New Music Edition

Historical Publication Info

History

New Music Edition originated as the New Music Society of California, based in San Francisco, devoted to publishing "ultra-modern" classical compositions that other music publishers of the time might not have agreed to publish. The organization was founded by Henry Cowell in 1925, and the first issue of the New Music quarterly published in October 1927.

In 1932, New Music Edition began to publish New Music Orchestra Series, which as its name implies, had more focus on orchestral works. It was originally intended to be a quarterly to supplement New Music, but due to various factors, financial and otherwise, the series was not a regular quarterly publication and it was discontinued in 1939.

Publication of the New Music quarterly continued until July 1958, when the company was acquired by Theodore Presser.

Series

New Music (1927-1958)
New Music Orchestra Series (1932-1939)
New Music Special Editions (1936-1950)

Imprints, Addresses, Agencies

Imprints

New Music
New Music Society of California (1927-1936)
New Music Society
New Music Edition
New Music Edition Corporation

Addresses

San Francisco, California
American Music Center, 250 W. 57th St., New York
American Music Center, 17 E. 42nd St., New York

Notes:

New Music quarterly issues are listed first in the table, in order of publication. They have format V/N, where V is the volume number, and N is the issue number within that volume. Issues were published in October, January, April, and July, with number 1 corresponding to an October issue, and number 4 corresponding to the July issue in the following calendar year.
New Music Orchestra Series issues are listed next in the table. They have format OS N, where N is a number, sometimes containing a hyphen.
New Music Special Editions are listed last in the table. They have one of two formats: D N, where N is a number, or Special. This corresponds to how the editions are documented by Mead (see Sources section) or by how they are listed in New Music Edition catalogue pages.

