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In Reply to: Can a composer "compose" too much (AKA John W. & Harry Potter) posted by Rich Stone on December 02, 2002 at 18:03:02:
Don't get me wrong, I like Hovhaness, but I think the guy had the idea for a really cool symphony. He turned it into 60 symphonies.Kind of like what Stravinski said when someone commented that Vivaldi had written over 500 concerti..."Vivaldi wrote only one concerto, but he did it 500 times" (or words to that effect.)
Follow Ups:
I have heard it a few times on classical radio. Sounded quite nice - which of his larger works is considered the best starting point? Mt. St. Helen's symphony? (Is that the one on RCA with Reiner/CSO?)
But, I would go with this rafter-rattling recording if you can find it!
...is the Reiner/CSO recording you're thinking of (I'd love to find this one on vinyl, but the Living Stereo cd reissue isn't bad).SE's Delos recommendation is good. Gerard Schwarz of the Seattle Symphony has become quite a champion of Hovhaness, and the sound quality is wonderful. "And God Created the Great Whales" is another Delos to look for.
An odd, solo piano (Hovaness playing) recording on what is mostly a "New Age" label is worth looking for. "Shalimar" - Fortuna records 17062 is wonderful.
I didn't mean to dis Mr. Hovaness, by the way. His music is indeed unlike anyone else's, and he seems to be the last of the great large-orchestra fuge composers (everything has a fuge in it somewhere...) All I meant was that after a while, you realize that you are hearing the same melodic themes, sometimes only slightly varied, over and over again.
Hovhaness "invented" his own style (much like Phillip Glass), and then reworked that basic "sound" hundreds of times. Composers of this type are "self-made men". Vivaldi, OTOH, was constrained by the stylistic limitations (social, musicological, instruments etc.) of his time . There is actually considerable variation, and a tremendous amount of great art and creativity, across the Vivaldi works. Although not as outright fecund as J.S. Bach, he should be considered along those lines. If these composers "broke ranks" with tradition they would never have been able to make a living, and would be unknown to us today. Stravinsky IS known today due to the very fact that he DID break ranks. He was an iconoclast -- and he knew it. That was the basis for his Vivaldi comment.
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