Frederic Cowen

[Jimfin]

I do look forward to the same surprise being expressed when someone reads Boulez' utterances a hundred years from now: "Did Boulez really think of himself as a major figure?"

[albion]

I have now completed a series of uploads to IMSLP (marked below in blue): with the exception of one or two occasional pieces, all of Cowen's extant major choral works are now available in vocal score -

The Rose Maiden (1870)
The Corsair (1876)
Saint Ursula (1881)
Sleeping Beauty (1885)
Ruth (1887)
A Song of Thanksgiving (1888)
St. John's Eve (1889)
The Water-Lily (1892)
The Transfiguration (1895)
Ode to the Passions (1898)
John Gilpin (1904)
He Giveth His Beloved Sleep (1907)
The Veil (1910)

Hopefully, this might facilitate a wider and more informed reassessment of this important area of his output.

[parkermusic]

Anyone who considers Mahler to be inadequate in his developmental and contrapuntal skills must have rocks in his head!  Does anybody think that he spends more time in his massive movements exposing or reprising his materials?

I must confess I never meant to imply that Mahler's development and contrapuntal skills were inadequate, although I can clearly see that what I wrote could be interpreted this way! Of course, Mahler is not only a master of development, but of the whole compositional structural process, which clearly Cowen was not (nor generally was Gershwin), which is what I thought I was trying to say, evidently not eloquently enough! Apologies to any Mahler fans, of which I am one!

[parkermusic]

I have now completed a series of uploads to IMSLP (marked below in blue): with the exception of one or two occasional pieces, all of Cowen's extant major choral works are now available in vocal score -

The Rose Maiden (1870)
The Corsair (1876)
Saint Ursula (1881)
Sleeping Beauty (1885)
Ruth (1887)
A Song of Thanksgiving (1888)
St. John's Eve (1889)
The Water-Lily (1892)
The Transfiguration (1895)
Ode to the Passions (1898)
John Gilpin (1904)
He Giveth His Beloved Sleep (1907)
The Veil (1910)

Hopefully, this might facilitate a wider and more informed reassessment of this important area of his output.

Thanks for your efforts in this regard. Even though I have most of these scores the IMSLP resource is so useful to have them on the laptop!

[parkermusic]

I have been browsing through Cowen's book and while it has some interesting moments, there's a rather strong whiff of Charlie Pooter about him, to my mind.    Ironically, he talks about Grossmith 

I think Cowen did feel that he had achieved something during his life. The fact that the nation awarded him a knighthood also indicates that some of the 'Establishment' thought so too. But, I think he also felt like an outsider, whether due to his Jewish beliefs, or the fact that he was never really at the centre of academia (despite some time at the Guildhall School of Music in his latter years). However, hindsight is always a wonderful thing and posterity has placed him into that area of obscurity from which he is never likely to escape. As I have said a few times, he did do a lot to get Elgar's music performed, and as such we ought to thank him for that. However, by promoting Elgar's works he probably showed up the weaknesses of his own! With the 100th anniversary of his autobiography this year, one can say that it did little to bolster his standing. He liked writing in an anecdotal style: see his biographies of Haydn, Mozart, Rossini and Mendelssohn and other articles such as 'Composers with Long Hair' and the book of music terms: 'Music as she is wrote' (trust me, his autobiography was not always totally helpful, when I was trying to write my Ph.D on his life and works!). These works have done little to demonstrate the talented musician that he undoubtedly was. But many would also say that about his music as well...

[parkermusic]

I do look forward to the same surprise being expressed when someone reads Boulez' utterances a hundred years from now: "Did Boulez really think of himself as a major figure?"

I always think, if a composer doesn't blow his or her own trumpet, who else is going to?! Regardless of a composer's talent, if they don't believe in themselves, the chances are that others are not going to do so. Boulez certainly had a high opinion of himself and as part of that generation of modernists perhaps he deserves some credit, but was he a major figure...well...

[parkermusic]

I rather liked his defence in his foreword of his persistent use of the first person singular pronoun throughout the book. I found that I had a lot of sympathy with what he wrote!

