Presents
Leo Sowerby
Leo Sowerby (1895-1968) was born in in Grand Rapids, Michigan He studied organ locally before moving to Chicago to study composition with Arthur Olaf Andersen at the American Conservatory of Music. Andersen had been a student of Vincent d' Indy in Paris and Giovanni Sgambati in Rome. Early recognition came when Sowerby's Violin Concerto was premiered in 1913 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra In 1921 he was awarded the Prix de Rome from the American Academy in Rome, the first American composer to receive this. And in 1946 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for an organ cantata, He spent his career teaching atthe American Conservatory and working as an organist in Chicago and Washington DC.
He was a prolific composer with over 500 works tohis credit, most for organ. However, he did not ignore chamber music wnting several sonatas, a piano trio and a number of works for string quartet. The Serenade for String Quartet is in one movement and was composed in 1917. About this time, Sowerby had struck up a friendship with Percy Grainger who introduced him to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, a wealthy patron of music, who subsequently commissioned his First Piano Concerto. The Serenade was dedicated to her in friendship. It was premiered to great success in 1918 by the Berkshire String Quartet which led to its publication a few years later. It was one of three works which made his name and was for a while quite popular in Germany and Britain. Critics hailed it as novel, spirited and interesting with ts shifting harmonies and constant interplay of voices as well as songlike melody. They also noted his adding of "bizarre" effects, referring to his frequent use of harmonics, something in which Sowerby was particularly interested and which can be heard to telling effect throughout the Serenade.
Parts: $24.95
Parts & Score: $31.95
