Love this, thanks for posting. I just took part in a performance of the Hovhaness symphony #61. It was quite the spiritual experience, one I will always remember.
Amoung his students were the great jazzmen Sam Rivers and Gigi Gryce. He was admired by Ornette Coleman,Leopold Stokowski,and John Cage and many others.
Thank you I really enjoyed this little documentary... I can remember the very first time I heard his mysterious Mountain.. I was in my bedroom in the evening studying laying down.. and had the classical channel on the radio and I was very , very tired and it sounded magical and like I was having a religious experience.
Having been born in 1911, he could actually meet both of them. What he says is interesting. Neither Sibelius nor Stravinsky are among my favorite composers, but if I had to choose, I would definitely choose Sibelius.
Hovhaness is one of those underrated talents, Yes his music could be deemed conservative, yet his best pieces are totally lovely and musically soulful.
Fascinating man fascjnating music. Folk in the UK know his music mostly because of the excellent Naxos CDs. Its main attraction for me is - there is nothing else like it. There is no School of Hovhaness, he was a one-off.
thank you soooo much for this i had heard about it long ago but never saw it Alan and his wive gave me permission to work on another documentory years after this and I started with video recording a world premiere of one of his late Sypmponies and unfortunately did not get too far after that ...I met him a few times and love him and the lagacy of his Mystical Music which certainly will only grow more popular forever.
