Symphony No. 66 (Hovhaness)

428, Hymn to Glacier Peak is an orchestral composition in three movements and the penultimate symphony by the American composer Alan Hovhaness.

[1] The title of the work comes from the stratovolcano Glacier Peak in the Cascade Range, visible from Hovhaness's home in Seattle, Washington.

[2] Andrew Farach-Colton of Gramophone praised the piece, writing, "As the title suggests, it has a preponderance of hymn-like melody, yet there’s a valedictory quality to the music that I find touching.

"[3] Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times also lauded the work, further commenting, "Enthralled with mystical Asia, Bach and mountains, Alan Hovhaness is often accused of writing formulaic, long-lined and heady counterpoint that predictably resolves into spiritually grandiose cadences.

But the prolific Armenian-American composer was to draw from this well many times, and his characteristic modal hymns, irregular metres, oriental-sounding melodies, static ostinatos and rough-hewn fugues occur equally in the last but one of his 67 symphonies, Hymn to Glacier Peak, and, with the addition of some filmic depiction of the eruption of Mount St. Helens, in No.