Chapter X The Sixth Season, 1932-33 New Music Workshop

When Cowell returned to California, he joined his colleagues in yet another new venture__the New Music Workshop. The founding of the workshop had been publicized during his absence by Marjory Fisher, who announced it in the same article in which she had discussed Cowell's radio broadcasts in New York:

The workshop holds its organization meeting Friday night at 2100 Lyon St. It is open to all interested in the study of modern music. Programs will include readings of contemporary scores, discussions, and lectures, and the preparation of both large and small works for performance at open meetings.

Players of a wide range of orchestral instruments are essential to a successful workshop, since the breadth of its activities depends upon the availability of varied instrumental combinations.

Gerald Strang, who supervised the workshops, describes the circumstances in which they were started:

It was in the heart of the Depression. Since there were no jobs, and I was living in a shack out in East Oakland with no money and nothing else to go on, I took the responsibility for starting some New Music workshops under the name of the New Music Society.

The sessions were started, says Strang, because musicians were "pretty intolerant," and

I thought it would be a good idea to give them the chance to experiment on an informal basis. There were no audiences but if people wanted to come in, fine. Sometimes we'd try out choral things, like Symphony of Psalms or one of Schoenberg's choral pieces to get everybody involved. There were two series of workshops__one in San Francisco at Carol Weston's studio and one in Berkeley at the home of a piano teacher, Mrs. Delvalier.

The source of their musical materials was the private library of architect, Irving Morrow, who had worked on the Golden Gate bridge, was a New Music subscriber, and had gathered together an "omnivorous collection of contemporary music__American and European printed music." Besides the sessions devoted to reading new scores, workshop members attended others in which their own music was performed. "I wrote some pieces for harp and clarinet and pieces for a whole clarinet choir and oboe and flute," says Strang.

Another whose music was played at the workshops was John Cage. In 1933, as a student of Richard Buhlig in Los Angeles, Cage had sent some scores to Cowell for publication in New Music:

Among the pieces I sent was a solo for clarinet. Henry wrote back that he didn't think that I had found myself completely, that he didn't wish to publish it but that he would put it on a program of the New Music Society. So I hitchhiked up to San Francisco to hear the piece. The society met in a small living-room__it wasn't much larger than the piano. but there were not many members, so there was plenty of room for the whole society. And my piece was a single line but I had written it within the range of the clarinet__so that I expected it to be played at the meeting. Well, when the clarinetist came in, it became clear that he hadn't seen the piece before that moment. He said, "I'm sorry, it's too difficult for me to play." so I did what I could have done in Los Angeles: I played it, finger by finger, note by note on the piano, as a piano piece. There was nothing else to do.

Ray Green remembers the occasion vividly:

At one of our workshops, a guy showed up, introduced as John Cage from Carmel. he sat down at the keyboard, took one finger, and went around over the keyboard. Apparently it was all planned out because that was the piece. We sort of raised our eyebrows and rolled our eyes at each other, but that was about all we could say. And that was his introduction as a composer.

Strang, who does not remember the occasion, does remember that the clarinetist who usually played at the workshops was Raymond Tenney. "He was really pretty conscientious," says Strang, "so the score John gave him may have been unintelligible without some coaching.

In discussing the workshops which continued through the beginning of 1935, Strang has provided some insight into the way Cowell was able to operate so many activities simultaneously:

This was something he left of me, and it continued during his periods of absence. Of course, Henry would come when he was around, and he'd play the piano for us. But actually Henry never did very much with that side of the thing. One thing I must say about him, he was not terribly efficient in managing all the things he did. But in another sense, he was an extraordinary entrepreneur, because when he found somebody who could or would do something, he had the very good sense to turn him loose and let him do it and get off his back.

So far as the money and the books were concerned Dene [Denny] was willing to do it, and as far as the workshops were concerned, I was willing to do it, and it was working so Henry was willing to let it go at that . If he was around he would contribute his bit . . .run a concert . . .conduct if necessary. He was extremely good at getting out publicity. He had some success raising money.

In this sense, Henry was much more skillful, I think, than any of us realized at getting other people involved. he was never a dictator like Varese. And yet he managed to get things done. He had an incredible correspondence. You could count on a response from Henry any time you wrote him. Mostly it was a scrawl_-almost illegible__on the back of a penny postcard in pencil.

What I'm trying to point out is that among his many virtues and his many weaknesses one virtue was that he got an incredible amount of work done by others and by himself and without much apparent strain. So we tended to take him rather casually__rather for granted. I don't think we realized how effectively actually he was mobilizing us to do things.

