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The Eleanor Hovda Collection
Innova Recordings

The Eleanor Hovda Collection

$26.99

Details

Composer
HOVDA, ELEANOR
Artist
Hovda, Prism Players, Wagar, Van Cleve, Vees, Relache, Mcglaughlin, Californ
Format
CD
Label
Innova Recordings
Released
Jan 31, 2012
Catalog #
INN808
UPC
726708680824

About



HOVDA Onyx. Song in High Grasses. Snapdragon. Leaning Into and Away. Ariadne Music. Coastal Traces Tidepools 1. Shenai Sky. Record of an Ocean Cliff. Crossings in a Mountain Dream. Glacier Track. Glosses Glacier. Beginnings. Coastal Traces Tidepools 2. Borealis Music. Boundaries. Cymbalmusic: Centerflow/Trail II. Journey Music. Lemniscates. Regions. Jo Ha Kyu. Ikima. Breathing The Proclamation: excepts. Dancing in Place. Spring Music with Wind. 40 Million Gallons of Music • Prism Players; Libby Van Cleve (ob, English horn, shenai); Jack Vees (el gtr, b gtr); Eleanor Hovda (pn, cymbals, shakuhachi); Relache; Cassatt Qrt; California EAR Unit; Jan Weller, David Gilbert (fl); Elizabeth Panzer (hp); Lee Humphries (pn); et al. • INNOVA 808 (4 CDs: 4:20:03)


I’ve written about Eleanor Hovda (1940–2009) in these pages before; indeed, in the program notes for this release I’m quoted at length. For that I’m honored, because I feel she is a major composer in need of a certain rescue now. She died of cancer far too young; she forsook positions in the Ivy League and New York artistic life for grassroots arts administering in her native and beloved Minnesota; she wrote music that, despite genuine complexity, often looked simple or naïve in score. In short, by life and aesthetic choices she herself made, and by the cards dealt her over which she had no control, she was marginalized in the broader culture of American music. But we still need her.


Parts of this comprehensive collection were originally released by O.O. Discs and I reviewed some of it in Fanfare 22:4; I’d urge interested readers to check this review out in the online archive, as it goes into much more technical detail about the music than I will here. The second disc, Coastal Traces , is more of an extended collective improvisation for dance featuring Libby Van Cleve, double reeds; Jack Vees, guitars; and Hovda on piano interior. But the other three discs consist of more clearly defined pieces, even though they still have the composer’s trademark openness.


I now think of Hovda to some degree as the American Scelsi. By that I mean there’s an emphasis on pure sound as an expressive medium, shaped at the macro and micro level to bring out what Wallace Stevens called “the beauty of inflections.” There’s also a mystical/spiritual bent, but it’s never overbearing. Unlike Scelsi’s, Hovda’s music is often fragile, gentle, and delicate. As a result, when it really rips loose, it carries a shocking impact. I now feel that she’s an example of what I call “sonic charisma,” a capacity to take basic sonic materials that should be simplistic, facile, messy, and then imbue them with such authenticity that you can’t resist them. (Christian Wolff is another such composer in my book.)


The performances are consistently imaginative and committed, and make the case for the music persuasively. Some of the recordings are more “archival” than others, but I’d never for a second preclude their inclusion because of some hiss or ambient noise. The works range from the exceptional oboe work Jo Ha Kyu (thrillingly performed by Libby Van Cleve) to the Cassatt Quartet’s glasslike rendition of Lemniscates to what sounds like a vast Tibetan tantric ritual in 40 Million Gallons of Music (in fact the real story is just as wild, as the piece is a sonic exploration of a giant underground water storage tank in Fayetteville, Arkansas, recorded just after 9/11). Hopefully that gives some idea of the range. As a grand bonus, the scores for works on three of the four discs are viewable on your computer as pdfs (as are extended program notes for the entire set). One senses both how free and how precise the composer was; her craft is evident in these striking scores in her own hand. Though there is one score, Cymbalmusic, whose graphic approach is incredibly beautiful and imaginatively focused, in all the scores one sees a magical touch at work, mixing scribbling doodles with more traditional notation.


A final word of thanks and recognition to Philip Blackburn and the entire Innova organization, as this is yet another of the incredibly important rescue operations they’re performing for composers who might otherwise slip through the cracks (I think of their great Henry Brant series, for example). Every music library in America, for example, should have this collection. Bravo; it gives us all a little faith in lean times. And this is unquestionably on the next Want List.


