First and only recordings of unknown, historic percussion ensemble compositions

Recorded in Carbondale, IL between July 7 and July 26, 2011.

In 1933 Henry Cowell wrote, “Up to this year, in my experience as a music publisher I have never been offered any work for percussion instruments alone. This season I have been offered fifteen different works for such combinations…” And the review of a John Cage concert in 1942 reported, “When he played his first percussion concert in 1938, there were only two pieces written for percussion groups. Now there are more than 100…”

These two statements, if accurate in whole or part, point to a significant body of forgotten percussion literature from this formative period. Interestingly the dates of these statements mark the beginning and ending of the most important period in the development of the percussion ensemble in pan-European music. It is not coincidental that Cowell and Cage are the focal points at these particular dates. Cowell was a highly influential progenitor and facilitator of percussion music in the American Experimentalist tradition and perhaps the most important figure in the initial dissemination of percussion music via his organization of performances, publishing, recording, teaching, mentorship, and social networking activities. These groundbreaking efforts, beginning earnestly in 1933, prepared fertile ground in which he cultivated countless opportunities for many fellow pioneers in the percussion medium. Cowell’s percussion related activities had definite influence and benefit to Cage’s interest and activities in the medium; for example, Cowell introduced Cage to Lou Harrison who assisted Cage in procuring his job at the Cornish School in Seattle, WA in 1938. There he formed his first percussion group, The Cage Percussion Players, and presented his first public percussion concert at the Cornish School Theatre on December 9, 1938 with compositions from Cowell’s 1936 publication, New Music Orchestra Series, Collection No. 18 and his own percussion compositions: Trio and Quartet. From this date forward Cage’s composition, performance, commissioning, and concert presentations of percussion music expanded in a flurry of activity until the final percussion concert he organized on February 7, 1943 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Cage’s move to Chicago in September 1941 and subsequent move to New York City in June 1942 ultimately led to the abandonment of his percussion-centered activities, due in large part to the difficult logistics of instruments, rehearsal space, performers, and insufficient external support.

Cowell and Cage formed the nucleus in a sphere of percussion music development around which other important composer-performers coalesced such as those represented herein, as well as Ray Green, William Russell, Gerald Strang, Harold Davidson, Jessie Baetz, and others. In spite of being so near to the inception of the percussion ensemble in pan-European music, it is apparent that there is a less than complete comprehension of the gamut of achievements from the diverse individuals involved, and this is to say nothing of the insufficient recognition for these pioneering efforts in their original context. The present recording is the first in a series to excavate and present some of this neglected, or entirely unknown, music to the world and posthumously honor its brave creators.

The composers and their works on this volume represent the obscure to the known of the formative period from 1934 to 1942. At present, the most obscure composer to the percussion establishment on this recording will be Franziska Marie Boas (1902-1988), who was an American dancer, percussionist, teacher, social activist, improviser, and composer of percussion music. Boas, the daughter of renowned anthropologist Franz Boas, was a highly regarded disciple of the German dancers, Mary Wigman and Hanya Holm and developed a unique improvisation based pedagogy and dance style influenced by non-European cultures. She composed, improvised, and performed percussion music for her own choreography and for others such as Holm. For a time, Boas employed John Cage to teach music analysis and composition at her New York City dance school. Cage and his percussion group performed Boas’ work Changing Tensions at Mills College on July 27,1939.

Also of note are the works Oriental by Lou Harrison and PERCUSSION by Johanna Magdalena Beyer. For decades the fourth movement of Beyer’s PERCUSSION has been considered a complete, free-standing composition titled IV, when in fact it is a single movement from this larger five movement work. IV was Beyer’s only published work during her lifetime appearing in Cowell’s 1936 New Music Orchestra Series, Collection No. 18. PERCUSSION is the first known percussion composition to use unspecified instrumentation, thus allowing endless reinvention of the work. It should also be noted that Beyer’s HORIZONS is scored for unspecified instrumentation. Lou Harrison’s Oriental is yet another previously unknown composition and was composed for the noted dancer and choreographer, Lester Horton’s dance work, Something to Please Everybody – a suite of dances that varied widely in style.

This first volume of forgotten works begins unearthing a rich history of innovation deserving of audience and documentation. Future volumes of this series will continue to present unknown and neglected percussion compositions and composers from the Twentieth Century. Related articles on the composers and their percussion works will be forthcoming in publication.