Edward Cowie is an English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

, Natural Scientist, and painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

Biography

Cowie was born in Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, England in 1943 and spent most of his early life in the rural countryside. This first-hand experience of nature was to have a profound influence on his life and work.

In 1964 he began composition studies with Alexander Goehr

Alexander Goehr

Alexander Goehr is an English composer and academic.Goehr was born in Berlin in 1932, the son of the conductor and Schoenberg pupil Walter Goehr. In his early twenties he emerged as a central figure in the Manchester School of post-war British composers. In 1955–56 he joined Oliver Messiaen's...

 and in 1971 he won a Chopin Fellowship to study with Witold Lutosławski in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. He also came under the influence of Michael Tippett

Michael Tippett

Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...

, who remained a close friend and mentor.

Early recognition came with the 1975 BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 Proms

The Proms

The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...

 commission Leviathan for large orchestra, and this was followed by a string of festival commissions and recordings.
Major works from this period include Gesangbuch (1975-6), the Piano Concerto (1976-7) and Concerto for Orchestra (1982), as well as the opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 Commedia (1976-7).

In 1983, Cowie was awarded the first Granada Composer Fellowship with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society is a society based in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, that organises concerts and other events mainly in the field of classical music. The society is the second oldest of its type in the United Kingdom and its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic...

. He remained with the orchestra for three years and worked with them as both composer and conductor. He subsequently worked as a conductor with several major orchestras and ensembles in Britain and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

Among works from this time are the Clarinet Concerto (1978), Choral Symphony (1983), Atlas (1986), Cello Concerto (1993, revised 2003) and several pieces inspired by the Australian folk-hero Ned Kelly

Ned Kelly

Edward "Ned" Kelly was an Irish Australian bushranger. He is considered by some to be merely a cold-blooded cop killer — others, however, consider him to be a folk hero and symbol of Irish Australian resistance against the Anglo-Australian ruling class.Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish...

.

After spending twelve years in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 he returned to England to live in 1995. His appointment as the first Composer in Association with the BBC Singers

BBC Singers

The BBC Singers are the professional chamber choir of the BBC. As one of six BBC Performing Groups, the 24-voiced choir has been in existence for more than 80 years. The BBC Singers have commissioned and premiered works by the leading composers of the past century, including Benjamin Britten, Sir...

 (2002-6) saw the completion of some of Cowie's most complex and inventive scores, including Gaia (2002), an hour-long creation epic inspired by the writings of James Lovelock

James Lovelock

James Lovelock, CH, CBE, FRS is an independent scientist, environmentalist and futurologist who lives in Devon, England. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the biosphere is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep our planet healthy by controlling...

 and National Portraits, shortlisted for the 2007 British Composer, Radio 3 Listeners' Award.
In May 2010 the third part (Spring) of Four Seasons for a cappella

A cappella

A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

 choir, a joint commission by CC21 in London and Commotio in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, received its premiere. The conductor was Howard Williams, who has premiered many of Cowie's works.
His 24 Preludes were released on UHR Label in 2008 to great critical acclaim. This was followed by the release of his Magma Psalm for Harp and Wind Quartet on NMC label in March, 2010. His Rutherford's Lights, a massive cycle of 24 pieces for solo piano has just been recorded on UHR label with Richard Casey as the pianist and will be released in the early autumn, 2010. It was described as 'an epic achievement'in International Piano Magazine in February, 2010

Academic appointments

1973-83 Associate Professor of Composition, University of Lancaster 

1979 Guest Professor, University of Kassel

University of Kassel

The University of Kassel, founded in 1970, is one of the newer universities in the state of Hesse. The university is in Kassel, and as of September 2010 has about 18,113 students...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 

1978 Visiting Professor, University of Florida

University of Florida

The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...

 

1983-88 Professor and Head of the School of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong

University of Wollongong

The University of Wollongong is a public university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney...

, Australia

1989-94 Professor and Director of the Australian Arts Fusion Centre at James Cook University

James Cook University

James Cook University is a public university based in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The university has two Australian campuses, located in Townsville and Cairns respectively, and an international campus in Singapore. JCU is the second oldest university in Queensland—proclaimed in 1970—and the...

