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108-519: Henry Cowell 's 1938 work Rhythmicana is a suite of piano pieces centered on polyrhythms and dissonant counterpoint. It is known for its unusual time signatures , with the first two movements being in 1 time, and the third movement having the polymeter of 4 in the right hand and 4 in the left. Cowell had already used the title for his rhythmicon concerto seven years earlier. The complexity results from Cowell's lifelong preoccupation with rhythmic exploration. The piece

216-550: A theosophical community in Southern California. Cowell joined the commune after befriending Irish-American poet and former Menlo Park resident John Osborne Varian . Cowell's connection to Irish folk music from his father meant he was instantly drawn to Varian, Irish nationalism , Celtic legends , and theosophy more broadly. Although the residents at Halcyon embraced a tolerant and communist -leaning lifestyle, their music preferences were considered quite conservative for

324-665: A 2011 report from the Center for American Progress . Gender roles may be a means through which one expresses one's gender identity , but they may also be employed as a means of exerting social control , and individuals may experience negative social consequences for violating them. Different religious and cultural groups within one country may have different norms that they attempt to "police" within their own groups, including gender norms. The roles of women in Christianity can vary considerably today (as they have varied historically since

432-637: A broader theme in his music, as an unwitting extension of the Celtic Revival movement of the 20th century. Beginning in the early 1920s, Cowell toured widely in North America and Europe as a pianist, with the financial aid of his former tutors — playing his own experimental works, seminal explorations of atonality , polytonality , polyrhythms , and non-Western modes . He gave his debut recital in New York, toured through France and Germany , and became

540-448: A consultant to Folkways Records for over a decade beginning in the early 1950s, writing liner notes and editing such collections as Music of the World's Peoples (1951–61) (he also hosted a radio program of the same name) and Primitive Music of the World (1962). In 1963 he recorded searching, vivid performances of twenty of his seminal piano pieces for a Folkways album. Perhaps liberated by

648-576: A few years. His mother eventually decided to stop both the private lessons and his public school career after Cowell had severe bouts of Sydenham's chorea and scarlet fever — from which he eventually recovered. Due to an ongoing affair between Harry and a French mistress, the Cowells amicably divorced in 1903, by which time Henry was 5. He was thereafter raised in Chinatown by his mother, who imbued him with her strong anarchist and feminist beliefs. It

756-467: A fuller beard), an Adam's apple , wearing a woman's dress and high heels, carrying a purse would most likely draw ridicule or other unfriendly attention in ordinary social contexts. Because the dominant class sees this form of gender expression as unacceptable, inappropriate, or perhaps threatening, these individuals are significantly more likely to experience discrimination and harassment both in their personal lives and from their employers, according to

864-620: A large palette of musical materials can be assembled." It would have a powerful effect on the American musical avant-garde for decades after. John Cage hand-copied the book and later studied Cowell, and Conlon Nancarrow would refer to it years later as having "the most influence of anything I've ever read in music." During his first tour in Europe, Cowell played at the famous Gewandhaus concert hall in Leipzig , Germany on October 15, 1923. He received

972-454: A letter addressed to his friend on January 10, 1924, Cowell wrote, "I kicked up quite a stir in London and Berlin, and had some very good, and some very bad notices from both places." A new method advanced by Cowell during this period, in pieces such as Aeolian Harp (1923) and Fairy Answer (1929), was what he dubbed " string piano " — rather than using the keys to play, the pianist reaches inside

1080-541: A man in the front rows threaten to physically remove him from the stage if he did not stop. While playing the fourth movement Antinomy from his Five Encores to Dynamic Motion , he later recalled: [...] the audience was yelling and stamping and clapping and hissing until I could hardly hear myself. They stood up during most of the performance and got as near to me and the piano as they could. [...] Some of those who disapproved of my methods were so excited that they almost threatened me with physical violence. Those who liked

1188-613: A more traditional harmonic language. Many of his later works are based on American folk music , such as the series of eighteen Hymn and Fuguing Tune s (1943–64); folk music had certainly played a role in a number of Cowell's prewar compositions, but the provocative transformations that had been his signature were now largely abandoned. And, as Nancarrow observed, there were other consequences to Cowell's imprisonment: "Of course, after that, politically, he kept his mouth completely shut. He had been radical politically, too, before." No longer an artistic radical, Cowell nonetheless retained

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1296-399: A more traditional, less dominant role for the women. Hindu deities are more ambiguously gendered than the deities of other world religions. This informs female and males relations, and informs how the differences between males and females are understood. However, in a religious cosmology like Hinduism , which prominently features female and androgynous deities, some gender transgression

1404-456: A notoriously hostile reception during this concert, with some modern musicologists and historians referring to the event as a turning point in Cowell's performing career. As he progressed further into the concert, deliberately saving the loudest and most provocative pieces for last, the audience's reception became more and more audibly hostile. Gasps and screams were heard, and Cowell recalled hearing

1512-504: A number of Cowell's projects (including, years later, New Music itself). Many of the scores published in Cowell's journal were made even more widely available as performances of them were issued by the record label he established in 1934, New Music Recordings. The ultra-modernist movement had expanded its reach in 1928, when Cowell led a group that included Ruggles, Varèse, his fellow expatriate Carlos Salzedo, American composer Emerson Whithorne, and Mexican composer Carlos Chávez in founding

