Thursday Tunes

Alan Hovhaness was one of America's most prolific composers, though few people outside of conservatories know his name. Like many American composers, he wasn't afraid to "push the boundaries" of classical music, often using instruments in ways which made more conservative composers and critics hot under their stuffy collars.

If you're a music lover, I strongly encourage you to spend some time exploring Hovhaness' rather extensive catalog. It's all quite unique, and you'll find little snippets of music here and there in his concertos and symphonies which you will recognize. That's because Hollywood has made significant -- though rarely credited -- use of his works in movies and television over the last fifty years, either directly or through near-plagiaristic derivation. Hell, the final movement of his Symphony No.1 is virtually the template for modern epic movie scores, and it was first recorded in 1936.

This piece, Symphony No.4 (Op.165), is a good example of how Hovhaness liked to kick the sides of the box without actually breaking it. He leads off with low woodwinds and brass, counterpointed with high-pitched percussion, while the rest of the orchestra sits on their hands. After gradually filtering in the remainder of the instruments over the course of the first movement, he then "wipes the slate" and leads the second movement with a barely audible low-range solo on the xylophone, with high-pitched woodwinds taking the counterpoint. At times, the piece has an eerie, almost electronic quality to it, despite being composed in the late 1950s, long before electronic music became "a thing."




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