Suite for Violin, Piano and Small Orchestra (1951)

In 1951, the wonderful Ajemian sisters, Anahid and Maro, commissioned my Suite for Violin, Piano and Small Orchestra. It is an assembly from sketches and ideas that I was at that time most interested in. The choice of instruments in the orchestra reflects my wish to reveal and emphasize the sounds of the two soloists. The Overture, Aria, and Chorale were worked from preliminary sketches that I made for a possible oratorio on a text by Charles Peguy. The two movements titled Gamelan reflect my long-time interest in the magnificent music of Indonesia. Interestingly enough, the mode used in the First Gamelan is derived from a mode charmingly used by Roy Harris in his Second String Quartet thus realizing a conjunction between the work of an older American composer and my own ravishment by Gamelan. The Second Gamelan is a "tourist's-ear" impression of the Balinese Wayang Gender ensemble. The Elegy was inspired by the tiny, sometimes sad paintings of Paul Klee, but the contrasts between the mystic fields of France and the glamour and heat of Bali are the formal generating powers of the piece. Recordings of the work have been made under Leopold Stokowski and also Robert Hughes... the latter with Keith Jarrett and Lucy Holtzman.

Lou Harrison

Commissioned by Maro and Anahid Ajemian

First performance:

January 11, 1952 at Carnegie Hall, New York
Maro and Anahid Ajemian; Lou Harrison (conductor)