Henry Cowell / Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

On this day in classical music: The string orchestra arrangement of Henry Cowell’s “Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 5” was given its premiere at the Saratoga Springs Convention Hall in 1946. As a young man, Cowell became interested in the musical avant garde. Many of his early works featured elements of atonality, polytonality, polyrhythms and non-Western modes. Cowell was arrested and convicted on a morals charge in 1936. He spent the next four years in San Quentin State Prison. After his release, Cowell turned to a more conventional style of composition. Between 1943 and 1964, he composed a series of 18 “Hymn and Fuguing Tunes.” Listen to the Northwest Chamber Orchestra Seattle perform Cowell’s “Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 5.” Alun Francis conducts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-pOILzYbcg

On this day in the musical theatre: “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” the musical that established Carol Channing as a major stage performer, closed after 740 performances in 1951. Based on the novel by Anita Loos, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” followed the adventures of an American woman who travels to Paris to perform in a nightclub. Jule Styne’s score included such standouts as “A Little Girl from Little Rock” and “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” The latter became Channing’s signature tune. Listen to her perform it with the Boston Pops. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hZL4guaFKQ

 

Musical musings: Henry Cowell’s music covers a wider range in both expression and technique than that of any other living composer. His experiments begun three decades ago in rhythm, in harmony, and in instrumental sonorities were considered then by many to be wild. Today they are the Bible of the young and still, to the conservatives, “advanced.” No other composer of our time has produced a body of works so radical and so normal, so penetrating and so comprehensive. Add to this massive production his long and influential career as a pedagogue, and Henry Cowell’s achievement becomes impressive indeed. There is no other quite like it. To be both fecund and right is given to few. – Virgil Thomson writing about Cowell

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