Chapter VIII The Fourth Season, 1930-1931

By September 1930 memberships in the New Music Society as well as subscriptions to New Music had increased from those of the previous year. Cowell's ledger recorded fifty members of the Society (there had been only sixteen listed in 1929) and forty-one subscriptions to the Quarterly. Two of Cowell's early patrons, Mrs. Casserly and Mrs. Barnes, were no longer on the New Music Society list, but other long-time supporters were still there: Henry Eichheim, Irving Morrow, Mrs. Seward, Albert Elkus, and Arthur Hardcastle. p.145

....Carol Weston, a local violinist, served as head of the violin section in the chamber ensembles used at this and later New Music concerts. In a letter to Ives in November 1930, Cowell called her the "organizer of musicians for the Society." Weston was also a lecturer and teacher in San Francisco: she gave a course on "How to Listen to Music" at the YMCA in October and one on the history of music there in November. p.147

The concert was a huge success for the New Music Society. Cowell wrote to Ives that it had had the largest audience ever to attend a New Music event in San Francisco. It was not, however, a financial or critical success....The critic from the Chronicle, Alexander Fried, in statements reminiscent of those he had made at the debut of the Society in 1927, called the 1930 concert "an important contribution to San Francisco's musical experience." He spoke of New Music's "indomitable director . . . the praiseworthy ensemble . . . the capacity audience [and] the enthusiastic applause." p.149

In San Francisco Redfern Mason of the Examiner, who continually sought ways to promote not only California composers but American composers in general, wrote a lengthy feature lamenting the publishing situation for American composers. p.150

Cowell's own fortunes were looking up: at the end of March the announcement came of his Guggenheim award:

. . .Henry Dixon Cowell, composer and lecturer of Menlo Park, editor of the New Music Quarterly, and contributing music editor of the Carmelite. He will study at the University of Berlin, specializing on materials used in extra European musical systems.

In May, too, Cowell was in Carmel giving lectures at the Denny-Watrous Gallery on "Musics of the World," illustrated with 'rare records,' and relaxing at the annual "frolic" of the Carmel Music Society, recorded for posterity by photographer Edward Weston in his diary: ". . . a burlesque on opera. I danced Carmen, and made a hit. . . Henry Cowell was a scream as Madame Butterfly. The evening is the talk of Carmel."

New Music Society: June Concert Cowell's increased status and publicity undoubtedly contributed to increased attention paid to the New Music Society concert on June 1. There was, for instance, a well-though-out article (probably by Alexander Fried) announcing the concert in the Chronicle in May. After discussing the music to be performed, the writer continued:

The New Music Society naturally arouses mixed feelings by its preoccupation with music of controversial nature. In a city sadly lacking in opportunity to hear examples of the latest trends and experiments in music the organization wins from an intensely interested if small audience highest admiration of its healthy aesthetic curiosity. p.159