Informo pri Lou HARRISON

don’t run away, this post is (mostly) in English!

I’m presenting a paper on Wednesday about Lou Harrison. the paper is not yet written. the book is not yet read. I’ve only got a few hundred pages left, so it’s ok.
Lou Harrison was many things. He was a vegetarian. He was a pacifist. He was fluent in Esperanto. In fact, one of his best known works, La Koro Sutro, is entirely in Esperanto. ELNA, the Esperanto League for North America, calls it the best E-o (that “E-o” thing is a top secret abbreviation for “Esperanto” that Esperantists use. don’t tell them that I told you!) piece ever written. It was premiered in San Francisco in 1972 at the NASK program. the NASK (Nord-Ameriko Somera Kursaro) program is a intense summer class in E-o, that used to be held yearly at SF State (it has since moved to Vermont, since Sf State now has regular classes year-round). a huge community grew up around the NASK program. Alums from various years keep in contact. People from all over the world come and, of course, many locals drop in.
the Bay Area is/was a sort of E-o epicenter. The headquarters of ELNA are conviently located in Emeryville. some of this was because of NASK. Anyway, more than 300 people from 28 countries went to concerts and lectures (in Espernato) surrounding the NASK program and the premier of La Koro Sutro. Somebody must have a recollection of this. Maybe a recording? I asked on the northern CA E-o email list, which is very low traffic and haven’t heard a reply. I just emailed Charles to ask if maybe OM has a recording. I don’t know who else to ask, especially since all the ELNA folks monitor the NoCal list.
I’m suppossed to know what my thesis is going to be about by the end of next semester. In the old days, composers used to have to write their thesis about other composers or tuning systems or something else besides about their own work and I think that was a good system. Especially since I’m not doing any of my own work right now. *cough*.
anyway, if you’re walking down the street by SF state and you see cassette in the gutter that says “1972 NASK” on it or otherwise happen to hear something about this, I’d like to hear about it.