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Charles Ives - master songwriter: The methods behind his madness
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Charles Ives - master songwriter: The methods behind his madness
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INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6 " x 9 " black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHARLES IVES - MASTER SONGWRITER: The Methods Behind his Madness by Janet Lynn Gilman A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillm ent of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Music Theory) December 1994 Copyright 1994 Janet Lynn Gilman Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9600982 OMI Microform 9600982 Copyright 1995, by OMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA THJI GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY PARK LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA 90007 This dissertation, written by under the direction of h ju u .... Dissertation Committee, and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by The Graduate School, in partial fulfillm ent of re quirements fo r the degree of D O C TO R O F P H IL O S O P H Y c. — , Dean of Graduate Studies Date November 18, 1994 DISSERTATION COMMITTEE . Z D c ~ ~ 1 Q t Ato g A 0 Chairperson Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. U n ive rs ity o f Soutfiern C a lifo rn ia The G raduate School Dissertation Abstract in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t Jor the PH.D. in flusvc Theory Charles Ives - Master Songwriter: The Methods Behind his Madness by Janet Lynn Gilman The purpose of the dissertation is to categorize and examine analytically the one hundred and forty-one pub lished songs by Charles Ives. In the process, the disser tation traces Ives's development as a composer from 1887 until approximately 1925. His published song repertoire is classified into eight categories according to text orienta tion: the European art song, sacred songs, nature songs, philosophical songs, political songs, "common man" songs, sentimental songs, and comical songs. As a result, a num ber of technical similarities are revealed among the songs within each category. Such similarities include, for example, harmonic structure and function, methods of melo dic pitch organization, and rhythmic patterns. The role of musical quotation in Ives's songs is also examined. The diversity of compositional techniques among the different classifications gives rise to the need for a variety of analytical techniques in order to adequately assess the material. Atonal set theoretical methods, Schenkerian Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. prolongational processes, and traditional tonal descrip tive labelling are among the analytical methods utilized. The dissertation attempts to reveal that Ives made a major contribution to the repertoire of the American art song. His song repertoire for voice and piano explores a gamut of subject matter that is unequalled by any other American composer. The songs function like a history text book of late 19th century New England lifestyles and allow contemporary listeners to encounter the social, spiritual, and intellectual concerns that faced the citizenry of the United States in a rapidly changing early twentieth cen tury. Thus, Ives provides us with significant historical insights. It is my hope that this dissertation will reveal mean ingful insights into Charles Ives's compositional, aesthe tic, and spiritual contributions to American song litera ture. it should make an especially useful theoretical reference guide for those students who are being exposed to the songs of Charles Ives for the first time. I believe that it will also prove to be a valuable research tool for those who are familiar with this composer's works and are exploring more deeply the many facets of his unique brand of creativity. C om m ittee Chair Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Author’s Preface vii ONE. Ives and the European Art Song l TWO. Sacred Songs 45 THREE. Homage to Nature 89 FOUR. Ives the Philosopher 137 FIVE. Political Songs 160 SIX. “Common Man” Songs 189 SEVEN. Songs of Sentiment 229 EIGHT. Ives the Comic: Silly, Witty and Wise 307 Conclusion 331 Bibliography/Discography 335 Analytic Index 345 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. List of Musical Examples 1.0 Feldeinsamkeit - Brahms's setting 12 1.1 Feldeinsamkeit - Ives's setting 12 2.0 Ich Grolle Nicht - Schumann's setting 20 2.1 Ich Grolle Nicht - Ives's setting 20 2.2 Ich Grolle Nicht (Ives) 22 2.3 Ich Grolle Nicht (Ives) 23 2.4 Ich Grolle Nicht (Ives) 23 3.0 Rosamunde (Ives) 26 3.1 Rosamunde (Ives) 2 6 3.2 Rosamunde (Ives) 27 4.0 Wiegenlied (Brahms) 30 4.1 Berceuse (Ives) 30 4.2 Berceuse (Massenet) 31 5.0 The Old Mother (Ives's coda) 34 5.1 The Old Mother (Ives) 35 5.2 The Old Mother (Ives) 35 6.0 Qu'il M'irait Bien 38 7.0 Elegie 39 8.0 Chanson de Florian 40 9.0 Neil' Auf Mir 41 10.0 Far From My Heav'nly Home 51 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 11.0 The Camp-Meeting 66 11.1 The Camp-Meeting 68 11.2 The Camp-Meeting (Introduction) 70 12.0 At the River 74 13.0 The Innate 76 13.1 The Innate (Coda) 77 14.0 Hymn 82 15.0 Tom Sails Away 94 15.1 Tom Sails Away (Section A') 94 16.0 The White Gulls 98 17.0 A Farewell to Land 110 17.1 A Farewell to Land 110 18.0 The World's Wanderers (motive "a") 115 18.1 The World's Wanderers (motive "b") 115 19.0 A Night Thought (rhythmic motive "a") 116 19.1 A Night Thought (rhythmic motive "b") 116 19.2 A Night Thought (rhythmic motive “c") 116 20.0 From "Amphion” (motive "a") 117 20.1 From "Amphion" (motive "b") 117 21.0 Rough Wind 119 21.1 Rough Wind (Coda) 119 22.0 Afterglow 124 22.1 Afterglow 124 23.0 The Rainbow (final phrase) 127 23.1 So May It Bel (final phrase) 127 23.2 So May It Bel (Introduction) 128 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 24.0 Aeschylus and Sophocles (fugal introduction) 129 25.0 The Cage 140 26.0 Premonitions 150 27.0 Vote for Names (Piano I ostinato) 164 27.1 Vote for Names (Piano II ostinato) 165 27.2 Vote for Names (Piano III ostinato) 166 28.0 An Election (primordial B section material) 170 28.1 An Election (start of B section) 171 28.2 An Election (Coda) 173 29.0 The New River (Introduction) 175 29.1 The New River (B section material) 176 30.0 General William Booth Enters Into Heaven 195 30.1 General William Booth Enters Into Heaven 197 30.2 General William Booth Enters Into Heaven 198 31.0 General William Booth Enters Into Heaven 202 (Parallelism technique compared to that of Charlie Rutlage) 31.1 Charlie Rutlage (climax) 203 31.2 Charlie Rutlage ('riding rhythm') 204 31.3 Charlie Rutlage 205 32.0 Tolerance 215 33.0 Luck and Work 216 34.0 Duty 217 34.1 Vita 218 35.0 Like a Sick Eagle 221 36.0 Requiem 224 37.0 The Children's Hour 237 with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 37.1 The Children's Hour 238 38.0 Mists (A section material) 242 38.1 Mists (B section) 242 39.0 Omens and Oracles (Introduction) 256 39.1 Omens and Oracles (B section) 257 40.0 Harpalus 258 41.0 August 263 42.0 September 265 43.0 December 266 44.0 Walking (Introduction) 272 44.1 Walking 274 44.2 Walking 275 45.0 Down East 281 46.0 Old Home Day 283 47.0 Grantchester (Debussy quote) 285 47.1 Grantchester (Coda) 286 48.0 A Scotch Lullaby 291 48.1 A Scotch Lullaby 292 49.0 The Things Our Fathers Loved 299 49.1 The Things Our Fathers Loved 300 50.0 The See'r 316 51.0 "1,2,3." 320 52.0 Ann Street 322 52.1 Ann Street 324 52.2 Ann Street 325 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Preface Charles Edward Ives (1874-1954) made an important con tribution to the repertoire of the American art song. His song repertoire for voice and piano explores a gamut of subject matter that is unequalled by any other American composer. Ives's extraordinary output includes over two hundred such works which function like a history textbook of late nineteenth century New England lifestyles and early twentieth century American socio-political and spiritual concerns. Ives's unique brand of creativity and excep tional gifts as a songwriter will be demonstrated through an examination of his one hundred and forty-one published songs. Owing to the length and pupose of this theoretical dissertation, unpublished and unfinished songs, and song fragments are excluded. I propose to categorize the published songs of Charles Ives into eight classifications on the basis of text con tent. Each of the following eight chapters scrutinizes a single song category. This dissertation attempts to reveal a number of technical similarities among the songs within each category. Such similarities might include for example, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. viii harmonic structure and function, methods of melodic pitch organization, and rhythmic patterns. The technique of mus ical quotation, closely identified with Ives, appears to play an integral role in certain song categories more than in others. Naturally, the diversity of compositional tech niques among the different classifications gives rise to a need for a variety of analytical techniques in order to adequately assess the material. In the process of examin ing the published songs it will become evident that they trace Ives's development as a composer because this genre spans the entirety of Ives's career. Ives offers some possible song classifications in his book of 114 Songs: "4 Songs Based on Hymntune Themes," "3 Songs of the War," "5 Street Songs and Pieces," "8 Senti mental Ballads," "4 French Songs," and "4 German Songs." However, the classifications presented in the following chapters are not entirely consistent with those of Mister Ives. For example, some of Ives's "Street Songs" may be classified as sentimental in nature and his "Songs of War" may be viewed as a type of political song. Ives's songs present a wealth of Americana imagery. Many of his experiences as a young man growing up in late nineteenth century New England come to life through his songs. The union of text and music is frequently success ful in conjuring up the visual and aural experiences of Ives's past (ie.,breathtaking scenery, character portraits, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ix or an atmosphere of religious fervor). Ives hoped to carry on in the tradition of Stephen Foster, whose songs he con sidered to be a music of the people. Ives felt that he too was composing a music of the people and dreamed that one day it would be accepted by willing and appreciative ears - as was Foster's.i Two historically important dissertations on the songs of Ives are worth noting for different reasons. In 1942, Erwin Ruff wrote an M.A. thesis for the Eastman School of Music entitled "A Study of Five Songs of Charles Ives." This is of historical interest since it is the first dis sertation to devote itself entirely to the music of Charles Ives.2 Ruff examines Two Little Flowers, Serenity, The Greatest Man, Evening, and Ann Street. In 1967, Philip Edward Newman produced a massive contribution to the liter ature on Ives's songs by writing a Ph.D. dissertation for the University of Iowa entitled, "The Songs of Charles Ives." In the work, he discusses all 153 extant songs. Newman also examines Ives's unfinished songs and song sketches which brings the grand total to 205.3 The 141 songs to be discussed in this paper are read ily available through several published song collections or as individually published songs. They are listed in Henry Cowell's biography of Ives entitled, Charles Ives and His Music:4 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Published Song Collections x Three Songs, Associated Music Publishers Four Songs, Mercury Corp., Theodore Presser Co. Seven Songs, Associated Music Publishers Nine Songs, Peer International Corp. Ten Songs, Peer International Corp. Eleven Songs and. Two Harmonizations, Associated Music Publishers Twelve Songs, Peer International Corp. Thirteen Songs, Peer International Corp. Fourteen Songs, Peer International Corp. Nineteen Songs, New Mus. Editions, Th. Presser Co. Thirty-Four Songs, New Mus. Eds., Th. Presser Co. Sacred Songs, Peer International Corp. The All-Enduring, Mercury Corp., Th. Presser Co. Flag Song, Peer International Corp. Vote for Names, Peer International Corp. Finally, the names of all three major publishing firms men tioned above (AMP, Peer, and Theodore Presser) appear on the cover of Ives's 114 Songs. Eight historically important recordings of Ives's songs are listed in Cowell's biography of Ives. A more up to date discography of presently available recordings ap pears at the end of this dissertation. Cowell mentions that Radiana Pazmor was the first to record one of Ives's songs, in 1934, she sang General William Booth Enters into Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. xi Heaven for New Music Recordings.5 Helen Boatright (sop.) and John Kirkpatrick (piano) made another historically sig nificant recording of Ives's songs in 1954. They recorded 24 songs for the "Overtone 7" record label.6 One of the most extensive recordings of Ives's song repertoire was recently released by Albany Records (153 Songs) in 1992- 1994 (see discography). Ives's 114 Songs is one of the major souces in the American art song repertoire. The composer's purposes in offering such a massive publication free of charge and without financial risk to the publisher, appears in his "Postface to 114 Songs": . . . The printing of this collection was undertaken primarily in order to have a few clear copies that could be sent to friends who from time to time have been interested enough to ask for copies of some of the songs, but the job has grown into something dif ferent; it contains plenty of songs which have not been and will not be asked for. It stands now, if it stands for anything, as a kind of "buffer state" - an opportunity for evading a question somewhat embarrass ing to answer: "Why do you write so much - which no one ever sees?" There are several good reasons, none of which are worth recording.7 . . . Some have writ ten a book for money; I have not. Some for fame; I have not. Some for love; I have not. Some for kind lings; I have not. I have not written a book for any of these reasons or for all of them together. In fact, gentle borrower, I have not written a book at all - I have merely cleaned house. Some of the songs in this book, particularly among the later ones, cannot be sung (by celebrated opera singers), and if they could, perhaps might pre fer, if they had a say, to remain as they are; this is "in the leaf" - and that they will remain in this peaceful state is more than presumable. An excuse (if none of the above are good enough) for their existence which suggests itself at this point is that a song has Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. xii a few rights, the same as other ordinary citizens. . . . If it happens to feel like trying to fly where humans cannot fly, to sing what cannot be sung, to walk in a cave on all fours, or to tighten up its girth in blind hope and faith and try to scale mountains that are not, who shall stop it? - In short, must a song always be a song!8 The "Postface to 114 Songs" appears to be a declaration of Ives's emotional dualism over his composing efforts. His "Postface" comes across as a somewhat apologetic self-jus tification for one's artistic creations - the words of a rather self-conscious man. "Here his conflicting compul sions, his tempermental alternation between explosiveness and shyness, caused him both to expose himself and to hide himself, to write with both exuberance and self-distrust."9 Ives sent out many complimentary copies of his 114 Songs to professional musicians, composers, music critics, and teachers in the United States and abroad. He used Who's Who in America as a source for deciding which singers should receive a copy, and he also sent copies to schools of music, libraries, music periodicals and publishers.i° David Wooldridge's book, Charles Ives: A Portrait, relates an amusing anecdote about one particular copy which was sent to the New York Sun because Ives had set to music a few poems published in that journal: The first issue of 114 Songs, 500 copies bound in dark blue buckram, was made in June 1922. . . . On Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. xiii August 29 some moron on the paper wrote a column headed "Here's a Chance to Get a Nice Song Book for Free," and encouraged its readers to take full advan tage of the opportunity. They did, Ives was deluged with requests, and though angered, felt morally obli gated to mak? a supplimentary issue of 1,000 copies, bound in light green paper. Almost all were sent out.11 114 Songs was appreciated by only a minority of those individuals and institutions which received it. For exam ple , Frank Patterson's review in the Musical Courier "... treated the 114 Songs as a joke, and the opening sentence was: 'Who is Ives? We have not the least idea.'"12 Pat terson dubbed Ives "the American Satie" and declared that Ives deserved ridicule. The critique also claimed that the composer intended his music to be a joke. Patterson also emphasized that few musicians possessed the technical capability necessary to perform the songs.12 Charles Ives did, however, have his advocates - one of the most notable being composer Henry Cowell. Mr. Cowell acknowledges the difficulty involved in adequately perform ing the 114 Songs. Yet, his assessment of the book shows a clear appreciation of the music: "The 114 Songs forms the most original, imaginative, and powerful body of vocal music that we have from any American, and the songs have provided the readiest path to Ives's musical thinking for most people.After the publication of 114 Songs, Ives did little to promote his own music, and thus, was depen dent on his advocates for recognition. Ives did, however, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. xiv continue his involvement in the general subsidizing of new music performances and publications, especially Cowell's journal, New Music.is Many notable musicians became advocates of Ives's music. The Pro-Musica Society promoted experimental music and many of its members were composers who became friends of Ives - among them, John Becker, Nicolas Slonimsky, Carl Ruggles, Otto Luening, Henry Cowell, and the society's founder, French pianist E. Robert Schmitz.16 "... His [Ives's] most important link with the musical world was Henry Cowell. Cowell published several of Ives's songs, chamber pieces, and his most complex score, the second movement of the Symphony No.4, in the influential quarterly New Music. . . ."n The earliest public performances of Ives's music were mainly given by such progressive organi zations as the New Music Society, Pro-Musica, and The League of American Composers.18 Yet, significant public recognition was slow in coming. The first public perfor mance of the Concord Sonata in 1939 was favorably reviewed by the New York music critics - even the audience reaction was encouraging.18 Symphony No. 3 was completed in 1904, yet its first public performance was in 1946. It is ironic that this tonal symphony was chosen as a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1947 when one considers Ives's much more advanced works such as the Fourth Symphony and Three Places in New Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. XV England. Furthermore, the Second Symphony (1902) was not publically heard in concert until 1951.20 Ives's attitude toward composition may be summarized in the words of a transcendentalist literary master whom Ives greatly admired - Ralph Waldo Emerson; "... Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. . . ."21 A key factor in appreciating Ives's music is one's ability to accept his frequent employment of stylistic discontinuity or, as many musicologists prefer to label it, eclecticism. Ives's mature style evolved away from tonal approaches which implied directional, developmental procedures. Instead, Ives's mature works tend to present a succession of musical images (which may not necessarily be related) rather than a progression in which musical ideas are lin early predictable. Ives also frequently creates layers of simultaneous musical information, which operate in much the same way that the human mind receives and records simulta neous data - some of it at the conscious level and some of it at deeper levels of consciousness. Ives's nondirectional assemblage of contrasting musical images seems particularly suited to today's Post Modern consciousness; . . . Herein lies his prophetic achievement and the increasingly direct relevance of his art to today's world. As life becomes increasingly more complex and full of seemingly contradictory phenomena, we may be able to turn more and more to the music of Ives and be inspired by the order he could weld out of diver sity, sharing his vision of a unity which can recon cile apparent contradictions. If this indeed proves Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. xvi to be the case, the next hundred years may reveal Charles Ives to have an importance and a stature scarcely conceived of, even by many of his admirers, today.22 It is my hope that this dissertation will reveal sig nificant insights into Charles Ives's compositional, aes thetic, and spiritual contributions to American song liter ature. It should make an especially useful theoretical reference guide for those students who are being exposed to the songs of Charles Ives for the first time. I believe that it will also prove to be a valuable research tool for those who are familiar with this composer's works and are exploring more deeply the many facets of his unique brand of creativity. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Preface Notes 1. Bruce, Neely. "Ives and Nineteenth-Century American Music" in An Ives Celebration. Chicago, London: Uni versity of Illinois Press, 1977. pp.30-31. 2. Block, Geoffrey. Charles Ives: A Bio-Bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988. p.332. 3. Block, p.335. 4. Cowell, Henry and Cowell, Sidney. Charles Ives and His Music. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1955, pp.220-221. 5. Cowell, p.229. 6. Cowell, p.230. 7. Ives, Charles Edward. Essays Before a Sonata and Other Writings. Howard Boatwright,ed., New York: W.W. Norton, 1962, p.123. 8. Ives. pp.130-131. 9. Rossiter, Frank R. Charles Ives and His America. New York: Liveright Co., 1975. p.182. 10. Rossiter. p.183. 11. Wooldridge, David. Charles Ives: A Portrait. London: Faber and Faber, 1975. p.261. 12. Chase, Gilbert. America's Music: From the Pilgrims to the Present. Revised Third Edition. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987. p.442. 13. Block, Geoffrey. Charles Ives: A Bio-Bibliography. New York and London: Greenwood Press, 1988. p.330. 14. Cowell, Henry and Cowell, Sidney. Charles Ives and His Music. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1955. p.80. 15. Burkholder, J. Peter. Charles Ives: The Ideas Behind the Music. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1985. p.2. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. xviii 16. Perry, Rosalie Sandra. Charles Ives and the American Mind. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1974. p.16. 17. Wallach, Laurence. "Charles (Edward) Ives," in Diction ary of Contemporary Music. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1971. p.358. 18. Goss, Madeleine. Modern Music-Makers: Contemporary American Composers. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. 1952. p.22. 19. Chase, Gilbert,(editor). The American Composer Speaks: A Historical Anthology, 1770-1965. Louisiana State University Press, 1966. p.106. 20. Chase, p.106. 21. Rusk, Ralph L. The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1949. p.279. 22. Starr, Lawrence. "Charles Ives: The next hundred years - towards a method of analysing the music," The Music Review. Vol.38, No.2, May 1977. p.111. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 1 I krS art t & « E u ro pean Srt Sotta When Charles Edward Ives entered Yale University in 1894 he was introduced to a wide variety of European works by Horatio Parker, the man who would be his composition teacher for the next four years. Before Yale Ives "had little knowledge of contemporary harmonic developments in Germany, though his arrival at Yale in 1894 undoubtedly exposed him to these sources through his teacher. Neverthe less, Parker's preferences were more in the'^rection of V Brahms and Dvorak rather than Wagner."i Prior to Ives's Yale years, the musical atmosphere which surrounded him was mainly created by his father's interest, love, and pride in sacred music and the American band tradition. Of course, Charles was acquainted with some European works prior to 1894. For example, much cham ber music was heard in the Ives household. Henry Cowell relates some of Charles's fond memories: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 A great deal of chamber music was played by his father and his friends - sonatas, trios, and quartets chosen from the sturdier sorts by Handel, Bach, and Beethoven. They were performed with gusto by unexpected combina tions that would have amused, without greatly surpris ing, the composers.2 The New Haven Philharmonic Society, founded in 1867, might also have provided Ives limited access to European works. It is documented that Beethoven's Sixth Symphony was performed at its first concert. Also, the New York Philharmonic Society made occasional guest appearances at New Haven's Crown Street Music Hall. Their first concert there was in November of 1860; fourteen years before the birth of Charles Ives.3 However, the European art song was examined in system atic detail by Ives at Yale. "Charles had access to Dich- terliebe and other song collections by Schumann, Brahms, Franz, Cornelius, &c, giving him a varied insight into the vocal styles of these composers."4 in fact, "Horatio Parker habitually assigned well-known song texts to be newly set by his students; Ives set a number while at the university, more later. Thus there are Lieder by him."3 The songs which will be examined in this chapter were all written with the European tradition in mind; many were considered 'studies.' As Ives himself put it in his collection of 114 Songs: The writer has been severely criticized for attempt ing to put music to texts of songs, which are master Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 pieces of great composers. The song above (Ich Grolle Nicht) and some of the others, were written primarily as studies. It should be unnecessary to say that they were not composed in the spirit of competition; neither Schumann, Brahms or Franz will be the one to suffer by a comparison; another unnecessary statement.6 Not all of the French and German songs to be examined in this first chapter were written for Parker during Ives's college days. For instance Berceuse (1900), Qu'il m'iralt bien (1901), Elegie (1901), Chanson de Florian (1901), and Weil' auf mir (1902) were composed after his graduation. The art songs written during his Yale years that will be discussed are The Old Mother (1894), Feldeinsamkeit (1897), Ich Grolle Nicht (1898), and de la drama: Rosamunde (1898). Ives wrote approximately forty songs during his college years.7 However, many like the following unpublished songs, do not fit into the art song category: Love Does Not Die (sentimental song, 1895); Through Night and Day (sacred song, 1896); William Will (campaign song, 1896); and Her Gown was of Vermilion Silk (comical song, 1897). As a mat ter of interest, some of the other songs written as studies for class and later published include: Ein Ton (1895) which was published as Night of Frost in May (1899); Songs My Mother Taught Me (1895); Die Lotosblume (1895) which was published as The South Wind (1899); Du bist wie eine Blume (1897) was created from When Stars are in the Quiet Skies (1891); and Wie melodien zieht es mir (1898)later published Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 as Evidence (1910).8 Other songs written during these years, though not necessarily for his composition classes, include: A Son of a Gambolier (1895), Waltz (1895), In the Alley (1896), and A Scotch Lullaby (1896).9 The purpose of this chapter is to review Charles Ives's compositional approaches and to assess his contribution as a creator of the Lied and Chanson. This process will be attempted by comparative methods of analysis. For example, the differences and similarities in the settings of identi cal texts by Brahms and Ives will be considered. In addi tion, similar comparisons will be made with songs by Schu mann, Schubert, Grieg and Massenet. In recent years, musicologists and theorists have questioned whether Ives was experimenting with an extended harmonic language as early as his writings and dating of pieces would have us believe. Perhaps he 'touched up' a chord here and there in some of these early Lieder? This complicates the matter of dating early radical traits in these songs. Carol K. Baron10 and Maynard Solomon11 wrote convincing articles on this topic. Aaron Copland was un aware of this when he gave his opinion of Ives's French and German songs: "Here in the shadow of Schumann, Massenet and Brahms, one catches a first glimpse of the later Ives. A somewhat daring middle section, an unexpected close or sharply-tinted chord betray the future pioneer."i2 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 Whatever the situation, in the author's opinion, the songs are worthy of examination. Feldeinsamkeit (In Summer Fields) was composed by Ives in November of 