| Henry Cowell, Bohemian Contributor(s): Hicks, Michael (Author) |
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ISBN: 0252027515 ISBN-13: 9780252027512 Publisher: University of Illinois Press OUR PRICE: $32.67 Product Type: Hardcover Published: August 2002 Annotation: In this first full-length study of Henry Cowell, Michael Hicks shows how the maverick composer, writer, teacher, and performer built his career on the intellectual and aesthetic foundations of his parents, community, and teachers -- and exemplified the essence of bohemian California. Author of the highly influential New Musical Resources and a teacher of John Cage, Lou Harrison, and Burt Bacharach, Cowell is regarded as an innovator, a rebel, and a genius. One of the first American composers to be celebrated for the novelty of his techniques, Cowell popularized a series of experimental piano-playing techniques that included pounding his fists and forearms on the keys and plucking the piano strings directly to achieve the exotic, dissonant sounds he desired. Henry Cowell, Bohemian traces the venerated experimentalist's radical ideas back to his teachers, including Charles Seeger, Samuel Seward, and E. G. Stricklen, the tightknit artistic communities in the San Francisco Bay area where he grew up and first started composing, and the immeasurable influence of his parents. Mining the published and unpublished writings of his mother, a politically motivated novelist from the Midwest who carefully monitored the pulse of her son's creativity from birth, Hicks provides insight into the composer's heritage, artistic inclinations, and childhood. Focusing. on Cowell's formative and most prolific years, from his birth in 1897 through his incarceration on a morals conviction in the 1930s, Hicks examines the philosophical fervor that fueled his whirlwind compositions, and the ways his irrepressible bohemian spirit helped foster an appreciation in the United States and Europe for a new brand ofAmerican music. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Music - Music | Genres & Styles - General - Music | History & Criticism - General |
| Dewey: B |
| LCCN: 2001007064 |
| Series: Music in American Life (Hardcover) |
| Physical Information: 0.89" H x 6.32" W x 9.28" (1.17 lbs) 240 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Author of New Musical Resources and a teacher of John Cage, Lou Harrison, and Burt Bacharach, Henry Cowell is regarded as an innovator, rebel, and genius. Celebrated for the novelty of his playing, Cowell popularized a series of experimental piano-playing techniques that included pounding his fists and forearms on the keys and plucking the piano strings directly to achieve the exotic, dissonant sounds he desired. Michael Hicks shows how the maverick composer, writer, teacher, and performer built his career on the intellectual and aesthetic foundations of his parents, community, and teachers--and exemplified the essence of bohemian California. Hicks traces Cowell's radical ideas to teachers like Charles Seeger, Samuel Seward, and E. G. Stricklen, his childhood in the tightknit artistic communities in the San Francisco Bay area, and the immeasurable influence of his parents. Focusing on Cowell's formative and most prolific years, Hicks examines the philosophical fervor that fueled the artist's whirlwind compositions and the ways his irrepressible spirit helped foster an appreciation in the United States and Europe for a new brand of American music. |