Abstract

This study examines composer Henry Cowell's innovative and influential involvement with non-Western music, and the ways in which his activities as a student, a teacher, and a composer made significant contributions to the tradition of Western art music. Well-known as a radically progressive composer in the first half of the twentieth century, Cowell also cultivated an interest in a number of world musical traditions. He not only took advantage of every opportunity available to him domestically to study the music of other cultures, but he also traveled to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia for the purpose of learning from other cultures firsthand. As a teacher, Cowell was one of the first in the United States to offer a broad survey course on the music of non-Western cultures, and he additionally authored dozens of articles and delivered countless lectures on a variety of world music topics. As a composer, Cowell allowed himself to be freely influenced by this wealth of knowledge he had accumulated. He adopted music styles, techniques, forms, and even instruments from numerous cultures other than his own in ways that were entirely new to Western art music. An assessment of these works reveals Cowell's own practical solutions to incorporating the ideas of non-European musics, and the ways in which he created a new "new music" from them. It is my contention that Cowell's involvement with the "music of the world's peoples" (a phrase he frequently employed) was indeed a central aspect in his diverse career, one that was consistently active throughout his life, and one that ultimately proved to be significantly influential on the direction of twentieth-century composition and scholarship.