Year	Issue	Composer	Work	Instrumentation	Remarks
1927	1/1	Ruggles	Men and Mountains	orch
1928	1/2	Dane Rudhyar	3 Paeans	pf
1928	1/3	Ornstein	The Corpse	v
1928	1/3	Paul Arma	6 Pieces	v	composer name in issue: Imre Weisshaus
1928	1/4	Chávez	Violin Sonatina	vn pf
1928	2/1	Crawford Seeger	Piano Preludes (Nos.6-9)	pf	composer name in issue: Ruth Crawford
1929	2/2	Ives	Symphony No.4 (2nd mvmt)	orch
1929	2/3	Weiss	12 Preludes (Nos.1, 2, 6, 9, 11, 12)	pf
1929	2/4	Copland	As It Fell Upon A Day	sop fl cl
1929	3/1	Slonimsky	Studies in Black and White	pf
1930	3/2	Becker	Symphony No.3 'Symphonia Brevis'	pf (arr)
1930	3/3	Ruggles	Portals	str
1930	3/4	Riegger	Suite for Flute Alone, Op.8	fl
1930	3/4	McPhee	Kinesis, Invention	pf
1930	4/1	Webern	Geistlicher Volkstext	v cl bcl vn
1930	4/1	Weiss	Sonate	fl va
1930	4/1	Chávez	36	pf
1931	4/2	McPhee	Concerto for Piano and Wind Octet	2fl ob cl bn hn tpt tbn pf
1931	4/3	Antheil	Second Sonata ("The Airplane")	pf
1931	4/4	Henry Brant	Variations for 4 instruments	4open	instrumentation of the 4 parts "[...] relegated to the discretion of the performer"
1931	4/4	Henry Brant	2 Sarabandes	pf
1931	5/1	Achron	Statuettes, Op.66	pf
1932	5/2	Ives	Set for Theatre Orchestra	orch	also includes selected arrangements: voice and piano (No.1: "The Cage"); piano solo (No.2: "In the Inn")
1932	5/3	Schoenberg	Klavierstücke, Op.33	pf
1932	5/4	Riegger	3 Canons for Woodwinds, Op.9	fl ob cl bn
1932	5/4	Gerald Strang	Mirrorrorrim	pf
1932	6/1	Crawford Seeger	Piano Study in Mixed Accents	pf	composer name in issue: Ruth Crawford
1932	6/1	Engel	Excerpts from Job	v pf	composer name in issue: A. Lehman Engel
1933	6/2	Chávez	Sonata	pf
1933	6/3	Richard Donovan	Suite	pf
1933	6/3	Arthur E. Hardcastle	Prelude No.4	pf
1933	6/4	Piston	3 Pieces	fl cl bn
1933	6/4	Fine	4 Songs	v str
1933	7/1	Ives	34 Songs	v pf
1934	7/2	Roldàn	3 Songs from Motivos de Son	v pf
1934	7/2	Ruyneman	Sonata for Chamber Choir	ch
1934	7/3	Ray Green	2 Madrigals	ch / mch	two choral pieces: (a) Hey Nonny No for mixed chorus; (b) Sea Calm (printed with incorrect title Sea Charm in this edition) for male chorus
1934	7/3	Ray Green	Sonatina	pf
1934	7/3	Ray Green	2 Songs	v pf	both songs from composer's 4 Short Songs based on poems by Carl Sandburg: (a) Fog, (b) Summer Grass
1934	7/4	José Ardévol	Sonatina	pf
1934	7/4	Caturla	Preludio Corto No.1	pf
1934	7/4	Caturla	Sonata Corta	pf
1934	7/4	Gerald Strang	Eleven, Fifteen	pf
1934	8/1	Aleksandr Davidenko	Song of a Shepherd	ch
1934	8/1	Khachaturian	Dance No.3	ch
1934	8/1	Mosolov	Turkmenian Lullaby	ch	composer name in issue: A. Mossolov
1934	8/1	Polovinkin	Humoresque No.1	pf	with title "Humoresque Philosophique"
1934	8/1	Veprik	Stalinstan	ch
1935	8/2	Paul Creston	7 Theses	pf
1935	8/3	Chávez	Spiral	vn pf
1935	8/3	Paul Bowles	Cafe Sin Nombre	v pf
1935	8/3	Paul Bowles	Danger du Mort	v pf
1935	8/3	Paul Bowles	Letter to Freddy	v pf
1935	8/3	Paul Bowles	Scenes d'Anabase	v pf
1935	8/4	Dane Rudhyar	Granites	pf
1935	8/4	Luening	Only Themselves Understand Themselves	v pf
1935	8/4	Irwin Heilner	2nd Rhapsody for Tenor	v pf
1935	9/1	Ives	19 Songs	v pf
1936	9/2	Béla Rózsa	Sonate	pf
1936	9/3	Roy Harris	Trio	vn vc pf
1936	9/4	Elie Siegmeister	Strange Funeral at Braddock	bar pf
1936	9/4	Ernest Brooks	Toccata	pf