1897. Brahms had set this well-known text during 1878. The song was not published until 1882. Par ker gave his critique on this song of Ives and also on his Ich Grolle Nicht during a class session on March 30, 1898. A celebrated American composer of that era, George White- field Chadwick, paid a surprise visit to Parker's class on that day and this proved to be quite a positive motivation for Ives. Parker, then 34 years of age, had been one of Chadwick's former students. In the margins of Feldeinsam keit and Ich Grolle Nicht, Ives made some notes about this event: Geo W Chadwick came into class this afternoon - (on way back from Heib's) sat down behind me. . . when Chadwick came in, Parker objected to the too many keys in the middle [of Feldeinsamkeit]. Geo W C. grinned at it. . .Of this song Pf. Horat. P. said it [was] nearer to the G[rolle] of Schumann than the Summerfields was near to Brahms - but Chadwick said the Summerfields was the best. Chadwick said, 'The melodic line has natural continuity - it flows - & stops. . . as only good songs do and different from Brahms as in the piano part and harmony it takes a more difficult, about opposite aspect. . . to Brahms - for active tranquility of outdoor beauty of nature is harder to express than just quietude. In its way, almost as good as Br[ahms]'. . .he winked at H.W.P. and said 'that's as good a song as you could write.'13 Before proceeding with a comparative analysis of the two settings of Feldeinsamkeit, this would seem to be the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6 appropriate place to briefly discuss Ives's relationship with professor Parker and to take note of the major contri butions of Parker to both the Yale school of music and to Ives's awareness of European repertoire. Cowell's book includes Ives's comments about Parker: "I had and have ['great' crossed out] respect and admiration for Parker and most of his music. It was seldom trivial. His choral works have dignity and depth" even though "he was governed by the German rule."1* Parker trained under Rheinberger at Munich and then married a German woman whom he taught to speak English.15 The music students at Yale during this era, and even those who attended that school well into the twentieth century, regarded the Yale School of Music as "Parker's creation" due to his "general scheme of the course, the in sistence upon a five-year discipline in theory as a neces sary training for every recipient of the degree of Bachelor of Music, and the emphasis on composition."15 Finally, it must be noted that Horatio Parker organized, and became the first conductor of a local orchestra which eventually be came known as the New Haven Symphony. This ensemble be longed to both Yale and the city of New Haven.1? Brahms and Ives employed differing designs in their settings of Feldeinsamkeit. Brahms, a master of variation technique, was able to make a strophic song into something more than just a repetitive and predictable tune. His ver- Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sion presents a "first degree of departure from the stro- phenlied."is The first eighteen measures are skillfully varied through reharmonization in the next seventeen mea sures. An additional point of interest is mm. 26-28 where the previous accompanimental texture of double notes slurred in groups (R.H.), padded by sustained inner harmo nies, and supported by a reiterated bass pedal, is now changed to a less dense texture of detached octaves which alternate between the hands. In addition, these few bars become even more interesting due to the rhythmic displace ment in the entrance of the vocal line in m.26. As a mature composer Ives did not use much literal repetition, but much of it occurs in the early songs - and usually without the clever harmonic, rhythmic, or textural transformations mentioned above. In fact, entire sections of his early songs are filled with literal repetition. In Ives's setting of Feldeinsamkeit, the contrast is provided by the B part of his structural design,a sectional rounded binary form. When the A section returns, it is not rehar monized, nor are there new accompanimental textures. The A' section is merely a truncation of the original mate rial. Brahms was able to handle strophic songs much more cleverly, perhaps due to his great respect for that form. "Brahms went so far as to declare that to compose a melody that would fit and bear the weight of every verse of a poem was infinitely more difficult than the other forms."19 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. As a result, Brahms was able to create sophisticated and technically interesting extensions of a fundamentally sim ple design. One might ask why Horatio Parker objected to the sev eral tonal excursions of Ives's central section of Feldein samkeit, when Brahms's model version also implied several keys during the second verse. The answer probably lies in the remotely related tonalities chosen by Ives. Parker preferred a closer imitation of Brahms's tonal plan. In fact, Ives does imply three more key areas in his middle part then Brahms does in his reharmonized second verse. In comparing the tonal excursions of both settings, it should be mentioned that the version by Brahms appears published in both F and Ab. The following details refer only to the Ab setting. Brahms's setting is basically an asymmetrical period consisting of an antecedent but with two phrases in the consequent. The half cadence occurs at m.8 (nach oben) and a perfect authentic cadence closes the period at m.17. This verse never strays from the tonic area of Ab major. The second verse, like the first, is presented in the form of an asymmetrically impure period, but unlike the first, it traverses four different implied key areas during its antecedent: the tonic (Ab major), the flatted mediant (Cb in mm.22-23), the minor subdominant (Db minor in mm. 23-24), and the dominant area is emphasized in mm.24-28 as a means of returning to the tonic. The piano's upper voices Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 and the chromatically ascending bassline create a contra puntal extrapolation which presents one secondary dominant function following another: i.e., dominant seventh of bill, diminished seventh of iv, and diminished seventh of V. How ever, this results in only a few different tonal implica tions, most of which are closely related to the the tonic area. Unlike Brahms, Ives implies many tonal areas in the B section and he does not properly resolve most of the sec ondary dominants. Most of Ives's secondary dominants are dominant ninth chords, in contrast to Brahms's use of di minished sevenths or dominant sevenths for the same pur pose. Ives prefers to resolve secondary dominants decep tively and then quickly move on to other implied tonal areas without establishing a stable tonal center. The B section opens clearly in Gb major - the subdominant (mm. 25- 27), then an A dom.9 lingers long enough in m.28 to imply D major, yet it resolves deceptively. This is followed by another dominant ninth (Ab dom.9) which fools the listener by creating expectation that a return to the tonic area of Db is imminent. But, D major is once again implied (mm. 31-32) by a strong half cadence. Much emphasis is placed on this tonal area which is enharmonically the bll, or 'Neapolitan' area. This relationship to the tonic is more distant than any of those employed by Brahms in his setting of the second verse. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 10 Ives extends his tonal excursions further in m.33 which implies F major through a secondary dominant, and m.34 which implies C major through a G dom.9. At this point, he adds a touch of color by switching to the minor mode: clear V-i cadences occur in both A minor (mm.35-36) and D minor (mm.37-39). A retransitional Ab dom.9 chord appears in m.40 and it is emphasized by the introduction of the new meter signature of 3/2. Thus, Ives's B section implies a total of seven tonal areas, while Brahms presented only four in his second verse. Perhaps Parker felt that Ives's harmonic choices were out of character stylistically be cause the assignment goal was to retain a harmonic language similar to the Brahms song. The retransitional 3/2 measure mentioned above, marks the point of interruption in Ives's rounded binary design. This interruption scheme is illustrated below in a possible Schenkerian reading: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 11 A Regarding the above Ursatz, the final 3 must be skewed A to the final I for support. Also, there is a "phantom" 2 in the vocal part, however, one does find this pitch (Eb) in the piano accompaniment (m.46) presented as two fleeting sixteenth notes. An interesting feature of this Ursatz is A the way in which the initial 3 is first supported by a tonic Db major7 harmony in m.19, and then, soon after is prolonged by a D-natural in the bass (D minor in mm. 37-39). Although this harmony may be enharmonically viewed as bll, it is notated by Ives as a raised tonic chord. Several types of analysis prove useful when dealing with the works of Ives. His early works use directed har monic motion, not unlike the works of the tonal composers of the nineteenth century. The works can therefore be ana lyzed using Schenkerian reductive techniques. These early Ives songs generally present a bass arpeggiation which pro vides strong support for the notes of the Urlinie. However, A the 2 does seem to be missing from the vocal part in a num ber of his early songs, especially when the final cadence is IV-I, but this Urlinie tone is generally found in a sig nificant statement within the piano accompaniment which Ives composes as an integral component of the structure. There are melodic and motivic reasons which seem to indicate that Ives did study Brahms's Feldeinsamkeit. Examples 1.0 and 1.1 present the melodies which Brahms Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 12 and Ives assigned to the first line of the text; "Ich ruha still im hohen grunen Gras und sende lange meinen Blick nach oben." m e i - nen Su c k na ch a - - b e n , nach a - - b e n , Example 1.0. Brahms, "Feldeinsamkeit" S E N -& E LAN— M 6 l — NEN BUCK NACH 0 - B E N , NACH 0 - B E N Example 1.1. Ives, "In Summer Fields" ( "Feldeinsamkeit") From: 114 Songs Copyright 1935, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. The most obvious similarity is that both phrases end with a large descending interval on "oben." In addition, Ives fol lows Brahms by repeating “nach oben" as a phrase extension. The most notable difference is that Brahms ends the melodic line with a descending minor sixth followed by a descending Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 13 perfect fifth, while Ives sets "nach oben" with a descend ing minor seventh followed by the same interval with which Brahms closed - a perfect fifth. There is also a striking similarity in the shapes of the two composers' melodic lines. First, observe the methods of approach to the word "Gras." In both melodies it serves as the first high point of the line and is ap proached through an arpeggio. Ives uses a Gb major triad to reach his Db (Gb O Bb O Db C> in mm.8-9); while Brahms reaches his goal of Eb through an Eb major arpeggio (Eb O G Q Bb O Eb in m.4). Although it might seem obvious that the words, "high blades of grass" would imply an ascending melody, it seems too coincidental that Ives also chose to reach his high point through arpeggiation. The use of this arpeggio motive and the previously mentioned descending large interval motive on "oben" by both composers, seems to be an indication that Ives did, indeed, study the score of Brahms's Feldeinsamkeit. Aside from the straightforward use of secondary domi nants, both composers also make use of augmented harmonies. And in each case, they are reserved for only one phrase. Brahms's version employs augmented dominant chords in mm. 12-13. The V+ of IV resolves to IV in m.12 and the raised fifth of this chord is used as a passing tone in the so prano voice of the accompaniment. V7(+5) of V appears in the next measure and functions in the same manner. Ives's Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 14 augmented harmony in his version of Feldeinsamkeit also appears for a single moment. It occurs as a tonic major seventh chord with a raised fifth in an inner voice of the accompaniment (m.14). Numerous major seventh harmonies appear in Ives's version, and on some occasions the seventh occurs in the vocal line (mm.14, 21, 47). By contrast, Brahms's setting does not use major seventh chords, even as the result of nonharmonic contrapuntal motion. Brahms also does not employ the dominant ninth chord which, as men tioned above, Ives uses quite frequently. There is a particular passage in Ives's Feldeinsam keit possessing certain features to which Parker probably objected on the grounds that they did not accurately rep resent Brahms's style. These features would become a char acteristic of Ives's own unique style in future works. The passage in question (mm.16-17) uses parallelism in all of the voices. The vocal line and the piano accompaniment both descend in parallel motion through a series of minor triads with their added ninths appearing in the vocal line. The following sequence of harmonies suggests tonal areas which are remotely related to the tonic (Db): B min. O A min.O G min.O F# min. Finally, there is one other facet of Ives's version that reveals his iconoclastic nature - the enharmonic spelling of various dominant and diminished seventh har monies which, in many cases, do resolve in a traditionally Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 15 functional manner. For example, measures 11 and 45 present a harmony which functions as a diminished seventh of ii (D dim.7 C> Eb min.7); yet Ives spells this harmony as B, D, F, Ab. Why does he do this when it functions clearly as a D dim.7? One answer as to why he chose to spell it this way might be based on practicality, a well-established aspect of Ives's personality. The D dim.7 would require a Cb as its proper seventh, yet B-natural is easier for the pianist to read. By changing the spelling of this one note, it becomes a B dim.7 which does not resolve properly. But, there will be other instances presented in the course of this discussion which will contest this premise of practi cality. Ich Grolle Nicht, the next of Ives's Lieder to be discussed, is one case in point. How then, does this Lied by the young Ives ultimately compare to its model composed by Brahms? In my opinion, Brahms's setting is superior for several reasons: 1) the varied texture in Brahms's version simply makes it more in teresting while the continual arpeggios for the pianist in Ives's version becomes tiresome, 2) Brahms's opening mel ody is reharmonized unpredictably when it returns while Ives uses a more simple truncated literal repeat of the opening section and 3) Brahms makes effective use of rhyth mic displacement of a previously stated melody, a device that will, however, appear in later Ives songs. