about the composer

Composer, performer, teacher, and ethnomusicologist Henry Cowell (1897-1965) was a champion of new music in the first half of the 20th century. His compositional innovations, open-minded experimentation, and prolific output might best be characterized by his statement, "I want to live in the whole world of music." Through his teaching, writings, and publishing of new music journals, Cowell influenced many composers in the United States and elsewhere, including John Cage, George Gershwin, Lou Harrison, Charles Ives, and Béla Bartók.

Born and raised in rural California, Cowell studied violin and piano and wrote music throughout his childhood. His parents' belief in educational freedom led Cowell to explore a variety of music and sound, including Irish folk tunes, sounds of nature, and the many Asian and Indian musics heard in the San Francisco Bay area. By the time he performed his debut concert in 1914, Cowell had written over 100 pieces in various styles. That year he began formal training at the University of California, Berkeley with Charles Seeger, who encouraged him to work out systematic techniques for his music; this resulted in Cowell's treatise New Musical Resources (1916-1919). After serving in the army for a year, Cowell began to attract attention as a performer, and in 1923 embarked on a series of five European tours which introduced him to many composers and musicians and gave him an international reputation.

From the 1920's onward Cowell was actively involved in promoting modern music: he founded the New Music Society in 1925 and published New Music, a "quarterly of modern compositions" featuring contemporary music from Europe and the Americas. Later he began a formal study of non-European music, working with ethnomusicologists in Berlin under a Guggenheim Foundation grant; aspects of these traditions would find their way into his own work. In 1936, Cowell was brought to court on a morals charge and sentenced to imprisonment at San Quentin State Prison; pressure from various sources, including fellow composers, led to his parole four years later. He was pardoned in 1942 by the governor of California at the request of the judge and prosecutor of the case.

During World War II Cowell served as senior music editor for the overseas division of the Office of War Information. He continued his teaching career at the New School for Social Research in New York City, Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland (1951-1956), and Columbia University (1949-1965), and lectured at over 50 colleges throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Cowell received many awards and honorary degrees and from 1951 to 1955 served as the president of the American Composers Association. His ongoing exploration of new music and sound culminated in a Rockefeller Foundation-sponsored world tour in 1956-1957, which allowed him to study the music of many cultures firsthand. Cowell continued to compose and write essays on music prolifically until his death in 1965.

Cowell's music and performances have been recorded on dozens of labels including Albany, CRI, First Edition, Koch International Classics, mode, Music & Arts, Naxos, New Albion, New World, Nonesuch, Smithsonian Folkways, Summit, and Vox Box.