Released from prison on parole, Henry Cowell moves to New York to begin the difficult task of rebuilding his musical career.

Cowell's influence on American music has been immense, spread not only through more than 900 compositions of infinite variety, but through his many lectures, articles and recordings. One of the first advocates for World Music, his breadth of musical and cultural appreciation inspired pupils including John Cage and Lou Harrison. Cowell was tireless in his support of other contemporary composers, notably including Charles Ives and Ruth Crawford Seeger. He founded the New Music Society of California and ran the Pan American Association of Composers for much of their existence as well as founding the quarterly publication New Music.

Cowell's life is as unique as his music. Born in 1897 in Menlo Park, California his childhood was punctuated by periods of extreme poverty, which he alleviated by finding various means to earn money, including working as a cowherd and as a wildflower collector. Largely home schooled, his education was derived from his own natural curiosity. As a consequence Cowell acquired an encyclopaedic knowledge in diverse fields, yet he was unable to spell or do arithmetic with any degree of proficiency. A chance encounter with Stanford University psychologist Lewis Terman led to the recognition of his exceptional mind, and to some funding for a more formalised education, including studying with Charles Seeger at Stanford. Cowell carved out a career as an international concert pianist, presenting his own avant-garde pieces, despite the occasional riot and character assassinating reviews. Cowell's musical activities were interrupted in 1936. Then in his late thirties, Cowell pleaded guilty to a morals charge and spent four years in San Quentin prison. It was due to the efforts of his step-mother Olive and the folk-music scholar Sidney Hawkins Robertson, who later became his wife, that he was released on parole in 1940. Two years later he received a pardon from the California governor, which allowed him to take up a position within the US Office of War Information and later on for Cowell to receive several awards and accolades in respect of his outstanding contribution to music.

The terms of parole required Cowell to have a sponsor. The composer Percy Grainger offered both a roof over his head and a small salary for work as his assistant. Working largely to commission, Cowell's compositions from the 1940s reflect his interest in writing for unusual combinations of instruments and an integration of modernist principles into larger form works, heard here in the Quartet and his Variations for Orchestra. Cowell expert, conductor and pianist Joel Sachs has recorded Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 6, a piece that's yet to be made available in published form, specially for Composer of the Week, and he joins Donald Macleod once again in discussion.

Rhumba from American Melting Pot,
Manhattan Chamber Orchestra
Richard Auldon Clark, conductor

Two Woofs
Joel Sachs, piano

Hymn & Fuguing Tune No. 6
Joel Sachs, piano

Pulse
The New Music Consort

Quartet for flute, oboe, cello and harpsichord, 1st movement
Jayn Rosenfeld, flute
Marsha Heller, oboe
Maria Kitsopoulos, cello
Cheryl Seltzer, harpsichord

Variations for Orchestra
Polish National Radio Orchestra
William Strickland, conductor. Show less