Making It in America, Scene 2

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Henry Cowell's activities in the United States in the early 1900s as a musician and composer. During his time in America, Henry composed and ran the New Music Society. One private event, at which Leo Linder played, was a prelude to the New Music Society's November 20 concert at the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel. Henry's articles of c.1925–1927 summarize his thinking as his career was gaining momentum. Foremost in his mind was the damage to modernism wrought by composers who turned “modern” just to seem new. While he would have preferred that his music speak for itself, his unpretentious lecturing and writing did wonders for his public image. Despite his reservations about the effectiveness of concerts for circulating music, Henry continued to present New Music Society concerts, but moved them to California's Bay Area for 1927–1928. Meanwhile, Aaron Copland and his friends in the League of Composers formed Cos Cob Press as an East Coast counterpart to New Music Quarterly, a journal published by Henry.