Henry Cowell: A Man Made of Music
Joel Sachs
Abstract
This book offers the first complete biography of Henry Cowell, one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century American music. Cowell, a major musical innovator of the first half of the century, left a rich body of compositions spanning a wide range of styles. But as the book shows, Cowell's legacy extends far beyond his music. He worked tirelessly to create organizations such as the highly influential New Music Quarterly, New Music Recordings, and the Pan-American Association of Composers, through which great talents like Ruth Crawford Seeger and Charles Ives first became known in th ... More
This book offers the first complete biography of Henry Cowell, one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century American music. Cowell, a major musical innovator of the first half of the century, left a rich body of compositions spanning a wide range of styles. But as the book shows, Cowell's legacy extends far beyond his music. He worked tirelessly to create organizations such as the highly influential New Music Quarterly, New Music Recordings, and the Pan-American Association of Composers, through which great talents like Ruth Crawford Seeger and Charles Ives first became known in the United States and abroad. As one of the first Western advocates for World Music, Cowell used lectures, articles, and recordings to bring other musical cultures to myriad listeners and students including John Cage and Lou Harrison, who attributed their life work to Cowell's influence. Finally, the book describes the tragedy of Cowell's life—his guilty plea on a morals charge, which even the prosecutor felt was trivial, but brought him a sentence of fifteen years in San Quentin, of which he served four.
Keywords:
biography,
Henry Cowell,
American music,
New Music Quarterly,
New Music Recordings,
Pan-American Association of Composers,
World Music,
compositions,
John Cage,
Ruth Crawford Seeger
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2012 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780195108958 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2015 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780195108958.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Joel Sachs, author
Pianist, Conductor, The Juilliard School, New York
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