Alan Hovhaness

Alan Hovhaness with an Indonesian rebab

Alan Hovhaness (Armenian: Ալան Հովհաննես) (March 8, 1911–June 21, 2000) was an American composer of Armenian and Scottish ancestry.^[1]

His music is accessible to the lay listener and often evokes a mood of mystery or contemplation. The Boston Globe music critic Richard Buell wrote: "Although he has been stereotyped as a self-consciously Armenian composer (rather as Ernest Bloch is seen as a Jewish composer), his output assimilates the music of many cultures. What may be most American about all of it is the way it turns its materials into a kind of exoticism. The atmosphere is hushed, reverential, mystical, nostalgic."^{[cite this quote]}

He was among the most prolific of 20th century composers, his official catalog comprising 67 numbered symphonies (surviving manuscripts indicate over 70) and 434 opus numbers.[1] ^[2] However, the true tally is well over 500 surviving works since many opus numbers comprise two or more distinct works.

Early life

He was born as Alan Vaness Chakmakjian in Somerville, Massachusetts to Haroutioun Hovanes Chakmakjian (an Armenian chemistry professor at Tufts College who had been born in Adana, Turkey) and Madeleine Scott (an American woman of Scottish descent who had graduated from Wellesley College). At the age of five, the family moved from Somerville to Arlington, Massachusetts. Alan Hovhaness himself explained that his mother had insisted on the move from Somerville because of the discrimination against the Armenians there.^[3] Upon his mother's death (October 3, 1930), he began to use the surname "Hovaness" in honor of his paternal grandfather, and changed it to "Hovhaness" around 1944. He stated the name change from the original Chakmakjian reflected the desire to simplify his name because "nobody ever pronounced it right".^[4] However, Hovhaness' daughter Jean Nandi has written in her book Unconventional Wisdom, "My father's name at the time of my birth was 'Hovaness', pronounced with accent on the first syllable. His original name was 'Chakmakjian', but in the 1930s he wanted to get rid of the Armenian connection and so changed his name to an Americanized version of his middle name. Some years later, deciding to reestablish his Armenian ties, he changed the spelling to 'Hovhaness', accent on the second syllable; this was the name by which he later became quite famous."

Hovhaness was interested in music from a very early age, writing his first composition at the age of four after being inspired by hearing a song of Franz Schubert. His family was concerned after this first attempt at composition, a cantata in the early Italian style, for his late-night hours spent composing and possibly for his financial future as an artist. He decided for a short time to pursue astronomy, another of his early loves.^[5] The fascination of astronomy remained with him through his entire life and composing career with many works titled after various planets and stars. It is recounted that his father took great pride in his composing and organised his first piano lessons with a neighbourhood teacher. (Alan also played the violin and made a small income for a short time teaching the violin to a neighbour's child.) His father helped to support him long into his young adulthood through many difficult years, and when recognised by Alan from centre stage of his successful Boston Symphony Orchestra Symphony Hall (Koussevitsky,) concert, broke into tears.

He continued his piano studies, first with Adelaide Proctor and then with Heinrich Gebhard. By age 14, Hovhaness decided to devote himself to composition. Among his first and most important influences were the recordings of Gomidas Vartabed, a great Armenian composer who had lived through the Armenian Genocide. He composed two operas during his teenage years, which were performed at Arlington High School, and the composer Roger Sessions took an interest in his music during this time. Following his graduation from high school in 1929, he studied with Leo Rich Lewis at Tufts and then the New England Conservatory of Music, under Frederick Converse. In 1932 he won the Conservatory's Samuel Endicott prize for composition, for a symphonic work entitled Sunset Symphony (elsewhere entitled Sunset Saga). In July 1934, with his first wife, Martha Mott Davis, he traveled to Finland to meet the composer Jean Sibelius, whose music he had greatly admired since childhood. The two remained in correspondence for the next twenty years.

In 1936 Hovhaness attended a performance in Boston by the Indian dance troupe of Uday Shankar (with orchestra led by Vishnudas Shirali), which began the composer's lifelong interest in the music of India.^[5] During the 1930s (until 1939) he was employed by the WPA's Federal Music Project.

