Hovhaness' Symphony No.63 was composed between 1987-8, being commissioned by the New Hampshire Music Festival in conjunction with the Loon Preservation Society. The work was premiered in August 18, 1988, with the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra conducted by Thomas Nee. The ending of the piece was later revised by Hovhaness at the request of his wife. The revised symphony was premiered in July 2, 1991.

As the subtitle idicates, the work is related both by the Loon Lake in New Hampshire and the Loon bird, which are abundant in said lake. The commission specifically requested the sound of the loon cry to be present in the symphony. The loon is an aquatic bird, of the order of the gaviiformes. Unlike ducks, they swim sunk like cormorants. In addition to, we can also find the cry the hermit thrush, Catharus guttatus, a small bird of the Passerine order that lives in the coniferous forests of New England, whose songs fascinated Hovhaness during his childhood. The work is divided in two movements, the first much shorter than the second.