Comparison Recordings of music by
Cowell:
The Banshee, etc., Henry Cowell, piano,
w/spoken comments. Smithsonian/Folkways
CD SF 40801
Vestiges, etc., Alan Feinberg, piano
Argo CD 436-925-2
The Banshee, etc.; Chris Brown, Sorrel
Hays, Joe Kubera, Sarah Cahill, et al.
New Albion 103
Violin Sonata; Joseph Szigeti, v; Carlo
Bussotti, pno. [monophonic LP] CBS CE
4841
Set of Five; Trio Phoenix, Rick Kvistad
Koch 3-7205-2H1
Hymn and Fuguing Tune #3, Ongaku, Symphonies
11 & 15; Whitney, Mester, Louisville
Orch., [ADD] [HDCD] First Edition FECD
0003 [www.firsteditionmusic.com]
Henry Cowell’s music
ranges from the most ethereally beautiful
and romantic to the wildest of crazy
noises, and everything in between, so
every music lover should love at least
a few, but maybe no more than a few,
of his works. In particular, his Violin
Sonata is one of the finest violin
sonatas ever written, a beautiful work
everyone can enjoy, especially in the
recording by Joseph Szigeti and Bussotti,
which recording currently languishes
imprisoned in the Sony tape vaults,
crying out for re-release. Is anybody
over there listening? Cowell’s obligatory
homage to Bach consisted in his 18 "Hymns
and Fuguing Tunes" which are none
other than preludes and fugues with
an American hymn book flavour, for various
string ensembles. Of his twenty Symphonies
only a few classic recordings have been
reissued on CD.
Henry Cowell is one
of three artists I am aware of who actually
went to prison accused of homosexual
acts — the other two are [if I recall
correctly] Johann Rosenmüller and,
of course, Oscar Wilde. Cowell served
four years in the cruel San Quentin
prison but was paroled at the intervention
of Percy Grainger and, due to the obvious
unfairness of the conviction, eventually
pardoned by California’s liberal Governor
Culbert L. Olsen who also pardoned other
persons unjustly convicted by right-wing
officials. Nevertheless Cowell’s friend
Charles Ives would no longer have anything
to do with him, and Cowell, a California
native, never lived in that state again.
Ives and Cowell both used tone clusters
(Cowell is credited with inventing the
term) and both liked to write simultaneous
musical lines which had no obvious relationship
— certainly no tonal relationship—with
each other so at odd moments their styles
can sound alike.
On these disks are
three kinds of works: Piano works, Piano
songs, and chamber works which generally
contrast some generally conservative
musical phrases against some peculiar
accompaniments, either percussion, prepared
piano, or tone clusters played on the
keyboard with the fist or the forearm.
The sound at first is startling, on
repeated listening becomes merely exotic,
and finally after some time ingenious
and effective.
Catherine Riegger is
the daughter of composer Wallingford
Riegger whose best known work is "New
Dance," a brief, very effective
orchestral allegro occasionally played.
Some of Cowell’s piano
works are written in regular notation
to be played from the keyboard, but
in works like "The Banshee"
and "The Tides of Manaunaun (not
recorded on these disks)" Cowell
is essentially treating the piano as
a synthesiser or an auto-harp, certainly
defeating the piano’s authentic character.
Many of Cowell’s prepared piano works
require two executants, one seated at
the keyboard and operating the keys
and pedals, the other at the piano sounding
board strumming, scraping, or hammering
directly on the strings. Detailed instructions
on how to do this must be included with
the actual score. This angers some traditional
pianists quite apart from the sound
of the resulting music, which is generally
very successful. "The Banshee"
is possibly Cowell’s masterpiece; Cowell
himself recorded it very clearly along
with 18 other of his piano works, including
a 13 minute spoken autograph describing
the origins of the music and the Irish
legends behind many of the titles, a
document any real collector must have.
Cowell’s monophonic recording of "The
Banshee" runs for 2’35", including
a vocal autograph, but sounds all but
identical to this one in stereo.
"Piano with Strings"
is another phrase for "prepared
piano," and doesn’t refer to a
work for piano accompanied by other
stringed instruments.
Of the Three Anti-Modernist
Songs, the text of "Who Wrote
This Crazy Rite of Spring" appeared
unsigned as a poem in the Boston
Herald for February 9, 1924, three
weeks after Pierre Monteux conducted
the Boston premier of the work, only
the second performance in the US following
the 1922 premier in Philadelphia under
Stokowski. All three of the poems were
taken by Cowell from their re-publication
in a book Music Since 1900 by
Cowell’s friend, musicologist Nicolas
Slonimsky, who probably originally wrote
them although he wouldn’t admit it.
It is necessary to
keep reminding oneself that Cowell is
doing these wild and crazy things in
the nineteen twenties and thirties,
not the forties, fifties, and sixties
when his students, John Cage, Lou Harrison,
etc. were doing similar things. Cowell’s
music is the fount, so to speak, and
in many instances often better than
later derivative works by others.
My including mention
above of the First Edition recording
of other music by Cowell has the purpose
of announcing that these groundbreaking
recordings are again available; consult
their web-site. This particular disk
makes another point: Cowell’s Hymn
& Fuguing Tune #3 is remarkably
like parts of Hovhaness’ Mysterious
Mountain Symphony composed the same
year. Ongaku is embarrassingly
similar to Hovhaness’ Fantasy on
Japanese Woodprints written ten
years later. It is remarked that Cowell
seemed in too much of a hurry exploring
to bother to write a masterpiece, and
maybe what we have here is an example
of how his explorations were worked
into masterpieces by others.
Paul Shoemaker
see also review
by Patrick Waller
Continuum: Joel Sachs, conductor, piano, and
persian Drum; Cheryl Selzer, piano and harpsichord;
Mark Steinberg, Marilyn Dubow, Mia Su, violins;
Ellen Lang, mezzo-soprano; Raymond Murcell,
baritone; Gordon Gottlieb, percussion; Jayn
Rosenfeld, flute; Marsha Heller, oboe, Maria
Kitsopoulos, cello. 
