Hovhaness was born in Somerville, Massachusetts on March 8, 1911. After studying composition with Frederick Converse at the New England Conservatory and privately with Bohuslav Martinu, he produced a large number of works well within the Western tradition, influenced somewhat by Sibelius.

While working as an organist at an Armenian church near Boston, he became fascinated by various Eastern musical cultures. As a result, in 1940, he destroyed nearly a thousand of his early scores in order to pursue a fusion of styles as disparate as French troubadour songs and Japanese Gagaku music. The synthesis is uniquely Hovhaness.

From 1948 to 1951, he taught at the Boston Conservatory, then moved to New York and later to Lucerne, Switzerland. In 1967 he was named composer-in-residence with the Seattle Symphony and then settled in Renton, Washington.

Hovhaness wrote 67 symphonies. His second, titled Mysterious Mountain, was commissioned by Leopold Stokowski for his first concert as conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. It was first played on October 31, 1955. Hubert Roussel wrote in the Houston Post: “Hovhaness produces a texture of the utmost beauty, gentleness, distinction and expressive potential. The real mystery of Mysterious Mountain is that it should be so simply, sweetly, innocently lovely in an age that has tried so terribly hard to avoid those impressions in music.” 

Hovhaness commented on the inspiration for the work: “Mountains are symbols, like pyramids, of man's attempt to know God. Mountains are symbolic meeting places between the mundane and spiritual worlds. To some, the Mysterious Mountain may be the phantom peak, unmeasured, thought to be higher than Everest, as seen from great distances by fliers in Tibet. To some, it may be the solitary mountain, the tower of strength over a countryside--Fujiyama, Ararat, Monadnock, Shasta or Grand Teton.”

~ Program Notes by Charley Samson, copyright 2022.