Other Minds Festivals ➔ Other Minds Festival: OM 8, Concert 1: 06 “Scenes from Nek Chand” by Lou Harrison
Digital Audio
Event Type
MusicOrigin
Other MindsIdentifier
OMF.2002.03.07.06Program Series
Other Minds FestivalProgram Length
11 minDates
| broadcast| 2002-03-07 | created
Description
While mother played an afternoon of Mah Jong with friends, we children listened to records or the radio. We heard a lot of Hawaiian music and I can remember the sliding and waving guitar tones over a gap of almost eighty years. The wonderful sculpture and architecture of Nek Chand, near Chandigarh set me to composing three small pieces in admiration. My friend Dave Scully very kindly lent his richly-toned steel guitar for me to explore for composing. National Reso-Phonic Guitars of San Luis Obispo loaned an instrument to the consummate artist David Tanenbaum for this premiere performance. Unlike the classical guitar, the National steel has a cone resonator inside the body that acts as a kind of amplifier. Invented in the late 1920s, the instrument has been revived by National Reso-Phonic which now produces an exotic array of these wonderful instruments. The score, commissioned by Other Minds, with funds from a gift Betty Freeman, has a dedication page that reads, "for Charles Amirkhanian & Carol Law, with thanks for many kindnesses, and for David Tanenbaum, who was willing to play it." —Lou HarrisonNote: This performance employs equal temperament. A commercial recording on the New Albion label (see Other Minds' webstore for availability, www.otherminds.org) presents the piece in its intended "just intonation” and casts a thoroughly different light on the music. —Charles Amirkhanian
Genres
20th century classicalMusical Selections
Scenes from Nek Chand: The Leaning Lady ; The Rock Garden ; The Sinuous Arcade With Swings in the Arches, for National steel guitar (2001-02) (10:57) / Lou HarrisonPerformers
David Tanenbaum, National steel guitarSubjects
20th century classicalGuitar music
Related Event
Other Minds Festival 8Related place
San Francisco (Calif.) (was recorded at)Related Entities
Other Minds FestivalHarrison, Lou, 1917-2003
Tanenbaum, David