Lou Harrison: Composing a World

Just a note to inform you-all that Oxford U.P. has finally released our
book/CD package. It may be over-cute, or just a feature I added to confuse
librarians, but the book title is the subject of this post, the enclosed CD
is titled differently: "Lou Harrison: A World Composed."

We have not been able to arrange a discount deal--mainly because Oxford
kept the list price down to $35 even after costs of CD exceeded their
budget, and we went 100 pages over our contract limit. We've also tried to
get online booksellers like Amazon &c to give a discount, but they won't do
so, since for academic titles Oxford gives only a "short discount" to
wholesalers. (In any case, the whole kit and caboodle is worth the price of
admission just to get David Doty's realization of the "Simfony in Free
Style" and Lou's private taped performance of the "Suite from Cinna"
preceeded by his demonstration of the tuning procedure and scale--just two
of the 9 first recordings our of the 12 works on the CD.)

While I hope that your local bookstores will stock it, the most efficient
way to order the book is via our web page at:

http://arts.ucsc.edu/lou.harrison/

which includes table of contents for the book and CD, and an "Order" link
that goes to Oxford's web page for the book.

I stress our website primarily because we will be using it to supplement
the book with a large selection of color photos, continuously updated
discography and bibliography, errata (PLEASE send me any suggestions,
errors of omission or commission, typos, &c), and gopod willing, Real Audio
clips of archival material to supplement the CD.

On September 15, there will be a release party with live music and signing
by Lou and the authors at Bookshop Santa Cruz. We are trying to arrange
other appearance/signing dates, but this and perhaps one other in Aptos in
October, will be the only ones Lou plans to attend.

We are currently working on a second volume, which will include all of
Lou's uncollected prose writings, published and unpublished, both essays
and reviews. Also a considerable volume of correspondence, and an initial
selection from Lou's voluminous and sometimes indecipherable notebooks
(there are over a hundred of these in the archive!).



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Fredric Lieberman Professor of Music U.C. Santa Cruz
gagaku@cats.ucsc.edu ofc: (831) 459-2309 fax: (831) 459-3535