Destruction of early works

During the 1930s and 1940s, Hovhaness famously destroyed many of his early works. He later claimed that he had burned at least 1000 different pieces, a process that took at least two weeks;^[5] elsewhere he claimed that he had destroyed approximately 500 works, up to 1000 pages in total (Gagne 1993, 121). In an interview with Richard Howard, he stated that the decision was based primarily on Roger Sessions' criticism of his works of that period, and that he wished to have a new start in his composing.^[5]

Compositional career

"Armenian Period"

Hovhaness became interested in Armenian culture and music in 1940, as the organist for the St. James Armenian Apostolic Church in Watertown, Massachusetts, remaining in this position for approximately ten years. In 1942 he won a scholarship at Tanglewood to study in Bohuslav Martinů's master class. During a composer's seminar, while a recording of Hovhaness's first symphony was being played, Aaron Copland talked loudly in Spanish to the Latin American composers in the room, and when the recording finished, Leonard Bernstein went to the piano, played a melodic minor scale, and remarked, "I can't stand this cheap ghetto music."^{[citation needed]} Hovhaness was apparently angered and distraught by this experience at Tanglewood, and quit early despite being on scholarship. Following this experience, he again destroyed a number of his works.

The next year he devoted himself to Armenian subject matter^{[citation needed]}, in particular using modes distinctive to Armenian music, and continued for several years, achieving some renown and the support of other musicians, including John Cage and Martha Graham, all while continuing as church organist.

Beginning in the mid-1940s, Hovhaness and two artist friends, Hyman Bloom and Hermon di Giovanno, met frequently to discuss spiritual and musical matters. All three had a strong interest in Indian classical music, and brought many well known Indian musicians to Boston to perform. During this period, Hovhaness learned to play the sitar, studying with amateur Indian musicians living in the Boston area. Around 1942, Bloom introduced Hovhaness to Yenovk Der Hagopian, a fine singer of Armenian and Kurdish troubadour songs, whose singing served as an inspiration to Hovhaness.

In one of many applications for a Guggenheim fellowship (1941), Hovhaness presented his credo at the time of application:

"I propose to create a heroic, monumental style of composition simple enough to inspire all people, completely free from fads, artificial mannerisms and false sophistications, direct, forceful, sincere, always original but never unnatural. Music must be freed from decadence and stagnation. There has been too much emphasis on small things while the great truths have been overlooked. The superficial must be dispensed with. Music must become virile to express big things. It is not my purpose to supply a few pseudo intellectual musicians and critics with more food for brilliant argumentation, but rather to inspire all mankind with new heroism and spiritual nobility. This may appear to be sentimental and impossible to some, but it must be remembered that Palestrina, Handel, and Beethoven would not consider it either sentimental or impossible. In fact, the worthiest creative art has been motivated consciously or unconsciously by the desire for the regeneration of mankind."

Lou Harrison reviewed a 1945 concert of Hovhaness' music which included his 1944 concerto for piano and strings, entitled Lousadzak:

"There is almost nothing occurring most of the time but unison melodies and very lengthy drone basses, which is all very Armenian. It is also very modern indeed in its elegant simplicity and adamant modal integrity, being, in effect, as tight and strong in its way as a twelve-tone work of the Austrian type. There is no harmony either, and the brilliance and excitement of parts of the piano concerto were due entirely to vigor of idea. It really takes a sound musicality to invent a succession of stimulating ideas within the bounds of an unaltered mode and without shifting the home-tone."

However, as before, there were also critics:

The serialists were all there. And so were the Americanists, both Aaron Copland's group and Virgil's. And here was something that had come out of Boston that none of us had ever heard of and was completely different from either. There was nearly a riot in the foyer [during intermission] — everybody shouting. A real whoop-dee-doo. (Miller and Lieberman 1998, {{Page number|date=October 2009)

Lousadzak was Hovhaness's first work to make use of an innovative technique he called "spirit murmur" — an early example of aleatoric music that was inspired by a vision of Hermon di Giovanno.[2] The technique involves instruments repeating phrases in uncoordinated fashion, producing a complex "cloud" or "carpet" of sounds.[3].

In the mid-1940s Hovhaness' stature in New York was helped considerably by members of the immigrant Armenian community who sponsored several high-profile concerts of his music. This organization, the Friends of Armenian Music Committee, was led by Hovhaness's friends Dr. Elizabeth A. Gregory, the Armenian American piano/violin duo Maro Ajemian and Anahid Ajemian, and later Anahid's husband, pioneering record producer and subsequent Columbia Records executive George Avakian. Their help led directly to many recordings of Hovhaness' music appearing in the 1950s on MGM and Mercury records, placing him firmly on the American musical landscape.

In May and June 1946, while staying with an Armenian family, Hovhaness composed Etchmiadzin, an opera on an Armenian theme, which was commissioned by a local Armenian church.

