Teheran might seem an unlikely venue for the premiere of an American chamber work, but on today's date in 1957, this piece by Henry Cowell, titled "Persian Set," had its first performance in the Iranian capital. Cowell once said: "I want to live in the whole world of music," and from the 1930s on, Cowell practiced what he preached: He was one of the first to advocate that what we now call "world music" should be integrated into American concert life.

In 1956, a major grant allowed Cowell to embark on a world tour. The idea was to introduce American music abroad, and at the same time Cowell collected and studied other musical traditions. Cowell spent the winter of 1956 in Iran, and early the following year completed his "Persian Set."

"I listened for hours every day to the classical and folk music of the country," recalled Cowell. "Of course, I made no attempt to shed my years of Western symphonic experience, nor did I used actual Iranian melodies or rhythms. Instead, I tried to develop some of the musical behavior that the two cultures had in common."

Cowell was born in California in 1897, and died in New York in 1965. He was active as a teacher and music publisher and wrote 900 pieces of very original music — most of it still unfamiliar to American audiences.