promoting the works of Paul and Jane Bowles in the written, musical and theatre forms This website online since May 1st 2000 visited by people who like Paul Bowles from more than 119 countries The Music of Paul Bowles An Introduction Please click here to read our policy about sound clips and graphics on this website Copyright Notice All content on this page is the research work of The International Paul Bowles Society and has previously been published in our printed publications The International Paul Bowles Society, ©2007 As well as being an excellent and prolific writer, Paul Bowles was also an excellent composer. He wrote much music for vocal, piano and orchestra. It was after his wife, Jane Bowles had success with her writing in the 1940's, with Paul Bowles editing her book 'Two Serious Ladies', that he wrote his first novel 'The Sheltering Sky', which was a huge success in 1949 and had three printings within six weeks. (This however, was not Bowles's first separately published work; that work was called 'Two Poems' (1933), although Bowles had some of his work published in 'Transition' before that.) Paul Bowles has said that he would prefer to be remembered as a composer - (he was a known composer of classical music in the 1940's, and also wrote more than 400 concert reviews for the New York Herald Tribune during WWII - please see review on the book 'Paul Bowles on Music') - whether that will be the case or not remains to be seen. Time will tell. It comes as quite a surprise to a lot of people when they personally discover how extensive a composer Paul Bowles was; not just in the recorded medium, but also in his incidental music for American theatre plays. On a descriptive note, there can be some variation between the various recordings of the same piece of music. The original renditions of Bowles' music, that were originally recorded on 78' or LP format, could be perceived as having more of the original intended melodies and instrumentation from the 1930's to 1950's, when Paul Bowles actually wrote the music, and thus evoke the time and the era when the pieces were composed. Many people maybe do not have access to listening to the original recordings of Bowles' music in vinyl format, so all of this commentary may be of note purely on a level of study and musical appreciation. We recommend exploration of the earlier recordings of the works of Paul Bowles, if possible, both to enjoy and increase one's understanding of the original musical recordings. Some of the original recordings may appear to have somewhat 'jagged' edges in parts (which people may like or dislike), in comparison with some of the more smoother flowing renditions that were recorded later on, and the earlier recordings are, in places, perhaps closer to the original music scores themselves, in that they use the instruments mentioned in the relevant sections of the scores, such as harp, for example, whereas some of the later recordings of the music use other instruments, such as violins, instead. This is, however, purely a matter of musical interpretation in performance. A study of some of the recordings in relation to the manuscript music scores shows these points to be so. At the end of the day the adage of 'Music is in the ear of the listener' applies. Musical appreciation is always a subjective issue. This observation obviously applies to all music in general, and not just the music of Paul Bowles. Needless to say, Paul Bowles personally permitted all of the different recordings of all his works, and therefore we have a large repertoire of all of these recordings to discover. We hope that you will begin to enjoy the music of Paul Bowles, or, if you are already familiar with Paul Bowles' compositions, continue your enjoyment of the same. Article by Josie Farmer A Director of The International Paul Bowles Society The International Paul Bowles Society, ©2000 Classical Music 'The Wind Remains' This is an outstanding composition by Paul Bowles, which is a Zarazuela based on the third act of the Federico Garcia Lorca's play called 'Asi que pasen cinco Años.' There are two versions of this work: a stage version and a concert version. The story is about a Harlequin that woos a Lady. The stage version of 'The Wind Remains' was publicly performed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1943, with Romulo Spirito (tenor) and Jeanne Stephens (soprano) as the singers, in the parts of the Harlequin and the Lady, with Leonard Bernstein conducting. This stage version was released on seven vinyl records. The concert version was used for the LP recording (1957) which was released by MGM in 1958, was conducted by Carlos Surinach and performed by Dorothy Renzi (soprano) and Loren Driscoll (tenor.) Please click here to hear a part of Act 6: Dance from the concert version. The art on the LP cover is from an original painting by Pablo Picasso. Click here to hear a short part of the melody 'Si, mi hijo' from this music from the concert version. The Music of Morocco US Library of Congress Paul Bowles received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, and travelled across Morocco extensively over a period of five months in 1959 with Christopher Wanklyn and Mohammed Larbi, recording a lot of Moroccan Berber, Sahara tribal and Gnawaa music into his tape recorder and documented his recordings of this music. Listen to Paul reading some from his original work of 'The Secret Sahara.' (aka 'Baptism of Solitude.') the text of which was first published in 'Holiday' in January, 1953 and then again as a chapter called 'Baptism of Solitude' in the Paul Bowles book 'Their Heads are Green and Their Hands are Blue' (Random House, 1963) which gives some of the account of the group's travels in the Rif in the chapter 'The Rif - to Music' while finding and recording this music. The total collection of this recorded music is known as 'The Paul Bowles Collection' and is archived in the US Library of Congress. The Archival Manuscript Material (Collection) contains 70 x 2 track 7' reel-to-reel tapes with around 70 hours of content on them, and two boxes of manuscripts, along with the 2 LP recordings called 'Music of Morocco' and 'Sacred Music of the Moroccan Jews'. Some of the music recorded onto these reels is either of short duration or of poor quality and is therefore unsuitable for current commercial recording. However, if ever there are plans for a future further release of more of this music from the USLoC, then this would doubtlessly be very well received by people who like the indigenous music of Morocco. Update: November 2002: There is now a new release of some of the Paul Bowles recorded Music of Morocco available on CD. Please click here to find out more. The 'Music of Morocco', ©USLoC, 1972, is a 2 LP recording of Moroccan music which was selected from the overall original taped recordings (above) and which includes music of the Rif Berbers from Tetouan, Nador, Taza, and also music from the south of Morocco; from the pre-Sahara regions of the south west, along with some of the music of the Jewish community in Morocco. Please click here to hear a small part of this music from the Abdelkrim Rais Ensemble in Fez. A double LP from the USLoC collection was also released separately as a 2 LP collection called 'Sacred Music of the Moroccan Jews' (available on CD from amazon.com or from amazon.co.uk) which are of the Jewish communities of Meknes and Essaouira. The recordings include a live service for the conclusion of the Sabbath that affords the listener the opportunity to experience the content and atmosphere of a Maghrebi synagogue, albeit one reflecting the winds of change then underway among Moroccan Jews. Please click here to hear a small part of the 'Evening Service in Mogador'. Spoken Word Paul Bowles recorded quite a lot of Spoken Word, usually on LP record and tape cassette. Most of his spoken word recordings were of his own short stories, and sometimes those of Mohammed Mrabet. One title includes 'A Hundred Camels in the Courtyard' (available on CD from amazon.com) which was released on 2 LP records in 1981 and which is the recording of the short stories of 'A Friend of the World', 'The Wind at Beni Midar', 'He of the Assembly' and 'The Story of Lachen and Idir' and which were first published in book form in 'A Hundred Camels in the Courtyard' in 1962. Click here to hear a part of 'He of the Assembly.' Another Spoken word recording is called 'Paul Bowles Reads 'The Delicate Prey' and 'A Distant Episode' which were both short stories from Paul Bowles's book 'The Delicate Prey' which was first published in 1950. Listen to a short sample of 'The Delicate Prey' Index Classical music of Paul Bowles Notes on 'The Baptism of Solitude' CD Avant Garde and Spoken word recorded by Paul Bowles Various and Compilation Recordings recorded by Paul Bowles Recommended Paul Bowles music on CD Home Promoting the life and work of Paul and Jane Bowles The International Paul Bowles Society, ©2007