Electronic & Experimental Codexery

Henry Cowell

American avant-garde composer and pioneer of modernist techniques.

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His parents sang him folk songs of their native homelands, and he could recite them before learning to speak.[1] Seeger encouraged Cowell to write about his tone cluster methods, which became the draft for his book New Musical Resources.[2] In 1917, Cowell wrote the prelude The Tides of Manaunaun, which became his most famous and widely performed work.[3] Beginning in the early 1920s, Cowell toured widely in North America and Europe as a pianist, playing his own experimental works.[4]

At seventeen, Cowell began studying composition under Charles Seeger at the University of California, Berkeley.[5] Cowell served four years at San Quentin State Prison, where he taught music to other inmates, led the prison band, and kept up a prolific rate of composition, producing about sixty works.[6][7]

What the cited sources add

The same source states that Cowell pioneered music from non-western countries and spent years in the field in Iran, Japan, Indonesia, India, and Australia.[8] Campbell's article also notes that Cowell directed, rehearsed, and played in the prison band, and composed dozens of new works.[9] In an interview, Lou Harrison described Cowell as "the mentor of mentors" and said he thought of him as "the old man".[10] An Australian Broadcasting Corporation story mentions that in 1930, Cowell created a prototype drum machine, which was then constructed by Leon Theremin and called the Rhythmicon.[8]

A 2014 article reports that during his time at San Quentin, Cowell dedicated over 20 hours each week to instructing close to 3,000 prisoners in music theory, appreciation, and history.[9]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Henry Cowell" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: (30 November 1953). "Music: Pioneer at 56". Time. Retrieved 11 June 2022.; Blumhofer, Jonathan (2018). "Rethinking the Repertoire #23 – Henry Cowell's Piano Concerto". The Arts Fuse. Retrieved 13 June 2022.; Peters, Cathy; Livingston, Guy (2014). "The extraordinary life of Henry Cowell" Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Retrieved 20 June 2022; Rischitelli, p. 17; Sachs, pp. 23-24; Sachs, pp. 23-24; Carwithen, Edward Ralph, "Henry Cowell: Composer and Educator," (1991) PhD Diss., University of Florida, p. 200 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Henry Cowell" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hicks, p. 68 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Henry Cowell" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hammond, p. 13; Hicks, p. 58; Lichtenwanger, pp. xxvii-xxviii (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Henry Cowell" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Rischitelli, p. 26; Swed, Mark (2010). "Critic's notebook: Revelatory Henry Cowell revival at Lincoln Center". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 19 June 2022.; Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012). "Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" . The Juilliard Journal. Retrieved 19 June 2022.; Hicks, p. 190 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Henry Cowell" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hays, Sorrel (2017). "Henry Cowell: Mellifluous Cacophony and Its Legacy" Smithsonian Folkways Magazine. Retrieved 13 June 2022. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Henry Cowell" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Peters, Cathy; Livingston, Guy (2014). "The extraordinary life of Henry Cowell" Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Retrieved 20 June 2022; Rischitelli, p. 32; Krinsky, "Cowell, Henry", glbtq.com, 2002; Duffy, p. 58; Duffy, pp. 35–36 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Henry Cowell" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Boziwick (2000). (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Peters, Cathy; Livingston, Guy (2014). "The extraordinary life of Henry Cowell" Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Retrieved 20 June 2022. facts only, no text reused. abc.net.au
  9. Campbell, Brett (2014). "Liberating Henry Cowell's Music at San Quentin". San Francisco Classical Voice. Retrieved 19 June 2022.. facts only, no text reused. sfcv.org
  10. "An interview with Lou Harrison" interview by Alan Baker, June 2002; part of the American Public Media/American Mavericks website. Retrieved 4/14/07.. facts only, no text reused. musicmavericks.publicradio.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Henry Cowell (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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