Alan Hovhaness (/hoʊˈvɑːnɪs/;[1] March 8, 1911 – June 21, 2000) was an American composer. He was one of the most prolific 20th-century composers, with his official catalog comprising 67 numbered symphonies (surviving manuscripts indicate over 70) and 434 opus numbers.[2] The true tally is well over 500 surviving works, since many opus numbers comprise two or more distinct works.
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."[3]
- ^ "Hovhaness". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
- ^ The number of opus numbers was identified as 434 by Kenneth Page in a review in Limelight magazine (Australia), May 2007, p. 55.
- ^ Richard Buell, "Sinfo Nova remembers Hovhaness", The Boston Globe, February 2, 1987.