The Whole World of Music: A Henry Cowell Symposium

by David Nicholls

It is impossible to contain Henry Cowell within the boundaries of the consistencies of forms, styles, ensembles, and genres of Western art music. John Cage once described Cowell as the open sesame for new music in America. Of the thousand or so works catalogued by William Lichtenwanger, the majority are formally innovative single movement vocal or instrumental pieces, although there are 20 symphonies, five string quartets, and 8 suites of various kinds. Cowell was also innovative in his use of instruments from different cultures (jalatarang, dragonmouths, Japanese wind glasses, the shakuhachi flute) and in this book, Lou Harrison writes of Cowell's adventurous promotion of automobile junkyards for the finding of new sounds. In addition, Cowell was a tireless advocate of new music in the West, and Musics from other cultures worldwide, as a teacher, lecturer, publisher, and performer. He founded New Music Quarterly in 1927, wrote the influential book Ne In this major book of articles

260 pages, Hardcover

First published June 23, 1998

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author with this name.

David Nicholls is a British musicologist and composer. Since August 2000 he has been Professor of Music at the University of Southampton. From 1987 to 2000 he was Professor of Music and Research Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Keele University. Between 1984 until 1987 Nicholls was based at Selwyn College, Cambridge as a Keasbey Fellow in American Studies.

http://www.soton.ac.uk/music/staff/Pe...