Look closely at what you're getting with this disc -- it's not the retrospective for the late composer that the title Lou Harrison: In Memory might suggest. Note the smaller print to the left reading "World Premiere Recordings," or, as the atrociously edited booklet has it in the track list, "Word Premiere" recordings. Word! Another failure of the editing process resulted in the reversal of David's Lament and Elegy for Harpo Marx from the order in which they appear on the back cover of the album. These are odd leftovers from the great California composer's catalog, but the good news is that they have the characteristic flavor of his better-known works.
Harrison experimented with East-West fusions, especially those involving traditions from the Indonesian archipelago. Those are not in evidence here, but the habits of thought that led
Harrison to those traditions do show up in these pieces -- static textures involving tuned percussion, for example, or the use of melodic modes. Perhaps the most unusual piece is the Mass for Satin Cecilia's Day, not the sort of composition you would ordinarily expect from
Harrison. The unison vocal lines, divided between female and male singers, consist of a kind of quasi-chant, using not the medieval modes but modes of
Harrison's own invention.
Harrison left the accompanying instrumentation for this work open, and the Ensemble Parallèle did well with a lightly percussive accompaniment that again evokes
Harrison's Asian textures, as does the six-movement New Moon. The Elegy for Harpo Marx is performed on three guitars -- something
Harrison apparently sanctioned, but one has to think he had
Harpo's dreamy harp in mind when he wrote the piece; it is nevertheless a delightful suggestion of the unique mood generated by the mute but irrepressible
Marx brother. The bottom line is that
Harrison's quite devoted fan base will find this a necessary acquisition, even if its appeal will mostly be limited to that group.