On today’s date in 1980, at 8:32 a.m. Pacific Time, Mount St. Helens erupted, its north face collapsing in a massive rock avalanche. Pressurized gasses from the volcano flattened 150 miles of forest, and killed every living thing within a ten-mile radius.

A mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward, and day was turned to night as grey ash fell over eastern Washington state.

It was an awe-inspiring spectacle witnessed by the American composer, Alan Hovhaness, who, in 1983, wrote his Symphony No. 50, a work subtitled “Mt. St. Helens.”

“Since 1972,” said Hovhaness, “I have lived between the young, volcanic Cascades and the oceanic Olympic range with rain forests, and find inspiration from the tremendous energy of these powerful, youthful, rugged mountains.”

As a Washington resident, and as the composer of the “Mysterious Mountain” Symphony, his Symphony No. 2 from 1955, Hovhaness was a natural choice for such a commission. In explaining the title of that earlier “mountain” symphony, Hovhaness wrote:

“Mountains are symbols, like pyramids, of man’s attempt to know God… symbolic places between the mundane and spiritual world.”

Alan Hovhaness (1911 – 2000) Symphony No. 50 (Mount St. Helens) Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz, cond. Delos 3137