I think that Lionel's point about his self-importance reflecting the importance which his contemporaries bestowed upon him is a very fair one. If you look at British musical lexicons of the period you'll find that Cowen's name looms large.

How true. Cowen's name does crop up a lot until about the turn of the First World War and then he rapidly disappears from practically any musical reference book of note, almost as though he had never existed! By the thirties, and before he had even been delivered to his grave, his name rarely gets a mention in any contemporary book about British music!

[parkermusic]

Also now online is

Christopher J. Parker - The music of Sir Frederic Hymen Cowen (1852-1935) : a critical study. PhD (2007)

http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1834/

As with Duncan Barker's thesis on Mackenzie, this is the only recent study of any significance.

Perhaps I am biased, but I do recommend a read of this!

[parkermusic]

Yes, I am with Albion on this one...'The Five', obviously not the 'Mighty Handful'!, are Sullivan, MacKenzie, Cowen, Parry and Stanford: these are the flag-bearers of the British Victorian musical period...

[parkermusic]

With regard to the full score of Cowen's Concertstuck on IMSLP, pages 34 and 35 contain seven bars into which a piano part has been handwritten. Admittedly it is only a very brief passage (of unknown provenance), but it may be of interest to the relevant person at Hyperion!

Those seven bars of piano solo do make it into the new Hyperion recording! I emailed Hyperion suggesting some further orchestral works by Cowen which would be worth investigating and Simon Perry has passed these on to Martyn Brabbins who is going to have a look through the full scores. I realise that I'm probably in a minority of one in finding this quite exciting ...

I would like to join this minority!

[parkermusic]

Slightly off the topic, If any one is interested in Cowen's grave it is in the Jewish Cemetary in Golders Green< London.  This was not his 'birth'  name and strangely he was born in Jamaica and brought to London as a child.
Giles Enders

Cowen died on 6 October 1935, of Myocarditis at 105 Maida Vale, London, aged 83.  He was buried at Golders Green Jewish Cemetery, which is divided into both Orthodox and Liberal sections. His grave, in the Liberal section at Row 48, Grave No. 3, is in a poor state of repair; the headstone is engraved 'IN LOVING MEMORY OF FREDERIC HYMEN COWEN, KT, MUSDOC, CANTAB, EDIN, BORN KINGSTON, JAMAICA, JAN 29TH 1852, DIED IN LONDON OCTOBER 6TH 1935'.

[eschiss1]

and as a teacher and an organizer of a school etc., Boulez was (was? when did he die again?). As a composer,...

then again, the same future generations will  look on me with folly for all my over-hasty judgments too, not that I intend to stop making them with that in mind...

[Mark Thomas]

Boulez was (was? when did he die again?)

He hasn't. But back to Cowen...

[musiclover]

I gather from the BBC that Martin Yates and the BBCCO recorded the Fifth Symphony in the summer of 2006, but in true BBC style it hasn't been aired yet. Maybe we should email the BBC and remind them that they haven't aired something that may be of interest! It wasn't a Dutton project apparently, it was a Radio Three project. Maybe if anyone is in touch with Martin Yates they should remind him of this symphony and see if he is interested in putting it into his next English Music Festival Programme.

[bulleid_pacific]

@Christopher Parker - I think you are entitled to bias having produced a well-argued thesis about a (today) fairly shadowy figure from Victorian English music.  Although I have read only around 20% of the text so far (not just the biography though) it is obvious you treat the composer objectively and with insight.  Thank you for making the link to your work available.  I cannot say I have been thrilled by Cowen's two recorded symphonies, but better presentation would surely help as I find neither the Marco Polo (which is pretty dire) nor the Classico (which is just a bit bland) very convincing.  Maybe the "Idyllic" can't do any better than the decent Bostock recording and it is truly "bland" but a bit of the Jarvi/Chandos treatment might just change my mind.   Thankfully (?) Neeme seems too tied up with Raff and Atterberg, and Cowen is just a bit TOO unsung :-D