Colin McPhee: Composer in Two Worlds FROM THE PUBLISHER
Colin McPhee was a performer, writer, and pioneer among Western composers in turning to Asia for inspiration. A close friend of Aaron Copland, Carlos Chavez, Henry Cowell, and Virgil Thomson, he played a vital role in new music activities in New York in the 1920s, but his most important accomplishments came from his devotion to the music of Bali. Carol Oja's Colin McPhee: Composer in Two Worlds traces his life, his influences on fellow musicians, and the profound experience of a composer striving to comprehend an entirely new musical language.
McPhee traveled to Bali to live and learn after hearing rare recordings of the Balinese gamelan, a percussion orchestra with delicately layered textures and clangorous sounds. While most of his intimate relationships were homosexual, McPhee nevertheless married anthropologist Jane Belo and built a native-style house on the island where they lived for most of the 1930s. During this time, his own compositions became an imaginative hybrid of Balinese and Western music, anticipating the later work of such figures as John Cage, Lou Harrison, and Steve Reich. Finally back in print, Carol Oja's account of McPhee's intriguing life and work evokes key issues in composition and ethnomusicology, sure to be of interest to scholars, musicians, or anyone interested in twentieth-century American or Balinese music.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
McPhee (1900-1964) was a pioneer among American composers in turning to Asia for inspiration. Living on the island of Bali during the 1930s, he became a devoted chronicler of its musical culture. This study traces his life, his influences on fellow musicians, and his struggles as a composer. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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