Alan Hovhaness

PhD students study Hovhaness music for several key reasons:

• Diverse Compositional Styles: His extensive catalog showcases a remarkable diversity of styles, seamlessly blending Western classical elements with profound Eastern influences.
• Cross-Cultural Fusion: The unique fusion of cultures within his music makes it an especially captivating subject for musicological analysis, offering a rich ground for exploring intercultural dialogue and musical exchange.
• Philosophical Depth: Hovhaness music is deeply imbued with spiritual and philosophical themes, providing a profound source of inspiration for scholars investigating the connection between music and meaning.

Numerous dissertations have explored various aspects of Hovhaness music, including:

• An Analytical Survey of the Music of Alan Hovhaness (1972)

This study is the first scholarly exploration of Alan Hovhaness’s music, aiming to present his work as a serious and important voice in modern music. Hovhaness’s work, which has often been overlooked, is of significant importance in the contemporary music landscape. While avoiding ultimate judgments on specific pieces, the research delves into his unique style, divides his career into four periods, and includes detailed analyses of key works. It also features a newly assembled, near-chronological catalog of his compositions. By filling a gap in the scholarly literature, the study seeks to challenge misconceptions about the quality of Hovhaness’s prolific output and inspire greater recognition of his contributions to contemporary music.

Source: ProQuest Database.

Five Honorary Doctorates

FFrom 1956 to 1959, Alan Hovhaness spent his summers teaching at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, coinciding with a major milestone in his career. In 1958, the University of Rochester awarded him an honorary Doctor of Music degree, the first of five such honors he would receive throughout his lifetime—an acknowledgment of his profound contributions to music.

That same year, Hovhaness gained widespread recognition in the music world. On February 22, 1958, Oliver Daniel praised his compositions in the Saturday Review, describing them as offering “moments of tranquility in a chaotic world.” The prestigious Koussevitzky Foundation also commissioned his Magnificat, a piece that became one of his most cherished and frequently performed works.

Another landmark moment in April 1958 came with the commercial recording of Mysterious Mountain by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Released on RCA, the recording propelled Hovhaness into the mainstream, making Mysterious Mountain one of his most widely recognized and performed orchestral pieces.

In June 1959, Bates College in Maine—renowned for its strong music program—bestowed his second honorary Doctor of Music degree upon him. The college’s citation eloquently honored his ability to fuse traditional and modern musical elements:

For boldness and delicacy of imagination, for originality and individuality without eccentricity, for a great number of compositions each fresh and distinctive, for fusing old melody and modern technique and spirit; in short, for making music to lift the hearts of men as only he can.

This recognition affirmed Hovhaness’s ability to blend classical traditions with contemporary innovation, inspiring listeners and future composers.

Throughout his lifetime, Alan Hovhaness received five honorary doctorate degrees, a testament to his lasting impact on American and global music. These honors reflected not only his creative genius but also his compositions’ deep emotional and spiritual resonance.

(Source: Hovhaness.com)

Studies

• The Musical World of Alan Hovhaness: East-West Crossroads By Lilit Yernjakyan

Dr. Lilit Yernjakyan is a respected music expert and the author of a book about composer Alan Hovhaness. She shares valuable insights into how Hovhaness skillfully combines Eastern and Western music styles. Yernjakyan points out that Hovhaness’s Armenian background plays a key role in his music, allowing him to blend various cultural influences uniquely.

She describes his works as having a “natural unity,” meaning that all elements come together seamlessly. His music features flowing melodies that improvise, showing his creative approach to how music is structured. Through her analysis, Yernjakyan highlights Hovhaness’s important role in connecting different cultures, showcasing him as a composer whose music crosses borders and resonates with people from various backgrounds.

For a deeper understanding of Hovhaness’s musical philosophy, you might find this discussion insightful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgNya0eVaX8

• ALAN HOVHANESS Retrospective of Music for Wind Band CBDNA National Conference. (2011)

This paper discusses the composer Alan Hovhaness, who believed simple melodies could express deep emotions. He was critical of atonal music, finding it unnatural, instead focused on creating beautiful and soothing music. Hovhaness used unique techniques, like “spirit murmur,” to create atmospheric sounds and drew inspiration from Indian music’s rhythmic patterns.

