On December 11, 1962, the day after his 65th birthday, composer and pianist Henry Cowell sat down with WQXR's music director Abram Chasins. The occasion also marked Cowell's 50th year as a composer and pianist. Unfortunately, most of the musical selections have been removed from the original interview tape.
These two old friends discuss Cowell's earliest work and innovations such as the tone cluster, a musical chord comprising at least three adjacent tones in a scale, and how he came to write and play them. They quickly move on to their first meeting during the Christmas-to-New Year's break of 1929-1930 in Havana, Cuba, where the two musicians were presented as contrasting examples of classical and contemporary composition and performance. Cowell then explains in detail his orchestral work and 15th symphony, Thesis, as well as his world travels, which include his 1929 concerts in the Soviet Union (as the first American composer invited there) and his later trip to Tehran to advise the Iranian radio service. Chasins brings up Cowell's presidency of the New Composers Alliance and his founding of the magazine of new compositions New Music Quarterly, which Cowell started because he wanted a venue for scores by composers who were unlikely to get exposure in the mainstream. They conclude with a brief discussion of Cowell's Music 1957.
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The following are some early broadcasts of Cowell's works from the WNYC Archive Collections.
Two surviving portions from the world premiere of Henry Cowell's Anthropos conducted by the composer at the sculpture garden of the Brooklyn Museum on March 15, 1940 broadcast over WNYC. The WPA Federal Music Project's New York Civic Orchestra performs.
Liberation
Repression
The WNYC Concert Orchestra under the direction of Macklin Marrow performs Henry Cowell's Old Country Set. Broadcast by WNYC, March 18, 1940.
The first performance of Henry Cowell's Four Irish Tales performed by the National Youth Administration Orchestra (NYA) under the direction of Fritz Mahler. Cowell speaks at the conclusion. Broadcast by WNYC, November 24, 1940.
For more on Henry Cowell see: Henry Cowell Talks Modern Music on The Masterwork Hour.