Hovhaness recommendations please!

[semloh]

My only recommendation would be: DON'T BOTHER!

With respect, I don't think it helps to simply say 'don't bother' when you are talking about a composer with 400+ compositions, many of which are widely praised and oft recorded (even if some people feel that he has only one voice).

If someone asked me for a recommendation as to what to listen to in order to get a feel for a composer I didn't care for - say, Philip Glass - I would happily point them in the direction of a couple of key works.... satisfied that this would turn them off his music for life! 

[petershott@btinternet.com]

Although I'm tempted to agree, but with all respect, your post is remarkably unenlightening!

[TerraEpon]

For anyone who thinks "all of Hovhannes sounds the same" I direct them at the sound samples for this new CD:
http://www.amazon.com/Hovhaness-Earth-Gloriae-Dei-Cantores/dp/B0074B2MUE/

Incidently, Delos apparently released a single CD compilation late last year, which includes Mysterious Mountain, Prayer of St Greogry, and God Created Great Whales:
http://www.amazon.com/American-Mystic-Hovhaness-Centennial-Collection/dp/B005KMX8DE/

[eschiss1]

For what it's worth and this may not help either much, I do not like most of his music that I have heard- but his symphony no.11 "All men are brothers" has proven an exception (and sometimes a few other works I'll try to remember. No, not because of the title(s)! )

[Alan Howe]

My only recommendation would be: DON'T BOTHER!

Not terribly helpful. You may, of course be right, but it'd be good to know some specifics...

[Delicious Manager]

My only recommendation would be: DON'T BOTHER!

Not terribly helpful. You may, of course be right, but it'd be good to know some specifics...

Apologies. I'm afraid I am very dismissive of Hovhaness' music. Urged on by a keen advocate who insisted I just hadn't listen to enough of Hovhaness' music, I did him the courtesy of listening to quite a lot of this composer's work, truly hoping to find one redeeming piece. I failed, sad to say. I can understand why some people like it; it is very easy on the ear and makes few intellectual or aural demands. It is also often quite colourful in its orchestration. So, it is, superficially, quite attractive.

That having been said, all of Hovhaness' music sounds more or less the same - rather like a half-decent film score, with very little structural, harmonic or thematic integrity. It is floss, pure and simple. I truly believe that, in this case, the composer has spread himself (or rather, his mediocre talant) far too thinly. If he had written, say a quarter (or even less) of the number of works he did, maybe (just maybe) there would be at least one memorable or truly remarkable piece. As it stands, I have to confess to having yet to find anything that deserves repeated listening.

Just my opinion, of course!

[Fidelio84]

Apologies. I'm afraid I am very dismissive of Hovhaness' music. ... all of Hovhaness' music sounds more or less the same - rather like a half-decent film score, with very little structural, harmonic or thematic integrity. It is floss, pure and simple. I truly believe that, in this case, the composer has spread himself (or rather, his mediocre talant) far too thinly.

Much of it (yes there are 400 works I believe) is not "floss" and Hovhaness's music certainly DOESN'T all sound "more or less the same".  I've been re-discovering his music of late, and I cannot think of a SINGLE American composer whose music is more DIVERSE.  For example, if you hear symphonies 9, 10 and 11, you could be forgiven for thinking they were by three different composers - you can't say that about many symphonists!  9 sounds folkish, 10 sounds ethnic Indian, and 11 is steeped in a sort of Sibelius/Vaughan Williams-like romanticism.

If he had written, say a quarter (or even less) of the number of works he did, maybe (just maybe) there would be at least one memorable or truly remarkable piece. As it stands, I have to confess to having yet to find anything that deserves repeated listening.

I agree he wrote too much, which watered down the overall quality.  But that "memorable or truly remarkable piece" for many is certainly Mysterious Mountain (Symphony #2) which must have been recorded by at least 6 of our major orchestras (under such notables as Fritz Reiner, John Williams, Andrew Litton, Gerard Schwarz, etc).  I dont think such conductors would have gone near "floss" 

Can I recommend giving Mysterious Mountain serious listening - it seems to mesmerize a lot of people, and with just cause.  His xylophone concerto Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints is also very attractive, if more lightweight.

[TerraEpon]

His first is also an earlier piece, from before his supposedly destroyed hundreds of pieces. I don't remember it off hand though...

But really, his music hardly "all sounds the same" any more than, say, Bach or Haydn does.

[eschiss1]

relatively speaking I would contest that and maintain that Bach and Haydn did, yes, maintain rather more variety.  This is not to say that Hohvaness had none, but there are ways of discussing and - not exactly objectively measuring, but at least looking more carefully at these things than a one-off statement- Landon's work on Haydn's symphonies, the Bach cantata website, for only starters provide some interesting examples not of places to end but places to begin... sigh.