Henry Cowell’s ideas about rhythm and their implementation in the invention of rhythmicon
Abstract
The article is devoted to the ideas of integration of pitch and metro-rhythmic relations inherent in the theoretical concept of the American composer Henry Cowell. The ideas about the organization of rhythm, articulated in Cowell’s theoretical work New Musical Resources, and the practice of their implementation in the rhythmicon, an electric musical instrument, are analyzed. The author comes to the conclusion that Cowell’s theory is just an auxiliary means of representing height-time relationships, since the exact application of the theory is possible only under the conditions of a special mechanism, which was the rhythmicon. The innovative composer and theorist of new music were developed in the work of the French spectralists, they outlined a line from O. Messiaen’s Technique of my Musical Language to K. Stockhausen’s Theory of a Unified Time Field and further to the ideas of G. Grisey.
About the Author
S. G. Belykh
Institute of modern art; Children’s Music School named after V. A. Mozart
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Belykh S. G. — Postgraduate Student
27 A, Novozavodskaya St., Moscow, 121309; 9, Taganskaya St., Moscow,109004
References
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Review
For citations:
Belykh S.G. Henry Cowell’s ideas about rhythm and their implementation in the invention of rhythmicon. Bulletin of Vaganova Ballet Academy. 2022;(1):94-105. (In Russ.)
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