1620-520: A parole hearing, the Board of Pardons fixed his term of incarceration at the maximum possible sentence, a decade-and-a-half. Cowell ultimately spent four years in San Quentin State Prison , during a tumultuous era of the prison's history. Former warden Clinton Duffy would say it "had a reputation as one of the most primitive penitentiaries in the world." Physical abuse by wardens and officials

1728-406: A person based on that person's sex . Gender roles can be linked with essentialism , the idea that humans have a set of attributes that are necessary to their identity based on their gender. Sociologists tend to use the term "gender role" instead of "sex role", because the sociocultural understanding of gender is distinguished from biological conceptions of sex. In the sociology of gender ,

1836-496: A progressive bent and continued to be a leader (along with Harrison and McPhee) in the incorporation of non-Western musical idioms, as in the Japanese-inflected Ongaku (1957), Symphony No. 13, " Madras " (1956–58), and Homage to Iran (1959). His most compelling, poignant songs date from this era, including Music I Heard (to a poem by Conrad Aiken ; 1961) and Firelight and Lamp (to a poem by Gene Baro; 1962). Cowell

1944-484: A prominent folk-music scholar who had been instrumental in winning his freedom. Cowell was granted a pardon from California governor Culbert Olson on December 28, 1942. Despite the pardon — which allowed him to work at the Office of War Information, creating radio programs for broadcast overseas — his arrest, incarceration, and attendant notoriety had a devastating effect on Cowell. Conlon Nancarrow , on meeting him for

2052-474: A range of cultures. In addition, gender roles (and perceived gender roles) vary based on a person's race or ethnicity . Gender roles influence a wide range of human behavior , often including the clothing a person chooses to wear, the profession a person pursues, manner of approach to things, the personal relationships a person enters, and how they behave within those relationships. Although gender roles have evolved and expanded, they traditionally keep women in

2160-541: A role in gendered behavior, the extent of its effects on gender roles is less clear. One hypothesis attributes differences in gender roles to evolution . The sociobiological view argues that men's fitness is increased by being aggressive, allowing them to compete with other men for access to females, as well as by being sexually promiscuous and trying to father as many children as possible. Women are benefited by bonding with infants and caring for children. Sociobiologists argue that these roles are evolutionary and led to

2268-586: A romantic poet and recent immigrant from County Clare , Ireland . His mother, Clara "Clarissa" Cowell (née Dixon), was a political activist , author , and native of the American Plains , who was 46 when she gave birth to Henry in addition to being over ten years older than her husband. Clarissa's ancestry was similarly Scotch and Irish, although her paternal lineage had been in America for centuries, with figures including astronomer Jeremiah Dixon , one of

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2376-575: A score's realization. One of his major chamber pieces, the Mosaic Quartet (String Quartet No. 3) (1935), is scored as a collection of five movements with no preordained sequence. Cowell was the central figure in a circle of avant-garde composers that included his good friends Carl Ruggles and Dane Rudhyar , as well as Leo Ornstein, John Becker, Colin McPhee , French expatriate Edgard Varèse , Ruth Crawford , whom he convinced Charles Seeger to take on as

2484-456: A second, more supportive group following. The two groups began shouting over and confronting one another, which eventually turned into a large physical confrontation and riot on the stage, after which the Leipzig police were promptly called. Cowell later recalled of the incident, "The police came onto the stage and arrested 20 young fellows, the audience being in an absolute state of hysteria — and I

2592-463: A series of strokes and succumbing to the disease. In a career that spanned more than half a century, Cowell wrote in a very wide range of styles with his own idiosyncratic twist, including serialism , jazz , romanticism , neoclassicism , avant-garde , noise music , minimalism , etc. He is believed to have written over 940 compositions in whole, the majority for solo piano, although some have since been lost or destroyed. His wide musical catalog

2700-415: A somewhat obscure figure in the history of both American music and experimental music more broadly. In his time, opinions of his music and performances were incredibly mixed. Some reviewers and music critics of the time called him a "creative genius", who played "fantastically well", while others referred to his compositions as "lawless, without a trace of counterpoint ," and the "peak of atonal thought" ⁠—

2808-455: A student (Crawford and Seeger would eventually marry), and Johanna Beyer . Cowell and his circle were sometimes referred to in the press as "ultra-modernists," a label whose definition is flexible and origin unclear (it has also been applied to a few composers outside the immediate circle, such as George Antheil , and to some of its disciples, such as Nancarrow); Virgil Thomson styled them the "rhythmic research fellows." In 1925, Cowell organized

2916-522: A third gender. An androgyne or androgynous person is someone with qualities pertaining to both the male and female gender. Some individuals identify with no gender at all. Many transgender people identify simply as men or women, and do not constitute a separate third gender. Biological differences between (some) trans women and cisgender women have historically been treated as relevant in certain contexts, especially those where biological traits may yield an unfair advantage, such as sport. Gender role

3024-410: A way that predisposes one to engaging in criminal behavior (including juvenile delinquency ). With regard to gender stereotypes , the societal roles and differences in power between men and women are much more strongly indicated than is a biological component. Ideas of appropriate gendered behavior vary among cultures and era, although some aspects receive more widespread attention than others. In

