American Melting Pot

Composer: COWELL, Henry
  • Composed in 1940, Cowell’s American Melting Pot Set for Chamber Orchestra Op. 594 is a set of dances inspired by various ethnic/national groups in America.1
  • The work premiered on May 3, 1943, in New York, conducted by Belgian-American conductor Frédérique Petrides.2
  • American Melting Pot is one of around 60 compositions that Cowell wrote while incarcerated in San Quentin Prison in 1936-1940 on a “homosexual morals charge.” He managed to remain very musically active in these years, directing music to inmates and directing the prison band.3

Movements

The descriptions are Cowell’s.

  1. Chorale (Teutonic-American) 
  2. Air (Afro-American) 
  3. Satire (Franco-American) 
  4. Alapna (Oriental-American) 
  5. Slavic Dance (Slavic-American) 
  6. Rhumba with added 8th (Latin-American)
  7. Square Dance (Celtic-American)4

Sources

  1. David Nicholls and Joel Sachs, “Cowell, Henry” Grove Music Online (2013), accessed August 18, 2021,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002249182.
  2. Ibid.
  3. George Boziwick, “Henry Cowell at the New York Public Library: A Whole World of Music,” Notes 57, no. 1 (2000): 46-58, accessed August 18, 2021, http://www.jstor.org/stable/899767. 
  4. Nicholls and Sachs, “Cowell, Henry” Grove Music Online.

Cut IDs

17020