Indian Rhapsody

Frederic Cowen was born at Kingston, Jamaica, moving to London when his father became treasurer of Her Majesty’s Opera and subsequently of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Frederic showed an early aptitude for music, being encouraged by Sir Henry Bishop, taking lessons with John Goss and Julius Benedict, before eventually studying at Leipzig and Berlin with Ignaz Moscheles, Carl Reinecke, Louis Plaidy and Friedrich Kiel. His career was to be mainly as a conductor, notably of the Royal Philharmonic Society, the Halle, Liverpool Philharmonic and Scottish orchestras, and of the Handel Triennial Festival. It was through his conducting that Cowen became acquainted with Liszt, Rubinstein, Brahms, Grieg, Dvořák and many other contemporary musicians.

As a composer, he achieved most success with his songs (more than 300 of them) and choral works, but he regarded his six symphonies as the pinnacle of his output. The Third Symphony (“The Scandanavian”) was his most successful (MPH score 749) and all six show a comfort with large structures, as well as a genuine flair for orchestration. That said, none could be said to be ‘forward looking’, and each is a good example of a post-Mendelssohn, post-Schumann European symphony.

The Indian Rhapsody dates from 1903 and was written for the Scottish Orchestra (now the Royal Scottish National Orchestra) of which he had become the conductor in 1900. It was first performed at the Three Choirs Festival in the year of its composition.

The use of “Indian” may lead us astray, because this has nothing to do with India. These are Native Americans, and this is one of the many exotic pieces written in the wake of Dvorak’s New World Symphony and Coleridge Taylor’s Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast. The whole is a 15-minute piece of colourful exotica, pre-dating the conventions of Hollywood westerns by several years, and demonstrating Cowen’s ear for orchestral effect as he incorporates several genuine Native American themes.

Phillip Brooke