Editing Henry Cowell (section)

==Later life==
===Seclusion and style shift===
Despite the pardon — which allowed him to work at the Office of War Information, creating radio programs for broadcast overseas — his arrest, incarceration, and attendant notoriety had a devastating effect on Cowell.<ref>Sachs, p. 506</ref> [[Conlon Nancarrow]], on meeting him for the first time in 1947, reported, "The impression I got was that he was a terrified person, with a feeling that 'they're going to get him.'"<ref name="Gann 1995, p. 44">Gann, p. 44</ref> He was often pestered by reporters to comment on the circumstances of his crimes and arrest, but often refused to do so.<ref>Sachs, p. 353</ref> The experience took a lasting toll on his music:{{dubious|date=March 2023}} Cowell's compositional output became strikingly more conservative soon after his release from San Quentin, with simpler rhythms and a more traditional harmonic language.<ref>Sachs, p. 365</ref> [[File:Sidney Cowell, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right.jpg|thumb|left|upright 0.8|[[Sidney Robertson Cowell]], Henry's wife, with whom he spent the last years of his life.]] Many of his later works are based on [[old-time music|American folk music]], such as the series of eighteen ''Hymn and'' [[fuguing tune|''Fuguing Tune'']]s (1943–64); folk music had certainly played a role in a number of Cowell's prewar compositions, but the provocative transformations that had been his signature were now largely abandoned. And, as Nancarrow observed, there were other consequences to Cowell's imprisonment: "Of course, after that, politically, he kept his mouth completely shut. He had been radical politically, too, before."<ref name="Gann 1995, p. 44"/>

No longer an artistic radical, Cowell nonetheless retained a progressive bent and continued to be a leader (along with Harrison and McPhee) in the incorporation of non-Western musical idioms, as in the Japanese-inflected ''Ongaku'' (1957), Symphony No. 13, "[[Madras Symphony|Madras]]" (1956–58), and ''Homage to Iran'' (1959). His most compelling, poignant songs date from this era, including ''Music I Heard'' (to a poem by [[Conrad Aiken]]; 1961) and ''Firelight and Lamp'' (to a poem by Gene Baro; 1962). Cowell was elected to the [[The American Academy of Arts and Letters|American Institute of Arts and Letters]] in 1951. Having revived his friendship with Ives, Cowell, in collaboration with his wife, wrote the first major study of Ives's music and provided crucial support to Harrison as his former pupil championed the Ives's rediscovery. Cowell resumed teaching — [[Burt Bacharach]], [[Dominick Argento]], [[J. H. Kwabena Nketia]], and [[Irwin Swack]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dwightwinenger.net/swack.htm |title=Irwin Swack Music |access-date=2008-05-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512203121/http://www.dwightwinenger.net/swack.htm |archive-date=2013-05-12 |url-status=dead }}</ref> were among his postwar students — and served as a consultant to [[Folkways Records]] for over a decade beginning in the early 1950s, writing liner notes and editing such collections as ''Music of the World's Peoples'' (1951–61) (he also hosted a radio program of the same name)<ref>[http://www.mcphersonco.com/cs.php?f%5B0%5D=shh&pdNM=Essential%20Cowell:%20Selected%20Writings%20on%20Music ''Essential Cowell: Selected Writings on Music''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204003420/http://www.mcphersonco.com/cs.php?f%5B0%5D=shh&pdNM=Essential%20Cowell:%20Selected%20Writings%20on%20Music |date=2013-12-04 }} publisher's summary; part of the McPherson & Co. website. Retrieved 4/14/07.</ref> and ''Primitive Music of the World'' (1962). In 1963 he recorded searching, vivid performances of twenty of his seminal piano pieces for a Folkways album. Perhaps liberated by the passage of time{{dubious|date=February 2025}} and his own seniority, in his final years Cowell again produced a number of individualistic works, such as ''Thesis'' (Symphony No. 15; 1960) and ''26 Simultaneous Mosaics'' (1963).

===Final years and death===

In October 1964, Cowell was diagnosed with [[colorectal cancer]] after a doctor discovered an abundance of [[polyp (medicine)|polyps]] in his system during an exam. It was decided that it could not be operated on, as it went undiagnosed for too long and almost completely engulfed his [[large intestine]].<ref>Sachs, pp. 495-496</ref> Cowell died on December 10, 1965, in his [[Shady, New York|Shady]], [[Woodstock, New York]], home, following a series of strokes and succumbing to the disease.<ref>Sachs, p. 502</ref>