Frederic Cowen

[John H White]

I understood that people with the surname Cohen were descended from the priestly tribe of Levy. I also read somewhere that Frederic Cowen's father, before he brought the family across to England, changed the family name to Cowen because he feared anti-Jewish prejudice this side of the Pond.

[JimL]

I understood that people with the surname Cohen were descended from the priestly tribe of Levy. I also read somewhere that Frederic Cowen's father, before he brought the family across to England, changed the family name to Cowen because he feared anti-Jewish prejudice this side of the Pond.

Well, John, the way I understand my Tribe, there are two classes of Jews.  They are the Cohanim, who originally were the priestly class (descended from Aaron, IIRC), and the Levites, who were supposed to be the assistants to the priests, but basically were everybody else who wasn't a Cohen.  The two were forbidden to intermarry, so I find it unlikely that the Cohanim were descended from the Levites.  It's a pity that Avrohom isn't around when you need him.  He's the expert on this stuff.  If only he hadn't had an online persona that resembled nothing so much as a porcupine surrounded by fishers...

[John H White]

Ah but Jim, wasn't Aaron, from whom the priestly class, Cohanim or Cohens are presumably descended, also of the tribe of Levy, the Levites being all those of the tribe of Levy who were not descended from Aaron----- or have I got it all wrong again? Anyway, whoever he was descended from, I reckon Sir Frederic Cowen wrote some good tuneful stuff that deserves at least an occasional airing.

[albion]

Volume 54 of Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concerto series promises the exciting prospect of Frederic Cowen's Concertstuck written for Paderewski in 1900. The full orchestral score of this substantial 'fantasia' is now available to view and download from IMSLP:

http://imslp.org/wiki/Konzertst%C3%BCck_for_Piano_and_Orchestra_%28Cowen,_Frederic_Hymen%29

[Mark Thomas]

What's the coupling for the Cowen, Albion?

[Mark Thomas]

Answering myself, I see that it's Somervell's Concerto.

[thalbergmad]

That is good news.

Shame there was not enough room for the Normandy Variations.

Thal

[albion]

Shame there was not enough room for the Normandy Variations.

I'm not entirely sure, but I don't think that the Somervell Highland Concerto and the Cowen Concertstuck together would come near to the full length of a disc, so it is possible that the Normandy Variations might be included.

[thalbergmad]

That would be nice. It is excellent to have an all Brit disk. Perhaps the Baines might get done next year as well.

Long live the Brits.

Thal

[Gareth Vaughan]

Mike Spring told me the Normandy Variations would be included. But Hyperion have to make a new set of parts from the MS Full Score, the parts having been lost somewhere when Augeners (who published them) closed. Why am I not surprised?

[thalbergmad]

Gawd, there are some careless publishers about.

Thal

[JimL]

Such, more or less, is what happened to the Moscheles Pastorale.

[eschiss1]

Gawd, there are some careless publishers about.

Thal

*mutters something about film scores and bonfires . and other examples. *

[albion]

With regard to the full score of Cowen's Concertstuck on IMSLP, pages 34 and 35 contain seven bars into which a piano part has been handwritten. Admittedly it is only a very brief passage (of unknown provenance), but it may be of interest to the relevant person at Hyperion!

[albion]

With regard to the full score of Cowen's Concertstuck on IMSLP, pages 34 and 35 contain seven bars into which a piano part has been handwritten. Admittedly it is only a very brief passage (of unknown provenance), but it may be of interest to the relevant person at Hyperion!

Those seven bars of piano solo do make it into the new Hyperion recording! I emailed Hyperion suggesting some further orchestral works by Cowen which would be worth investigating and Simon Perry has passed these on to Martyn Brabbins who is going to have a look through the full scores. I realise that I'm probably in a minority of one in finding this quite exciting ...