1936	10/1	Chávez	7 Pieces	pf
1937	10/2	William Bailey	Ideless	vn pf
1937	10/2	Mildred Couper	Dirge	2pf	the 2 pianos are to be tuned 1/4 tone apart
1937	10/3	Caturla	Comparsa	pf
1937	10/3	Caturla	Yambambo	v pf
1937	10/3	Clara Stocker	2 Little Pieces	pf
1937	10/4	Luening	Fantasia Brevis	cl pf
1937	10/4	Gerald Strang	Sonatina	cl
1937	10/4	Gerald Strang	3 Pieces	fl pf
1937	11/1	Finney	Piano Sonata	pf
1938	11/2	Nancarrow	Prelude for Piano	pf
1938	11/2	Nancarrow	Blues for Piano	pf
1938	11/2	Nancarrow	Toccata for Piano and Violin	vn pf
1938	11/3	Paul Creston	Suite	sax/cl pf
1938	11/4	James Cleghorn	How Do You Like This?	pf
1938	11/4	Harrison	Sarabande and Prelude	pf
1938	12/1	Jacobo Ficher	Sonatina, Op.21	pf tpt sax
1939	12/2	George Tremblay	2 Piano Sonatas	pf
1939	12/3	Domingo Santa Cruz	3 Pieces	vn pf
1939	12/4	Armando Carvajal	3 Piano Pieces for Children	pf
1939	12/4	Guillermo Uribe Holguín	3 Preludes	pf
1939	13/1	David Diamond	Cello Sonata	vc pf
1940	13/2	Norman Cazden	Sonatina	pf
1940	13/2	McKay	Dance Suite No.2	pf
1940	13/3	Harrison Kerr	Trio	cl vc pf
1940	13/4	Weber	5 Bagatelles	pf
1940	14/1	Cowell	Maestoso	pf
1941	14/2	Crawford Seeger	String Quartet	2vn va vc	composer name in issue: Ruth Crawford
1941	14/3	Richard Donovan	Serenade	ob vn va vc
1941	14/3	Harrison Kerr	Study	vc
1941	14/4	Gerald Strang	Intermezzo	orch
1941	15/1	Goldman	Hymn for Brass Choir (1939)	4tpt 4hn 3tbn euph tba	modern editions appear to have parts for timpani and/or optional double bass, but it's unclear if either of those parts exist in this edition
1941	15/1	Jemnitz	Violin Sonata, Op.37	vn	composer name in issue: Alexander Jemnitz; with title "Second Sonata for Violin Alone"
1942	15/2	Bacon	6 Songs	v pf
1942	15/3	Luening	8 Preludes for Piano, W99	pf
1942	15/3	Pisk	5 Sketches, Op.39	pf
1942	15/4	Achron	Sextet	fl ob cl bn hn tpt
1942	16/1	Fernández	Moda	pf	dedicatee: Nicolas Slonimsky; issue title: "Piano Music of Brazil"
1942	16/1	Guarnieri	Valsa	pf	issue title: "Piano Music of Brazil"
1942	16/1	Radamés Gnattali	Chôro	pf	issue title: "Piano Music of Brazil"
1942	16/1	Villa-Lobos	Melodia da Montanha (Serra da Piede de Bello Horizonte)	pf	issue title: "Piano Music of Brazil"; includes a "millemetric chart" that diagrams the melodic and rhythmic structure of the piece
1942	16/1	Villa-Lobos	New York Sky-Line	pf	issue title: "Piano Music of Brazil"
1942	16/1	Mignone	Lenda Sertaneja No.9	pf	dedicatee: Nicolas Slonimsky; issue title: "Piano Music of Brazil"
1943	16/2	Juan Carlos Paz	Composicions en Los 12 Tonos	cl pf
1943	16/3	Ruggles	Evocations (3 chants)	pf
1943	16/3	Ruggles	Angels	4tpt 3tbn
1943	16/4	Cage	Amores	pf perc
1943	17/1	Harrison	6 Sonatas	hpd/pf	"for Cembalo or Pianoforte"
1944	17/2	David Van Vactor	Vocal Works	v
1944	17/3	Carrillo	Preludio a Colón	sop fl gtr hp 2vn va vc	full title: "Preludio a Cristobal Colón"
1944	17/4	Riegger	Duos for 3 Woodwinds, Op.35	ww	issue incorrectly labeled Vol.18 No.4; instrumentation differs for each piece: fl ob (No.1); ob cl (No.2); fl cl (No.3)
1944	18/1	Thomson	Sonata da Chiesa	cl tpt va hn tbn
1945	18/2	Ruggles	Evocation No.4 (chant)	pf
1945	18/3	Carter	Pastoral	va pf / eh / cl
1945	18/4	McPhee	4 Iroquois Dances	orch
1945	19/1	Cowell	Les mariés de la tour Eiffel, HC 563	pf	with title: "Hilarious Curtain Opener and Ritournelle"
