NICOLE V. GAGNÉ

This show, first broadcast on February 22, 2015, focuses on one of the early “ultramodernists” of American music: John J. Becker. His association with four other modernists of his time – Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles, Henry Cowell, and Wallingford Riegger –­ has caused them to be known as the “American Five.” This show also looks at Becker’s involvement with Ezra Pound, the American poet and translator and composer and musician, who provided some texts for Becker’s songs. The compositions heard are:

JOHN J. BECKER

Symphonia Brevis (1929, rev. 1933)

Violin Concerto (1948)

Soundpiece No. 5 (1937)

2 Poems of Departure (1928)

Psalms of Love (1935)

At Dieppe (1959)

HENRY COWELL

Polyphonica (1930)

WALLINGFORD RIEGGER

Wind Quintet (1951)

CHARLES IVES

Piano Sonata No. 2, “The Alcotts” (1915)

EZRA POUND

Le Testament, “Dame du ciel” (1933)

CARL RUGGLES

Angels (1922)

Link to:

Music: SFCR Radio Shows 2012–2018

For more on these composers, see:

Music Book: Historical Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music, Second Edition

For more on John J. Becker and Henry Cowell, see:

Music: SFCR Radio Show #19, The Percussion Ensemble

For more on Henry Cowell, see:

Music Lecture: “Intense Purity of Feeling”: Béla Bartók and American Music

For more on Henry Cowell and Charles Ives, see:

Music Lecture: The Secret of 20th-Century American Music

More Cool Sites To Visit! – Music

For more on Henry Cowell, Charles Ives, and Ezra Pound, see:

Music Lecture: “Intense Purity of Feeling”: Béla Bartók and American Music

For more on Charles Ives, see:

Music: SFCR Radio Show #10, Percussion in Early 20th-Century Music

Music: SFCR Radio Show #27, 20th-Century Music on the March

For more on Carl Ruggles, see:

Music Book: SONIC TRANSPORTS: Glenn Branca Essay, part 14