CHAPTER 12 | MUSICAL MODERNISM 285
CD 2.9 Listening Guide 12.1 The Banshee^ HENRY COWELL
Listen & Refl ect
- 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? - 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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