3132-481: Is "the product of social doings of some sort undertaken by men and women whose competence as members of society is hostage to its production." This approach is described by Elisabeth K. Kelan as an "ethnomethodological approach" which analyzes "micro interactions to reveal how the objective and given nature of the world is accomplished," suggesting that gender does not exist until it is empirically perceived and performed through interactions. West and Zimmerman argued that

3240-453: Is allowed. This group is known as the hijras , and has a long tradition of performing in important rituals, such as the birth of sons and weddings. Despite this allowance for transgression, Hindu cultural traditions portray women in contradictory ways. Women's fertility is given great value, but female sexuality is depicted as potentially dangerous and destructive. The institution of marriage influences gender roles, inequality, and change. In

3348-471: Is dedicated to J. M. Beyer. This article about a classical composition is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Henry Cowell Cowell was mostly self-taught and developed a unique musical language, often blending folk melodies , dissonant counterpoint , unconventional orchestration , and themes of Irish paganism . He was an early proponent and innovator of many modernist compositional techniques and sensibilities, many for

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3456-399: Is matched by scores of others. [...] But there is only one Henry." Clarissa's career as a progressive feminist writer did not earn her much money, and by the time they eventually returned to San Francisco, she had become terminally ill with breast cancer . They found their home destroyed from the prior earthquake, and looted by vandals after standing unoccupied for so long. Neighbors housed

3564-541: Is not the same thing as gender identity , which refers to the internal sense of one's own gender, whether or not it aligns with categories offered by societal norms. The point at which these internalized gender identities become externalized into a set of expectations is the genesis of a gender role. According to social constructionism , gendered behavior is mostly due to social conventions. Theories such as evolutionary psychology disagree with that position. Most children learn to categorize themselves by gender by

3672-551: Is still considered a useful resource for composers, ninety years after its publication — having been championed by his colleagues and subsequent students. Gender role A gender role , or sex role , is a set of socially accepted behaviors and attitudes deemed appropriate or desirable for individuals based on their sex. Gender roles are usually centered on conceptions of masculinity and femininity . The specifics regarding these gendered expectations may vary among cultures, while other characteristics may be common throughout

3780-424: Is typically divided into three periods – an experimental and wild early period, a more refined and technical middle period, and a neo-romantic late period. Henry Cowell's music covers a wider range in both expression and technique than that of any other living composer. His experiments begun three decades ago in rhythm, in harmony, and in instrumental sonorities were considered then by many to be wild. Today they are

3888-636: The World Values Survey , responders were asked if they thought that wage work should be restricted to only men in the case of shortage in jobs: in Iceland the proportion that agreed with the proposition was 3.6%; while in Egypt it was 94.9%. Attitudes have also varied historically. For example, in Europe, during the Middle Ages, women were commonly associated with roles related to medicine and healing. Because of

3996-516: The Charismatic and Pentecostal movements have embraced the ordination of women since their founding. Christian " saints ", persons of exceptional holiness of life having attained the beatific vision ( heaven ), can include female saints. Most prominent is Mary, mother of Jesus who is highly revered throughout Christianity, particularly in the Catholic and Orthodox churches where she is considered

4104-505: The IQ test , met with the young Henry during the family's brief stay in rural Iowa . He would posit that Cowell had, "language almost literary. No college professor of English could have improved upon it. And it was so natural. His conversation breathes intelligence . I had the feeling that no unschooled boy who was not a genius of the first order could speak thus" and, "Although the IQ is satisfactory, it

4212-959: The New Music period of his life. In November 2009, a two-day event celebrating Cowell's music was held in the San Francisco Bay Area near his birthplace, Menlo Park, by Other Minds . Many of the techniques Cowell either invented or pioneered are still relevant to today's music. Tone clusters in music have since been utilized by prominent classical composers such as Béla Bartók , George Crumb , Olivier Messiaen , Karlheinz Stockhausen , Iannis Xenakis , Einojuhani Rautavaara , and Krzysztof Penderecki , among others. Experimental and progressive rock keyboardists like Keith Emerson , Rick Wright , and John Cale similarly employed string piano techniques and clusters in their performances, as did free jazz pianists Dave Burrell , Cecil Taylor , Sun Ra , etc. His 1930 book New Musical Resources

4320-567: The Paris premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring a decade earlier, and the performances of Italian futurist Luigi Russolo . Cowell's interest in harmonic rhythm , as discussed in New Musical Resources , led him in 1930 to commission Léon Theremin to invent the Rhythmicon , or Polyrhythmophone, a transposable keyboard instrument capable of playing notes in periodic rhythms proportional to

4428-597: The United Arab Emirates , non-Muslim Western women can wear crop tops, whereas Muslim women are expected to dress much more modestly when in public. In some Muslim countries, these differences are sometimes even codified in law. In some Muslim-majority countries, even non-Muslim women are expected to follow Muslim female gender norms and Islamic law to a certain extent, such as by covering their hair. (Women visiting from other countries sometimes object to this norm and sometimes decide to comply on pragmatic grounds, in

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4536-674: The canon in the first movement of the Romantic has different note-lengths for each voice." In 1919, Cowell began writing New Musical Resources , which was finally published after extensive revision in 1930. In the book, Cowell discussed the variety of innovative rhythmic and harmonic concepts he used in his compositions (and others that were still entirely speculative). He talks about harmonic series and "the influence [it] has exerted on music throughout its history, how many musical materials of all ages are related to it, and how, by various means of applying its principles in many different manners,

