Henry Cowell: Shock, scandal and the New York subway

Kate Molleson and Gillian Moore present BBC Radio 3's series exploring the pivotal 'modern' musical works of the 20th century, the groundbreaking composers who created them, and the radical cultural and artistic movements which gave rise to them. In this episode, as Radio 3 embarks upon an American Roadtrip, Kate explores the revolutionary music of an early US maverick composer: Henry Cowell.

On our way to performances of his pieces Dynamic Motion (1916) and Five Encores to Dynamic Motion (1917) we’ll meet the band of rebel musicians who gathered around Cowell; explore how, as a young man, the composer used cross-dressing to push against American machismo; and discover the scandal which led Charles Ives to give his fellow composer the silent treatment.

Produced by Sam Phillips
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3

To listen on most smart speakers just say, 'ask BBC Sounds to play 20th Century Radicals'.