TITLE: Fanfare for the Forces of the Latin America Allies (1944)

COMPOSER: Henry Cowell (1897-1965)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Henry Cowell was born March 11, 1897 in Menlo Park, California. A wide variety of Oriental musical traditions, his father's Irish folk heritage, and his mother's American folk tunes had tremendous influence on Cowell's musical development. He began composing at an early age, studying with Charles Seeger at the University of California at the age of sixteen. He also studied world music cultures in his late teens. The manner in which he used varied sound materials, experimental compositional procedures, and a rich palette of tone colors revolutionized American music and popularized, most notably, the tone cluster as an element in compositional technique.

In 1925, Henry Cowell composed The Banshee. Cowell had a prolific output of compositions, The Banshee being the pioneer of prepared piano music in the 20th Century. Cowell looked for new and interesting ways to use existing instruments in his compositions. This is a futurist notion. He differs from most futurist composers by using traditional instruments instead of new instruments designed for creating new sounds, like the Noise Intones or the Russolophone. These instruments were used by futurist composers Francesco Pratella (1900-1955) and Luigi Russolo (1888-1947). Cowell experimented with the "string piano" in works like The Aeolian Harp and The Banshee, where strings are strummed or plucked inside the piano. Sliding techniques on the strings of the piano are performed, not for the purpose of imitating nature, but as a new form of tonal expression. By the time that Cowell composed the Fanfare for the Forces of the Latin America Allies, he had begun to implement aleatory freedom into his works.

MOVEMENTS: One

PERFORMANCE TIME: 2' 00"

INSTRUMENTATION: 12 Instruments

• 4 Horns, 3 Trumpets, 3 Trombones, 2 Percussion

EDITIONS: Available for Purchase

• Boosey and Hawkes - http://www.booseyandhawkes.com/musicshop/acatalog/

COMPOSITION SKETCH AND MUSICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The Fanfare for the Forces of the Latin American Allies is part of an American commission by Cincinnati, in the 1940's, titled Ten Fanfares by Ten Composers. The work is for brass choir and percussion. Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man was one of the other fanfares that was a part of this commission.

SELECTED RECORDINGS:

RELATED WEBSITES:

Cowell's Tribute Page - http://www.emory.edu/MUSIC/ARNOLD/cowell_content.html

Cowell Biography - http://www.schirmer.com/composers/cowell_bio.html