The Emerging Americanist (1895–1918)

Sowerby has often been defined not simply as an American composer, but as a midwestern one. Some of his most acclaimed works take inspiration from the countryside of this region; most of his career was spent in Chicago; and both Sowerby and his critics repeatedly reference his midwestern roots in printed commentary. Many aspects of Sowerby’s “midwestern-ness” originate in his earliest years, from a Michigan childhood to schooling in Chicago. Though he drew inspiration from beyond the Midwest as well, the first inklings of his interest in American and other folk idioms—ideals that are fundamental to his compositional thinking—stem from these formative years. Sowerby might further be considered as a child prodigy, in terms of his early manifestations of deep talent, youthful concert successes, and insatiable hunger for musical growth.