Cowell, Henry Dixon (1897–1965)

US composer and theorist. His pioneering New Musical Resources (1930) sought to establish a rationale for modern music. He worked with Percy Grainger in 1941 and alongside John Cage. Although remembered as a discoverer of piano effects such as strumming the strings in Aeolian Harp (1923), and for introducing tone-clusters, using a ruler on the keys in The Banshee (1925), he was also an astute observer and writer of new music developments.

Cowell also wrote chamber and orchestral music and was active as a critic and publisher of 20th-century music.

Works opera O'Higgins of Chile (1949); ballets The Building of Bamba (1917) and Atlantis; 21 symphonies (1916–65), Synchrony, Reel, Hornpipe, Sinfonietta, Scherzo, etc., for orchestra; ten ‘tunes’, 18 Hymns and Fuguing Tunes, Exultation and Four Continuations for strings; piano concerto; six string quartets (1915–62); Toccata for soprano (wordless), flute, cello, and piano; other chamber music; many piano works.