4644-595: The interactionist approach, gender roles are not fixed but are constantly renegotiated between individuals. Geert Hofstede , a Dutch researcher and social psychologist who dedicated himself to the study of culture, sees culture as "broad patterns of thinking, feeling and acting" in a society In Hofstede's view, most human cultures can themselves be classified as either masculine or feminine. Masculine culture clearly distinguishes between gender roles, directing men to "be assertive, tough, and focused on material success," and women to "be more modest, tender, and concerned with

4752-403: The overtone series of a chosen fundamental pitch . The world's first electronic rhythm machine , with a photoreceptor-based sound production system proposed by Cowell (not a theremin -like system, as some sources incorrectly state), it could produce up to sixteen different rhythmic patterns simultaneously, complete with optional syncopation . Cowell wrote several original compositions for

4860-402: The piano , including the string piano , prepared piano , tone clusters , and graphic notation . The Tides of Manaunaun , originally a theatrical prelude, is the best-known and most widely-performed of Cowell's tone cluster pieces for piano. Cowell was born on March 11, 1897, in rural Menlo Park, California , a suburb of San Francisco . His father, Henry Blackwood "Harry" Cowell, was

4968-462: The " Theotokos ", i.e. "Mother of God". Women prominent in Christianity have included contemporaries of Jesus, subsequent theologians, abbesses, mystics, doctors of the church , founders of religious orders, military leaders, monarchs and martyrs, evidencing the variety of roles played by women within the life of Christianity. Paul the Apostle held women in high regard and worthy of prominent positions in

5076-418: The "private" sphere, and men in the "public" sphere. Various groups, most notably feminist movements, have led efforts to change aspects of prevailing gender roles that they believe are oppressive , inaccurate, and sexist . A gender role , also known as a sex role , is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for

5184-496: The Bible of the young and still, to the conservatives, "advanced."... No other composer of our time has produced a body of works so radical and so normal, so penetrating and so comprehensive. Add to this massive production his long and influential career as a pedagogue, and Henry Cowell's achievement becomes impressive indeed. There is no other quite like it. To be both fecund and right is given to few. — Virgil Thomson , 1953 Cowell remains

5292-557: The French-born Cuban Amadeo Roldán . Its next concert, in April 1930, focused on the U.S. ultra-modernists, with works by Cowell, Crawford, Ives, Rudhyar, and others such as Antheil, Henry Brant , and Vivian Fine . Over the next four years, Nicolas Slonimsky conducted concerts sponsored by the association in New York, across Europe, and, in 1933, Cuba. Cowell himself had performed there in 1930 and met with Caturla, whom he

5400-589: The Institute of Musical Art (later the Juilliard School of Music ) in New York City. Cowell only studied there for three months (October 1916 to January 1917) before dropping out, believing the musical atmosphere was too stifling and uninspiring. It was in New York, however, where he met fellow modernist piano composer Leo Ornstein . The two would collaborate in later decades. In February 1917, Cowell enlisted in

5508-511: The New Music Society, one of whose primary activities was staging concerts of their works, along with those of artistic allies such as Wallingford Riegger and Arnold Schoenberg — the latter of whom would later ask Cowell to play for his composition class during one of his European tours. Less than two years later, Cowell founded the periodical New Music Quarterly , which would publish many significant new scores under his editorship, both by

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5616-601: The Oriental-toned Pulse (1939) and the memorably sepulchral Return (1939). He also continued his experiments in aleatory music: for all three movements of the Amerind Suite (1939), he wrote five versions, each more difficult than the last. Interpreters of the piece are invited to simultaneously perform two or even three versions of the same movement on multiple pianos. In the Ritournelle (Larghetto and Trio) (1939) for

5724-577: The Pan-American Association of Composers, dedicated to promoting composers from around the Western Hemisphere and creating a community among them that would transcend national lines. Its inaugural concert, held in New York City in March 1929, featured exclusively Latin American music, including works by Chávez, Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos , Cuban composer Alejandro García Caturla , and

5832-426: The age of fifteen, purchased a used upright piano for $ 60 ($ 1,772 in 2022). The piano significantly aided his compositional output — by 1914, he had written over 100 pieces, including his first surviving piece for solo piano, the repetitive Anger Dance (originally Mad Dance ). He would begin experimenting in earnest, often by slamming the keyboard with all his strength, and rolling his mother's darning egg across

5940-676: The age of three. From birth, in the course of gender socialization, children learn gender stereotypes and roles from their parents and environment. Traditionally, boys learn to manipulate their physical and social environment through physical strength or dexterity, while girls learn to present themselves as objects to be viewed. Social constructionists argue that differences between male and female behavior are better attributable to gender-segregated children's activities than to any essential, natural, physiological, or genetic predisposition. As an aspect of role theory , gender role theory "treats these differing distributions of women and men into roles as

6048-661: The army to avoid being drafted in World War I and seeing direct military combat. He served in the ambulance training facility at Camp Crane , Allentown, Pennsylvania , where he had a short stint as the assistant band director for a few months. In October 1918, Cowell was transferred to Fort Ontario in Oswego , New York . He was transferred just before an outbreak of the Spanish flu killed thirteen men at Camp Crane. Cowell soon returned to California, where he had become involved with Halcyon ,

