Henry Cowell - The Banshee (for stringpiano)

In Irish and general Celtic folklore, a banshee is a supernatural being whose mournful screaming, or “keening,” at night foretells the death of some member of the household. On Cowell’s 1963 Folkways recording notes, he writes, “when you die, she has to come to the outer plane for this purpose. And she finds the outer plane very uncomfortable… so you will hear her wailing while she’s there for the purpose of taking your soul back into the inner world…”

The Banshee (1925) is the first piece for solo piano written to be played on the piano but totally free of keyboard use. The sounds are obtained by the player standing at the back of the piano with the pedal depressed and the lower bass strings played horizontally; this produces an eerie sound roughly four octaves about the keyboard sound with a strange tone quality. In his program notes from a concert on February 2, 1926 in Aeolian Hall, New York City, he writes:

“It is a great pleasure to find a new instrument capable of almost endless variety, which has the incalculable adventage of being already in nearly everyone’s drawing-room. Such an instrument is the strings of the piano-forte, playing upon directly. Since the sound, and the technique necessary to produce them, are entirely different from keyboard piano playing, I have no hesitation in calling the piano strings when played after this fashion, a separate instrument, which I term “stringpiano.”

Cowell was also known to accompany modern dance recitals in New York, and in one particular program, he played The Banshee while Doris Humphrey (1895-1958) brought the creature to life through dance. His wife, Sidney Cowell, is quoted as saying, “She came in on a wire, like Peter Pan. She had a piece of grey chiffon, and she ran with it over her face and with her mouth open. Henry liked that. He thought it was just what a banshee should look like.”

Music of Shadows (for Aeolian Harp) from Makrokosmos I

George Crumb defines music as “a system of proportions in the service of spiritual impulse.”

Makrokosmos, Volume I was composed in 1972 for pianist and friend David Burge. The collection is subtitled Twelve Fantasy-Pieces after the Zodiac and is score for amplified piano. The title Makrokosmos alludes to Mikrokosmos, the six books of piano pieces by Bela Bartok. This particular selection, possibly inspired by Cowell’s piece Aeolian Harp, utilizes the piano strings with horizontal strumming, plucking, and harmonics.