Cowell in Tehran

Synopsis

Teheran might seem an unlikely venue for the premiere of an American chamber work, but on today’s date in 1957, Henry Cowell’s “Persian Set,” had its first performance in the Iranian capital. Cowell once said: “I want to live in the whole world of music,” and from the 1930s on, Cowell practiced what he preached: He was one of the first to advocate that what we now call “world music” should be integrated into American concert life.

In 1956, a major grant allowed Cowell to embark on a world tour to introduce American music abroad to study other musical traditions. Cowell spent the winter of 1956 in Iran, and early the following year completed his “Persian Set.”

“Of course, I made no attempt to shed my years of Western symphonic experience,” Cowell said, “nor did I used actual Iranian melodies or rhythms. Instead, I tried to develop some of the musical behavior that the two cultures had in common.”

Cowell was born in California in 1897, and died in New York in 1965. He was active as a teacher and music publisher and wrote 900 pieces of very original music — most of it still unfamiliar to American audiences.

Music Played in Today's Program

Henry Cowell (1897-1965) Persian Set Manhattan Chamber Orchestra; Richard Auldon Clark, cond. Koch International 7220

On This Day

Births

• 1795 - Baptismal date of Italian opera composer Saverio Mercadante, in Altamura, near Bari;

• 1884 - American composer Charles Tomlinson Griffes, in Elmira, New York;

• 1917 - Korean-born German composer Isang Yun, in Tong Young (now Chung Mu);

Deaths

• 1179 - German mystic, writer and composer Hildegard von Bingen, age c. 81, in Rupertsburg (near Bingen);

• 1762 - Italian violinist and composer Francesco Geminiani, age 74, in Dublin;

• 1803 - Austrian composer Franz Xaver Sussmayr, who studied with Salieri and Mozart; Sussmayr completed Mozart's unfinished "Requiem";

Premieres

• 1872 - American premiere of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" at a Central Park concert given by the Theodore Thomas orchestra;

• 1931 - Delius: "A Song of Summer," in London;

• 1957 - Cowell: "Persian Set," at the Gulestan Palace in Tehran, Iran, by the Minneapolis Symphony, Antal Dorati conducting;

• 1982 - Steve Reich: "Tehillim" (orchestral version), by New York Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta;

Others

• 1966 - German tenor Fritz Wunderlich dies, age 35, from a fall in his home in Heidelberg.