6156-726: The church, though he was careful not to encourage disregard for the New Testament household codes , also known as New Testament Domestic Codes or Haustafelen , of Greco-Roman law in the first century. According to Dhami and Sheikh, gender roles in Muslim countries are centered on the importance of the family unit, which is viewed as the basis of a balanced and healthy society. Islamic views on gender roles and family are traditionally conservative. Many Muslim-majority countries, most prominently Saudi Arabia , have interpretations of religious doctrine regarding gender roles embedded in their laws. In

6264-580: The dance piece Marriage at the Eiffel Tower , he explored what he called an "elastic" form. The twenty-four measures of the Larghetto and the eight of the Trio are each modular; though Cowell offers some suggestions, any hypothetically may be included or not and played once or repeatedly, allowing the piece to stretch or contract at the performers' will — the practical goal being to give a choreographer freedom to adjust

6372-526: The domination of women by men, especially in agricultural societies". According to Eagly et al., the consequences of gender roles and stereotypes are sex-typed social behavior because roles and stereotypes are both socially-shared descriptive norms and prescriptive norms. Judith Butler , in works such as Gender Trouble and Undoing Gender , contends that being female is not "natural" and that it appears natural only through repeated performances of gender; these performances, in turn, reproduce and define

6480-522: The ensuing fire, after which Henry and his mother fled the state of California . With no permanent place to live, Henry resided with his mother's family and friends around the American Plains and Midwest, later in New York City . School teachers of this time often took note of his "musical genius" and eccentric personality that was hindered by "extreme poverty ". Lewis Terman , an eventual pioneer of

6588-454: The establishment of traditional gender roles, with women in the domestic sphere and men dominant in every other area. However, this view pre-assumes a view of nature that is contradicted by the fact that women engage in hunting in 79% of modern hunter-gatherer societies. However, an attempted verification of this study found "that multiple methodological failures all bias their results in the same direction...their analysis does not contradict

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6696-544: The event, "[...] such a meaningless strumming and such a repulsive hacking of the keyboard not only with hands, but also even with fists, forearms and elbows, that one must call it a coarse obscenity — to put it mildly — to offer such a cacophony to the public, who in the end took it as a joke." The Leipziger Neuste-Nachrichten additionally referred to his techniques as "musical grotesqueries". Comparisons were later made between this event and other riotous performances by experimental and futurist composers in Europe, including

6804-412: The extreme what these days seems extraordinary for its complete denial of the notion of natural inclination." They concluded that gonads , hormones , and chromosomes did not automatically determine a child's gender role. Among the many terms Money coined was gender role, which he defined in a seminal 1955 paper as "all those things that a person says or does to disclose himself or herself as having

6912-664: The field of music." A prolific composer of songs (he would write over 180 during his career), Cowell returned in 1930–31 to Aeolian Harp , adapting it as the accompaniment to a vocal setting of a poem by his father, How Old Is Song? He built on his substantial oeuvre of chamber music, with pieces such as the Adagio for Cello and Thunder Stick (1924) that explored unusual instrumentation and others that were even more progressive: Six Casual Developments (1933), for clarinet and piano, sounds like something Jimmy Giuffre would compose thirty years later. His Ostinato Pianissimo (1934) placed him in

7020-632: The first American musician to visit the Soviet Union , with many of these concerts sparking large uproars and protests. It was on one of these tours that in 1923, his friend Richard Buhlig introduced Cowell to young pianist Grete Sultan in Berlin. They worked closely together — an aspect vital to Sultan's personal and artistic development. Cowell later made such an impression with his tone cluster technique that prominent European composers Béla Bartók and Alban Berg requested his permission to adopt it. In

7128-793: The first century church). This is especially true in marriage and in formal ministry positions within certain Christian denominations, churches, and parachurch organizations . Many leadership roles in the organized church have been restricted to males. In the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, only men may serve as priests or deacons, and in senior leadership positions such as pope , patriarch , and bishop . Women may serve as abbesses . Some mainstream Protestant denominations are beginning to relax their longstanding constraints on ordaining women to be ministers, though some large groups are tightening their constraints in reaction. Many subsets of

7236-445: The first time in 1947, reported, "The impression I got was that he was a terrified person, with a feeling that 'they're going to get him.'" He was often pestered by reporters to comment on the circumstances of his crimes and arrest, but often refused to do so. The experience took a lasting toll on his music: Cowell's compositional output became strikingly more conservative soon after his release from San Quentin, with simpler rhythms and

7344-472: The folk songs of their native homelands, and he was soon able to recite them before he learned to speak. During occasional visits to downtown San Francisco, he also recalled hearing the traditional music of Indonesia , China , Japan , and others. The family was gifted small instruments by friends and neighbors, including a mandolin harp and a quarter-size violin , the latter of which the young Henry took an interest in, making it his instrument of choice for

7452-633: The great mass was never so wholly apparent to me before." Cowell's cause had been taken up by composers and musicians around the country, one of the most vocal of which was his former teacher and collaborator Charles Seeger. However, a few, including Ives, temporarily broke contact with him. Cowell was eventually paroled in 1940; he relocated to Westchester County, New York , while under supervision, and resided with Australian ex-patriate composer and friend Percy Grainger and his wife in White Plains . The following year Cowell married Sidney Hawkins Robertson ,

