THE RESONANCE ATLAS
Edward Cowie
Biography
Edward Cowie (born 1943 in Birmingham) is a British composer and visual artist whose music has long been shaped by the natural world, particularly birdsong, landscape and the relationship between sound and visual perception. He studied physics as well as music, and pursued composition with Alexander Goehr and Witold Lutosławski. Michael Tippett was another important mentor. Cowie has worked extensively as a painter and researcher alongside his compositional career.
His orchestral score Leviathan was commissioned for the BBC Proms in 1975, and his music has subsequently been performed and broadcast internationally. He has held academic posts in Britain and abroad, including at Dartington College of Arts, and his catalogue ranges across orchestral and choral works, chamber music and pieces exploring natural sound. His music is represented by United Music Publishing.
Why this music interests us
Cowie's music emerges from a sustained engagement with birdsong, landscape and the act of listening to the natural world. Wood and Wind offers a chamber-scale route into a catalogue in which observation and musical invention continually inform one another. His work is valuable not simply as nature-inspired music but as a distinctive exploration of how closely attentive listening can transform composition.
Selected works & listening
Wood and Wind; Leviathan; National Portraits; In Flight Music
Further information