Conservatory years

In 1948 he joined the faculty of the Boston Conservatory, teaching there until 1951. His students there included the jazz musicians Sam Rivers and Gigi Gryce.

Relocation to New York

In 1951, Hovhaness moved to New York City, where he took up composing full-time. Also that year (beginning August 1), he worked at the Voice of America, first as a script writer for the Armenian Section, then as Director of Music, composer, and musical consultant for the Near East and Trans-Caucasian section. He eventually lost this job (along with much of the other staff) when Dwight D. Eisenhower succeeded Harry S. Truman as U.S. president in 1953. Beginning at this time, Hovhaness branched out from Armenian music, adopting styles and material from a wide variety of sources. In 1953 and 1954 he received Guggenheim Fellowships in composition. In 1954 he wrote the score for the Broadway play The Flowering Peach by Clifford Odets, a ballet for Martha Graham (Ardent Song, 1954), and two scores for NBC documentaries on India and Southeast Asia (1955 and 1957). Also during the 1950s, he composed for productions at The Living Theatre.

"Mysterious Mountain"

His biggest breakthrough to date came in 1955, when his Symphony No. 2, Mysterious Mountain, was premiered by Leopold Stokowski in his debut with the Houston Symphony. The idea that Mysterious Mountain was commissioned for the Houston Symphony is a common misconception [4]. That same year, MGM Records released recordings of a number of his works. Between 1956 and 1958, at the urging of Howard Hanson (who was an admirer of his music), he taught summers at the Eastman School of Music.

Trips to Asia

From 1959 through 1963, Hovhaness conducted a series of research trips to India, Hawaii, Japan, and South Korea, investigating the ancient traditional musics of these nations and eventually integrating elements of these into his own compositions. His study of Carnatic music in Madras, India (1959-60), during which he collected over 300 ragas, was sponsored by a Fulbright fellowship. While in Madras, he learned to play the veena and composed a work for Carnatic orchestra entitled Nagooran, inspired by a visit to the dargah at Nagore, which was performed by the South Indian Orchestra of All India Radio Madras and broadcast on All India Radio on February 3, 1960. He compiled a large amount of material on Carnatic ragas in preparation for a book on the subject, but never completed it.

He studied Japanese gagaku music (learning the wind instruments hichiriki, shō, and ryūteki) in the spring of 1962 with Masatoshi Shamoto in Hawaii, and a Rockefeller Foundation grant allowed him to conduct further gagaku studies with Masataro Togi in Japan (1962-63). Also while in Japan, he studied and played the nagauta (kabuki) shamisen and the jōruri (bunraku) shamisen. In recognition of the musical styles he studied in Japan, he wrote his famous Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints, Op. 211 (1965), a concerto for xylophone and orchestra.

In 1963 he composed his second ballet score for Martha Graham, entitled Circe. In 1965, as part of a U.S. government-sponsored delegation, he visited Russia, Georgia and Armenia (then under Soviet control), the only time during his life that he would visit his ancestral homeland. While there, he donated his handwritten manuscripts of harmonized Armenian liturgical music to the Yeghishe Charents State Museum of Arts and Literature in Yerevan.

World view

Perhaps also prophetic in worldly matters, Hovhaness stated in a 1971 interview in Ararat magazine:

"We are in a very dangerous period. We are in danger of destroying ourselves, and I have a great fear about this ... The older generation is ruling ruthlessly. I feel that this is a terrible threat to our civilization. It's the greed of huge companies and huge organizations which control life in a kind of a brutal way ... It's gotten worse and worse, somehow, because physical science has given us more and more terrible deadly weapons, and the human spirit has been destroyed in so many cases, so what's the use of having the most powerful country in the world if we have killed the soul. It's of no use" (Michaelyan 1971).

Later life

Hovhaness was inducted into the National Institute of Arts and Letters (1951), and received honorary D.Mus. degrees from the University of Rochester (1958), Bates College (1959), and the Boston Conservatory (1987). He moved to Seattle in the early 1970s, where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1973 he composed his third and final ballet score for Martha Graham: Myth of a Voyage, and over the next twenty years (between 1973 and 1992) he produced no fewer than 37 new symphonies.

Continuing his interest in composing for Asian instruments, in 1981, at the request of Lou Harrison, he composed two works for Indonesian gamelan orchestra, which were premiered by the gamelan of Lewis & Clark College, under the direction of Vincent McDermott.

