AMERICAN HIGHWAYS #67: Henry Cowell – “Local Color”
Henry Cowell’s Symphonic Series Number 6: One of the great American composers, he wrote an astonishing variety of symphonic works – large and small, intimate and bombastic, funny and poignant. An ardent ethnomusicologist, his influences range from Navaho chants to Japanese theater.
In this episode of American Highways, pianist Guy Livingston brings us orchestral music by this little-known American master whose career spanned most of the 20th century: Persian Set, Irish Suite, and Old American Country Set.
Theme Music :
Henry Cowell
Symphony #11 “Seven Rituals of Music”
VI. Vivace
Robert Whitney: Louisville Orchestra
First Edition FECD-0003
Henry Cowell
Persian Set (1957):
1. Moderato
2. Allegretto
3. Lento
4. Presto
Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, cond by Richard Auldon Clark
Koch 3-7220-2 HI
Scott Joplin
Solace
Richard Dowling, pianist
Klavier Records 77035 2004
Henry Cowell
Old American Country Set (1937-39)
i Blarneying Lilt
ii Meeting House
iii Comallya
iv Charivari
v Cornhuskin Hornpipe
Manhattan Chamber Orchestra
Koch 3-7220-2 HI
Henry Cowell
Three Songs On Poems Of Padraic Colum – I Heard In The Night
Mary Ann Hart, mezzo soprano; Les Scott, clarinet.
Albany Troy 240
Henry Cowell
Irish Suite For String Piano & Small Orchestra
i The Banshee
ii The Leprechaun
iii The Fairy Bells
Continuum Ensemble
Naxos Am Classics 8.559192