He was also concerned about environmental issues, advocating for solar energy over nuclear power. Throughout his career, he composed many symphonies and pieces for wind instruments, showcasing his love for both Western and Eastern music.

Source: Google Scholar

• Henry Cowell and Alan Hovhaness: Responses to the Music of India

Professor Sambamoorthy found in Alan Hovhaness’ Eighth Symphony (Arjuna) a similarly adventurous direction :
“Excepting for a sprinkling of counterpoint there was no attempt at harmonization. The entire composition was a melodic piece played in unison with occasional doubling in octaves. Since there was neither the crossing of melodies nor the intertwining of melodies, Indian musicians were able to listen with interest…. A new fertile and untrodden field has been laid bare by … the American composer of this symphony.”

• South, Southeast, and East Asian Inspirations in Alan Hovhaness’s Harp Chamber Works

Alan Hovhaness’s “Upon Enchanted Ground,” Op. 90, No. 1 (1951), is a chamber work scored for flute, cello, giant tam-tam, and harp. This composition exemplifies Hovhaness’s signature style, blending Eastern and Western musical traditions to create a meditative and mystical atmosphere. The interplay among the instruments, particularly the ethereal sounds of the flute and harp, reflects his interest in spiritual and transcendental themes.

Articles

Alan Hovhaness, a pioneering composer, had a dedicated advocate in his wife, Hinako Fujihara. After his passing in 2000, Hinako committed herself to preserving his music through Fujihara Music Company and Fujihara Records, ensuring control over his works and promoting new recordings. Described as “a very fine wife,” she supported his creative vision as a performer, publisher, and gatekeeper.

Her passion for Hovhaness’s music continued posthumously, funding recordings with Naxos Records and organizing a 100th birthday concert in 2011, which she called “my birthday present to my husband.” Hovhaness once expressed his hope for the longevity of his music: “I hope for the survival of my music in terms of centuries rather than decades.“

Source: Hovhaness.com

• Alan Hovhaness: Armenian Composer, Universal Spirit

The article by Muriel Mirak-Weissbach, published in the Armenian Mirror-Spectator on April 22, 2021, highlights the extraordinary legacy of Alan Hovhaness. Known for his innovative fusion of Armenian musical heritage with universal spiritual themes, Hovhaness composed over 500 works that transcend cultural boundaries while retaining profound mystical depth. His compositions, shaped by a deep spiritual connection to nature and the influence of Armenian liturgical music, stand as a testament to his creative genius. The piece underscores Hovhaness’s unparalleled ability to weave cultural pride with global artistic resonance, cementing his place as a unique voice in 20th-century classical music.

• Alan Hovhaness’ Mystical Tone Poem, “Meditation on Orpheus”

Alan Hovhaness’ “Meditation on Orpheus” (1958) exemplifies his unique fusion of Eastern and Western musical traditions. This tone poem reflects on the Greek myth of Orpheus, with Hovhaness describing it as a “fantasy-rondo” featuring “planned chaos” that evokes the underworld’s tumult. His innovative “spirit murmur” technique, where instruments improvise on specified notes, adds a haunting quality. Hovhaness’ distinctive blend of Middle Eastern scales and Western counterpoint creates a contemplative mysticism, setting his work apart in 20th-century composition.

• Alan Hovhaness & the Mysterious Mountain of Echmiadzin

Alan Hovhaness (1911–2000) was a visionary American composer of Armenian and Scottish descent, known for blending Eastern and Western musical traditions in a deeply spiritual and mystical style. Raised in a culturally rich home, he developed an early passion for music, influenced by Armenian hymns, Jean Sibelius, and Indian classical music. Despite early criticism, he persevered, achieving recognition with Mysterious Mountain (1955), which solidified his reputation. With over 67 symphonies and numerous works, his compositions embraced cultural diversity and experimentation, leaving a lasting impact on modern classical music and vinyl culture.