, Townsville 

1996 - Professor and Director of Research at Dartington College of Arts

Dartington College of Arts

Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts institution near Totnes, Devon, South West England, it specialized in post-dramatic theatre, music, choreography, Performance Writing and visual performance, focusing on a performative and multi-disciplinary approach to the arts. In addition to this,...

 in Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

.

Musical style and influences

In addition to his lifelong fascination with landscape and the natural world, Cowie has acknowledged the influence on his music of the works of J.S. Bach, Haydn, Janáček, Debussy, Sibelius and Messiaen. His mature style combines elements of impressionism

Impressionism

Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...

 with intricate part-writing, intense lyrical expressiveness, tonal fluidity and rhythmic complexity. The composer himself anticipated the possible charge of over-complexity and eclecticism

Eclecticism

Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.It can sometimes seem inelegant or...

:

In general, critics have described his music as "complex–confused–derivative–highly original– colourful–masterly–dull–formally amorphous etc." The music has always arisen as a result of inspiration from observations of nature, the works of other artists, (especially painters), and from the nature of form itself. He has always believed that all of the arts languages are derived from central theories of form. As a result, his music does sometimes sound unpredictable though never without clear formal direction. If this is an impression gained from some critics, it is certainly not the intention behind (and before) his ways of forming musical compositions.A close study of the dynamics and forces of nature reveals a constant and ever-refreshing source of new forms. It is perhaps true to say that like Messiaen's study of birdsong and his 'relocation' of that sound-world into his music, has set him apart from composers who choose purely musical contexts as sources of inspiration. Cowie too challenges an 'intersensual' approach to his music.

Painting and writing

Alongside his rise to prominence as a musician, Cowie has exhibited internationally as a painter, and his works are in public and private collections in more than 20 countries. He has also made several television films, including his acclaimed BBC2 film on Leonardo

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...

, of 1986. In 1988 and 1989, he wrote and presented two major radio series commissioned by ABCFM, Australia. In 2002 he was created the first Artist in Residence with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Bird Notes and News was first published in April 1903.The title changed to 'Bird Notes' in 1947. In the 1950s, there were four copies per year . Each volume covered two years, spread over three calendar years...

.In that same year, he became the first Composer in Association with the BBC Singers in London; a collaboration that spawned three major new works in the genre.
During the late 1990s, he worked as an author of books on wildlife and the first in a major series, Birds Talk, was published in 2001.

Orchestral

• The Moon,Sea and Stars (1973)
• Leviathan (1975)
• Piano Concerto (1976)
• Columbine (1978)
• Leonardo (1982)
• Concerto for orchestra (1982)
• Clarinet Concerto (1983)
• Choral Symphony (1983)
• Symphony - The American (1983)
• Fifteen Minute Australia (1984)
• Atlas (1986)
• Cello Concerto (1993, revised 2003)
• Elysium I-III (1996)
• Oboe Concerto (1978)
• From Moment to Moment (2000)
• Dark Matter (2003)

Chamber Music

• String Quartet 1(1974)
• Cathedral Music (1976)
• String Quartet 2 (1978)
• Endymion Nocturnes (1980)
• Harlequin (1980)
• Kelly Passacaglia (1981)
• Kelly Variations (1981)
• Kelly-Nolan-Kelly (1981)
• String Quartet 3 (1983)
• String Quartet 4 (1984)
• Voices of the Land (1987)
• Mount Keira Duets (1987)
• Coburn Partita (1991)
• Violin Sonata (1991)
• 48 Books 1 & 2 (1994)
• Songs without words (1995)
• The Voices of Gaia (1998)
• Night Owls (1999)
• Four Frames in a Row (2000)
• The Healing of Saul (2000)
• Badlands Gold (2000)
• The Rising of the Sun and Setting of the Same (2001)
• Kandinsky (2003)
• Blue Blues (2003)
• Orpheus with Lyre Bird (2004)
• H.J.Rhapsodies (2004)
• Birdsong Bagatelles (2004)
• 24 Preludes for solo piano (2005)
• Piano Trio (2005)
• Le Gorge du Tarn (2007)
• Spell Checks (2007)
• Chansons d'Automne (2007)
• Nympheas (2007)

Choral

• Gesangbuch (1976)
• Madrigals (1981)
• Kelly Choruses (1982)
• Gaia (2002)
• Ave Maria (2002)
• Lake Eacham Blues (2004)
• INhabitAT (2004)
• National Portraits (2006)

External links

• Composer's Website
• United Music Publishers

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