Howard Hanson
Howard Harold Hanson (October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981)[1] was an American composer, conductor, educator, music theorist, and champion of American classical music. As director for 40 years of the Eastman School of Music, he built a high-quality school and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American music. In 1944, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony No. 4, and received numerous other awards including the George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Entertainment in Music in 1946.[2][3]
Howard Hanson
February 26, 1981 (aged 84)
Composer, conductor, educator, music theorist
1916–1981
Margaret Elizabeth Nelson
Marriage[edit]
Hanson met Margaret Elizabeth Nelson at her parents' summer home on Lake Chautauqua at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. Hanson dedicated the Serenade for Flute, Harp, and Strings, to her; the piece was his musical marriage proposal, as he could not find the spoken words to propose to her. They married on July 24, 1946, in the same house where they had first met.[39]
Popular culture[edit]
Excerpts from Hanson's Second Symphony were used to accompany several exterior sequences and the end credits in the released versions of Ridley Scott's 1979 horror movie Alien[47] without his permission, but the composer decided not to fight it in court[48]—they replaced certain sections of Jerry Goldsmith's original score at the behest of 20th Century Fox. This highlighted music can still be found on all DVD, Blu-Ray and 4K versions of Alien.[49] The version used in the film is the 1967 recording by the National Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Charles Gerhardt. Apparently, Hanson told Gerhardt that, of all the available recordings, he found Gerhardt's to be the most 'sympathetic'.
Death[edit]
Hanson died at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York at the age of 84. He was survived by his wife Margaret Elizabeth Nelson. [1]
Compositional style[edit]
Hanson's music has been described as part of the Neo-Romantic movement in music which endeavored to continue the traditions of the Romantic era into the 20th century.[50] His Symphony No. 2, for example, has been cited as a Neo-Romantic manifesto.[51] He has also been identified by critics as an "American Neoromantic composer par excellence" whose compositions were conceived in the grand romantic tradition of Antonin Dvorák.[52] In addition, his early symphonies have been characterized as "splendidly effusive, gorgeously orchestrated, rich in harmonic texture".[53]
It should also be noted, however, that Hanson's compositions also incorporated experimentation with modern musical idioms.[4] Many of the passages in his works are based upon modal scales which call to mind Gregorian chants.[54] In addition, he made extensive use of extended tertian chords, motoric ostinati in rapid passages and alternating triadic chords.[54] Several of his liturgical and choral compositions also reflected themes derived from Swedish Lutheran hymns.[4] Elements of Nordic austerity identified in his music have also prompted some observers to compare him to Jean Sibelius.[4]
It has also been noted that one of Hanson's hallmarks as a composer is his utilization of melodic lines which flow seamlessly in a manner which is almost improvisational, unpretentious, and very American.[55] The composer and critic David Owens indicated that Hanson clearly embraced the use of tonal beauty in his compositions in order to give expression to a conservative musical ideal. By carefully blending his use of tonality with a masterful understanding of orchestral depth, Hanson succeeded in producing compositions which Owen described as being both memorable and compelling.[56]
Perhaps Hanson described his music best when he portrayed it as metaphorically "springing from the soil of the American midwest. It is music of the plains rather than of the city and reflects, I believe, something of the broad prairies of my native Nebraska."[7][57]
Recordings by Howard Hanson conducting his own compositions with the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra include:[59]
Notable students[edit]
During the course of his forty-year tenure as Director of the Eastman School of Music, Howard Hanson also served as a member of the faculty of Composition. Several of his students won the Pulitzer Prize for Music including: Dominick Argento, John La Montaine and Robert Ward. In addition, several of his students enjoyed widespread recognition as composers including: Wayne Barlow, Jack Beeson, William Bergsma, Ulysses Kay, Kent Kennan, Peter Mennin, Louis Mennini, W. Francis McBeth, Gardner Read, and Margaret Vardell Sandresky.[60][61][62][63][64]