1946	19/2	Merton Brown	Cantabile	str
1946	19/3	Hovhaness	Mihr, Op.60	2pf
1946	19/4	Dahl	Variations on a Swedish Folktune	fl
1946	19/4	Varèse	Density 21.5	fl
1946	20/1	Wolpe	Passacaglia	pf
1947	20/2	Gideon	Canzona	pf
1947	20/3	Thomson	Capital, Capitals (or Gertrude Stein)	4mvv pf
1947	20/4	Sessions	Duo	vn pf
1947	21/1	Ives	22	pf	NME catalogue pages from 1948 onward list 2 piano pieces by Ives included in this issue: 3 Protests (see row below) and Cannon. No mention of 22. Perhaps 22 and Cannon are the same piece?
1947	21/1	Ives	3 Protests	pf
1947	21/1	Cowell	2 Woofs, HC 451	pf
1947	21/1	Ruggles	Organum	pf
1948	21/2	Harrison	Alleluia	orch
1948	21/3	Fine	The Great Wall of China	v fl
1948	21/3	Theodore Strongin	4 Duos	2fl
1948	21/4	Edmund Haines	Slow Dance	org
1948	21/4	Will Bradley	Honeysuckle and Clover	4tpt 3tbn tba
1948	21/4	Will Bradley	The Deep Quarry	5cl bsthn 2bcl
1948	22/1	Becker	Soundpiece No.4	2vn va vc
1949	22/2	Weber	Dance	vc
1949	22/2	George Perle	Hebrew Melodies	vc
1949	22/2	Prausnitz	Episode	orch
1949	22/3	Kauder	Quartet (1948)	ob cl hn bn
1949	22/4	Babbitt	Composition for 4 Instruments	cl fl vn vc
1949	23/1	George Perle	Quartet No.3, Op.21	2vn va vc
1950	23/2	Toch	Fuge aus der Geographie	vv	for speaking voices, SATB
1950	23/3	Wladimir Woronoff	Sonnet pour Dallapiccola	pf
1950	23/4	Feldman	Illusions	pf
1950	23/4	Shifrin	4 Cantos	pf
1950	24/1	Berger	3 Poems of Yeats	v fl cl vc
1951	24/2	Ives	Violin Sonata No.3	vn pf
1951	24/3	Christian Wolff	For prepared piano	pf
1951	24/4	Marc Wilkinson	3 Pieces	vc pf
1951	25/1	Nancarrow	Study No.1 for Player Piano	pf
1952	25/2	Monod	Passacaille, Op.1	sop fl ob cl bn tpt hn pf
1952	25/3	Nowak	Sonata for Solo Violin	vn
1952	25/4	Chou	7 Poems of T'ang Dynasty	ten orch
1952	26/1	Cowell	Ostinato Pianissimo, HC 505	perc
1953	26/2	Ives	Lincoln, the Great Commoner	ch orch	Reprint of OS 1 (Orchestra Series, No.1) from 1932
1953	26/3	Crawford Seeger	Diaphonic Suite	fl/ob, v
1953	26/3	Seeger	The Letter (song)	v
1953	26/3	Seeger	Psalm 137 (recitation)	v
1953	26/4	Ives	The Gong on the Hook and Ladder	pf str	printed with the incorrect title Calcium Light, which is a different piece by Ives
1953	27/1	Jacob Avshalomov	Tom O'Bedlam	ch ob perc
1954	27/2	Weber	4 Songs, Op.40	sop/ten vc
1954	27/3	Teo Macero	Canzona No.1	4sax tpt
1954	27/4	Henry Brant	Ice Age	cl gl pf
1954	28/1	Weber	Closing Piece, Op.36	org
1955	28/2	Pisk	Meadow-Saffrons	alt cl bcl
1955	28/3	Bill Russell	3 Dance Movements	3perc pf	composer name in issue: William Russell
1955	28/4	Leopold Spinner	Trio, Op.6	vn vc pf
1955	29/1	-	-	-	not published
1956	29/2	-	-	-	not published
1956	29/3	-	-	-	not published
1956	29/4	Wuorinen	Sonatina	fl ob cl bn
1956	30/1	-	-	-	not published
1957	30/2	Wuorinen	Into the Organ Pipes and Steeples	orch
1957	30/3	Lejaren Hiller Leonard Isaacson	Illiac Suite	2vn va vc
1957	30/4	-	-	-	not published
1957	31/1	-	-	-	not published
1958	31/2	-	-	-	not published
1958	31/3	-	-	-	not published
1958	31/4	Kenneth Duhon	4 Pieces	pf
1932	OS 1	Ives	Lincoln, the Great Commoner	ch orch
1932	OS 2	Weiss	American Life	orch
1932	OS 3	Ives	Fourth of July	orch
1932	OS 4	Riegger	Dichotomy	orch	reprinted sometime after 1940 and assigned Op.12
