New musical resources / Henry Cowell ; with notes and an accompanying essay by David Nicholls.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cowell, Henry, 1897-1965.

Contributor:

Nicholls, David, 1955-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Music theory--History--20th century.

Music theory.

History.

Harmonics (Music).

Physical Description:

xvii, 177 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Summary:

Since its original publication in 1930, Henry Cowell's New Musical Resources has become recognized as one of the few seminal technical studies to be written by a twentieth-century composer. In 1971, Virgil Thomson hailed it as "a classic." A decade or so previously, Mauricio Kagel had characterized it as being "one of the few documents to treat concretely and shrewdly the ideas about musical theory developed during the first half of the twentieth century."

Cowell's self-styled "theory of musical relativity" aimed to "point out the influence the overtone series 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, a large palette of musical materials can be assembled." In this respect Cowell was anticipating many of the ideas to be realized in avant-garde and experimental music from the 1950s on.

For this new edition, David Nicholls has provided annotations and an explanatory essay. The essay traces the sources for the book, compares its text with that of the original manuscript, and attempts to place Cowell's theories in the broader context of musical modernism.

This frequently cited book is as relevant now as at the time of its writing and this new edition will be invaluable for all those with an interest in the development of twentieth-century music.

Contents:

Part I Tone Combinations 3

1 The Influence of Overtones in Music 3

2 Polyharmony 24

3 Tone-quality 32

4 Dissonant Counterpoint 35

Part II Rhythm 45

1 Time 49

2 Metre 66

3 Dynamics 81

4 Form 84

5 Metre and Time Combinations 85

6 Tempo 90

7 Scales of Rhythm 98

Part III Chord-Formation 111

1 Buildings Chords from Different Intervals 111

2 Tone-clusters 117

Henry Cowell's "New Musical Resources" / David Nicholls 153.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0521496519

0521499747

OCLC:

32779668