Henry Cowell (1897-1965) grew up largely self-taught in rural California, and by his teens was already inventing "tone clusters" — dense fistfuls and forearm-smears of adjacent piano notes — and "string piano" technique, reaching directly into the instrument's body to pluck, sweep, and stroke its strings. His piece "The Banshee," built entirely from playing inside the piano rather than on its keys, became one of the twentieth century's most startling redefinitions of what a piano could do. As a teacher, writer, and impresario, he mentored a generation of American experimentalists, including a young John Cage, whom he brought into his classes and concerts at New York's New School in the 1930s.

the sound in question

1925

The BansheeHenry Cowell