Alan Hovhaness

Overview - Recordings - Scores - Books - Links

Born: March 8, 1911, Somerville, Massachusetts, USA
Died: June 21, 2000, Seattle, Washington, USA

The world of music lost one of its most distinctive voices when Alan Hovhaness died. Fortunately, he left a lot of music with us, and lived to see his music return to fashion after many years in the wilderness.

Hovhaness's sound world remains quite consistent from work to work--a mark of strong individual style to some, perhaps somewhat monotonous to others. In the 1960's, though, when A. Clyde Roller and the Eastman Wind Ensemble recorded his Symphony No. 4, these were brand new sounds to the band and wind ensemble world.

The Symphony No. 4 is probably the best starting place among current recordings. It is on an Eastman Wind Ensemble disc together with a pair of band classics, the Gould and Giannini symphonies. There is one all-Hovhaness, all-band disc out now: Keith Brion and the Ohio State University Concert Band performing the 29th and 53rd symphonies. The 29th was originally written for a baritone horn soloist, but Christian Lindberg does a wonderful job playing it on trombone.

The 23rd is another major work that is at long last available on CD; I have not heard this performance. It is accompanied by The Spirit of Ink for 3 flutes. The Manhattan Chamber Orchestra has two Hovhaness CDs with one wind symphony work apiece. The Symphony No. 17 for Metal Orchestra (flutes, trombones, metallic percussion) is the major work on their 1995 CD, while the trumpet concerto Return and Rebuild the Desolate Places is included on the Mountains and Rivers Without End CD. Both are highly enjoyable recordings.

Recordings

Works	Performers	Reviews	Stores
Symphony No. 4	Eastman Wind Ensemble A. Clyde Roller	Simmons	Tower Amazon
Symphonies Nos. 29 and 53 Finale of Symphony No. 20	Christian Lindberg, trombone Ohio State Concert Band Keith Brion		Tower Amazon
Symphony No. 23 "Ani"	Highline and Shoreline College Bands Alan Hovhaness	Zagorski	Tower Amazon
Symphony No. 17	Manhattan Chamber Orchestra Richard Auldon Clark	Zagorski	Tower Amazon
Return and Rebuild the Desolate Places	Chris Gekker, trumpet Manhattan Chamber Orchestra Richard Auldon Clark	Lange Simmons	Tower Amazon

Scores

Books

The Works of Alan Hovhaness: A Catalog, Opus 1 - Opus 360 by Richard Howard