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Colin McPhee: a composer turned explorer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Carol J. Oja
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Extract

Prophetic words written by the Canadian-American composer Colin McPhee to his friend Aaron Copland, after McPhee had returned to Bali in 1937 from a hiatus in his eight-year stay there. The Balinese gamelan, with its shimmering sounds and supple swing, became the center of Colin McPhee's life long before the study of musical exotica came into fashion for Western composers. McPhee's work in the East was pioneering, not just in the considerable substance of his Bali-inspired research, writings, and compositions, but in the ecumenical attitude that it helped to inspire about Asian musics and the rich potential they hold for the West. McPhee, together with Henry Cowell, Henry Eichheim, Harry Partch, and a few other Americans of his generation, took decisive steps across Western boundaries and into the whole world of music.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 148 , March 1984 , pp. 2 - 7
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

1 Letter from McPhee to Aaron Copland; from Sayan, Bali, 16 February [1937]. Collection of Aaron Copland.

2 Letter from McPhee to Dr. William Mayer; from Woodstock, New York [1942]. Collection of Mrs. Beata Sauerlander.

3 McPhee, , ‘Scores and Records’, Modern Music xix (05–06 1942), p. 271.Google Scholar

4 McPhee, , Muscial Leader [Chicago, Illinois], 12 03 1931.Google Scholar

5 Letter from McPhee to Oliver Daniel; from New York, 25 May 1960. Collection of Oliver Daniel.