Alan Hovhaness
Alan Hovhaness
Alan Hovhanesswas an American composer of Armenian and Scottish descent. He was one of the most prolific 20th-century composers, with his official catalog comprising 67 numbered symphoniesand 434 opus numbers. The true tally is well over 500 surviving works since many opus numbers comprise two or more distinct works...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth8 March 1911
CountryUnited States of America
emotional simplicity intensity
The greater the emotional intensity, the greater the simplicity.
sympathy thinking century
It's hard for me to think of others because I'm not particularly in sympathy with the music of this century.
identity culture emotion
I found a greater identity with my own emotions in the Armenian culture as I grew older, as well as from the beginning, although I didn't know anything about it.
order kind all-kinds
I did all kinds of things in order to earn a living.
mother new-york scotland
My mother's background was Scottish. She came from an old family, some of whom lived in upper New York State and some of whom had come over from Scotland.
teacher piano orchestra
I was much more interested in the orchestra than the piano, but I did become fairly proficient as a pianist and my teachers felt I had talent and wanted me to become a good concert pianist and earn my living that way.
depressing people grandfather
This is not to say that the Scots are not fine people, but they were all sort of... well, my grandfather was a minister and sort of Protestant, and this was rather depressing to me.
beautiful healing people
My purpose is to create music not for snobs, but for all people, music which is beautiful and healing. To attempt what old Chinese painters called 'spirit resonance' in melody and sound.
nature travel religion
I've always regarded nature as the clothing of God.
heaven earth sound
The composer...joins Heaven and Earth with threads of sounds.
admired certain composers mostly music nature
There are certain composers I have always admired very much, but I have always admired nature mostly and the music of the Orient.
moon sun earth
To me, atonality is against nature. There is a center to everything that exists. The planets have the sun, the earth, the moon.
years childhood arlington
I was born in Somerville, but I don't remember very much about it because we moved from there to Arlington when I was five years old, and it was in Arlington that I spent most of my childhood.
practice
There is nothing like practice.