive interpretation leads the listener through a rich series of dispositions. Thus, while Harrison’s approach to the management of intervals provides provide the “skeleton” of his sonata, Stenberg endows that skeleton with flesh and blood, reminding serious music students that one of Heinrich Schenker’s favorite adjectives was “organic.” Those who lack such “serious foundations” will still appreciate Stenberg’s ability to lead them through a refreshingly energetic journey.