“Alan Hovhaness and Japan”

Dr. W. Anthony Sheppard

In the 1950s and 60s numerous European and American composers became interested in Japanese music, particularly in the refined and elite traditional genres of noh theater and gagaku, the ancient ensemble music of the Imperial court. These composers included Henry Cowell, Benjamin Britten, Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Roger Reynolds, as well as several prominent jazz musicians who toured Japan as cultural ambassadors for the State Department, such as Dave Brubeck and Herbie Mann. Alan Hovhaness stands out in this group through his dedication to learning to play several Japanese instruments and in his prolific compositional response, evident in his adoption of Japanese stylistic features in numerous orchestral and theatrical works.

Hovhaness first traveled to Japan in 1960 and returned on a Rockefeller grant to study gagaku in 1962-63 at the Imperial Household music department. He had been interested in Japanese music and culture for some years prior to his first trip and studied gagaku performance while serving as composer in residence at the University of Hawaii in 1961-62. In his initial letter to the Rockefeller Foundation, Hovhaness declared: “I feel that I may be particularly adept in enriching Western musical techniques with principles and concepts derived from Japanese classical music.” Following up on his travel grant request, Hovhaness explained: “I want to study the modes of Bunraku and Noh so that I may incorporate these principles in my own music and also in my future teaching and experimentation. In connection with this study, I wish to learn to play some Japanese instruments which I wish also to incorporate later in orchestras of western instruments.” Hovhaness was a devoted student of gagaku in the early 1960s, learning to play the hichiriki and sho in particular. In Hawaii in June 1962 he wrote that he was studying six Japanese instruments and that he could already play the sho and hichiriki in public and that playing and composing for these “is a glorious experience–my wife and I play ancient Japanese gagaku music every night.” (See Figure. Note that Hovhaness is seen here holding the sho, a Japanese mouth organ that plays sustained clusters of pitches.) Upon receiving the Rockefeller funding, Hovhaness attested that he and his wife “already practice the sho, ryuteki, hichiriki instruments of gagaku as well
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as shamisen so we will be well prepared for this wonderful study.”
Throughout his long career, Hovhaness repeatedly asserted in lectures, interviews, and articles that he used “principles, but not melodies” from exotic musical cultures. As early as 1954, he explained that in his compositions, “[w]hile elements of style have been absorbed from Indian, Arabic, and Japanese traditions, the music is original, an addition to tradition, not an adaption–the melodies are not quoted from folk lore but are original melodies composed in traditional scales.”

I have identified some two dozen works composed by Hovhaness in the 1950s to 1980s that indicate Japanese influence in their programmatic titles, instrumentation, and/or stylistic features. Multiple compositions were inspired by specific Japanese sites, art works, or cultural figures. For example, the 1953 song “O Lady Moon,” for soprano (or women’s chorus) accompanied by clarinet and piano employs a text by the Japanophile writer Lafcadio Hearn but otherwise exhibits no Japanese features. Hovhaness completed the first version of the Fuji Cantata for women’s chorus, flute, harp, and strings in April 1960 in Tokyo. The text was taken from the eighth-century poetry collection the Manyoshu and suggestions of Japanese, specifically gagaku, influence in this work are evident in the sections of uncoordinated playing (marked “very free, not together”), the general plodding rhythm, and the prominence of the flute. In addition, Hovhaness repeatedly composed for Japanese instruments during his period of gagaku study, including the 1962 sonatas for Hichiriki and Sho, Ryuteki and Sho, and the Two Sonatas for Koto.

Numerous works by Hovhaness composed during this period feature specific aspects of Japanese traditional music. The orchestral Meditation on Zeami (1963), premiered by Leopold Stokowski, includes sliding between pitches and sho-like violin clusters. (Zeami was the most prominent figure in the history of noh.) Hovaness’ Ode to the Temple of Sound (1965) has an opening and closing section marked by tone clusters resembling the sho and a big pentatonic brassy theme, while the middle section of the piece is Western in style, with a folk-like rhythmic lilt and fugal texture. Here is an excerpt from Ode to the Temple of Sound.