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 16 Ich Grolle Nicht was written by Ives in 1898, the year after he composed Feldeinsamkeit. The collection of 114 Songs gives the date of its composition as 1899, but be cause of the well-known story of Chadwick visiting Parker's composition class in 1898 when Ives's Feldeinsamkeit and Ich Grolle Nicht were both being critiqued, we know that at least a first draft of this piece had to have been comple ted by March of 1898. It seems that in the months between the composition of Feldeinsamkeit and Ich Grolle Nicht, Ives evolved in significant ways as a songwriter. The proof may be found in the more inventive way in which Ives struc tures the return of the verse in the latter song through techniques of melodic variation and reharmonization. This approach, as noted above, was used to good effect by Brahms in Feldeinsamkeit. Robert Schumann's setting of Ich Grolle Nicht was another of the many model compositions for Ives's class assignments. Both the Schumann and Ives settings employ these strophic designs: A (Verse I) followed by A' (Verse II with creative modifications). Both composers chose to avoid closing Verse I with an authentic cadence. Ives ends the A section with: I maj.7 C” V, and Schumann closes his first verse with much secondary dominant activity around V (mm. 15-18: V/vii O vii & VI Q IV6 & vii dim.7/vii O V7 in first inversion). The vii functions as a substitute for V. One obvious difference between the two composers' de Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 17 signs is that Ives chooses to include an introduction and an interlude for the pianist. Ives's introduction also has the piano present the first four bars of vocal material. In addition, Ives structures his A and A' parts as being comprised of two structural subsections. By con trast, Schumann's major sections have no apparent subdivi sions based on either modulation or appreciable alteration of melodic character. Ives's second subsection in A (mm.16 -22) and in A' (mm.36-40) are both readily defined by the rhythmic diminution which characterizes them. For example, the first subsections of the texts make use of a dotted- eighth to sixteenth note pattern, while the second subsec tions halve these values to dotted-sixteenth and thirty- second note patterns. These rhythmically diminished motives are then arranged in sequential patterns: the motive of m.16 rises by a major third in m.18 and the motive of m.37 is restated a diminished fourth lower in m.38. Furthermore, the repeated eighth note figures of the first subsections are replaced by running sixteenth note patterns for the vocalist in the second subsection, especially in the second subsection of Verse I where these notes are arranged not only in sequential patterns, but also in repeated scale patterns for the vocalist (mm. 16-20). Once again, it should be reiterated that Ives did not use much literal repetition as a mature composer, but his early studies make use of both literal repetition and sequence. Perhaps he did this Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 18 to emulate the style of the composers being studied. In fact, Ives also uses other rather archaic devices to pre serve a traditional style in Ich Grolle Nicht. He writes an ornament (the turn) in the piano part each time the principal melodic motive returns (mm.1,5,27,28, and 41). Secondly, anticipations occur at regular intervals. They occur in the melody of the voice or piano at half-cadence points, so that the supertonic tone (F# in the key of E major) is sounded before the actual V is reached. Examples of this appear in the instrumental introduction at mm. 3-4, and in the vocal melody at mm. 7-8 where the F# anticipation occurs over an E major7 (I maj.7) which is about to cadence on B major (V). Finally, Ives's coda at m.41 uses a tradi tionally prepared authentic cadence: I in second inversion followed by V7 c j > (16) O I. It is interesting to note that the final three chords of Schumann's Ich Grolle Nicht also present this identical harmonic progression. Neither the Ives nor Schumann version distinctly es tablishes other tonal centers than the tonic. But, both composers do briefly tonicize remotely related tonal areas. In the case of Schumann's Ich Grolle Nicht in Bb major, (originally composed in C major),he temporarily puts empha sis on the tonal area of A minor for three bars (mm.14-16) by writing two implied dominant to temporary tonic progres sions. These are reinforced by the roots of E major and A minor triads which appear in both the bass of the piano Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 19 part and the vocal melody. Ives briefly tonicizes another equally creative choice of tonal center, but this time by implication. Here, Ives decides to place emphasis on the dominant of Bb(F7). Thus, at mm.36-37 he writes: I O V7 O dim.7/vi C> vi. The dominant is further emphasized by a Bb vocal scale descending from the highest point of the song (high F). When the melodies of Schumann and Ives are compared, some similarities appear. A repeated-note figure recurs in both composers' melodies, as does a dotted-note rhythmic figure. Both composers set, "und wenn das Herz" with three repeated notes followed by a leap. Another striking simi larity between the two occurs during "Ewig verlor'nes" where both composers apply three repeated notes followed by an ascending leap. The second occurrence of these words (Schumann, m.7; Ives, mm.11-12) rises to a higher pitch level than the first, and both composers place the highest vocal pitch in the entire song at this point of correspon dence in the two settings: the D in Schumann's version on "-lor'-" correspoinds to the C# in Ives's version on the same syllable. Further similarities may be observed in the metric arrangement of the text. Both compositions use a dotted-eighth to sixteenth note figure on the word grollez Schumann opens his song in m.l with it and Ives closes his first subsection of part A with this figure on grolle twice (mm.13-14). In addition, the last two syllables of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 20 verlor'nes are treated the same way; Ives uses the same rhythmic figure mentioned above while Schumann uses it in rhythmic augmentation (dotted quarter to eighth note). The above similarites, presented in Examples 2.0 and 2.1 below, indicate that there is a strong possibility that Ives did indeed study Schumann's score of Ich Grolle Nicht. XCH M f lU E NICHT, WND w£NN M S HEAZ- AVCH BAICHTj E-W lfr VER-LOR'-NES UEB E -W lfr VER-LOR'- N£S U£8 XCH US nicht! L£ NICHT, Example 2.0. Schumann, "Ich Grolle Nicht" 5 £ '• I ch GAdl- lE nicht und wenn m s H£AZ a u c h GAic HT E - Wlfr UCA-LOR'-NEJ Lise! £ - Wifi- VSR - t OR1 -NES Lies! ICH D GAb l - u E n ic h t I ch g a o l - - l £ n ic h t . Example 2.1. Ives, "Ich Grolle Nicht," From: 114 Songs, Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright Renewed. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 21 The static nature of the melody in both settings of Ich Grolle Nicht is another reason why a relationship ex ists between the two settings. Aside from the pattern of three repeated notes which both composers use to set the same words, neither composer chose to set the text with a lyrical melody in an extended range. Whenever either com poser writes a leap into the melody, he usually returns immediately to the same pitch level which preceded that leap. With Ives, that means leaping away from and back to F# (mm.7-15). Schumann's first four measures of melody sets the pattern for the melodic material in his setting. Notice how he focuses on the pitches Eb and D. Measures 7-9 pro vide the only relief from the static character of the first verse. Apparently, both composers felt that this type of melody would be appropriate for setting a text which deals with dejection resulting from a broken heart. Measures 36-39 of Ives's Ich Grolle Nicht shows most clearly why I believe that his compositional abilities had greatly evolved between the time of November 1897 (Feldeinsamkeit) and March 1898 (Ich Grolle Nicht). Exam ple 2.2 shows how Ives varies the second verse by changing the static and clearly delineated phrases of the first verse to a more flowing "unending melody" with phrase elisions, extreme chromaticism, and a brief tonicization of Bb. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 22 W -v n N5 R a u - m E , u«D s a H e ie r j ’ v 3t H E R ! - - EKS R a u -M E , uND SaH DIE SffHLAN^' DIE DIR A M n a . . r m *? f *H~ Vi ff a w 3. -ft ft--Jftft 1^ J# H E M - - EN PRlfifT, ICH JAH; MEIN L lE I, 51= T» m r Example 2.2. Ives, "Ich Grolle Nicht," From: 114 Songs, Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Ives's use of chromaticism and dissonance appear to suit this text of sadness and discontent. Examples 2.3 and 2.4 show how Ives frequently leaves dissonance unresolved. Both of these examples show how he used "color chords" for the sake of expressing the mood, much in the way Monteverdi three hundred years earlier had argued in favor of unre solved sevenths and ninths if they were necessitated by the mood of the text (Seconds prattics). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 23 Example 2.3. Ives, "Ich Grolle Nicht," From: 114 Songs, Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. 5---\ - r ,-------to h h — i~-fy to-l-~~..— 6 - - W U M I O' V --- Y £11 - - Y = k=3i L e ft' - - NES Ltea! Ich 6K0L - - l£ NICHT - P i h - F = l — =i H H s .i lr- 4 — ^ ■ -~ J i :1 1 - - - - - - --- i---j---- t J t e f ■ - ■ d — L $ .: r 3. J. "T T Example 2.4. Ives, "Ich Grolle Nicht," From: 114 Songs, Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. The chords in the above examples could be interpreted as contrapuntal extrapolations if one were to explain the song in terms of Schenkerian linear analysis. Example 2.3 is a two-bar progression which occurs seven times in the accom paniment of Ich Grolle Nicht. The degree of dissonance in this progression reaches its height during the seventh Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 24 occurrence, when Ives adds a ninth to the "color chord" on the downbeat (A# in the upper voice of the piano) and a sixth to the E major7 chord. These dissonances, resolved or unresolved, are appropriate for a text with such lines as, "a snake on the heart doth gnaw". Schumann also uses dissonances (in the form of major seventh harmonies and ninths), but they are resolved in the traditional manner of the nineteenth century. In Example 2.3, the B# is left unresolved while the Cx does indeed resolve upward to D# in the next measure. In Example 2.4 the bass A# resolves down to B through register transfer, but the Fx is left unre solved. In terms of its function, this passage contains an A# dim.7 chord resolving to a B maj. dominant harmony. How ever, this diminished seventh chord is spelled incorrectly as Fx dim. 7. Why Ives chooses this spelling remains a mystery. An explanation based on practicality is not appli cable in this example. Ives was probably also familiar with Franz Schubert's setting of Rosamunde, which is also known as Romanze aus dem Schauspiel "Rosamunde," before writing his own setting. Schubert used a German text, and Ives chose to use a French text. Like Schubert, Ives also wrote his Rosamunde (De la drama: Rosamunde) in a compound meter. Schubert's version is written in 6/8 and Ives's song attains a similar metric feel, but in 9/8. This is one primary reason why it seems likely that Ives studied Schubert's score. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 25 It appears that Ives attempted to imitate Schubert's often employed technique of parallel mode shifting. Schu bert greatly favored this technique in many of his works and the resulting "borrowed chords" became a natural con comitant of this stylistic choice. Schubert's setting is in a strophic design. Each verse is actually an asymmetri cal period with an antecedent and a two-phrase consequent. The introductory phrase for the accompanist which precedes the first verse is written in F major, but the key signa ture is written as F minor. The three phrases of the period which constitute Verse I present the following tonal plan. The antecedent phrase begins in F minor and modulates to the relative major key (Ab), in which it cadences on the dominant. Consequent phrase #1 continues in Ab major, modulates back to F minor, and cadences in F major. Conse quent phrase #2 sets the same text as in the preceding phrase, and thus, may be considered a varied repeat of Consequent phrase #1. This final phrase of the period is entirely in the tonic major mode, as is the instrumental coda of the song which serves to balance the introduction's mode. Two instances of Ives's use of modal mixture in Rosa munde appear in Examples 3.0 and 3.1. In the former exam ple (mm.8-10), Ives shifts to the parallel minor mode (G minor). This results in two "borrowed harmonies" - one built on the flatted sixth scale step and the other on the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 26 minor tonic triad. The next example (mm. 11-14) shows a shift from a C Lydian mode (note the F# in the vocal part), to the C minor mode (mm. 13-14). Such activity results in several cross relations. This effect occurs most notice ably between the B-natural in the bass followed by the B-flats in the vocal line and the top line of the piano: Example 3.0. Ives, "Rosamunde," From: 114 Songs, Copyright 1955, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. POM ACCtL. m ii En VAlM FLEURlT l£ &6UX PMK-TEmM Toi/T FlCR &£ S A _ SA— PA -R il-A E: w y v p fi .x ^ 1 j M J W H ■ I'M* ---1 -f;- J F W >f- £ Example 3.1. Ives, "Rosamunde," From: 114 Songs, Copyright 1955, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 27 Also, like Schubert, Ives makes frequent use of tonic pedal technique in Rosamunde. Three-fourths of the phrases in Schubert's song begin with an F pedal in the bass last ing for nearly three measures. Ives begins his Rosamunde with a G pedal in the bass lasting for six consecutive mea sures. See Example 3.2 below; Ives dresses up the simplicity of the bass with a portent of his later harmonic language - the clusters in the upper voices. The repeated harmony consisting of C, D, and E in Example 3.2 points to Ives's future emphasis on cluster chords, secundal harmonies, and added-note chords. The note C is the added 11th above the G pedal here. It is not unusual to see added elevenths in his songs composed during the late 1890's. Ich Grolle Nicht contains a dominant triad with an added eleventh in the introduction and