New Music Quarterly: Piano Music by Hardcastle and Donovan

The April 1933 issue of New Music (Volume VI, Number 3 was omitted from the masthead) contained two piano works: Prelude No. 4 by a longtime New Music Society participant, Arthur E. Hardcastle, and Suite for Piano by a new colleague, Richard Donovan. It also contained two unusual additions: a catalogue of works published by a competitive publisher, Cos Cob Press, on the inside of the back cover, and a promotion folder and order blank for Cowell's book American Composers on American Music . The promotion material on the book was dated April 1933 and gave a sample page (from the introduction), the table of contents, and the following statements: "It is the one literary expression of different composers' views from composers themselves" and "It is the only book from any source which attempts a survey of the present tendencies of American art-music."

Cowell, who carefully avoided publishing his own musical works in New Music , may have felt justified in promoting his book because a compilation of others' essays. Why he publicized a rival publisher is not clear;.... p227-229

Hardcastle, whose prelude Cowell published in this issue, had been a member of the society and had performed at concerts, but had as yet had nothing published in New Music . Since Cowell did not mention him in his book, it is possible that he did not think of Hardcastle as a serious composer but only published his music out of friendship. In the notes accompanying the score Cowell wrote that Hardcastle had been born in England and had come to the United States in 1923, having then become an American citizen. He then discusses Hardcastle's experimentation in piano technique and resonance and his invention to better the tone and increase the sustaining power of the instrument. Implying that Hardcastle was somewhat of an eclectic, Cowell pointed out that he did "not believe in any unusual theories" preferring to "obtain all possible experiences from the past."

Prelude No. 4 illustrates Hardcastle's improvisatory style, with a rhapsodic flair in the manner of Scriabin. Seventh and ninth chords are prominent, accompanying a flowing, ornamental, chromatic melodic line. Although not in a twelve-tone style, repetition of pitch immediately is usually eschewed, and, while not rhythmically complex, there is an almost continual seven-against -three cross rhythm. One surprising feature of the piece is that, in spite of Hardcastle's experimentation with resonance, he has left the performer free to pedal ad lib (Example 96). p.230

. . .There was also a long letter from Olive Cowell, expressing her opinion on Cowell's proposed appearances in San Francisco and giving advice on a subject close to her heart__"how Cowell should get ahead in the Bay area." Mrs. Cowell suggested that Mrs. Sidney Joseph, who "Has a beautiful home right down town," might be prevailed upon to entertain the New Music Society. If Cowell could give a "course of lectures," he might attract the attention of Joseph Gaer, who headed the San Francisco Forum. "She is very close to Gaer," she said, and Gaer had brought celebrities like Frank Lloyd Wright for lectures. But Mrs. Cowell was concerned that if Cowell persisted n appearing at the New Music Workshop, he would lessen his chances to attract audiences at other lectures. She was not too impressed with casual ambience at the workshop:

I am sure you are aware of the nature of the workshop before which you are scheduled to make your first public appearance since your long absence. Anyone and everybody comes, never the same group, and there is no charge for either music or lectures. Voluntary contributions are requested, but I wonder how to determine membership with some financial responsibility involved, even 25 cents for what is offered; otherwise it amounts to professional persons throwing their talents to whomever is willing merely to come and listen. Such procedure is bound to knock the bottom out of any real remuneration for professional work in music' but perhaps it is good for the music . . . p.231

His own financial affairs seem to have improved now that he was engaged for three courses of lectures__in San Francisco, Palo Alto, and Carmel: I take what comes in; they are for bread and butter. If they go well, I am set for the summer, financially." One of the series was to be held at the Y.W.C.A. A notice in the Examiner on April 30 listed the general topic as "Music of the World," six illustrated lectures (2 May-6 June) sponsored by the new Music Workshop (the event referred to by Olive Cowell). Members of the workshop would perform, and rare records would be played. p.233

Plate XXXIV. Program for the New Music Society, April 25, 1933.

quintet for Clarinet and Strings - Gerald Strang Raymond Tenney and string quartet p. 234

...Redfern Mason: Strang's Quintet ("fretful. moody, music, well written...")

....He (Cowell) was already signed up for eighteen lectures on new and primitive music at Mills College.

He was also giving interviews. He gave one free-wheeling interview to Ada Hanifin, who found him "the most stimulating conversationalist" she had ever interviewed. Her article is unblushingly biased, covering his organizational activities, recent compositions, newly published book, and Guggenheim fellowship. He discussed his experiences abroad__studying with the Prince of Java and with Schoenberg "for several hours" each afternoon, learning of the music of Bali and the Belgian Congo. Finally, Hanafin quoted Cowell on a device for copying phonograph records: "I invented an electric phonographic record, an electric pick-up . . . that will re-record from the old-fashioned Edison cylinders. I brought nearly 300 back with me for the New School for Social Research." p.236