7560-503: The instrument and plucks, sweeps, and otherwise manipulates the strings directly. Cowell's endeavors with string piano techniques were the primary inspiration for John Cage's development of the prepared piano . In early chamber music pieces, such as Quartet Romantic (1915–17) and Quartet Euphometric (1916–19 listen ), Cowell pioneered a compositional approach he called "rhythm-harmony": "Both quartets are polyphonic , and each melodic strand has its own rhythm," he explained. "Even

7668-613: The instrument, including an orchestrated concerto, and Theremin built two more models. Soon, however, the Rhythmicon would be virtually forgotten, remaining so until the 1960s, when progressive pop music producer Joe Meek experimented with its rhythmic concept. Cowell pursued a radical compositional approach through the mid-1930s, with solo piano pieces remaining at the heart of his output — important works from this era include The Banshee (1925) , requiring numerous playing methods such as pizzicato and longitudinal sweeping and scraping of

7776-459: The interest of their own safety , such as " modest " dress codes which failing to abide by risk being perceived as a prostitute .) Islamic prophet Muhammad described the high status of mothers in both of the major hadith collections ( Bukhari and Muslim). One famous account is: "A man asked the Prophet: 'Whom should I honor most?' The Prophet replied: 'Your mother'. 'And who comes next?' asked

7884-535: The international press was more to emphasize his unconventional and violent performance tendencies, with headlines like those from The Daily Mail : "Piano Played with Elbow. Fingers too Limited for Mr. Cowell. Result Like a Nursery in Rebellion." and The Daily Express : "Elbow Pianist. A Wonderful Test for the Instrument." He was considered a highly respected educator and promoter of classical music in America during

7992-432: The latter of which Cowell sarcastically used as a promotion in a following tour. Some of the more matter-of-fact viewpoints were offered by critics such as Evelyn Wells of The San Francisco Call and Post , "Cowell's compositions are like the better order of paintings, one must stand far back, at respectful distances, before order results from chaos, and the colorful motes of sound resolve into one theme." The intent of

8100-506: The length and character of a dance piece without the usual constraints imposed by a prewritten musical composition. Cowell had contributed to the Eiffel Tower project at the behest of Cage, who was not alone in lending support to his friend and former teacher. He and other gay composers such as Aaron Copland and protégé Lou Harrison easily empathized about his persecution. Harrison said in 1937, "[the] prevailing lack of balanced perception in

8208-423: The man. The Prophet replied: 'Your mother'. 'And who comes next?' asked the man. The Prophet replied: 'Your mother!'. 'And who comes next?' asked the man. The Prophet replied: 'Your father'" The Qur'an prescribes that the status of a woman should be nearly as high as that of a man. How gender roles are honored is largely cultural. While some cultures encourage men and women to take on the same roles, others promote

8316-567: The methods and theory behind his tone clusters, which later became the draft for his book New Musical Resources . Still a teenager, Cowell wrote the piano piece Dynamic Motion (1916), his first important work to explore the possibilities of the tone cluster ( listen ). It requires the performer to use both forearms to play massive secundal chords and calls for keys to be held down without sounding to extend its dissonant cluster overtones via sympathetic resonance . After two years at Berkeley, Seeger recommended that Cowell study at

8424-574: The music of Caturla and Roldán, with their proudly African-based rhythms, and of Chávez, whose work often involved instruments and themes of Mexico's indigenous peoples , was natural for Cowell. Growing up on the West Coast, he had been exposed to a great deal of what is now known as " world music "; along with Irish airs and dances, he encountered music from China, Japan, and Tahiti. These early experiences helped form his unusually eclectic musical outlook, exemplified by his famous statement, "I want to live in

8532-506: The music restrained them. During this excitement, a gentleman jumped up from one of the front rows and shook his fist at Cowell and said, "Halten Sie uns für Idioten in Deutschland?" ("Do you take us for idiots in Germany?"), while others threw the concert's program notes and other paraphernalia at his face. About a minute later, an angry group of audience members clambered onto the stage, with

8640-599: The non-material quality of life, for children and for the weak. Feminine cultures, on the other hand, define relatively overlapping social roles for the sexes, in which, in particular, men need not be ambitious or competitive but may go for a different quality of life than material success; men may respect whatever is small, weak, and slow. In feminine cultures, modesty and relationships are important characteristics. This differs from masculine cultures, where self-enhancement leads to self-esteem. Masculine cultures are individualistic and feminine cultures are more collective because of

8748-572: The passage of time and his own seniority, in his final years Cowell again produced a number of individualistic works, such as Thesis (Symphony No. 15; 1960) and 26 Simultaneous Mosaics (1963). In October 1964, Cowell was diagnosed with colorectal cancer after a doctor discovered an abundance of polyps in his system during an exam. It was decided that it could not be operated on, as it went undiagnosed for too long and almost completely engulfed his large intestine . Cowell died on December 10, 1965, in his Shady , Woodstock, New York , home, following

8856-480: The primary origin of sex-differentiated social behavior, [and posits that] their impact on behavior is mediated by psychological and social processes." According to Gilbert Herdt , gender roles arose from correspondent inference, meaning that general labor division was extended to gender roles. Social constructionists consider gender roles to be hierarchical and patriarchal. The term patriarchy, according to researcher Andrew Cherlin , defines "a social order based on

