AMERICAN HIGHWAYS #70: Henry Cowell – The Icelandic Symphony. Henry Cowell’s symphonic series, episode 8: American iconoclast Cowell composed an astonishing variety of symphonic works – large and small, intimate and bombastic, funny and poignant. In this episode of American Highways, pianist Guy Livingston brings us orchestral music by this little-known american master: Ostinato Pianissimo for percussion ensemble, one of the classics of the genre; the Ballad, the entertainingly naïve Fanfare for the Latin American Allies; the complex Polyphonica; and the substantial Icelandic Symphony.
Theme Music :
Henry Cowell
Symphony #11 “Seven Rituals of Music” -Vivace
Robert Whitney: Louisville Orchestra
First Edition FECD-0003
Henry Cowell – Ostinato Pianissimo (1934)
The New Jersey Percussion Ensemble
Elektra Nonesuch – 9 79150-2
Henry Cowell – Hymn and Fuguing Tune No. 10 (1955) For Oboe & Strings
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields & Sir Neville Marriner
Argo (2) – 417 818-2
Henry Cowell – Fanfare for the Latin American Allies
London Symphony Brass & Eric Crees
Alto 2013
Henry Cowell – Ballad
The Louisville Orchestra & Jorge Mester
Soundmark Records 48126
Henry Cowell – Polyphonica
Continuum Ensemble
Naxos Am Classics 8.559192
Henry Cowell – Symphony 16: Icelandic I-Moderato con moto II-Allegro III-Adagio Cantabile IV-Vivace V-Maestoso
Icelandic Symphony, Polish Orchestra, William Strickland Conductor
Composers Recordings Inc. (CRI) – CD 740
Henry Cowell – 4 Irish Tales “Tales of Our Countryside”: No. 3, The Harp of Life
Henry Cowell, piano; All-American Youth Orchestra cond by Leopold Stokowski
Music and Arts 1287
