Cowell at the Forum

Synopsis

The Great Depression put many Americans out of work, and in 1935 the Roosevelt administration created the Works Progress Administration, offering employment on various public projects. The Federal Music Project created 34 new orchestras across the country. American composers weren’t neglected either. A program called the Composers Forum Laboratories showcased new chamber works and invited audiences to offer their feedback directly to the composers involved.

On today’s date in 1935, at the seventh Composers Forum Laboratory held in New York, Henry Cowell was the featured composer and took questions and comments following the premiere of his String Quartet No. 3. Typical of this “laboratory” situation, the chamber piece was highly experimental. Cowell conceived it as a kind of musical kaleidoscope or crazy quilt, in which five predetermined musical patterns can be played in any order. Cowell called this work his Mosaic Quartet, and, theoretically, no two performances would ever be the same.

America’s entry into World War II eventually brought all the WPA’s musical projects to a close, but not before Federal Music Project orchestras had premiered a number of new symphonic works by American composers and dozens of new chamber works, like Cowell’s Quartet, and had been workshopped at Composers Forum Laboratories.

Music Played in Today's Program

Henry Cowell (1897-1965): String Quartet No. 3 (Mosaic Quartet); Colorado String Quartet; Mode 72/73

On This Day

Births

• 1803 - French composer Hector Berlioz, in Côte-St.-André, near Grenoble

• 1876 - Polish composer Mieczyslaw Karlowicz, in Wiszniew (Swiecany district), Lithuania

• 1908 - American composer Elliott Carter, in New York

Premieres

• 1726 - Bach: Secular Cantata No. 207 (Vereinigte Zwietracht der Wechselnden Saiten) for the installation of philologist and jurist Gottleib Kortte as Professor of Law at the University of Leipzig

• 1873 - Brahms: String Quartet No. 1, in Vienna by the Hellmesberger Quartet

• 1908 - Delius: In a Summer Garden, by the London Philharmonic

• 1925 - Nielsen: Symphony No. 6 (Sinfonia Semplice), by Royal Orchestra in Copenhagen, with the composer conducting

• 1935 - Cowell: Mosaic Quartet (String Quartet No. 3), by the Modern Art Quartet at the 7th of the WPA Composers’ Forum-Laboratories, at the Midtown Community Center in New York

• 1950 - Hindemith: Clarinet Concerto, by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting, with Benny Goodman the soloist

• 1959 - Dutilleux: Symphony No. 2, by the Boston Symphony, Charles Munch conducting

• 1981 - David Diamond: Violin Sonata No. 2, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., by Robert McDuffie (violin) and William Black (piano)

• 1985 - Philip Glass & Robert Moran: opera The Juniper Tree, at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Others

• 1721 - J.S. Bach’s employer, Prince Leopold of Cöthen (27) marries Frederica Henrietta von Anhalt-Berngurg (19) at Bernburg. The new Princess of Cöthen does not share her husband’s passion for music, and one year later, Bach applies for a new job in Leipzig.

• 1918 - Russian-born conductor Nikolai Sokoloff leads the first concert of the Cleveland Orchestra at Gray’s Armory, presented as a benefit for St. Ann’s Church. His program included Victor Herbert’s American Fantasy, Bizet’s Carmen Suite, two movements of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, Liadov’s Enchanted Lake, and Liszt’s Les Préludes.

• 1928 - The Society of Friends of Music organized by The Library of Congress