ABSTRACT
Cowell's A Curse and a Blessing, essentially a work born of "simplification-with-substance," was surely at odds with the prevailing trend of large, percussion-laden wind compositions. In addition to Cowell, others who accepted the invitation to contribute were H. Lynn Arison, Robert Russell Bennett, Charles Cushing, Barry Drews, Robert Dvorak, Douglas Gallez, Morton Gould, Roy Harris, Erik Leidzen, Darius Milhaud, and William Grant Still. By the early 1950s Cowell had achieved a great degree of recognition and was increasingly feted in the United States. Fantasie, according to Cowell's wife, "begins with an elaborate piece from which the generating variation emerges gradually, to stand alone at the end." The premiere of Fantasie occurred on 30 May 1952 at West Point during the final concert of the Winter Sesquicentennial Series. In Singing Band Cowell conceived three unexpected passages of quasi-secundal harmony, or perhaps more correctly, chords with split, dissonant members, as the intervals are sounded as augmented ninths, not the minor second.