FANFARE: Robert Carl

Tracklist 26 tracks

  1. Disc 1
  2. 1 Onyx 13:32
    Track
    1
    Title
    Onyx
    Duration
    13:32
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Ensemble
    Prism Players
  3. 2 Song in High Grasses 12:05
    Track
    2
    Title
    Song in High Grasses
    Duration
    12:05
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Ensemble
    Prism Players
  4. 3 Snapdragon 08:39
    Track
    3
    Title
    Snapdragon
    Duration
    08:39
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Ensemble
    Prism Players
  5. 4 Leaning Into and Away 12:43
    Track
    4
    Title
    Leaning Into and Away
    Duration
    12:43
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Ensemble
    Prism Players
  6. 5 Ariadne Music 14:42
    Track
    5
    Title
    Ariadne Music
    Duration
    14:42
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Ensemble
    Prism Players
  7. Disc 2
  8. 1 Coastal Traces Tidepools 1 10:58
    Track
    1
    Title
    Coastal Traces Tidepools 1
    Duration
    10:58
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Performer
    Eleanor Hovda
  9. 2 Shenai Sky 01:50
    Track
    2
    Title
    Shenai Sky
    Duration
    01:50
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Performer
    Libby Van Cleve
  10. 3 Record of An Ocean Cliff 09:04
    Track
    3
    Title
    Record of An Ocean Cliff
    Duration
    09:04
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Performer
    Libby Van Cleve, Jack Vees
  11. 4 Crossings in a Mountain Dream 08:48
    Track
    4
    Title
    Crossings in a Mountain Dream
    Duration
    08:48
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Performer
    Libby Van Cleve, Jack Vees
  12. 5 Glacier Track 07:57
    Track
    5
    Title
    Glacier Track
    Duration
    07:57
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Performer
    Libby Van Cleve, Jack Vees
  13. 6 Glosses/Glacier 06:34
    Track
    6
    Title
    Glosses/Glacier
    Duration
    06:34
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Performer
    Jack Vees, Eleanor Hovda
  14. 7 Beginnings 08:34
    Track
    7
    Title
    Beginnings
    Duration
    08:34
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Performer
    Libby Van Cleve, Jack Vees
  15. 8 Coastal Traces Tidepools 2 08:31
    Track
    8
    Title
    Coastal Traces Tidepools 2
    Duration
    08:31
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Performer
    Eleanor Hovda
  16. Disc 3
  17. 1 Borealis Music 10:29
    Track
    1
    Title
    Borealis Music
    Duration
    10:29
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Ensemble
    Relâche
  18. 2 Boundaries 07:11
    Track
    2
    Title
    Boundaries
    Duration
    07:11
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Ensemble
    Anonymous
  19. 3 Centerflow/Trail II 09:14
    Track
    3
    Title
    Centerflow/Trail II
    Duration
    09:14
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Performer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Ensemble
    Audience
  20. 4 Journey Music 08:08
    Track
    4
    Title
    Journey Music
    Duration
    08:08
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Ensemble
    Anonymous
    Conductor
    William McGlaughlin
  21. 5 Lemniscates 17:56
    Track
    5
    Title
    Lemniscates
    Duration
    17:56
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Ensemble
    Cassatt String Quartet
  22. 6 Regions 11:41
    Track
    6
    Title
    Regions
    Duration
    11:41
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Ensemble
    California EAR Unit
  23. Disc 4
  24. 1 Jo Ha Kyu 04:36
    Track
    1
    Title
    Jo Ha Kyu
    Duration
    04:36
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Performer
    Libby Van Cleve
  25. 2 Ikima 04:36
    Track
    2
    Title
    Ikima
    Duration
    04:36
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Performer
    Eleanor Hovda
  26. 3 Breathing 13:26
    Track
    3
    Title
    Breathing
    Duration
    13:26
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Performer
    Jan Weller
    Ensemble
    Anonymous
  27. 4 The Proclamation 02:13
    Track
    4
    Title
    The Proclamation
    Duration
    02:13
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Performer
    David Gilbert
  28. 5 Dancing in Place 03:27
    Track
    5
    Title
    Dancing in Place
    Duration
    03:27
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Performer
    Elizabeth Panzer
  29. 6 Spring Music with Wind 31:02
    Track
    6
    Title
    Spring Music with Wind
    Duration
    31:02
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Performer
    Lee Humphries
  30. 7 40 Millions Gallons of Music 31:02
    Track
    7
    Title
    40 Millions Gallons of Music
    Duration
    31:02
    Composer
    Eleanor Hovda
    Performer
    Eleanor Hovda, Jeannine Wagar, Dan Coody