Henry Cowell

Henry Cowell (1897–1965) A tireless musical explorer and inventor, he was born in Menlo Park, California, where he grew up surrounded by a wide variety of Oriental musical traditions, his father’s Irish folk heritage, and his mother’s Midwestern folk tunes. Already composing in his early teens, Cowell began formal training at the age of 16 with Charles Seeger at the University of California. Further studies focused primarily on world music cultures. His use of varied sound materials, experimental compositional procedures, and a rich palette coloured by multiple non-European and folk influences revolutionized American music and popularized, most notably, the tone cluster as an element in compositional design.
In addition to tone clusters evident in such works as Advertisement and Tiger, Cowell experimented with the ‘string piano’ in works like The Aeolian Harp and The Banshee where strings are strummed or plucked inside the piano. Studies of the musical cultures of Africa, Java, and North and South India enabled Cowell to stretch and redefine Western notions of melody and rhythm; mastery of the gamelan and the theory of gamelan composition led to further explorations with exotic instruments and percussion. Later, Cowell developed the concept of indeterminancy or ‘elastic form’ in works like the Mosaic Quartet (where performers determine the order and alternation of movements).
Henry Cowell’s influence is legion, counting among his students John Cage, Lou Harrison, and George Gershwin. He taught at the New School for Social Research in New York and also held posts at the Peabody Conservatory and Columbia University. A plethora of awards, grants, and honorary degrees was capped by his election in 1951 to the American Institute of Arts and Letters.

Selected works: Four Combinations for Three Instruments for violin, cello and piano (1924), Sinfonietta for orchestra (1928), Rhythmicana for rhythmicon and orchestra (1930), Polyphonica for 12 instruments or chamber orchestra (1930), Ostinato Pianissimo for solo xylophone and seven amateur percussionists (1934), Old American Country Set for orchestra (1939), Ancient Desert Drone for orchestra (1940), Pastorale and Fiddler’s Delight for orchestra (1940), Four Irish Tales (Tales of Our Countryside) for piano and orchestra (1940), Piano Concerto (1940), American Pipers (1943), United Music for orchestra (1943), Celtic Set for orchestra (1944), Sonata for Violin and Piano (1945), Four Declamations With Return for cello and piano (1949), Saturday Night at the Firehouse for orchestra (1948), Ballad for orchestra (1954), Quartet for Flute, Oboe, Cello and Harp (1954–62), Lines from the Dead Sea Scrolls for six male voices and orchestra (1956), Variations for orchestra (1956–59), Ongaku. Music or the Art and Science of Sound for orchestra (1957), Music for Orchestra (1957), Antiphony for two orchestras (1959), Persian Set for tar and chamber orchestra (1956), Edson Hymns and Fuguing Tunes for two sopranos, two altos, tenor, bass and orchestra (1960), Set of Four for harpsichord or piano (1960), Chiaroscuro for orchestra (1961), Duo Concertante for flute and harp with orchestra (1961), Air and Scherzo for orchestra (1963), Concerto grosso for concertante group and strings (1963), Gravely and Vigorously for solo cello (1963), The Tender and the Wild: Song and Dance for orchestra (1964), Carol for orchestra (1965); 21 symphonies (1916–65), incl.: No 3 – Gaelic (1942), No 4 – Short Symphony (1947), No 11 – Seven Rituals of Music (1953), No 15 –Thesis (1960), No 16 – Icelandic (1962), No 17 – Lancaster; five string quartets (1916–56), incl. Mosaic Quartet (1935); the series Hymn and Fuguing Tune 1–18 for various chamber forces or solo instruments (1944–64); piano works (2 volumes), incl. The Tides of Manaunan (1912), Advertisment (1914), The Banshee (1925), Rhythmicana (1938), two concertos for koto and orchestra (1961–62 and 1965).