Hovhaness is survived by his wife, the coloratura soprano Hinako Fujihara Hovhaness, who administers the Hovhaness-Fujihara music publishing company;[5] as well as a daughter, the harpsichordist Jean Nandi).

Research Centre

In 2004 plans were announced to establish an Alan Hovhaness International Research Centre in Yerevan, Armenia, to be part of that nation's State Museum of Arts and Literature. The centre, intended as a world center for Hovhaness research, will house a comprehensive archive of materials related to Hovhaness.[6]

Significant compositions

• 1936 (rev. 1954) - Prelude and Quadruple Fugue (orchestra), Op. 128
• 1936 - Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 17
• 1936 - Exile (Symphony No. 1), Op. 17, No.2
• 1940 - Psalm and Fugue, Op. 40a
• 1944 - Lousadzak (Concerto for piano and strings), Op. 48
• 1945 - Mihr (for two pianos)
• 1946 - Prayer of St. Gregory, Op. 62b, for trumpet and strings (interlude from the opera Etchmiadzin)
• 1947 - Arjuna (Symphony No. 8) for piano, timpani and orch., Op. 179
• 1949-50 - St. Vartan Symphony (No. 9), Op. 180
• 1950 - Janabar (Sinfonia Concertante for piano, trumpet, violin and strings), Op. 81
• 1951 - Khaldis, Op. 91, for piano, four trumpets, and percussion
• 1953 - Concerto No. 7 (Orchestra), Op. 116
• 1954 - Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, Op. 123, No. 3
• 1955 - Mysterious Mountain (Symphony No. 2), Op. 132
• 1957 - Symphony No. 4, Op. 165
• 1958 - Meditation on Orpheus, Op. 155
• 1958 - Magnificat (SATB soli, SATB choir and orchestra), Op. 157
• 1959 - Symphony No. 6, Celestial Gate, Op. 173
• 1959 - Symphony No. 7, Nanga Parvat, for symphonic wind band, Op. 178
• 1960 - Symphony No. 11, All Men are Brothers, Op. 186
• 1963 - The Silver Pilgrimage (Symphony No. 15), Op. 199
• 1965 - Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints for xylophone and orchestra, Op. 211
• 1966 - Vishnu Symphony (No. 19), Op. 217
• 1967 - Fra Angelico, Op. 220
• 1968 - Mountains and Rivers without End, Chamber Symphony for 10 players, Op. 225
• 1969 - Lady of Light (soli, chorus, and orch), Op. 227
• 1969 - Shambala, Concerto for violin, sitar, and orchestra, Op. 228
• 1970 - And God Created Great Whales (taped whale songs and orchestra), Op. 229
• 1970 - Symphony Etchmiadzin (Symphony No. 21), Op. 234
• 1970 - Symphony No. 22, City of Light, Op. 236
• 1971 - Saturn Op. 243 for soprano, clarinet, and piano
• 1973 - Majnun Symphony (Symphony No. 24), Op. 273
• 1979 - Guitar Concerto No. 1, Op. 325
• 1982 - Symphony No. 50, Mount St. Helens, Op. 360
• 1985 - Guitar Concerto No. 2 for guitar and strings, Op. 394

