Overview

Since its original publication, Composing a World by Leta E. Miller and Fredric Lieberman has become the definitive work on the prolific California composer Lou Harrison, often cited as one of America's most original and influential figures. Composing a World presents a compelling and deeply human portrait of an exceptionally beloved pioneer in American music. This paperback edition is an updated version of the highly acclaimed Lou Harrison: Composing a World . The product of extensive research, as well as seventy-five interviews with the composer and those associated with him over half a century, this new edition features an updated works catalog reflecting compositions completed after 1997, adds a brief description of the circumstances of Harrison's death, and corrects a few minor errors. It also includes an annotated works-list detailing more than 300 compositions and a CD featuring over 74 minutes of illustrative Harrison compositions, including several unique and previously unrecorded works. Since its original publication, Composing a World by Leta E. Miller and Fredric Lieberman has become the definitive work on the prolific California composer Lou Harrison, often cited as one of America's most original and influential figures. Composing a World presents a compelling and deeply human portrait of an exceptionally beloved pioneer in American music. This paperback edition is an updated version of the highly acclaimed Lou Harrison: Composing a World . The product of extensive research, as well as seventy-five interviews with the composer and those associated with him over half a century, this new edition features an updated works catalog reflecting compositions completed after 1997, adds a brief description of the circumstances of Harrison's death, and corrects a few minor errors. It also includes an annotated works-list detailing more than 300 compositions and a CD featuring over 74 minutes of illustrative Harrison compositions, including several unique and previously unrecorded works. Extending beyond simple biography, Composing a World includes chapters on music and dance, intonation and tuning, instrument building, music criticism, political activism, homosexuality, and Harrison's Asian influences, among other topics. This indispensable study of Harrison's life and works--currently out of print--will be welcomed back by performing artists, students, and scholars of American music.""

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9780252071881

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Reviews

Garrulous and loving, remarkably successful in distilling abstruse musical manipulation--e.g., the mathematics governing the many kinds of tuning in Harrison's music--this is one of those rare musical biographies that draws you close to the subject with words of kindness rather than scholarly gobbledygook or scabrous patter. The disc, of course, helps. The whole thing is--well--pretty. -- Alan Rich, San Francisco Sunday Examiner An inspirational assessment of the American maverick. -- BBC Music Magazine (10 Best Books list) Far from academicizing or otherwise constraining Harrison by placing him between its solid covers, Composing a World seemingly manages the impossible in striking a perfect balance between convention and alterity, seriousness and humor, scholarship and celebration, erudition and readability, macrocosm and microcosm... A minor musicological miracle. -- David Nicholls, Notes ... engrossing, indispensable. -- Mark Swed, LA Times ... Composing A World--originally published in 1998, and now available in a revised edition with a CD--is the definitive study of Lou Harrison, the American composer who died in 2003. -- The WIRE

Author Information

Leta E. Miller is a professor of music at the University of California at Santa Cruz and editor of the MUSA volume Lou Harrison: Selected Keyboard and Chamber Music, 1937-1994.Fredric Lieberman (d. 2013) was a professor of music at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

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