Rosa munde 's central (B) section exhibits two dominant seventh Andante Example 3.2. Ives, "Rosamunde," From: 114 Songs, Copyright 1955 Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 28 chords with raised elevenths. In fact, these two D7 (#11) chords are the only two dominant seventh harmonies in the entire song and both do not actually resolve to the tonic. There are no authentic (V-I) cadences in the tonic key anywhere in this song. Instead, Ives places much emphasis on the subdominant key of C major (with mode shifting through C Lydian and minor) and he includes several plagal cadences in G major. In Schenkerian terms, this results in A the lack of a 2, due to the omitted structural dominant: /S ,A A A .A .A h >3 W M to to = J J L * —fHAWKtiZ----- cP ma 8 IX 1 9 1 1 V> XI Vb X ft lb M«) t ft ( d ) i * f »=' >r n — The shifting of mode affects the Urlinie of Ives's Rosa- A munde in measures 8 and 26. The remaining b3 of m.15 re sults from a dominant ninth chord built on the flatted tonic (Gb9) which resolves by authentic cadence to the flatted subdominant key. So much emphasis is put on the subdominant in this song, that the retransitional measure leading back to the A section fools the listener into thinking that the original melody will return in that key. Ives accomplishes this trick by writing a fully diminished seventh chord on B (vii7/IV) as the very last harmony Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 29 before the return of A. On the whole, these harmonic sur prises make Ives's Rosamunde an interesting model work from 1898 pointing to a future of creative iconoclasm. It is my opinion that 1898 was a very important year for Ives as a composer. Many songs from that year show an increasing sense of originality. In 1900, Ives wrote a lullaby entitled Wiegenlied which was retitled Berceuse, and was later published in his collection of 114 Songs. Ives graduated from Yale two years prior to its completion, yet it appears that he still probably studied the score of the famous Wiegenlied by Jo hannes Brahms, owing to certain structural similarities. Such similarities include a phrase design of abcc' and an oscillating ostinato accompaniment, a text painting proce dure which depicts the rocking motion of a cradle. Masse net's Berceuse may also be compared to Ives's Berceuse since several respected musicians of the twentieth century, including Aaron Copland,20 have noted this French compo ser's possible influence on Ives. Indeed, Ives's choice of harmonic structures and their voicing in Berceuse do resem ble those of Massenet's lullaby. These three lullabies by Ives, Brahms, and Massenet set different texts, however, the common goal for each composer was to write a song which would lull a child to sleep. Simplicity is the basis of all three lullabies. Ives and Massenet dress up this simplicity harmonically through Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 30 added-note chords and touches of chromaticism, in contrast, Brahms emphasizes rhythm by composing a quite syncopated accompaniment. All the songs have melodies which exhibit a clarity of structure as seen in Examples 4.0, 4.1, and 4.2: ' — a ^ ^ .. T M.i f l l [ J m piip Example 4.0. Brahms, "Wiegenlied" m .: F c Example 4.1 Ives, "Berceuse," From: 114 Songs, Copyright 1958, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. J ? I T 7 I Example 4.2. Massenet, "Berceuse" The Brahms and Ives examples present the entire vocal part. The Massenet example shows only the first section of the first verse. All three examples contain unambiguous period structure. Massenet opens his lullaby with a period of parallel construction (mm.5-12). He achieves simplicity through repetition and balance. Brahms and Ives both use a phrase structure of a b c c ', yet the periodic designs occur in different places. In the Brahms example, phrases a and b form the period, and phrases c and c' add additional material which is stated and then varied. Ives also re peats his third phrase (c), however, the entire lullaby forms his period structure: two antecedent phrases, a and b, are followed by the consequent and its varied repeti tion (phrases c and c '). Chromaticism is kept at a bare minimum in Brahms's Wiegenlied. Only two Db accidentals are introduced to cre ate secondary dominants (V7/IV) which predictably resolve Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to the subdominant. Massenet and Ives take a different approach to the lullaby. They choose to color their simple melodies with chromaticism. For example, Massenet's second verse opens, like the first, with a period of parallel con struction, yet his melody (seen in Example 4.2) is varied and reharmonized so that a modulation to G minor occurs. Ives's Berceuse never modulates, but once again he employs the technique of parallel mode shifting by oscillating be tween E-natural and E-sharp during tonic chords. Like Brahms, all his secondary dominants resolve to the subdomi nant. Both Ives and Massenet like the sound of chords with an added ninth. Massenet opens his introduction and all the xnt erludes between the strophes with the same fifth chord: Eb-Bb-F. In the case of Ives, every half or authen tic cadence in his lullaby contains a dominant ninth. An additional common feature between these two composers' lullabies is the use of an open fifth in the bass which serves as part of an ostinato figure. Both composers choose to voice nearly all of their Berceuse harmonies with the bottom two voices forming this fifth which ascends and descends in parallel motion. Chords voiced in fifths and fourths which move in parallel motion become an increas ingly common occurrence in Ives's songs after the turn of the century. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 33 The Old Mother was written the same year that Ives en tered Yale (1894), despite its given date of composition in the 114 song collection (1900).21 Grieg first set this text by the nationalistic peasant poet, A.O. Vinje, in 1873 and titled it, Gamle Mor. Vinje was one of the chief champions o of the Landsmal language - a literary language based on dialect and Old Norse. The passionate nationalism of this dialect appealed to Grieg who was in favor of breaking free from Germanic literary and musical dominance.22 ives shared this desire and became a model for the emerging national istic attitude of many American composers. Edvard Grieg's setting of The Old Mother preserves true folk song form through its strophic design. In contrast, Ives chooses a continuous rounded binary design. One notable difference between the Grieg and Ives set tings is the choice of mode. Grieg's setting was origi nally written in B minor and there is also a published ver sion in A minor. Ives sets the same text in G major, how ever, the minor mode built on the leading-tone (F#) is the tonal focus of the central section. Also, the closing ca dence of Ives's coda ends on the mediant minor triad (B minor). This mediant substitutes for tonic function and is immediately preceded by the tonic note in the bass for an added sense of resolution. (See Example 5.0.). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 34 # MtfT-TCR ia+~'k. 43 m ' & z Example 5.0. Ives, "The Old Mother," (Coda) From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1958, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. Grieg also attains an impression of colorful modal variety by briefly modulating to the relative major key. His song has three verses, each consisting of thirteen measures in an asymmetrical period (antecedent and a two-phrase conse quent). His modulation to the relative major occurs just after the half cadence. Examples 5.1 and 5.2, respectively, show the first phrases of Ives's A and B sections. The F# minor mode of Section B is reserved for the lines of the text expressing 'childish tears' and 'sore distress'. The descending chro matic scale forming the vocal line paints an aura of pathos and renders the B section distinct in mood. Tonicization of the leading-tone key is in general an unusual feature, but not so in Ives's music, particularly the songs. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 35 £ /Section A p - I f ' - U J ' J , pi Du A t - r e Mutter B ifffs A R M .und Sshaffbt I m SotweiJf w£ 0tur. _ 9 IM 5CMW6ISS. ’ • * * ij*, • • . t ____ mm HI Example 5.1. Ives, "The Old Mother," From: 114 Songs, Copyright 1958, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. Du— tfllCHTMT AB DIE THRANE MElN.WARS Mlft IM HERZEN 0ANIr. UHD n f ' C i £ ± O . * r \ O 1 Example 5.2. Ives, "The Old Mother," From: 114 Songs, Copyright 1958, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. The Old Mother is the first song discussed in this chapter in which Ives so completely departs from the style of the supposed model setting by the 'master.' The only Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 36 features shared by both composers' settings are repetition of vocal phrases and repeated accompanimental patterns - not surprising in a folk song. The areas in which the two works differ are design, choice of mode, harmonic language, remoteness of tonal excursions, and text painting proce dures. Grieg's work is just a simple thirteen-bar folk song with two written out repeats. Ives's version is much more than a folk song. It is rather, more like a miniature tone poem depicting the touching relationship between the singer and his selfless mother. Examples 5.1 and 5.2 (portions of Sections A and B in Ives's setting) purposefully differ in meter, articulation, and texture because they each describe different experi ences and emotions. The A section describes a devoted wo man who 'toils day and night.' The B section is much more sentimental and depicts a gentle soul who knows how to deal with a frightened child in tears. Both sections of Ives's song emphasize descending stepwise motion and that aspect is intensified in the B section by consecutive minor seconds. The D augmented chords (V+) with an added eleventh (Example 5.1) could rep resent the mother's strife reflected by the dissonance. These harmonic structures in Ives's A section become un stable and nonfunctional in the B section (Example 5.2). They represent a deeply unsettled child in need of comfort. The harmonies of this central section also show instability Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 37 through modal oscillation: m.16 cadences on F# minor and the next measure shifts to F# major. This section creates nonfunctional chords simply used for effect. A unique har monization of the descending chromatic scale results and a variety of chord types appear in mm.16-19, such as major, minor, diminished, augmented, and seventh chords without thirds. This is a creative and interesting work which prob ably reached its present state several years after its initial date of composition (1894). I would argue this for two reasons: 1) Ives himself gives its composition date as 1900, and 2) in my opinion, I can find no comparable songs of this quality in the Ives repertoire prior to 1897. Qu'il m'irait bien (1901), Elegie (1901), Chanson de Florian (1901), and Weil' auf mir (1902) show Ives working without a model composition. All were composed after the turn of the century, and each song presents a mixture of traditional and experimental features. Qu'il m'irait bien exhibits several traditional technical devices used by 19th century masters of the art song. Measures 9-14 (Ex. 6.0) contain prevailing root movement by fifth with secondary dominant resolutions. Measures 11-12 feature an Fb dom.7 resolving to a Bbb major triad. Ives chose to retain the visual impression of the flat key rather than to spell these harmonies in a more congenial way for the musician (E7 O A). The next two bars present a similar progression which supports the sequenced material in the vocal line: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 38 V7/vii O vii (C7 O f minor). In fact, Ives constructs much of the vocal line through motivic repetition and se quence, not unlike many 19th century art songs. Measure 10 repeats the motive of m.9, and mm. 11-13 simply present an other motive in a sequential pattern three times. Harmoni cally, Ives is not so traditional. For example, consider the accented chord of m.9 which is a V chord with both a perfect and augmented fifth, an added ninth, and no third. i j n , n ; i L£ £9EUft S A T - 1 ___ „ rflA lt MOlNS F lE R j A i n ___ ^ = f - $ = $ ■ - m _ Si t a v o ix — — i P 4 ^ — l -: o r - - * _ ' = r -. - r i ^ r ~ n V Lvty hi : f = h •f— tfm m "f .. | p a ■ m i 1 ... Si— ' * i r a > w (| ^ fZ CHE - H I - E ------ . 4 = ^— * -- EX - FAl-MAlT UH NA - M i Tf DE - S lR ,: l e - Q .. - J ) r r ± . LJ L i — t p f n Example 6.0. Ives, "Qu'il m'irait bien," From: 114 Songs, Copyright 1954, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 39 Example 7.0 presents the retransition to the A' sec tion of Elegie (mm.39-42). Traditional elements appear once again as motivic repetition is the essential feature of the vocal line: C K C ft. m ^ 7 ^ . . ~ ; n tour. a-vec toi LE &AI SS'LIIL. U S J M S m-AHTS MM. e Air. 42. 0 S O N T P A R - Tis!. Par- T/Sl C ftM M £ E H M O N C O E U R TOUT E S T ! _ re M P a Pa i m d 1 cs £i i f t l ______ m m I* w ... W f !♦! 1*1 tj tra -d' Example 7.0. Ives, "Elegie," From: 114 Songs, Copyright 1956, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. Measure 39 presents a descending stepwise three-note motive attached to a triplet figure. The next bar (m.40) simply repeats this material, but m.41 drops the triplet figure and transforms the three-note motive. It is rhythmically Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. condensed so that it appears twice in that single measure. This same motive occurs one last time in rhythmic augmen tation during the last measure of the retransition (m.42) which helps to give a feeling of expectation just before the return of A ' . Typically for Ives, an unadorned V7 is too plain for the retransitional dominant, so he instead uses a V9(+5) to return to the I maj.7 (m.43) voiced with low open fifths, a technique seen before in his Berceuse. Chanson de Florian contains one of the earliest ex amples of the whole-tone scale in an Ives song (Ex. 8.0). It appears in the bass-line: C'EST MON A - - M l REM 0 E Z LE MO I t JAI Son a - m o u R Example 8.0. Ives, "Chanson de Florian," From: 114 Songs Copyright 1950, Mercury Music, Inc. Copyright Renewed. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 41 Neil' auf mir (Ex. 9.0) features something rare in a tonal Ives song - avoidance of the tonic area at the start: Me&ERATO JoiTfiNUTO Weil Mf 1 £ V f V /"Sp -- J j-- -. j - 1 ---- 4 „ - Lp--- --# - — t — ^ M IR, B l)____ ' i-k k k --------------------1 ------------- b - J r — J - T - l f = B u M * • • LES A u j - ^ ---------- 4 ----------1 — j . i *----- f * l r 4 pv-/ L L l d L L L P f — ■mi1 F F &AH - Z£ /M ACHT, Example 9.0. Ives, "Weil' auf mir," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1955, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Example 9.0 (mm.1-9) clearly places both the vocal melody and the accompaniment in the subdominant area, due to the repeated use of Cb through the first five measures. The appearance of an Ab dom9 in m.6 is the first actual indica tion of the true tonic (Db major). This chapter has attempted to show similarities and differences between Ives's art songs (or "studies" as he called them) and those famed nineteenth century European examples of this genre which in all likelihood served as his models. Ives tried to retain the characteristic style of some compositions by imitating their motivic fragments or by using similar textures in the accompaniment. While Ives did borrow some compositional elements from these art song composers, his innovative spirit took the genre a step further in the areas of harmonic structure, tonal excur sions, and the treatment of nonharmonic dissonance. By doing so, he provided us a glimpse of his emerging, more iconoclastic nature. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 43 Notes to Chapter 1 1. Alexander, Michael J. The Evolving Keyboard Style of Charles Ives (from Outstanding Dissertations in Music From British Universities). New York and London: Gar land Publishing, Inc. 1989. p.22. 2. Cowell, Henry and Cowell, Sidney. Charles Ives and His Music. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1955. p.23. 3. Osterweis, Rollin G. Three Centuries of New Haven, 1638-1938. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953. p.347. 4. Wooldridge, David. Charles Ives: A Portrait. London: Faber and Faber, 1975. p.89. 5. Hitchcock, Wiley H. Ives. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1977. p.21. 6. Ives, Charles E. 114 Songs, p.192. 7. Wooldridge, p.88. 8. Wooldridge, pp.88-89. 9. de Lerma, Dominique-Rene. Charles Edward Ives, 1874- 1954: A Bibliography of His Music. Indiana University: The Kent State University Press, 1970. pp.172-175. 10. Baron, Carol K. "Dating Charles Ives's Music: Facts and Fictions," Perspectives of New Music. Vol.28, No.l, Winter 1990. 11. Solomon, Maynard. "Charles Ives: Some Questions of Veracity," Journal of the American Musicological Society. Vol.XL, No.3, Fall 1987. 12. Copland, Aaron. "One Hundred and Fourteen Songs," Mod ern Music. Vol.XI, No.2, January-February 1934. p.62. 13. Kirkpatrick, John. A Temporary Mimeographed Catalogue of the Music Manuscripts of Charles Edward Ives. (Com piled by John Kirkpatrick), New Haven: Library of the School of Music, 1960. p.175. 14. Cowell, p.33. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 44 15. Stevenson, Robert. Protestant Church Music in America. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1966. p.119. 16. Smith, David Stanley. "A Study of Horatio Parker," The Musical Quarterly.Vol.XVI, No.2, April 1930. p.158. 17. Parker-Semler,Isabel. Horatio Parker. New York: Da Capo Press, 1973. p.92. 18. Evans, Edwin. Handbook to the Vocal Works of Brahms. London: W. Reeves Co., 1912. p.390. 19. Bell, A. Craig. The Lieder of Brahms. Yorkshire, Eng land: The Grian-Aig Press, 1979. p.4. 20. Copland, Aaron. "One Hundred and Fourteen Songs," Mod ern Music. Vol.XI, No.2, January-February 1934. p.62. 21. de Lerma, Dominique-Rene. Charles Edward Ives, 1874- 1954: A Bibliography of His Music. Indiana University: The Kent State University Press, 1970. p.172. 22. Desmond, Astra. "The Songs" in Grieg: A Symposium. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press Publishers. 1948. p.72. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 45 Sacred §>ongs Ives's wholehearted dedication to Christian ethics permeates much of his repertoire and his writings about mu sic. Regarding his published songs, I have determined that twenty-two works may be classified as essentially sacred in nature and they are the subject for discussion in this chapter. Ives held the hope that mankind would eventually evolve societially into finely tuned machines which would be able to function with little inequity or avarice. Ives identified himself with the movement of social Christianity because he viewed society as making a meaningful progression towards 'the good life' and not as a facade masking the ineptitude, cruelty, and avarice of man. . . The progress ultimately aimed at a utopian state of Christian socialism whose chief points were its democratic ideals, its communistic features, and its religious basis.1 Ives was exposed to the sacred compositional styles of numerous composers when he worked as a church organist for three different Protestant denominations while still in his Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. teens. "In 1888 as 'the youngest organist in the state' at the age of fifteen, Ives performed either as a locum or full-timer at various Danbury churches."2 His early anthems reflect various influences which are stylistically restric tive. Such influences include Protestant hymns and gospel songs sung at either camp meetings or church, and church anthems by well-respected composers such as Dudley Buck who wrote in the 'post-Mendelssohn' style.3 Evidence of Ives's superior abilities as an organist may be drawn from the fact that he became the organist at the New Haven Center Church, succeeding Harry Jepson, who was the organ instruc tor at Yale. Ives received much encouragement during this appointment from Dr. John Cornelius Griggs (1865-1932), the choirmaster and baritone soloist there. This helped to make up for the lack of approval he received from Parker, since Ives held this post during his four years at Yale.4 Despite his success and approval as a professional perfor mer of sacred works, the church-going public seemed to sti fle his penchant for stretching his listeners' ears: We find a key to Ives's frustration and isolation not in the carpings of critics, professors, or per formers, but in his own reticence as a professional church musician: '... to a body of people who come together to worship - how far has a man a right to do what he wants, if he knows that by so doing he is interfering with the state of mind of the lis teners, who have to listen regardless, and are help less not to?5 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 47 Harmony Ives, Charles's wife, was also intimately con nected to church service duties at a young age because her father was a well-respected minister. So, it is not sur prising that Charles and Harmony attended church together regularly during their mature lives. Harmony had great appreciation for the way in which her husband showed his evangelistic spirit in his music. "His music and writings are both full of religious references, and the context is most often respectful and reverent, so long as one does not take automatic offense when a hymn is subjected to varia tions that might not appeal to the average parishioner."6 Ives's fervent religious feelings are conveyed to us through his quoting of over fifty different hymn tunes according to John Kirkpatrick's "Index of Tunes."7 After analyzing twenty-two sacred songs by Charles Ives, I have observed that the unconventional way in which Ives often transforms and harmonizes these borrowed hymn tunes is matched by an equally traditional approach to the construction of simultaneities or chords. By this, I mean to say that the harmonies in his sacred songs, although frequently nonfunctional, are indeed for the most part, tertian. One also observes added-note chords and frequent polychords. There are also infrequent appearances of quar- tal harmonies in some of his sacred songs. Because of this, I find that the classification of simultaneities in the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 48 general theories of atonality (ie., The Structure of Atonal Music by Allen Forte and Basic Atonal Theory by John Rahn) to be of little use in the sacred songs of Charles Ives. This theory will, however, be quite useful and necessary in later chapters of this dissertation. Ives was interested in the American Transcendentalist Movement and employed many of its ideals in his songs. But, transcendentalism is not an organized religion. It is a statement of one's spirituality - a love of the oneness of God (or Tao, Buddha, etc.), nature, and mankind, which may be expressed without the artificiality of conventional rules. Therefore, a discussion of Ives's ties to transcen dental philosophy will more correctly appear in the next chapter which deals with songs that glorify nature and its bond with the Creator and man. Another transcendentalist composer, John Cage, saw clearly this spirituality in Ives's music when he wrote, "His contribution to American music was in every sense not only spiritual, but also con cretely musical."8 Rock of Ages (1889-92?) and Abide With Me (1890) were written several years before Ives entered Yale. One sees in these two works the harmonic self-restraint mentioned above. It is apparent when viewing these songs that Ives's harmonic language around 1890 was deeply influenced by the Victorian chromatic style. The melodic structures of both of these songs contain chromatic motives which recur at Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 49 frequent intervals. For example, the harmonization of Rock of Ages uses the raised supertonic tone in the vocal melody while Abide With Me employs the raised submediant in its vocal line three times in the course of its nineteen mea sures. Sometimes Ives harmonizes these chromatic tones by adding a secondary chromatic line which moves along in parallel motion with the principle chromatic line. Such resolution of dissonance is, perhaps,reminiscent of barber shop quartet harmonization which was popular during this era. Ives's early melodies are often built from pattern repetition. Measure 1 of the vocal melody of Rock of Ages serves as a motive which returns several times throughout the piano accompaniment and the vocal part. A contrasting motive which closes the A section (A major), also closes the central B section (D major), and as in rhyming fash ion, it is transposed up a perfect fourth. Finally, the B section consists of an eight-bar vocal melody which is soon repeated. In order to slightly vary this repetition, the accompaniment brings in a derivative countermelody, which appears above the voice. Repetition in Abide With Me occurs in two ways. First, the chromatic motive (raised submedi ant mentioned above) serves to close three out of the four phrases which comprise the vocal melody. Second, the accompaniment repeats single measures at places where the vocal line does not repeat material. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 50 The harmonization of Rock of Ages (A major) and Abide With Me (G major) is quite tame by comparison with the European art songs reviewed in Chapter 1. Here, secondary dominants always point to closely related keys. Both of these songs emphasize the subdominant. Rock of Ages modu lates to IV for its central section and, although Abide With Me never modulates, it does repeat a G7 chord with a flatted ninth (V7 of IV) through most of the third phrase and this is followed by a rather colorful dominant seventh harmony - D7 with a flatted thirteenth. Additionally, Ives also makes use of 'borrowed' harmonies freely during these early years and he uses them in both sacred and secular songs. This often results in colorful third relations - as in Rock of Ages where Ives (in the key of A major) places naturals before the F and C, thus, creating an F major triad (VI) which he inserts between two statements of the tonic triad. Far From My Heav'nly Home (1890-92) is one of the early church solos which Ives composed for services at the Danbury Baptist church. He chose not to include it in his collection of 114 Songs (1922). The text affirms one's faith in a glorious afterlife as the soul yearns to reach "the saints' abode." The accompaniment reflects a tradi tional hymn in its four-part chorale style harmonization as seen in Example 10.0: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 51 AmaMT£ p r T .. | - = 1 = I t H— lr 5 ---- 1 — I — F^~ sP M* ■ r- i — M # = = l fT_ bP-^Z------Z=Z* * * r I b - f— I4n - | - f - H ___J--— ■ ^ F F - f T ~ 1 Pa h faomam heav'n- lh h o m e, F a r M om ms Fa - th er'S' breast,, ft Fa iH-TiNS-.X CAS,BlEST JPlRlT, C»ME,_ BlEST SPlAlT, C omS, BlEST iP )A i r t COME Example 10.0. Ives, "Far From My Heav'nly Home," From: Eleven Songs and Two Harmonizations. Copyright 1968, Associated Music Publishers, Inc. Reprinted by Permission of Associated Music Publishers, Inc. (BMI) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. These four parts are expanded to fuller chordal textures in the accompaniment during the second major structural part. Ives's later songs tend to avoid the use of such long stretches of chordal accompaniment. A slight amount of polyphonic texture appears in this song in measure 1 where the principle thematic motive (dotted eighth, six teenth, quarter note, beats 2 and 3) occurs in varied imi tation. (See Ex. 10.0, left hand of the piano, m.l, tenor voice.) The phrase structure is extremely traditional. For example, following a four-measure introduction, one may view the entire A section as a perfect period. The half cadence is quite strong, and is stressed by the breath mark in the score. The closure of the consequent is a perfect authentic cadence in the tonic area of Bb, creating a sec tional (or closed) design for the piece. The B section tonicizes the relative minor tonal area of G minor. The remainder of the piece is simply a repeat of both the A and B sections followed by the coda. Therefore, the de sign of this song is a traditional sectional binary plan with the repeat written out. The first phrase in the B section also uses the period phrase structure, however, this time the consequent does modulate from G minor back to the home key of Bb major. Phrase repetition also appears as part of the construction process; the most obvious ex ample occurs at the repetition of the words: "My heart, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 53 O Zion, droops and yearns, When I remember thee." Perhaps The word "remember'-' stimulated Ives to employ the phrase repetition as text painting. The melodic structure of this song features highly organic motivic processes. There are two important motives in this song: the first was mentioned above (m.l, beats 2 and 3 in the right hand); and the second motive first appears in mm.8-9 in the vocal line (descending perfect fourth followed by an ascending whole step). These motives are used in inversion. In measure 5, motive "a" reappears and it is sequenced up a third in the next measure. The sequencing of motive "a" also appears in the final four-bar phrase of Section A. When motive "b" is sequenced down a whole step (mm.8-10, G-D-E to F-C-D) the rhythm is altered, thus differing the treatment from that of the "a" motive. Harmonically, this early Ives song is rather pre dictable. The tonal plan uses a simple modulation to a closely related key (the relative minor in the B section). Harmonies are tertian and 'functional'. There is little harmonic variety, since the bulk of the harmonies used are either I or V. The tertian harmonies are, however, more sophisticated than simple triads and dominant seventh chords. Major-seventh chords appear frequently in the song and a dominant seventh chord with a flatted ninth (F7b9) also occurs. