John R. Cowell

Composer/Pianist

COMPOSITIONS


  Date of Composition Date Performed Title of Work
(red = clip)
Description; Notes Venue of
First Performance
 
    Washington Centennial Suite:  Four Scenes for solo piano.
1. Centennial Day Jamboree
2. Night Piece, "Night Camp—the nocturnal forest world..."
3. Dawn Piece, "The perfect summer fisherman’s dawn..."
4. Toccata - Finale, "Speed run" (on snow - on water?)
Composed for Centennial Composers Competition, Peninsula United Music Association  
1952 1952 Puyallup Fair:  Suite for Piano Local ballet school portrays their day at the Western Washington State Fair.  Composed for the Seattle Ballet Academy.  Scored for full orchestra in 1962, performed by the Seattle Symphony, conducted by Milton Katims. Revised for piano solo in 1984.  
1956   Sonata in Db
1. Rhapsody
2. Evocation II "Waltz vs. Blues"
3. Scherzo; Toccata
  New York Town Hall concert
1960 1960 Chaconne and Mystic Dance Composed originally for New York Town Hall recital in 1960 as "Introduction, Chaconne and Rhapsodic Dance.  Edited and revised for performance at "Arkansas Day" in the bi-centennial Parade of States in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall in Washington DC in May 1976. New York Town Hall concert
circa 1960   Choral works
Psalm 103 Praise the Lord, O my Soul
Psalm 121 I will lift mine eyes unto the Hills
Psalm 130 Lord from the Depths
   
1972 1979 Four Songs of Innocence
No. 1
No. 2
No. 3
No. 4
  1980 Jacksonville Delius Festival[?]
1983 1983 Homage to Emily Choral work for mixed voices unaccompanied on three selected poems of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886). Arkansas
  2002 Evocation Two solo piano compositions. Originated from a Seattle Ballet Academy commission “Dance Symphony” in 1954, 2nd movement.  Later refashioned as 2nd movement of Trio for clarinet, horn, piano (1999), and as Trio for clarinet, cello, piano (1978), and as Trio for viola, cello, piano. Cowell "Retrospective" concert at the University of Arkansas
    Suite for Piano:  The Harmonious Piano
Prelude 1 a/b
Exsultate/Threnody
Prelude 2
Air with Variations
Toccata
Prelude 1 (harpsichord)
Sarabande
Prelude 2
Air with Variations
Toccata
Chaconne and Mystic Dance for Piano
Chaconne and Mystic Dance
   for Harpsichord
            
    7 Mysterious Canons and an Encore
1 Ancient Stones, Ancient Bones
2 Echoing Wind Chimes, Carillons
3 Ancient Temple Garden
4 Celestial Orbits
5 Blue Ice, Crevasses, Caves
6 Labyrinth–There and Back
   ("Crab Canon")
7 Whole Tone, Tritone, Augmented Triad
8 Encore (Answering Harness
   Bells–Frost Poem)
Originated from a choreographic commission by the Seattle Ballet Academy in 1958. Never fulfilled as a ballet. Transformed into a concert piece for piano as part of doctoral dissertation and later made into a one movement piano concerto. Many performances. Extensive revision in 2003.       

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