Two Japanese-inspired 1964 orchestral works stand out in Hovaness’ oeuvre. Floating World: “Ukiyo” Ballade for Orchestra was commissioned by Andre Kostelanetz for the New York Philharmonic and was intended, according to a note in the score, to express the “old Japanese Buddhist concept of uncertainty, change.” The piece includes some typical stylistic features that Hovhaness celebrated in gagaku, including pitch clusters resembling those of the sho, “planned chaos” sections, and sliding tones. The Utah Desert News review of the premiere noted: “From the opening bar, Floating World seemed so authentically Japanese that this department half expected to see Maestro Kostelanetz conduct in a ceremonial kimono. … One does not paint the impression of rising mists around Mount Fuji in counterpoint but rather in shimmering whole-tone

harmonies enhanced by oriental rhythms played by gongs and drums and odd-to-us imitated sounds of the Japanese guitar-like instruments.” This excerpt points to the generally positive and exuberantly exoticized reception of Hovaness’ musical japonisme. It remains unclear in what way the similarly well-received Fantasy on Japanese Wood Prints might represent a response to specific examples of this most famous of Japanese visual art forms. This work for xylophone soloist and orchestra features several aspects of gagaku style, including woodwind glissandi in the style of the hichiriki (a piercing double reed instrument) and ryuteki (a flute) and sustained clusters resembling those of the sho mouth organ, though it also includes a surprising stylistic shift at rehearsal 18 to a lilting tune in 6/8.

Japanese influence is also abundantly clear in Hovaness’ operas, eight of which were composed between 1959 and 1969, the height of his interest in Japanese culture. Hovhaness employed harmony based on gagaku sho clusters and included kakko-style drum rolls in his noh-influenced stage works. By combining noh and gagaku traits in his chamber operas, Hovhaness was prefiguring Benjamin Britten’s Japanese-influenced Church Parables composed in the mid to late 1960s. Like many of Hovaness’ compositions, these noh-influenced theater pieces were intended to express mystical and religious themes, as well as aspects of the composer’s Armenian heritage. In these works, Hovaness’ musical exoticism is achieved through characteristic instrumentation, the use of a limited number of pitches in a predominately melodic texture, and a vocal style that includes chant-like passages and extensive sliding between pitches, often within the range of a semitone.

In March 1961 as he turned 50, Hovhaness was asked about his favorite music and he listed music of South India and Japanese theatrical traditions, and the music of the Japanese composers Toru Takemitsu and Toshiro Mayuzumi. Throughout much of his career Hovhaness adopted a syncretic approach to incorporating various Asian music influences. Like Messiaen, Hovhaness sought to combine detailed aspects of Indian and Japanese music. Whereas Messiaen employed Indian rhythms with gagaku textures and timbres, Hovhaness composed melodies based on Indian ragas in works for gagaku instruments, harmonies, and temporal features. Hovaness’ Symphony 17 (1963) for flutes, trombones, and percussion offers an example of his syncretic approach. He referred to this piece as a “neo-gagaku” and “neo-[Korean] aak” work that employed individual Indian ragas for each movement. The six flutes create a sho sonority but use the pitches of the raga scale and near the end they play in canon in a free rhythm. Hovhaness described one section of the symphony as resembling Indonesian gamelan music and explained that he decided to score for metal percussion instruments because he had been commissioned by the American Metal Association. Hovhaness exhibited an intense desire to convey religious expression through his music and turned to exotic musical traditions to serve his spiritual aspirations. Much of his mysticism was rooted

in explorations of his Armenian heritage. However, he found the music of South and East Asia equally stimulating in spiritual terms. As he wrote in 1960: “The music of India, especially South India, also ancient Japan, cannot be separated from religious thought and feeling … I am searching for many things which the West and modern thought have lost but which still remain in the East, although these things are hidden from all tourists.” Hovhaness, though far from alone in the mid-twentieth century in his interest in Japanese traditional music, forged his own unique artistic path to Japan in his spiritual cum musical quest.