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American composer Henry Cowell, one of the twentieth century's innovators, whose life is as extraordinary as his music.

Cowell's influence on American music has been immense, spread not only through more than 900 compositions of infinite variety, but through his many lectures, articles and recordings. One of the first advocates for World Music, his breadth of musical and cultural appreciation inspired pupils including John Cage and Lou Harrison. Cowell was tireless in his support of other contemporary composers, notably including Charles Ives and Ruth Crawford Seeger. He founded the New Music Society of California and ran the Pan American Association of Composers for much of their existence as well as founding the quarterly publication New Music.

Cowell's life is as unique as his music. Born in 1897 in Menlo Park, California his childhood was punctuated by periods of extreme poverty, which he alleviated by finding various means to earn money, including working as a cowherd and as a wildflower collector. Largely home schooled, his education was derived from his own natural curiosity. As a consequence Cowell acquired an encyclopaedic knowledge in diverse fields, yet he was unable to spell or do arithmetic with any degree of proficiency. A chance encounter with Stanford University psychologist Lewis Terman led to the recognition of his exceptional mind, and to some funding for a more formalised education, including studying with Charles Seeger at Stanford. Cowell carved out a career as an international concert pianist, presenting his own avant-garde pieces, despite the occasional riot and character-assassinating reviews. Cowell's musical activities were interrupted in 1936. Then in his late thirties, Cowell pleaded guilty to a morals charge and spent four years in San Quentin prison. It was due to the efforts of his stepmother Olive and the folk-music scholar Sidney Hawkins Robertson, who later became his wife, that he was released on parole in 1940. Two years later he received a pardon from the California governor, which allowed him to take up a position within the US Office of War Information and later on for Cowell to receive several awards and accolades in respect of his outstanding contribution to music.

Across the week Donald Macleod is joined by Joel Sachs, conductor, pianist, professor at Juilliard School and author of a comprehensive biography of Henry Cowell. They begin by looking at Cowell's formative years. His unorthodox childhood fostered an independence of mind which fed into the musical ideas he developed later in pieces such as Fabric and The Harp of Life, the latter recorded by Joel Sachs specially for Composer of the Week. "Old American Country Set" is Cowell's homage to the mid-West, where he and his mother lived temporarily with his aunt and there's a round-up of Cowell's musical preoccupations in the twenties to be experienced in his joyously brilliant Piano Concerto of 1928.

Fabric
Henry Cowell, piano

Return
William Trigg, percussion
Kory Grossman, percussion
Rex Benincasa, percussion

The Harp of Life
Joel Sachs, piano

Old American Country Set
Manhatten Chamber Orchestra
Richard Auldon Clark, conductor

Four Combinations for Three Instruments
Picasso Ensemble
Susan Brown, violin,
Karen Andrie, cello,
Josephine Gandolfi, piano

Piano Concerto
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra
Jeremy Denk, piano
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor.