Research topic: Henry Dixon Cowell

Henry Dixon Cowell , 1897-1965, American composer and pianist, b. Menlo Park, Calif., largely self-educated, studied musicology in Berlin (1931-32). Cowell experimented with new musical resources; in his piano compositions he introduced the tone cluster, played with the arm or the fist, and wrote compositions, e.g., The Banshee from the mid-1920s, played directly on the strings of the piano. He founded (1927) New Music Edition, a quarterly publishing music by contemporary American and European composers. In 1931, with the help of Leon Theremin (see electronic music ), he invented the... Read more