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2 unusual facts about Henry Cowell


Henry Cowell

Cowell was eventually paroled in 1940; he relocated to the East Coast and the following year married Sidney Hawkins Robertson (1903–1995, married name Sidney Robertson Cowell), a prominent folk-music scholar who had been instrumental in winning his freedom.

Wallingford Riegger

Aside from Schoenberg, Riegger was also significantly influenced by his friends Henry Cowell and Charles Ives.


American Five

The American Five was a group of modernist American composers consisting of Charles Ives, John J. Becker, Wallingford Riegger, Henry Cowell, and Carl Ruggles.

Concerto grosso

In the twentieth century, the concerto grosso has been used by composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Ernest Bloch, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Bohuslav Martinů, Malcolm Williamson, Henry Cowell, Alfred Schnittke, William Bolcom, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Andrei Eshpai, Eino Tamberg, Krzysztof Penderecki, Jean Françaix and Philip Glass.

Halcyon, California

Notable persons involved with Halcyon and the Temple include composer and pianist Henry Cowell (see also The Tides of Manaunaun), Irish poet and fiction writer Ella Young, and mystic poet and writer John Varian (1863-1931).

Jenny Q. Chai

In Germany, she studied with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and performed in Ensemble 20/21, directed by David Smeyers, as well as the group Musikfabrik.One of the pieces she selected for her final recital at Curtis, Henry Cowell’s Banshee, required her to play the piano solely on its strings, prompting at least one member of the audience to think she was the piano tuner.

Oliver Daniel

For many years, Daniel worked with and promoted composers such as Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison, Alan Hovhaness, Colin McPhee, and Peggy Glanville-Hicks.

String instrument

Composers such as Henry Cowell wrote music which asks for the player to reach inside the piano and pluck the strings directly, or to "bow" them with bow hair wrapped around the strings, or play them by rolling the bell of a brass instrument such as a trombone on the array of strings.


see also

Shady, New York

Sidney Robertson Cowell, folk song collector and wife of Henry Cowell (1903-1995)