1933	OS 5	Crawford Seeger	3 Songs (Rat Riddles, Prayers of Steel, In Tall Grass)	alt orch	composer name in issue: Ruth Crawford; originally planned to publish in 1932, but delayed
1933	OS 6	Bill Russell	Fugue for 8 Percussion Instruments	perc	composer name in issue: William Russell; originally planned to publish in 1932, but delayed
1932	OS 7	Becker	Concerto Arabesque	pf orch	published between OS 4 and OS 5, so the issue number is out-of-sequence
1933	OS 8	Jerome Moross	Paeans	orch
1935	OS 9	Jerome Moross	Biguine	orch
1933	OS 10	Caturla	Primera Suite Cubana	orch
1934	OS 11	Varèse	Ionisation	13perc
1934	OS 12	Myaskovsky	Fragment Lyrique	orch
1934	OS 13	Dane Rudhyar	Sinfonietta	orch
1934	OS 14	Ruggles	Sun Treader	orch
1934	OS 15	Ives	Symphony No.4 (2nd mvmt)	orch	Reprint of Vol.2, No.2 from 1929
1935	OS 16	Roldàn	Motivos de Son	v orch
1936	OS 17	Becker	Horn Concerto	orch
1936	OS 18	Beyer	IV	9perc
1936	OS 18	Davidson	Auto Accident for percussion	perc
1936	OS 18	Ray Green	3 Inventories of Casey Jones	perc
1936	OS 18	Doris Humphrey	Dance Rhythms	perc	Humphrey improvised the rhythms through dance, and Riegger transcribed/notated the performance
1936	OS 18	Bill Russell	3 Dance Movements	perc	composer name in issue: William Russell
1936	OS 18	Gerald Strang	Percussion Music for 3 Players	3perc
1936	OS 19	Herrmann	Sinfonietta	str
1936	OS 20	Ives	Holidays Symphony, 1st mvmt	orch
1937	OS 21	William Grant Still	Dismal Swamp	orch
1938	OS 22	Dane Rudhyar	5 Stanzas	str
1938	OS 23	Becker	Soundpiece No.2 'Homage to Haydn'	str
1938	OS 24	Levant	Nocturne	orch
1939	OS 25	Harrison Kerr	Notations on a Sensitized Plate	v cl 2vn va vc pf
1939	OS 26	Fernández	Batuque	orch
1939?	OS 27	Jerome Moross	Suite for Chamber Orchestra	orch
?	OS 1-1	Ruggles	Men and Mountains	orch	reprint of Vol.1 No.1?
?	OS 3-3	Ruggles	Portals	str	reprint of Vol.3 No.3?
?	OS 4-2	McPhee	Concerto for Piano and Wind Octet	2fl ob cl bn hn tpt tbn pf	reprint for Vol.4 No.2?
?	OS 5-2	Ives	Set for Theatre Orchestra	orch	for small orchestra; reprint of Vol.5 No.2?
?	OS 5-2a	Ives	Set for Theatre Orchestra	orch	for chamber orchestra; possibly a reprint of Vol.5 No.2, with different instrumentation compared to OS 5-2?
1938	D 1	Cowell	Sunset, Rest, HC 492	v pf
1938	D 2	Cowell	United String Quartet, HC 522	2vn va vc
1938	D 3	Becker	Soundpiece No.5	pf
1946-7	D 4	Slonimsky	Studies in Black and White	orch (arr)
?	Special	Cowell	Reel	orch	Two possibilities on the identity of this work: (a) Lilt of the Reel, HC 463 No.1, arranged for orchestra from the piano solo original, or for piano and orchestra as No.4 from 4 Irish Tales, HC 605; (b) Reel No.2, HC 506, which was written for John J. Becker. Mead notes it published as a Special Edition in an unspecified year, and New Music catalogue pages note it was published in "OS", but without any volume indication.
1947	Special	Ruggles	Organum	orch
1948	Special	Merton Brown	Choral	str
1949	Special	Cage	Sonatas and Interludes	pf	"Blue printed and spiral bound with kit for preparation of the piano"
1950	Special	Merton Brown	Arioso	pf

Authority Control

Sources Consulted

Mead, Rita H. Henry Cowell's New Music, 1925-1936 : the Society, the music editions, and the recordings. Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1981.