Brief A Reflection on Henry Cowell by Lauren Chroninger
Chroninger 2 Youth Henry Cowell was born in Menlo Park, California in 1897. The son to two bohemian writers and grandson to the Dean of Kildare, Cowell demonstrated high musical talent and began playing the violin at age five. His father was an Irish immigrant and his mother was a former schoolteacher. Though his parents were both involved in his musical abilities, they soon divorced and his mother, Clarissa Dixon was awarded sole custody.
Cowell as a young man Due to this divorce, money was a huge setback for Cowell and his mother. One time a friend had to loan Henry and his mother money in order to eat. With this small sum of money, Henry and his mother bought a sack of cornmeal which they survived off of for several weeks. If it was not for music, Henry would have struggled a great deal in his youth. His father, though mostly absent continued to inspire his musical ventures by introducing him to many different varieties of music including Irish jigs. Though he received no musical training he started to compose in his mid-teens. This was the only form of education Henry would dabble in, in his youth. In the fall of 1914, Cowell was admitted into the University of California Berkeley as a student of Charles Seeger. For his first piano lesson, Henry showed up with his most special
Chroninger 3 piece, The Tides of Manaunaun. In this piece, Cowell used his forearms and elbows in order to produce the large tone clusters which later would be his trademark sound. It was at UC Berkeley that Henry would study harmony and other music classes. Some of his other professors included Edward Stricklen and Wallace Sabin. Though these two years were very inspirational to Cowell, he began to pursue further studies in New York. It was there that Henry met Leo Ornstein, who was seen as a very "futuristic" composer-pianist. With some of Orstein's influences, Cowell began writing pieces which again involved heavy tone clusters. After New York, Cowell returned to California to further explore Irish folk culture. He met up with composer and astrologer Dane Rudhyar. Rudhyar's piano music was popular for awhile but his interest lie mostly in astrology and being an occultist. Henry soon became involved with Rudhyar's theosophical community. This community was very interested in Irish folk culture, music and mythology. These experiences fueled such pieces as Dynamic Motion and the stage production of The Building of Banba.
Musical pioneer
After a few years, Cowell began to tour extensively in North America and Europe as a pianist. It was in these tours, that his passion for wacky explorations of polytonality, atonality, polyrhythm and non-Western modes blinded audience members. During one such tour, Bela Bartok requested permission to adopt some of his tone cluster techniques. This was not the only composer that would ask to borrow some of Cowell's techniques. Later, Cowell's experimentation with string piano techniques would lead to John Cage's development of the prepared piano.
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Henry's compositional approach was radically different than most music that had been produced so far. Some of his strategies included longitudinal sweeping and scraping of the piano strings. A critic for the San Francisco News wrote that Cowell's "tone clusters are probably the most startling and original contribution any American has yet contributed to the field of music." After wrapping up his tour in Europe, Cowell came back to the States to make his Carnegie Hall debut. It was at this tour that Cowell started getting wind of another bold composer, Charles Ives. When inquiring about Ives' to Charles Seeger and Carl Ruggles, both musicians urged Cowell "not to bother with that crank".
Ultra-modernist and world music leader
In 1925, Cowell organized the New Music Society. This group's sole goal was to stage concerts of works written by various radically different composers of that era. In order to get the word out about this society, Cowell started the New Music Quarterly. This was a paper that would publish scores from the composers who were performing at the concerts. The first score published in the Quarterly was Men and Mountains by Carl Ruggles. Soon after this publication,
Chroninger 5 half of the subscribers canceled. Though in the past, Cowell had been warned about Ives, he was intrigued when Ives ordered twenty-five extra subscriptions of the Quarterly. After this purchase, Cowell wrote Ives stating, "You asked me some time ago whether you could do anything for the Pan American-if you feel like donating something to it financially, it would be of great aid." This letter inspired Ives to start donating money to the New Music Quarterly and the Pan-American Association (which will later be discussed). After some time, Cowell and Ives arranged to meet in New York. This meeting between the two composers, led to the publication of Ives' new piece, Comedy. At this point; the Quarterly had less than $100 in the bank account. Most of the scores being published were decimating subscribers. Because of this, Ives' score was under skepticism. It was also a hard sell for the journal's engravers. Though Ives was willing to pay for any engraving expenses most would not touch his new work based on its difficulty. Finally, professional engraver Herman Langinger was up for the job. The piece turned out beautifully but disaster struck when New Music copyrighted the piece. Ives was furious. After a blow out happened between the two men, Cowell soon was to de-copyright Comedy. Despite some of its shenanigans, The New Music Society would go on to do great things. Some of the members of this society included musical greats such as Schoenberg and Wallingford Riegger. The Quarterly would also go on to publish material from Paul Bowles, Otto Luening and Aaron Copland just to name a few.
