Full Description
Joel Sachs offers the first complete biography of one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century American music. Henry 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 Sachs 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 US and abroad. As one of the first Western advocates for World Music, he 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, Sachs describes the tragedy of Cowell's life, being sentenced to fifteen years in San Quentin -- of which he served four -- after pleading guilty to a morals charge that even the prosecutor felt was trivial. Providing a wealth of insight into Cowell's ideas and philosophy, Joel Sachs lays out a much-needed perspective on one of the giants of twentieth-century American music.
Contents
Acknowledgements ; Introduction ; Prologue: Of the Three Ladies, Henry, and Some Others ; Part I - Child to Man ; Chapter 1: Clarissa and Harry ; Chapter 2: Henry ; Chapter 3: Years of Voyage ; Chapter 4: The Turning Point ; Chapter 5: The Expanding Circle ; Chapter 6: Bi-Coastal Life ; Chapter 6: Genesis of a Theoretical System ; Chapter 8: Henry Goes to War ; Chapter 9: Marketing Henry ; Part II - International Ultramodernist Virtuoso ; Chapter 10: The Trio ; Chapter 11: Conquering Europe, First Attempt (1923) ; Chapter 12: Attacking the American Market ; Chapter 13: Europe Again (1926) ; Chapter 14: Making It in America, Scene 2 ; Chapter 15: Europe, Third Installment (1929) ; Chapter 16: New Musical Resources ; Chapter 17: New Projects and Old (1929-1931) ; Part III - The Frenetic Years ; Chapter 18: Looking beyond Europe from Berlin ; Chapter 19: American Interlude ; Chapter 20: Berlin Again ; Chapter 21: The End of Virtuosity ; Chapter 22: The New Technologies ; Chapter 23: Collapsing Dreams ; Chapter 24: American Composition or Americanist Music ; Chapter 25: Surveying the Larger Musical World ; Chapter 26: Music and Politics ; Chapter 27: Henry and His Circle ; Chapter 28: A Doomed Romance ; Chapter 29: Compositions of 1929-1936 ; Chapter 30: Thirty-Nine ; Part IV - Four Endless Years ; Chapter 31: Life Stops ; Chapter 32: The Hearing ; Chapter 33: Arriving and Adjusting: The First Summer ; Chapter 34: The Second Day of Reckoning ; Chapter 35: Living With It ; Chapter 36: Living With It (continued) ; Chapter 37: The Melody Book and Other Ideas ; Chapter 38: Toward the Exit ; Part V - Life Resumes ; Chapter 39: The First Six Months ; Chapter 40: First Turning Point ; Chapter 41: Problem Solved ; Chapter 42: End of an Era ; Chapter 43: The War Effort ; Chapter 44: Old Friendships Renewed ; Chapter 45: Figs ; Chapter 46: A Settled Life ; Chapter 47: Simplicity ; Chapter 48: Collaborations and an Ives Biography ; Chapter 49: Europe Again ; Part VI - World Traveler ; Chapter 50: The Big Trip ; Chapter 51: Iran, I ; Chapter 52: India ; Chapter 53: Iran, II ; Chapter 54: Change of Plans ; Chapter 55: A New Radicalism, 1957-1961 ; Chapter 56: Asia Again ; Chapter 57: Years of Honor, 1961-63 ; Chapter 58: The Cold War Again ; Chapter 59: Home Again, 1963-1964 ; Chapter 60: Finale ; Chapter 61: Who Was Henry Cowell? ; Epilogue ; Notes ; Selective Bibliography ; Index
