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Harrison is particularly noted for incorporating elements of the music of other cultures into his work, with a number of pieces featuring traditional Indonesian gamelan instruments, and several more featuring versions of them made out of tin cans and other materials. A number of his works are written in just intonation rather than the more widespread equal temperament, making Harrison one of the most prominent composers to have worked with microtones.
Harrison was born in Portland, Oregon, but moved with his family to a number of locations around the San Francisco Bay area as a child. The diverse music which he was to exposed to there, including Cantonese opera, Native American musicThere are hundreds of tribes of Native Americans (called the First Nations in Canada), each with diverse musical practices, spread across the United States and Canada (excluding Hawaiian music). Some commonalities exist, however, and are part of a shared, Mexican music and jazzFor other article subjects named Jazz see jazz (disambiguation). Jazz is a musical art form characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms, and improvisation. It has been called the first original art form to develop in th as well as classical musicThis article is about the broad genre of classical music in the Western musical tradition. For the period of music in the 18th century see Classical music era, for articles on classical music of non-Western cultures, see: List of classical music tradition, was to have a major influence on him. He also heard recordings of Indonesian music early in life.
Harrison took Henry CowellHenry Cowell ( March 11, 1897 December 10, 1965) was an American composer and teacher. He is considered one of the most influential of early 20th century American composers. Cowell was born in Menlo Park, California into a rural family. He was encouraged's "Music of the People of the World" course, and also studied counterpointCounterpoint is a musical device where two or more melodic phrases occur simultaneously. The term comes from the Latin punctus contra punctum (note against note). A note moves against another note when the interval between those two notes either grows or and compositionA musical composition is a piece of original music designed for repeated performance (as opposed to strictly improvisational music, in which each performance is unique). The music may be preserved in memory, or through a written system of notation. Compos with him. He later went to the University of California at Los Angeles to work at the dance department as a dancer and accompanist. While there, he took lessons from Arnold Schoenberg which led to an interest in Schoenberg's twelve tone technique. The pieces he was writing at this time, however, were largely percussive works using unconventional materials, such as car brake drums, as musical instruments. These pieces were similar to those being written by John Cage around the same time, and the two sometimes worked together.
In 1943, Harrison moved to New York City where he worked as a music critic for the Herald Tribune . While there he met Charles Ives, became his friend, and did a good deal in bringing him to the attention of the musical world, as he had largely been ignored up to that point. He prepared and conducted the premiere of Ives' Symphony No. 3, and in return received help from Ives financially. When Ives won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for that piece, he gave half of the money to Harrison.
As well as Ives, Harrison supported and promoted the music of other unconventional American composer, including Edgar Varese and Carl Ruggles. Later during his time in New York, Harrison taught at Black Mountain College. In 1947, he suffered a nervous breakdown, and moved back to California.
Harrison's style began to change, showing the influence of gamelan music more clearly. Virgil Thomson (with whom Harrison also studied) gave him a copy of Harry Partch's book on musical tuning, Genesis of a Music, which prompted Harrison to start writing music in just intonation. He did not abandon equal temperament altogether, but often expressed a desire to do so. One of his most often quoted comments on this is "I'd long thought that I would love a time when musicians were numerate as well as literate. I'd love to be a conductor and say, 'Now, cellos, you gave me 10/9 there, please give me a 9/8 instead,' I'd love to get that!", referring to the frequency ratios used in just intonation.
Although much influenced by Asian music, Harrison did not visit the continent until 1961. When he returned, he began to set about establishing gamelan orchestras in the United States, and constructed gamelan-type instruments from unusual materials such as tin cans and aluminium tubing from furniture. He was helped in the construction of these by his partner, William Colvig. He did not abandon traditional classical instruments, however, placing them alongside his constructed instruments on a number of occasions.
Like many other 20th century composers, Harrison found it hard to support himself with his music, and took a number of other jobs to earn a living, including record salesman, florist, animal nurse and forestry firefighter.
Harrison lived for many years with Colvig in Aptos, California. He died in Lafayette, Indiana from a heart attack while on his way to a festival of his music at Ohio State University.