Evening star., 1943-03-28
He's a Force
In One Invasion
OF Europe Today
DR.. Roy Harris
Sends Own Works
To Help Cause
Rv R0bprf T. WiISou

ITHACA, N. Y.
Europe is being invaded - by
American music.
And the shortwave broadcasts of
American music, says DR.. Roy Har-
ris, have been as important, in
convincing people abroad we are
psychologically healthy, as the jeep
on the battlefield"
Harris, 45-year-old composer-in-
residence at Cornell University, re-
CARDS music as "a living language
through which the United Nations
can speak to oppressed peoples. AS
to Americans in particular, he says
I'VE have new, swift, strong clear
music in US that is an effective
weapon when exploited on the air
waves as the orchestration of de-
mocracy
Harris own compositions are a
strong element in the forging of that
weapon.
On the day the Allies took Tripoli,
1t was Harris fourth-or folk song
symphony, once described as like
a whole nation rising to say hello"
which the Office of War Informa-
ton broadcast into North Africa.
This work is based on such typi-
cally American themes as the civil
war song, The Girl I Left Behind
Me-" the Western ballad, Bury Me
Not on the Lone Prairie" and the
Southern mountaineer love song,
Hes Gone Away"
Recently, the fifth symphony of
the lanky Oklahoma native was
shortWaved to Russia as a tribute
to the 25th anniversary of the Red
army and the Red fleet, following
an unusual exchange of messages
between Harris, nine Russian COM
posers and the U. S. S. R. Society
for Cultural Relations with Foreign
Countries
For Fighting Russians.
The Russians expressed a desire
to hear the symphony and Harris
in turn dedicated the score "to the
heroic and freedom loving people of
our great ally, the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics"
Harris, who likes to describe him.
self as once good Semi-pro left
fielder, and who relaxes from work
with chess, tennis and gardening,
left his fathers California straw
berry farm in the San Gabriel VAL
ley II years ago. I'm going away
for 10 years to write music" He
said, If 1 don't make good, III be
back"
If you become a composer, you'll
have to drink tea with the ladies'
his father warned
I'm not going to be that kind of
a composer" Harris replied.
Several years later, his father
went to Los Angeles to hear the
first performance of his sons work
by an orchestra. If you let me
write the tunes-and you do the
rest-We might get somewhere" he
told his son.
Harris was born on a farm in
Lincoln County, Okla, between
Chandler and Saltwater. His fam
lily had homesteaded there, pushing
IN from the East by oxcart. then
moved to California when he was
years old.
Harris began farming at the age
OF 8, when given the responsibility
of raising the family's food supply
corn, tomatoes, beans, potatoes
The family bought his crops. and
he boasts that since that time he's
purchased his own clothes.
| However, ever since he was 7
there haven't been 30 days out of a
year in which he hasn't done
some practicing and composing. He
owned the only grand piano in the
valley, and took lessons from ar
| itinerant piano teacher. He played
clarinet solos in high school and ir
the Covina Village Military Band
Farm Boy at Heart.
He studied two years at the Uni.
versity of California, 192O-21, leav.
ing without graduating to return
to the farm. He drove a truck fol
three years, distributing butter anc
eggs for dairy farm, leaving with.
out graduating to return to the
farm. He drove a truck for three
years, distributing butter and eggs
for dairy farmer.
Eventually, he won Guggenheim
| fellowship and studied four wears
in France.
In Paris, Harris fractured his
spine, and during six months in a
hospital wrote string quartette
without the use of piano.
Now he does all his compos-
ing on paper-often while hiking
through the woods-using a piano
only for proof reading His cata-
logue comprises 50 opus numbers
including his five symphonies.
Some day Harris hopes to return
to farming. He wants to organize
a composers farm" where young
needy artists can study and earn
part of their livelihood by working
the soil. He feels this will helr
them "orient their growth in musi.
cal technique with the sympathy
and understanding of the seasons.
Harris own musical ideas come
from history, current events, folk.
lore and the daily life around him
For example, he lives on a hill over
looking Ithaca Valley, where tn,
train whistles can be heard "hover
ing over the valley in a mournfu
way"
"Someday I'll write song abou
it," he promises.