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 54 An overview of Ives's songs reveals that he preferred syllabic settings of texts. This practice is observable in the early works, like the present song under discussion, but it also dominates the later works. The longest mel- isma in Far From My Heav'nly Home appears near the end of the repeat of the A section. Here two melismas of only three notes occur during the words "home" and "last." Long melismas are infrequent in the vocal repertoire of Ives. Song for Harvest Season(1894), written during Charles's first year at Yale,illustrates a prophetic glimpse of poly tonality, even before its use by Stravinsky and Milhaud.9 (Stravinsky's Petrouchka was written 1911.) This early work utilizes four-voice counterpoint. It is scored for solo voice accompanied by either organ or brass trio (cor net, trombone, and tuba). Ives places the adjacent voices in keys a perfect fourth apart for the duration of the com position. The bass, tenor, alto, and soprano voices are respectively in C, F, Bb, and Eb major. Ives used polytonality in many compositions as one means of bringing to life the heartfelt memories of his youth. For example, Ives "tried to recreate in his music the sights and sounds of his hometown, particularly the bands which, at carnival time, used to play different music simultaneously in all four corners of the town square."io Charles's father also inspired an interest in polytonal Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 55 experiments: "When Charles was ten his father had him sing Swanee River in the key of Eb major while playing the ac companiment in the key of C major."11 Ives thought that this type of musical technique posed a healthy challenge for one's ears and when he heard such experimentation branded as musical nonsense, he would simply tell the lis teners that their "ears were on wrong. Song for Harvest Season has been called a 'fugue in four keys' by numerous sources, including Ives himself. Yet it is not an academic examination fugue because it lacks an alternation of statements of the subject and episodes. It opens with strict fugal imitation and then continues with a good amount of free counterpoint. There is also no consis tent countersubject material to be counterpointed with the subject. The song opens with the imitation at the time in terval of one measure. After that, nearly the rest of the song employs free counterpoint in all four voices which re sembles motives derived from the subject, most notably a descending major seventh leap from the tonic note down to the flatted supertonic. This note then resolves downward by half step. Ives presents the subject again, without imitative techniques, during the final four measures of the vocal line. Here, the 1 and 1/2 measure subject appears twice. It first occurs with rhythmic alterations and octave displacement. (The previously downward-resolving flatted supertonic now resolves upward by major seventh.) The Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 56 second appearance reassigns its original rhythmic values. Therefore, the complete statements serve as a frame for the piece. Most of the occurring harmonies are the coincidental result of the independent four-voice contrapuntal lines. However, it is obvious that Ives did try to retain tertian consonance on the downbeats of most of the twenty-one mea sures. For example, the second voice (tenor) first enters (m.2 downbeat) by creating a major tenth with the first voice (bass). The third voice (alto) enters next as the highest note of a D-augmented triad (m.3 downbeat).Finally, the fourth voice (vocal line) enters on a G-augmented chord as all four voices are sounded together for the first time (m.4 downbeat). Ives's collection of 114 Songs gives no date of compo sition for A Christmas Carol, however, some sources suggest a date of 1898.13 This work in F major presents Ives at his most diatonic. There is only a single chromatic alteration in the course of its eighteen measures, and the note, Eb, results in a V7/IV which then resolves indirectly to a IV major7. This song was probably written for an amateur vocalist, since the vocal line is consistently doubled in the highest voice in the piano until the final three mea sures, where all the singer has to do is repeat the tonic note five times. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 57 The harmonic progressions and the formal design of this carol are extremely simple. The harmonic rhythm is slow, changing once per measure. The final harmonic pro gression is based on the circle of fifths: vi Q ii7 O V7 O I. The design consists of one impure period in F major followed by a pure period which closes the song with a prolonged tonic. Syncopation is perhaps the primary technical feature of this composition. Ives makes the most of it during the final three measures of tonic prolonga tion. In 6/8 he stresses the second half of beats 2 and 5 in the bass notes of the piano. The upper accompanimental voices receive their stresses on beats 3 and 6 which are tied over into the next strong beat. Ives's collection of 114 songs contains two works which are adaptations of sections from his cantata, The Celestial Country (1898-99). Naught that Country Needeth (1899) for baritone and Forward into Light (1898) for tenor or soprano, appear respectively as numbers 98 and 99 in that collection. The cantata was premiered on April 18th, 1902 at the Central Presbyterian Church in New York. The published score contains five polytonal sections which some musicologists believe were added as an afterthought, years after the true date of composition. This is suspected because they stand in marked contrast to the general late 19th century conservatism of the rest of the cantata.14 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 58 As Maynard Solomon's 1987 article, "Charles Ives: Some Questions of Veracity" points out: Between 1929 and 1950 the composer prepared nine separate lists of his works, painstakingly setting forth his claims as to when they were composed. . . however, unlike Schubert, who so conveniently noted on his manuscripts the dates of the commencement and/or completion of works, Ives added many of his notations retrospectively and often these entries are self-serving, in conflict with other datings, or patently false.15 During the late 1920's and thereafter, Ives changed the harmonic content of many works by increasing the level of dissonance. For example, he changed octaves into sev enths or ninths. Thus, the actual dates of the more tech nically innovative versions of many works are later than those provided by Ives.16 The Celestial Country is just as stylistically conser vative as Horatio Parker's oratorio, Hora Novissima (1892) or the Romantic choral works of Brahms. This cantata "was reviewed favourably; nevertheless, it was not the kind of music that Ives really wanted to write, and he turned his back on both the choral cantata genre and its conventional style."17 The style of The Celestial Country is also simi lar to that of American composer, Dudley Buck's choral works. "Dudley Buck is known to have influenced Ives, since Ives refers in one of his lists of compositions to 'about 20-25 Anthems, responses, and hymn-anthems (alia Harry Rowe Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 59 Shelley and Dudley Buck).'"is By the time Ives was com posing his cantata, Parker's oratorio had gained interna tional recognition and won him the reputation of "the most brilliant young composer on the American scene."is Perhaps all the accolades received by Parker on account of his successful Hora Novissima inspired his student to take on the same type of project. The Bb major baritone aria, Naught that Country Need- eth, opens with a contrapuntal instrumental introduction of seven measures. Many of the polyphonic lines within this texture are ascending and descending scale-like figures colored by chromatic alterations. This rising chromatic motive continues to be featured throughout the aria in both the vocal line and accompanimental part. The aria is mo- tivically constructed (organic) due to its strong reliance on this motive, as well as on a second motive (this one diatonic) formed by the first four notes of the vocal mel ody. The diatonic motive occurs eight times in the course of the aria with transpositions to various pitch levels. It appears at the tonic level in the introduction and when it is sung for the first time. Shortly thereafter in the A section, the diatonic Bb major motive appears one whole step higher during a brief phrase where Ives emphasizes the supertonic (C minor) by employing its applied dominant: ii7 O V7/ii O ii. Ives also transposes the diatonic mo Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 60 tive down a minor third, where it could function in the key of G, however, it is instead harmonized in the relative mi nor of that key - E minor. The B section presents a thema tically different situation, and thus, does not make use of the diatonic motive. However, the chromatic motive men tioned above does consistently appear in the B section's vocal line. The A section returns by announcing the dia tonic motive at the tonic level once again. Then the coda presents it three times in succession without alterations. The traditional aspects of this aria include the use of quasi recitative phrases in the A' section (repeated, chanting tone effect), employment of turns which also cre ate a 19th century flavor, and traditional contrapuntal techniques. Also, his harmonic language here is extremely conservative when one compares this work to the other works that Ives wrote by 1899. He uses no dominant ninth chords. All of the briefly occurring ninths in this aria are easily read as passing or neighboring tones. This was not the case in the earlier Lieder which he had written for Par ker's class. Much of this aria sounds similar to the vocal works of Schubert. The B section which opens in G minor (submediant),later utilizes mode shifting into the parallel major just before the return of Section A. The blatant use of the third relation during the two quasi recitative phra ses (in the A' section) reminds one of Schubert. For Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 61 instance, the chordal texture of the piano here sounds the following chord succession: C minor C> &7 O F#7. The G major aria for tenor (or soprano), Forward into Light, is unusual for Ives, since it features melismatic writing. Although three and four-note melismas are rare in Ives's songs, this aria makes extensive use of them. The A section uses a four-note melisma on "Jesus." The B sec tion displays a three-note melisma during the word "heal ing." Frequent two and three-note melismas appear until the climax point (eight measures from the end). At the climax, the most important three-note melisma in the aria occurs on the highest note of the vocal part(high A) under scoring the word "faith." Ives shows off his adeptness at text painting in Where the Eagle (1900). This text by M.P. Turnbull describes a location where "in everlasting rest, dwell those saints whom Death hath blest." Here the sun glows "very, very far below." His setting paints the picture of a place "where the eagle cannot see" and "the cold winds can never be" and he also uses imagery, explained below, which depicts a sec ond domain, that of an eagle in flight - far above. The lower domain is musically depicted during the words "far below." Here the vocal part chromatically de scends within its lowest register. It is accompanied by parallel, chromatically descending perfect fourths in the highest voices of the piano. The higher domain, where the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 62 eagle flies, receives equal musical representation. The opening phrase of this song (six measures long) is a good example of this because Ives places the accompaniment en tirely in the treble clef - above the register in which the vocalist sings: "Where the eagle cannot see, Where cold winds can never be." The piano's motive in this musical stratosphere consists of a chordal texture which oscillates back and forth by step. Within this first phrase, the di rection of the accompanimental part dips slightly (by step wise motion), and then rises back up to the chord on which the song began, Ab major7 (IV maj.7). This type of high register oscillating accompaniment which gently falls and rises paints the image of a soaring eagle. As a matter of aesthetic contrast, the second phrase of the song paints a picture of the saints' domain below, through the use of descending chromatically altered scales in thirds. These These chromatic motives soon appear inverted (as rising lines) to represent the soaring eagle again. Sometimes both domains are represented together, as in the final phrase of the piano accompaniment where the stepwise, ascending thirds of the right hand rise in contrary motion to the descending thirds in the left hand. Both of these lines lead to the final tonic harmony - an Eb major triad in first inversion. The most interesting feature of The Light that is Felt (1904) is the use of hemiola. It appears in the piano part Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 63 functioning as the accompaniment to the vocalist's B major melody. The piece begins with a downward D# minor arpeggio motive of six notes which continues to repeat above a tonic/dominant low fifth pedal in the bass. Taken together, this constitutes B major7 harmony. Each repetition brings with it another rhythmic displacement. This pattern of one and one-half beats (six sixteenth notes) recurs within a 2/4 metric framework. Its first occurrence is on the sec ond half of the first beat (m.l), its second occurrence on the downbeat of the second measure, and its third displace ment occurs on the second half of the second beat(m.2),etc. A brief break from this pattern appears for the purpose of text painting the image of a child who "paused on the dark stair timidly." At this time the articulation abruptly changes to staccato and a new motive (arpeggiated fourths and fifths) now