Cowell, Henry

Cowell, Henry

▪ American composer
in full  Henry Dixon Cowell 
born March 11, 1897, Menlo Park, California, U.S.
died December 10, 1965, Shady, New York
 American composer who, with Charles Ives (Ives, Charles), was among the most innovative American composers of the 20th century.

      Cowell grew up in poverty in San Francisco and on family farms in Kansas, Iowa, and Oklahoma. He acquired a piano at age 14, and the following year he gave a concert of his experimental piano compositions. At 17 he studied at the University of California with the influential musicologist Charles Seeger, who persuaded him to undertake the systematic study of traditional European musical techniques. He also urged Cowell to formulate a theoretical framework for his innovations, which he did in his book New Musical Resources (1919; published 1930), an influential technical study of music. While studying comparative musicology (ethnomusicology) in Berlin with Erich von Hornbostel (Hornbostel, Erich Moritz von), Cowell became interested in the music of other cultures; he later studied Asian and Middle Eastern music, elements of which he absorbed into many of his own compositions.

      In 1923–33 Cowell undertook a series of tours of Europe as composer and pianist. Many of his concerts provoked uproar, but they also brought him to the attention of leading modern European composers. He taught at the New School for Social Research in New York City in 1932–52 and, from 1949, at Columbia University. From 1936 to 1940 he was incarcerated in San Quentin state prison on charges of homosexual conduct. He continued to write music while in prison, and in 1940 he was paroled to the custody of composer Percy Grainger (Grainger, Percy). Cowell was granted a full pardon in 1942.

      Cowell's innovations appear particularly in the piano pieces written between 1912 and 1930. Seeking new sonorities, he developed “tone clusters,” chords that on the piano are produced by simultaneously depressing several adjacent keys (e.g., with the forearm). Later he called these sonorities secondal harmonies—i.e., harmonies based on the interval of a second in contrast to the traditional basis of a third. These secondal harmonies appear in his early piano pieces, such as The Tides of Manaunaun (1912); in his Piano Concerto (1930); and in his Synchrony (1931) for orchestra and trumpet solo. Some of his other piano compositions, such as Aeolian Harp (1923) and The Banshee (1925), are played directly on the piano strings, which are rubbed, plucked, struck, or otherwise sounded by the hands or by an object. Cowell's Mosaic Quartet (1935) was an experiment with musical form; the performers are given blocks of music to arrange in any desired order. With the Russian engineer Leon Theremin, Cowell built the Rhythmicon, an electronic instrument that could produce 16 different simultaneous rhythms, and he composed Rhythmicana (1931; first performed 1971), a work specifically written for the instrument.

      Cowell wrote numerous pieces reflecting his interest in rural American hymnology, Irish folklore and music, and non-Western music. In order to publish the scores of modern composers, he founded the New Music Quarterly in 1927 and was its editor until 1936. He also edited American Composers on American Music (1933) and with his wife, Sidney Cowell, wrote Charles Ives and His Music (1955). A number of well-known American composers, including John Cage (Cage, John), Lou Harrison, and George Gershwin (Gershwin, George), studied with and were influenced by Cowell.

Additional Reading
Martha L. Manion, Writings About Henry Cowell: An Annotated Bibliography (1982); William Lichtenwanger, The Music of Henry Cowell: A Descriptive Catalog (1986).

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Cowell, Henry (Dixon) — born March 11, 1897, Menlo Park, Calif., U.S. died Dec. 10, 1965, Shady, N.Y. U.S. avant garde composer. He began early to experiment with techniques such as tone clusters and direct manipulation of piano strings. Five tours of Europe as composer …   Universalium

  • Cowell, Henry (Dixon) — (11 mar. 1897, Menlo Park, Cal., EE.UU.–10 dic. 1965, Shady, N.Y.). Compositor vanguardista estadounidense. Empezó tempranamente a experimentar con técnicas como los clusters ( racimos) de notas y la manipulación directa de las cuerdas del piano …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Cowell Lime Works — Historic District U.S. National Register of Historic Places U.S. Historic district …   Wikipedia

  • Henry Cowell — Henry Dixon Cowell (11 de marzo de 1897 10 de diciembre de 1965) fue un compositor, teórico musical, pianista, profesor, publicador y empresario estadounidense. Su contribuación al mundo de la música fue resumida por Virgil Thomson, que escribió… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Henry Cowell — Infobox Person name = Henry Cowell image size = 175px caption = birth date = birth date|1897|3|11 birth place = Menlo Park, California death date = death date and age|1965|12|10|1897|3|11 death place = Shady, New York occupation = Composer,… …   Wikipedia

  • Henry Cowell — Traduction en cours Cette page est en cours de traduction (en français) à partir de l article en:Henry Cowell {{{2}}}. Si vous souhaitez participer à la traduction, il vous suffit d éditer cette page. Merci de corriger les erreurs détectées.… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • henry — /hen ree/, n., pl. henries, henrys. Elect. the SI unit of inductance, formally defined to be the inductance of a closed circuit in which an electromotive force of one volt is produced when the electric current in the circuit varies uniformly at a …   Universalium

  • Henry — /hen ree/, n. 1. Joseph, 1797 1878, U.S. physicist. 2. O., pen name of William Sydney Porter. 3. Patrick, 1736 99, American patriot, orator, and statesman. 4. Cape, a cape in SE Virginia at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. 5. Fort. See …   Universalium

  • Henry — ► sustantivo masculino ELECTRICIDAD Denominación del henrio en la nomenclatura internacional. IRREG. plural henrys * * * henrio o henry (de J. Henry, físico inglés) m. Fís. Unidad de inductancia eléctrica en el Sistema Internacional. * * * …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • henry — ► sustantivo masculino ELECTRICIDAD Denominación del henrio en la nomenclatura internacional. IRREG. plural henrys * * * henrio o henry (de J. Henry, físico inglés) m. Fís. Unidad de inductancia eléctrica en el Sistema Internacional. * * * henry …   Enciclopedia Universal

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