8964-439: The process whereby an individual learns and acquires a gender role in society is termed gender socialization . Gender roles are culturally specific, and while most cultures distinguish only two ( boy / man and girl / woman ), others recognize more. Some non-Western societies have three genders: men, women, and a third gender . Buginese society has identified five genders. Androgyny has sometimes also been proposed as

9072-468: The quality of life." Feminine cultures tolerate overlapping gender roles, and instruct that "both men and women are supposed to be modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life." Hofstede's Feminine and Masculine Culture Dimensions states: Masculine cultures expect men to be assertive, ambitious and competitive, to strive for material success, and to respect whatever is big, strong, and fast. Masculine cultures expect women to serve and care for

9180-459: The rise of witch-hunts across Europe and the institutionalization of medicine, these roles became exclusively associated with men. In the last few decades, these roles have become largely gender-neutral in Western society . Vern Bullough stated that homosexual communities are generally more tolerant of switching gender roles. For instance, someone with a masculine voice, a five o'clock shadow (or

9288-426: The sense of Max Weber's ideal types (an exaggerated and simplified version of a phenomenon, used for analytical purposes) rather than how they appear in reality. Model A described a total separation of male and female roles, while Model B described the complete dissolution of gender roles. The model is consciously a simplification; individuals' actual behavior usually lies somewhere between these poles. According to

9396-518: The significance of personal relationships. 'The dominant values in a masculine society are achievement and success; the dominant values in a feminine society are caring for others and quality of life'. "In the 1950s, John Money and his colleagues took up the study of intersex individuals, who, Money realized, 'would provide invaluable material for the comparative study for bodily form and physiology, rearing, and psychosexual orientation'." "Money and his colleagues used their own studies to state in

9504-473: The status of boy or man, girl or woman." In recent years, the majority of Money's theories regarding the importance of socialization in the determination of gender have come under intense criticism, especially in connection with the inaccurate reporting of success in the "John/Joan" case, later revealed to be David Reimer . Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman developed an interactionist perspective on gender beyond its construction of "roles." For them, gender

9612-471: The strings ( listen ), and the manic, cluster-filled Tiger (1930), inspired by William Blake 's famous poem . Much of Cowell's public reputation continued to be based on his trademark pianistic technique: a critic for the San Francisco News , writing in 1932, referred to Cowell's "famous 'tone clusters,' probably the most startling and original contribution any American has yet contributed to

9720-459: The strings. In the same year, at the age of 17, Cowell enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley , studying composition with renowned American musicologist and composer Charles Seeger . Seeger later made note of their, "concurrent but entirely separate pursuit[s] of free composition and academic disciplines." After showing Seeger the drafts of his music, he encouraged Cowell to write about

9828-746: The studies have been identified. A study on 1950s American teenage girls who had been exposed to androgenic steroids by their mothers in utero exhibited more traditionally masculine behavior, such as being more concerned about their future career than marriage, wearing pants, and not being interested in jewelry. Sociologist Linda L. Lindsey critiqued the notion that gender roles are a result of prenatal hormone exposure, saying that while hormones may explain sex differences like sexual orientation and gender identity, they "cannot account for gender differences in other roles such as nurturing, love, and criminal behavior". By contrast, some research indicates that both neurobiological and social risk factors can interact in

9936-464: The surveyors behind the American Mason–Dixon line . After meeting for the first time, the two quickly wed and undertook bohemian lifestyles, residing in a small, crude cottage (later demolished in 1936) Harry had built on the outskirts of the city — where Henry would eventually be born. It was in his first few years that Henry had his first exposures to music. His parents often sang to him

10044-495: The time. Varian described it as "sangtified raggtime [sic]" and, "rehymnified hymn music [sic]." Cowell managed to convince members to embrace his music, and wrote incidental and programmatic music to be performed at Halcyon. In 1917, Cowell wrote the music for Varian's stage production The Building of Banba ; the prelude he composed, The Tides of Manaunaun , with its rich, evocative clusters, would become Cowell's most famous and widely performed work. Irish symbology later became

10152-490: The traditional categories of sex and/or gender. Working in the United States in 1955, Talcott Parsons developed a model of the nuclear family , which at that place and time was the prevalent family structure. The model compared a traditional contemporaneous view of gender roles with a more liberal view. The Parsons model was used to contrast and illustrate extreme positions on gender roles, i.e., gender roles described in

10260-568: The two as the then thirteen-year-old Henry restored it. In order to keep them financially afloat, he took up small jobs such as picking and selling flower bulbs at the Menlo Park Train Station , janitorial work, farming , and cleaning a neighbor's chicken houses. While receiving no formal musical education (and little schooling of any kind beyond his mother's home tutelage ), he began to compose short classical pieces in his mid-teens. Cowell saved what money he could from odd jobs, and at

10368-556: The ultra-modernists and many other composers, including Ernst Bacon, Paul Bowles , Aaron Copland Otto Luening and Gerald Strang . Before the publication of the first issue, he solicited contributions from a then-obscure composer who became one of his closest friends, Charles Ives . Major scores by Ives, including the Comedy from his fourth symphony , Fourth of July , 34 Songs , and 19 Songs , would receive their first publication in New Music ; in turn, Ives provided financial support to

