Baker's Student Encyclopedia of Music | Hanson, Howard

(Harold), important American composer, conductor, and educator; b. Wahoo, Nebr., Oct. 28, 1896;d. Rochester, N.Y., Feb. 26, 1981. Hanson's parents emigrated from Sweden to America and made their home in Nebraska, which had a large population of Scandinavian settlers. Hanson's northern ancestry played an important part in his spiritual outlook and his music. His mother taught him piano, and he began to compose very early in life. He also learned to play the cello.

Hanson attended the Luther College in Wahoo and played piano and organ in local churches. In 1912 he enrolled in the University of Nebraska, and in 1913 went to N.Y., where he took piano lessons and studied composition at the Institute of Musical Art. In 1915 he enrolled at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, furthering his studies in composition.

Hanson progressed rapidly as a composer. His Symphonic Prelude was performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and he also wrote a Piano Quintet and other works. In 1916, at the age of 20, he received an appointment to teach music at the College of the Pacific in San Jose, California. In 1919 he was named its dean. In 1921 he became the first American to win the prestigious Prix de Rome, which enabled him to spend three years at the American Academy there. He composed copiously, the major part of his works reflecting his profound sentiment for his ancestral land, exemplified by his earlier Scandinavian Suite for piano (1919).

Hanson believed in music as a function of the natural environment. During his stay in the West, he wrote the score for a California Forest Play (1920). The work that gained him admission to Rome was a symphonic poem, Before the Dawn. In 1923 he completed a piece for chorus and orchestra entitled North and West. All these works clearly indicated his future path as a composer, filled as they are with the spirit of the northern country, inspired by both Scandinavia and the American West.

Next came Hanson's first important work, Symphony No. 1, subtitled Nordic, which he conducted at its first performance in Rome in 1923. In it he expressed, "the solemnity, austerity, and grandeur of the North, of its restless surging and strife, and of its somberness and melancholy." Hanson was often described as an American JEAN SIBELIUS, and indeed he professed profound admiration for the great Finnish composer. Like Sibelius, he created flowing melodies accompanied by rich harmonies.

In 1924 Hanson conducted the U.S. premiere of his Nordic Symphony in Rochester, N.Y., and also met George Eastman, the inventor of Kodak film. Eastman, who knew next to nothing about music, had nonetheless a keen appreciation of ability among artists and composers, and in 1924 offered Hanson the position of director of the Eastman School of Music. Hanson accepted, not quite 28 years old at the time. Eastman's insight was justified, and Hanson elevated the Eastman School of Music from a provincial conservatory to one of the most important musical institutions in America. He retained his post as director for 40 years.

Apart from his teaching, Hanson inaugurated annual festivals of American music in Rochester. As both director and conductor of these festivals, he programmed not only music that appealed to him, but also modern works in dissonant harmonies. He also maintained a friendly attitude toward his students even when they veered away into the field of musical abstractions. All told, during his tenure in Rochester, Hanson presented works by some 700 composers representing some 1,500 different compositions. He also made numerous recordings with the Eastman School Philharmonic.

In 1925 Hanson completed one of his most significant works, The Lament for Beowulf for chorus and orchestra, based on an Anglo-Saxon saga. In 1930 he wrote his Second Symphony, entitled Romantic, on commission from SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY and the Boston Symphony Orchestra for its 50th anniversary. Koussevitzky conducted its first performance in 1930. Hanson's Third Symphony (1936-37) glorified the pioneer spirit of Swedish immigrants. It was presented over the NBC Radio network in 1938, with Hanson himself conducting.

In his Symphony No. 4, subtitled The Requiem (1943), Hanson paid tribute to the memory of his father. He conducted its first performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1943, and in 1944 the work received the Pulitzer Prize in music. There followed the Fifth Symphony, Sinfonia Sacra, in a single movement (1954), in which Hanson invoked his deep-rooted Christian faith. This work was first performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1955. Hanson wrote his Sixth Symphony to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the N.Y. Philharmonic. Leonard Bernstein conducted its first performance in 1968. Hanson's Seventh Symphony, A Sea Symphony, with chorus, derived from Walt Whitman's poem, was first performed in 1977, at the National Music Camp at Interlochen. Whitman's poetry was close to Hanson's creative imagination, and he wrote several other works based on Whitman's poems.

Hanson wrote in other idioms besides symphonies. In 1933 he composed his opera, Merry Mount, based on The Maypole Lovers of Merry Mount by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hanson dedicated the work to the memory of Eastman, who had committed suicide two years before. It was one of the few operas by an American composer staged at N.Y.'s Metropolitan Opera, and the production was very successful. Despite this popular reception and favorable critical reviews, however, the opera had only four performances, and was not retained in the repertoire, a fate not unlike that of other American operas produced there. A symphonic suite drawn from the score enjoyed frequent performances at summer symphonic concerts and on the radio.

In the meantime, Hanson continued an active career as a conductor. In 1932 he led several concerts of American music in major cities of Europe. During 1961-62 he took the Eastman School Philharmonic Orchestra on a grand European tour, under the auspices of the State Department.

As an educator, Hanson enjoyed great prestige. Many talented American composers studied under him. He also received numerous honorary degrees. In 1935 he was elected a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1938 he became a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in Sweden. He held, at various times, a presidency of the National Association of Schools of Music. He also served as president of the Music Teachers National Association and of the National Music Council. In all he was awarded 19 honorary doctorates in music. In 1945 he received the Ditson Award, and in 1946 was given the George Foster Peabody Award.

With the radical changes in contemporary composition, Hanson's music was increasingly viewed as being hopelessly old-fashioned. The number of performances of his music dwindled, and only occasionally were his symphonies broadcast. Hanson never concealed his bitterness at this loss of appreciation in his country for whose artistic progress he labored so mightily.

Yet Hanson's music has much to recommend it: rich harmonies, powerful rhythms, and beautiful orchestrations. Recently, with a renewed interest in ROMANTIC composition, Hanson's music has enjoyed a modest revival.