Compositional Practice as Expression of Cultural Hybridity in Lou Harrison’s Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Javanese Gamelan

Artists in the twenty-first century face a creative dilemma: styles and traditions from around the world are now available to all, and in the post-colonial era it can become difficult to discern the appropriateness of artistic borrowings. I propose that cultural hybridity, defined as genuine investment in another artistic culture\u27s traditions and respect for its practitioners, can provide an “Ariadne\u27s thread” to guide the interculturally sensitive artist. Lou Harrison\u27s long relationship with the gamelan music (karawitan) of Indonesia provides an enlightening example. From his initial exposure to Asian music all through his decades of intensive study and instrument-building, Harrison\u27s development as a composer of multicultural music demonstrates four aspects of cultural hybridity: curiosity, respect, discipline, and devotion. Harrison\u27s compositions for gamelan and Western instruments show the composer at his most hybrid. This analysis of his Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Javanese Gamelan and the path leading to its creation aims to delineate the ways in which one particular non-Western tradition can be combined with Western instruments and traditions to create a work of intercultural beauty, respectful to both musical traditions and to the artists who practice them