The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 80, July 1976 - April, 1977 Page: 10
492 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
but the main outcome of this early interest in music was Horgan's attraction
to Igor Stravinsky. Stravinsky became Horgan's earliest and most lasting
cultural hero and has remained for Horgan the model of the professional
creative artist and the leading creative figure of the century. A long and
personally important relationship with Stravinsky was recorded in the I972
book of sketches, Encounters with Stravinsky.1o The encounters with the
Maestro, as Horgan and others called him, began at a great distance, in
I92o, in reviews, records, or performances of the works that captured Hor-
gan's interests and influenced his own sense of the interrelation of the various
arts. The two did not meet until 1957, in Santa Fe. The major part of the
book covers the next fourteen years of Stravinsky's life when Horgan was
an intimate of the Stravinsky household. Mrs. Vera Stravinsky has called
Horgan's book one of the best portraits of her husband ever to be made."
It is a rich, human work that illustrates the kind of influence Stravinsky had
on the creative life of the century and reveals the private man in relation to
his public life. Horgan was president of the board of the Santa Fe Opera
for many years, and the company's early decade was deeply associated with
Stravinsky's work. It was Horgan who was involved in arranging for
Stravinsky's religious concerts in the Santa Fe Cathedral that Archbishop
Lamy had built. The relationship with Stravinsky was central to Horgan's
life for it kept before him the image of the professional artist of many talents
and many worlds who sought always for a synthesis that excluded as little
as possible.
The hardest period during which to develop his early interest in the arts
was Horgan's first years in New Mexico. In the early years of this century
Albuquerque was a small, raw town, one whose simple ways must have
seemed limited for a boy with Horgan's interests, but it had three distinct
appeals. These no doubt confused him in their foreignness, and at the same
time compelled his attention. They were three of the major aspects of the
Southwest-the Indian culture, the Spanish heritage, and the strong
Roman Catholic presence. Horgan has called the Southwest his Paris-
he did not have enough money to go abroad in the 'twenties-because the
demanding and diverse elements he found there seemed to help fill his
need for a sustaining culture.
Horgan has never maintained he is an authority on the Indians, but
from his earliest work they have played a distinctive role in his portrait of
the Southwest. He had always observed those living in the region, but in
preparing to write Great River Horgan had to study professionally the
10Horgan, Encounters with Stravinsky: A Personal Record (New York, 1972).
"New York Times Book Review, May 7, 1972, Pt. I, p. 9.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 80, July 1976 - April, 1977, periodical, 1976/1977; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101204/m1/28/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.