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Cowell and Charles Ives In 1928, Cowell led a group of composers that would later change musical history. This group Ruggles, Varese, Emerson Whithorne and a Mexican composer named Carlos Chavez. They called themselves the Pan-American Association of Composers. This group was dedicated in promoting Western music that would transcend national lines. Its inaugural concert in March of 1929, included a diverse program featuring Brazilian Composers, Cuban composers, French composers and American composers. Over the next four years, Nicholas Slonimsky conducted concerts of this nature in Europe, Cuba and across New York. During this time, Cowell would also become a highly regarded teacher of composition and theory. Some of his students included George Gershwin, Lou Harrison and John Cage. Cage would later say that Cowell was "the open sesame for new music in America." Over this period of his life, Cowell became accustomed to hearing music from all over the world including China, Japan, India and Tahiti. These influences helped him form his eclectic musical sound. He would later say, "I want to live in the whole world of music." Based on his experiences, Henry began teaching courses in world music in California and New York. In 1931, a Guggenheim fellowship helped Cowell go to Berlin to study comparative musicology.
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Imprisonment
Like many composers of that time, Cowell was bi-sexual. On May 21st, 1936, Cowell was charged with homosexual conduct and arrested in his cottage in Alameda. Soon after he was charged, Harmony Ives received a letter from John Becker announcing Henry's arrest. Becker knew Harmony would take this news a little lighter than Charles. Harmony read Becker's letter in shock and proceeded to write Charlotte Ruggles, devote wife of Carl Ruggles: Have you heard this hideous thing about Henry Cowell-that he has been guilty of Oscar Wilde crime practices-a in California, must stand trial and probably receive a long sentence? Mr. Becker wrote me-fearing to write Charlie whom I shall not tell until I have confirmation...If true I think the saddest thing in our experience. I had no inkling of the defect, had you?...of course it is a disease-"a quirk in nature", as Mr. Becker said...I am dreading this disclosure to Charlie-it is the only secret I've ever had from him. . At the time, Cowell denied the charge but after severe investigatory actions, Cowell confessed to "improper relations" with several of his friends. After a week's time, a confession was produced and a plea of leniency was filed. At first, Cowell refused to hire an attorney but after consultation with his family, he quickly changed his mind. Cowell hired Duncan O'Neal to defend him. When reading the information on this story, there were several conflicting stories about this case. Several websites and books, including Charles Ives; A Life With Music, claim that Cowell was found guilty of having relations with a group of teenagers he had let live in his house in Menlo Park. In order to protect them, Cowell pled guilty hoping to get off with probation. To contradict this information, other websites claimed the press made up these facts in order to have a bigger story. These sites insist that Cowell had only been charged with one act of homosexual
Chroninger 8 contact between a friend of age. What ever the case may be, the press followed Cowell's case very closely. In turn, Henry was ostracized by many in the music community. Though sex crimes among less prominent people were a daily occurrence, Cowell was made a bit of a spectacle. After this incident, Charles Ives cut all ties with Cowell for five years. He insisted that Cowell was no longer a man but a "sap, a pussy and a pansy." One of Cowell's chief defenders was musician/composer Percy Grainger. Cowell was found guilty and entered San Quentin in 1936. At that time, San Quentin was the largest prison in the penal system and had been rated second worst in the nation. If isolation from peers was not enough, Cowell was kept from his most prized possession, a piano. Without a desk and/or musical instruments, Cowell could only compose on score paper which was carefully laid out on his book. Though the hours were long at San Quentin, Cowell still managed to write pieces and perform in the monthly vaudeville nights in prison. In December 1936, Cowell wrote Nicolas Slonimsky the following letter. Do you hear from Ives? I have not had a word from him. I naturally feel very badly. I wrote the whole thing to Mrs. Ives, with a letter to give Mr. Ives if she felt it would not be too much of a shock for his health......I asked them to please not form judgment until I have a chance to tell them of the matter myself. It is very unlikely Ives to suddenly cut me off from all communication. I can't conceive of it all. I know that his eyes are very bad and probably cannot write or read the letters himself....Not hearing anything at all is really torturing, because as you know, I regards Ives the same as a father; no one who had ever know him-could fail to be attached. This broken relationship was torturing for both parties. But Cowell refused to let prison get the best of him.
Chroninger 9 Though time in prison was long, Cowell found himself still immersed in music. He was later transferred to work closely with the bandmaster in the prison's education department. This music department continued to flourish. In a mere three years, Cowell had 1,549 registrations in his music classes. Sixty of these registrants were in advanced music courses. Cowell also maintained contact with the music community outside his cell. Harmony Ives, despite scandal, wrote Cowell to inform him they would still keep the journal going. Ives' yearly contributions of $1,500 were still maintained until 1939 when Ives dropped these contributions to $600 due to personal financial problems. With his spare time, he managed to publish a book on melodies, 11 journal articles and more than 60 different musical works. Some of these works included two major pieces for percussion ensemble: the Oriental-toned Pulse (1939) and the memorably sepulchral Return (1939). He also continued his experiments in aleatory: For all three movements of the American Suite (1939), he wrote five versions, each more difficult than the last. Interpreters of the piece are invited to simultaneously perform two or even three versions of the same movement on multiple pianos. In the Ritournelle (Larghetto and Trio) (1939) for the dance piece Marriage at the Eiffel Tower, performing in Seattle, he explore...