Symphonies

• Symphony No. 1 - Exile, Op. 17, No. 2 (1936, rev.1970), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 2 - Mysterious Mountain, Op. 132 (1955), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 3, Op. 148 (1956), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 4, Op. 165 (1958), for wind orchestra
• Symphony No. 5, Op. 170 (1953, rev.1960), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 6 - Celestial Gate, Op. 173 (1959), for chamber orchestra
• Symphony No. 7 - Nanga Parvat, Op. 178 (1959), for wind orchestra
• Symphony No. 8 - Arjuna, Op. 179 (1947), for piano & orchestra
• Symphony No. 9 - Saint Vartan, Op. 80/180 (1949), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 10 - Vahaken, Op. 184 (1944, rev. 1965), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 11 - All Men Are Brothers, Op. 186 (1960, rev.1969), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 12 - Choral, Op. 188 (1960), for SATB choir, tape & orchestra
• Symphony No. 13 - Ardent Song, Op. 190 (1954, rev.1960), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 14 - Ararat, Op. 194 (1960), for wind orchestra
• Symphony No. 15 - Silver Pilgrimage, Op. 199 (1962), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 16 - Kayagum, Op. 202 (1962), for six Korean instruments & chamber orchestra
• Symphony No. 17 - Symphony for Metal Orchestra, Op. 203 (1963), for six flutes, three trombones & five percussion
• Symphony No. 18 - Circe, Op. 204a (1963), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 19 - Vishnu, Op. 217 (1966), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 20 - Three Journeys to a Holy Mountain, Op. 223 (1968), for wind orchestra
• Symphony No. 21 - Etchmiadzin, Op. 234 (1968), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 22 - City of Light, Op. 236 (1970), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 23 - Ani, Op. 249 (1972), for large concert band & brass ensemble ad libitum
• Symphony No. 24 - Majnun, Op. 273 (1973), for tenor solo, SATB choir & chamber orchestra
• Symphony No. 25 - Odysseus, Op. 275 (1973), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 26, Op. 280 (1975), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 27, Op. 285 (1976), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 28 - Armenian II., Op. 286 (1976), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 29, Op. 289 (1976), for baritone horn & orchestra
• Symphony No. 30, Op. 293 (1976), for chamber orchestra
• Symphony No. 31, Op. 294 (1977), for string orchestra
• Symphony No. 32 - The Broken Wings, Op. 296 (1977), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 33, Op. 307 (1977), for chamber orchestra
• Symphony No. 34, Op. 310 (1977), for bass trombone & string orchestra
• Symphony No. 35, Op. 311 (1978), for two orchestras (including Korean instruments)
• Symphony No. 36, Op. 312 (1978), for flute & orchestra
• Symphony No. 37, Op. 313 (1978), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 38, Op. 314 (1978), for coloratura soprano & chamber orchestra
• Symphony No. 39 - Lament, Op. 321 (1978), for guitar & orchestra
• Symphony No. 40, Op. 324 (1979), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 41, Op. 330 (1979), for chamber orchestra
• Symphony No. 42, Op. 332 (1979), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 43, Op. 334 (1979), for oboe, trumpet, timpani & string orchestra
• Symphony No. 44, Op. 339 (1980), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 45, Op. 342 (1954), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 46 - To The Green Mountains, Op. 347 (1980), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 47 - Walla Walla, land of many waters, Op. 348 (1980), for soprano & orchestra
• Symphony No. 48 - Vision of Andromeda, Op. 355 (1981), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 49 - Christmas Symphony, Op. 356 (1981), for string orchestra
• Symphony No. 50 - Mount St. Helens, Op. 360 (1982), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 51, Op. 364 (1982), for trumpet & string orchestra
• Symphony No. 52 - Journey to Vega, Op. 372 (1983), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 53 - Star Dawn, Op. 377 (1983), for concert band
• Symphony No. 54, Op. 378 (1983), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 55, Op. 379 (1983), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 56, Op. 380 (1983), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 57 - Cold Mountain, Op. 381 (1983), for soprano or tenor solo, clarinet & string orchestra
• Symphony No. 58 - Symphony Sacra, Op. 389 (1985), for soprano & baritone soli, SATB choir & chamber orchestra
• Symphony No. 59, Op. 395 (1985), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 60 - To The Appalachian Mountains, Op. 396 (1985), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 61, Op. 397 (1986), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 62 - Oh Let Man Not Forget These Words Divine, Op. 402 (1987-88), for baritone solo, trumpet & string orchestra
• Symphony No. 63 - Loon Lake, Op. 411 (1988), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 64 - Agiochook, Op. 422 (1989-90), for trumpet & string orchestra
• Symphony No. 65 - Artstakh, Op. 427 (1991), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 66 - Hymn to Glacier Peak, Op. 428 (1992), for orchestra
• Symphony No. 67 - Hymn to the Mountains, Op. 429 (1992), for orchestra

Films

Films about Alan Hovhaness

• 1984 - Alan Hovhaness. Directed by Jean Walkinshaw, KCTS-TV, Seattle.
• 1986 - Whalesong. Directed by Barbara Willis Sweete, Rhombus Media.
• 1990 - The Verdehr Trio: The Making of a Medium. Program 1: Lake Samish Trio/Alan Hovhaness. Directed by Lisa Lorraine Whiting, Michigan State University.
• 2006 - A Tribute to Alan Hovhaness. Produced by Alexan Zakyan, Hovhaness Research Centre, Yerevan, Armenia.