10476-808: The use of "role" to describe gender expectations conceals the production of gender through everyday activities. Furthermore, they stated that roles are situated identities, such as "nurse" and "student," which are developed as the situation demands, while gender is a master identity with no specific site or organizational context. For them, "conceptualizing gender as a role makes it difficult to assess its influence on other roles and reduces its explanatory usefulness in discussions of power and inequality." West and Zimmerman consider gender an individual production that reflects and constructs interactional and institutional gender expectations. Historically, gender roles have been largely attributed to biological differences in men and women. Although research indicates that biology plays

10584-684: The vanguard of those writing original scores for percussion ensemble. He created forceful large-ensemble pieces during this period as well, such as the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1928) — with its three movements, "Polyharmony," "Tone Cluster," and "Counter Rhythm" ( listen ) — and the Sinfonietta (1928), whose scherzo Anton Webern conducted in Vienna. In the early 1930s, Cowell began to delve seriously into aleatoric procedures, creating opportunities for performers to determine primary elements of

10692-803: The whole world of music." He went on to investigate Indian classical music and, in the late 1920s, began teaching a course, "Music of the World's Peoples," at the New School for Social Research in New York and elsewhere — Harrison's tutelage under Cowell would begin when he enrolled in a version of the course in San Francisco . In 1931 a Guggenheim fellowship enabled Cowell to go to Berlin to study comparative musicology (the predecessor to ethnomusicology ) with Erich von Hornbostel . He studied Carnatic theory and gamelan , as well, with leading instructors from South India (P. Sambamoorthy), Java (Raden Mas Jodjhana), and Bali (Ramaleislan). On May 23, 1936, Cowell

10800-623: The wide body of empirical evidence for gendered divisions of labor in foraging societies". Another hypothesis attributes differences in gender roles to prenatal exposure to hormones . Early research examining the effect of biology on gender roles by John Money and Anke Ehrhardt primarily focused on girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), resulting in higher-than-normal prenatal exposure to androgens . Their research found that girls with CAH exhibited tomboy -like behavior, were less interested in dolls, and were less likely to make-believe as parents. A number of methodological problems with

10908-420: The young men were typically referred to as "boys" at the time, incorrect assumptions were made by sensationalist newspapers and many in the public, severely damaging what public reputation he had along with the revelation of his homosexual activities. While jailed and awaiting a court hearing, he wrote a full confession accompanied by a request for leniency on the basis that "he was not exclusively homosexual but

11016-498: Was arrested in Menlo Park, California on a "morals" charge for allegedly having oral sex with a seventeen-year-old male. After initially denying the allegation, under further questioning he admitted not only to the act but to additional sex acts with the teenager and other young men in the area, including during his time at Halcyon more than a decade earlier. He was never accused by authorities of pedophilia or molestation, but since

11124-530: Was common for so-called "bad behavior", often via whipping and starvation . During his incarceration, several leading psychologists evaluated the composer according to now-disregarded theories of homosexuality, and later expressed faith in the idea of possibly "rehabilitating" the composer. Despite this time, Cowell taught music to fellow inmates, directed the prison band, and continued to write at his customary prolific pace, producing around sixty compositions. These included two major pieces for percussion ensemble:

11232-449: Was during this time he exhibited a strong defiance of gender stereotypes — he refused to have his hair cut, often wore women's clothing and adored the color pink while preferring to be called "Mrs. Jones". He also had further music exposures when engaging with his new Asian-American friends and their families in the neighborhood. After the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake , much of the Cowells' possessions and memorabilia were destroyed in

11340-599: Was elected to the American Institute of Arts and Letters in 1951. Having revived his friendship with Ives, Cowell, in collaboration with his wife, wrote the first major study of Ives's music and provided crucial support to Harrison as his former pupil championed the Ives's rediscovery. Cowell resumed teaching — Burt Bacharach , Dominick Argento , J. H. Kwabena Nketia , and Irwin Swack were among his postwar students — and served as

11448-446: Was in fact in love with a woman he hoped to marry". Suggestive letters and other artifacts were received from both Cowell and the young men who spoke to police, which were later used by the prosecution in his trial. Cowell ultimately decided to overrule his attorneys and plead guilty, for reasons unknown. Probation was denied by Judge Maxwell McNutt, and Cowell received the standard sentence of one to fifteen years. In August 1937, after

11556-585: Was publishing in New Music . Cowell continued to work on both his behalf and Roldán's, whose Rítmica No. 5 (1930) was the first free-standing piece of Western classical music written specifically for percussion ensemble. During this era, Cowell also spread the ultra-modernists' experimental creed as a highly regarded teacher of composition and theory — among his many students were George Gershwin , Lou Harrison , who said he thought of Cowell as "the mentor of mentors," and John Cage, who proclaimed Cowell "the open sesame for new music in America." Encouragement of

11664-479: Was still playing!" As he had no severe physical injuries, the Leipzig authorities decided not to admit him to the local medical facility. After the concert had concluded and the stage was cleared, he was noticeably shaken and jittery as he took his bow for the remaining audience and then left the hall. In the days following, the local Leipzig press was incredibly harsh regarding Cowell, the performance, and his musical style more broadly. The Leipziger Abendpost called

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