An Introduction to America’s Music

CHAPTER 12 | MUSICAL MODERNISM 285

CD 2.9 Listening Guide 12.1 The Banshee^ HENRY COWELL

Listen & Refl ect

1. Cowell could have given this piece a generic title such as “Etude” or “Theme and Varia-
   tions.” Does the descriptive title affect how you listen to the piece? Does it help or hinder
   your appreciation of it, and why?


2. Although the theme-and-variations structure of The Banshee is thoroughly traditional, its
   sound world is strikingly nontraditional and can be disorienting even for listeners nearly a cen-
   tury after it was composed. Would the piece be as effective without that traditional structure?

date: 1925

genre: character piece for piano

performer: Anthony De Mare, piano

meter: notated in duple meter, but undefi ned

aurally

form: theme and variations

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

• emphasis on timbre and texture, more than
  pitch


• unusual performance techniques


• form determined by contrasts of texture and
  dynamics rather than melody or harmony

timing section subsection comments

0:00 theme a 6 bars, each beginning with a very soft sweep from the lowest

string to one in the midrange. The player then runs a fi nger

along the length of that midrange string, producing a wailing

pitch. A descending melody can be faintly discerned.

0:23 b While the right hand sweeps back and forth across the strings,

the left hand plucks out a forlorn three-note melody.

0:36 c 5 bars; as in a, each bar begins with an upward sweep, but

now the player runs the fi ngers of fi rst one hand and then the

other along not one but three strings, forming ghostly chords.

Crescendo to bar 5, in which the player uses the fi ngernail to

produce an even eerier sound.

0:50 variation 1 a' Louder than before, and with each note of the melody played

fi rst with the nail and then with the fl esh of the fi nger.

1:10 b' Both hands sweep up and down over the strings, followed by

the forlorn plucked melody, to which a fourth note is added.

1:23 c' The three-note chords are now fi ve-note clusters. The last

cluster is very loud, and the tempo increases.

1:38 variation 2 a" Very loud and very fast, the descending melody returns as

thick clusters.

1:55 b' The forlorn plucked melody returns in its original form, but

the sweeping accompaniment is now played with the fl at of the

hand instead of a single fi nger.

2:08 c' The original three-note chords return, now outlining the

descending melodic pattern of a. Diminuendo to silence.

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