Search - Henry Cowell :: Cowell: Mosaic

For all Henry Cowell's maverick piano compositions and performance techniques, this collection of his chamber works paints him as a fluid Americanist to the core. He came of age during the early decades of the 20th century, just as Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Charles Seeger, Ruth Crawford, and David Diamond were defining the American idioms in concert music. Cowell blasted notions away, including notions of any avant-garde or atonalist rigidity. These pieces show Cowell spiriting through chance-colored compositions--where players had individual parts but no master score--and pastoral, cheery pieces that still delight with their implied and explicit dances and folky elements. The pieces, especially 26 Simultaneous Mosaics, venture heroically into antiphonal writing, stuff that makes the ear skate across the surface as instruments enter and then plunge with them into the sometimes turbulent mix. It's all a thrill and a great illustration--especially when considered alongside New Albion's brilliant collection, New Music: Piano Compositions by Henry Cowell--of how vital Cowell's voice is for the 20th century. --Andrew Bartlett