Films with scores by Alan Hovhaness

• 1955 - Assignment: India. NBC-TV documentary.
• 1956 - Narcissus. Directed by Willard Maas.
• 1957 - Assignment: Southeast Asia. NBC-TV documentary.
• 1962 - Pearl Lang and Francisco Moncion dance performance: Black Marigolds. From the CBS television program Camera Three, presented in cooperation with the New York State Education Department. Directed by Nick Havinga.
• 1966 - Nehru: Man of Two Worlds. From The Twentieth Century series; reporter: Walter Cronkite. A presentation of CBS News.
• 1973 - Tales From a Book of Kings: The Houghton Shah-Nameh. New York, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art and Time-Life Multimedia.
• 1980 - Cosmos. Hosted by Carl Sagan. Directed by Adrian Malone.
• 1982 - Everest North Wall. Directed by Laszlo Pal.
• 1984 - Winds of Everest. Directed by Laszlo Pal.
• 2005 - I Remember Theodore Roethke. Produced and edited by Jean Walkinshaw, KCTS Public Television, Seattle.

Interesting facts

• Hovhaness married six times, the first marriage was around 1934, the last 1977.
• The daughter from his first marriage (his only child) was named Jean Christina Hovaness (born June 13, 1935) and named after Jean Christian Sibelius, her godfather, with whom Hovhaness maintained a friendship.
• Hovhaness may have been one of the first American composers to set up a record label devoted to the release of his own works, Poseidon Society. Its first release was in 1963, with around 15 discs following over the next decade.
• Hovhaness' piano lineage traces back to Ludwig van Beethoven. His piano professor Heinrich Gebhardt was a student of Theodor Leschetizky-who was a student of Carl Czerny-who was a student of Beethoven.

Notable students

• Dominick Argento (b. 1927)
• John Davison (1930-1999)
• John Diercks (b. 1927)
• Robert Gauldin (b. 1931)
• Gigi Gryce (1925-1983)
• Sam Rivers (b. 1923)
• Mary Jeanne van Appledorn (b. 1927)
• Robert Washburn (b. 1928)
• W. Francis McBeth (b. 1933)
• John S. Hilliard (b. 1947)

References

• Gagne, Cole (1993). Soundpieces 2: Interviews with American Composers. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-2710-7.
• Harrison, Lou (1945). "Alan Hovhaness Offers Original Compositions." New York Herald Tribune, June 18, 1945, p. 11.
• Howard, Richard (1983). The Works of Alan Hovhaness: A Catalog, Opus 1-Opus 360. Pro Am Music Resources. ISBN 0-912483-00-8.
• Johnston, Lynn (1984). "Alan Hovhaness: An Interview with a Master Composer." Published in The Arlington (MA) Advocate, July 5, 1984, and in The Armenian Mirror-Spectator, Vol. LII, No. 1, issue 2843, July 21, 1984. Available on CD (copyright 2000) at Robbins Library, Arlington, MA, and at the Library of Congress.
• Kostelanetz, Richard (1989). On Innovative Music(ian)s. New York: Limelight Editions
• Malina, Judith (1984). The Diaries of Judith Malina, 1947-1957. New York: Grove Press, Inc. ISBN 0-394-53132-9.
• Michaelyan, Julia (1971). "An Interview with Alan Hovhaness." Ararat: A Quarterly 45, v. 12, no. 1 (Winter 1971), pp. 19–31.
• Miller, Leta E. and Lieberman, Frederic (1998). Lou Harrison: Composing a World. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511022-6.
• Nandi, Jean (2000). Unconventional Wisdom: A Memoir. [Berkeley, California]: Jean Nandi.
• Rosner, Arnold, and Vance Wolverton (2001). "Hovhaness [Hovaness], Alan [Chakmakjian, Alan Hovhaness]". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.

External links

• The Alan Hovhaness website
• Online Interviews with Alan Hovhaness
• Alan Hovhaness in conversation with Bruce Duffie
• Alan Hovhaness International Research Centre, Yerevan, Armenia
• Concert listings: the music of Alan Hovhaness in performance
• Reminiscences of Alan Hovhaness by pianist Martin Berkofsky
• "All Men are Brothers" Memorial run honouring the 100th Anniversary of Alan Hovhaness
• Interview with Jack Johnston, next-door neighbour to the Hovhaness/Chakmakjian family in Arlington, Massachusetts
• An analysis of Hovhaness' rhythmic structuring based on the Golden Section

Listening

• Other Minds Archive: "The World of Alan Hovhaness" from KPFA's Ode To Gravity series, aired 28 January 1976; includes an interview with the composer by Charles Amirkhanian recorded in late 1975
• Art of the States: Alan Hovhaness Lousadzak, op. 48 (1944)