rises in contrast to the first, descending pattern. Another hemiola pattern of one and one-half beats follows this phrase. Once again it occurs above a low per fect fifth pedal - this time on the dominant (F#). Even after Ives's so-called 'atonal explosion' of 1906 he occasionally composed conservative, tonal compositions. "Ives lists pieces marked, to his mind, by such retrogres sion: For instance, some of the songs in 1908-09-10 are in this kind of a slump."20 The Waiting Soul made this list. Perhaps it was written in a less complex mode to serve as a vehicle for Harmony, "a singer of modest pretentions."2i Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Waiting Soul (in E major), composed in 1908, sets a text by poet William Cowper. The design is clearly A (E major) B (F# major C> G major C> brief area of tonal ambiguity) A' (truncated E major section). This is another organically composed work in which Ives first presents a one-measure ascending scale motive employing dotted rhythms and then uses it in both its original and inverted forms. Sometimes these forms meet one another through phrase over laps. In addition, Ives presents the original and inverted forms against one another in the vocal and accompanimental parts. Another interesting feature of the work is that the arrival of the tonic major harmony is delayed until the fi nal measure. Perhaps this idea was inspired by the song's title. The Camp-Meeting (1912) is an example of "Ives's life long practice of revising, rearranging, adapting, or recom posing earlier works. . . [this song is adapted] from vari ous parts of the Third Symphony's last movement that use the hymn tune Azmon."22 The Third Symphony (1904) eventu ally became one means by which a limited public voiced its approval of Ives. “No. 3 was heard on 12 May 1946 at a con cert devoted entirely to his music. This work brought its composer the Pulitzer Prize in 1947 and was cited for spe cial commendation by the Music Critics Circle."23 ives would probably have preferred that he be recognized for a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 65 more advanced piece, since Symphony No.3 is a relatively conservative work by his standards. Actually, Ives re ceived public encouragement even before this acclaim for Symphony No.3. His first important public recognition came in 1939, when John Kirkpatrick publicly premiered the Con cord Sonata in New York. The public responded favorably.24 Ives's use of borrowed hymn tunes was one means by which he was able to recreate scenes from his youth; scenes of hopeful worshipers, of all ages, gathered together,sing ing to God. Sometimes this becomes "a kind of reflection, remembrance, expression, etc. of the children's services at the out-door Summer camp meetings held around Danbury and in many of the farm towns in Connecticut, in the seventies, eighties and nineties."25 Ives's hymn tune songs also echo the sentiments voiced by the spiritual leaders of his youth - conservative revival preachers and modernist social gospellers: Religion in Ives' music and thought takes two forms. First, Ives reiterated the ideas and emo tionalism characteristic of revivalism. Second, Ives adopted the more sophisticated beliefs in progress and utopia of the social gospellers, for concomitant with the rise of the social gos pel were the great revivals of the 1870's and 1880's that were in essence, battles of the mod erns versus the fundamentalists. . . . And while Ives' thought reflected the theory of the social gospellers, much of his music paralleled revival sermons in rhythm, programmatic content, and aud ience response to be evoked. From this cross fire and countercurrent emerged the unevenness of much of Ives' work, echoing the revival preachers of his youth.26 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 66 The design of The Camp-Meeting is simply a theme (a hymn tune in Bb major) and one variation. This is preceded by a lengthy contrapuntal instrumental introduction. The unusual feature of this theme and variation design is Ives's arrangement of placing the variation section before the original theme appears for the first time. The opening nine measures serve as the introduction. Measures 10-21 present the variation on the hymn tune and measures 22-34 harmonize the original hymn. Example 11.0 shows the hymn tune sung by the vocalist in the final section of this work (mm.22-34) and Example 11.1 shows its varied vocal line (mm.10-21). JuST AS I AW — With-OUT ON £ Pl£A, BUT THAT— TH9 BtOOO WAS Example 11.0. Ives, "The Camp-Meeting," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1958, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. The final section, shown in Example 11.0, is divided into three phrases forming a period, with two phrases in its antecedent and one phrase (interrupted by an instrumental Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 67 interpolation) as its consequent. The first phrase cadences weakly (V-I) in m.25 on the words "for me." The second phrase, closing the antecedent, ends with a stronger, but tonally incomplete cadence on IV (m.27) where the vocalist sings "to Thee." The cessation of persistent rhythmic mo tion in this measure of the piano part indicates a greater strength in this cadence than the preceding cadence of m.25. The third phrase, constituting the consequent, is divided into three subphrases: the first ("0 Lamb of God") is interrupted by the second (mm.29-32) in which the piano abruptly sounds a dissonant chord(bVI7 with both a perfect fifth and an augmented fourth). The augmented fourth of this incorrectly spelled Gb7(+ll) resolves immediately up ward to the fifth of this chord. This is a rather striking way to begin an interpolated subphrase. The third subphrase in the consequent sets the words "I come! I come!" and con tinues subphrase #1. This subphrase, which closes the song, is harmonized as simply as possible, in contrast to the earlier harmonic activity of the introduction and the vari ation section. The final harmonic progression (mm.32-34) contains only triads: I-V-I-V-I. The vocal part of the variation on this theme (mm.10- 21) appears in Example 11.1. The melodic line presented in this example (and the piano part) are much more tonally ambiguous than the straightforward Bb major melody which closes the song. Measures 10-11 clearly begin in Ab major: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SflN S -_O F FER - VENT PHASER, S r — Rl - -SIS RA-DIANTLtf O 'E R - THE WWtLP, EXl/lflNS-j EX - * U l T - I N f r , I N . » THE PaW EftflFSflP1 . EXALTlHGr Fa iTH IN LIFE A-BOVE Bu t HUM6LS, a i £ L O I N e - , H l £ L & - H I 6 L M N S - IN his l o v e . Example 11.1. Ives, "The Camp-Meeting," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1958, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. Ives's tonal detour begins on the fourth beat of m.ll where a Cb indicates a brief mode switch to Ab minor. Then the C-natural returns again on the downbeat of the next bar so that the first phrase may cadence on an Ab augmented triad (I+). Following this, there is no clear tonal center until the move to Bb major in m.20 (ii7-V). In fact, this section is harmonized with numerous augmented chords; some of them are part of polychordal structures. For example, the last chord progression sounded before the first entrance of the voice (m.10) is Dmaj. C#aug.over D maj. O D7. Then the voice enters in Ab major - a tritone relation away. In con trast, few polychords appear in the final Bb major section. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 69 The variation section's accompanimental voices propel the rhythmic flow at every cadence point. The contrapuntal nature of the texture helps to reinforce this effect. This is in contrast to the more homophonic texture of the final Bb major section. However, unlike the accompaniment, the vocal line in the variation section does rhythmically rest at its cadence points. Compare Examples 11.0 and 11.1 for the corresponding motivic features and for cadential points between the hymn and its variation. Look at the first phrase of each example (Ex. 11.0 ends phrase #1 on "plea" and Ex. 11.1 on "fair"). The variation retains the basic line one whole tone lower with slight chromatic alterations in m.ll. After the first phrase, the hymn tune's basic structure is inconsistently retained all the way through the minor third tremolo closing both sections of the vocal part. (See mm.32-34, D-F; compared to mm.20-21, C-Eb.) The instrumental introduction (Example 11.2) is the most contrapuntal of the three major sections of this work. It employs motivic imitation and sequences. Rhythmic dimi nution and displacement of motives also provides interest. Also, the motives contained therein are derived from the hymn tune proper. Observing the highest voice from the last beat of m.2 through all of m.3 provides an example of a four-note motive being rhythmically displaced and sequenced upward twice: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 70 L argo cantabile i 3 f t u. 1 Example 11.2. Ives, "The Camp-Meeting," (Introduction) From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1958, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 71 The final three notes of the four-note introductory motive are inverted and used in imitation (mm.5-6) in the follow ing way: m.5(D,E,F in sop.O Bb,C,D in bass) C> m.6(G,A,Bb in tenor O Bb,C,D in sop.O A,B,C in tenor). This imita tive sequence is an example of rhythmic diminution because the passage begins with eighth notes and then presents this three-note motive in sixteenths, and finally thirty-second notes. The motivic polyphony of Ives's introduction re minds us of the Bach chorale preludes for organ solo, a musical genre with which a fine organist like Ives was surely well acquainted. Like The Camp-Meeting, Watchman!{1913) and His Exalta tion (1913) are also based on hymn tune themes. Both of these 1913 songs are adapted from Ives's second violin so nata and they share some musical similarities: Watchman! and His Exaltation employ a tonally ambiguous introduction, (filled with nonfunctional tertian harmonies), which even tually settle in the hymn's key one measure before the vo cal part enters. Both introductions have passages where harmonies are voiced with parallel ascending perfect fourths in the uppermost lines of the accompanimental part. In addition, the accompanimental texture of these two songs is principally chordal. This is in contrast to the fre quency of counterpoint in The Camp-Meeting. Both songs also share the same design, a one-part form in which only one verse of the hymn is harmonized. The Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 72 tertian harmony becomes functional here during very few cadential closures. The D major hymn of Watchman I and the A major hymn of His Exaltation both contain four-measure phrases of parallel construction. (Parallel phrase con struction is a common feature in many traditional hymn tunes.) The minor v (dominant) triad is used at signifi cant cadence points within each song's structure. Perhaps this effect is desired since the minor dominant is derived from the Aeolian mode, thus, giving more of an ecclesiastic feel, in Watchman!, the most important minor dominant oc curs as a half cadence just before the start of the coda which begins with a change of meter. The cadence of the closing vocal line in His Exaltation (before the instrumen tal coda) uses the minor dominant as follows: I maj7 O v O I. On the whole, the harmonization of the hymn tunes in these two songs is far simpler than the techniques of hymn harmonization in The Camp-Meeting. Watchman1 uses the simple harmonic method of a sub mediant pedal under the first half of the hymn tune. The second half begins on a tonic pedal and the coda also be gins on the submediant. The ending is unique because the last four measures of Watchmani use only subdominant func tion. The final four harmonies of the coda are: IV maj.7 O IV maj.ll O IV9 (dominant ninth chord with an added eleventh) O IV7(+11) (dominant seventh chord with an added raised eleventh). This +11 (C#) appears in the highest Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. piano voice during the final harmony, and just so happens to be the leading-tone in the key of this hymn. Watchman, Tell Us of the Night by Lowell Mason (1831), was Ives's favorite hymn. It formed the foundation for the first move ment of his Fourth Symphony and emphasizes his hope for utopian progress: "Watchman, tell us of the night, What the signs of promise are."27 At the River (1916), derived from Ives's fourth violin sonata, is yet another song based on a hymn tune. Example 12.0 presents the entire vocal part in which Ives makes few chromatic alterations from the original Shall We Gather at the River? melody. This song evokes the memory of revival meetings long past: Ives was especially receptive to popular hymn tunes because they represented for him the quintessence of a deeply felt human experience, both individual and collective. . . . Especially favored [hymns]are Lowell Mason's Nearer, My God to Thee (Bethany) and From Greenland's Icy Mountains (Missionary Hymn), Root's The Shining Shore, Joseph Philbrick Webster's The Sweet By and By, G.A. Minor's Bringing in the Sheaves, and Asahel Nettleton's Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (also attributed to John Wyeth).28 Ives borrows the entire hymn tune. Yet, he does not allow it to proceed to the very end without interruption. One such interruption occurs in the form of an interpola tion (m.13) after an eight-bar period. The antecedent, be ginning at m.5 is four measures long, as is the consequent. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 74 ^A N TE C E D E N T) 5 S h a l l we g a th *e r a t the Riv— e r W h e r e b r ig h t a n -s e l ^TT>V / c o n s e q u e n t ) HAVE P * TR O D , W it h it s CRB-STAL TIDE R R - 6 V - 6 R F l o u / * i N G _ B B M THRONE OF pINTERPOLATED MEASURE Antecedent) G o D ? Ga t h -E R AT THE R lV -E R 1 . H E 5 , w e ' l l G#TW*ER AT THE 1 5 Riv - E R , .(’CONSEQUENT) THE B E A U -T l-F U L /T H E BEAV-Tl- P u t , RlV - ” E R , 18 *iS5 w e 'l l Ga t h e r a t t h e Ri v - e r t h a t F l o w s bb t h e t h r o n e o f^ & d . J C o M (S im ila rto m.13 intsrP olatioN ) r V 7 * /S im ila r tb mm. R -lc p Example 12.0. Ives, "At the River," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music,Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. The interpolated measure is derived from the hymn tune itself and returns once again (m.23) after the close of a second period. The final two measures of vocal material (mm.24-25) are variations of mm. 9-10. This song shares some features with the last two songs discussed. First, the texture of the piano accompaniment is chordal. Sometimes this occurs as an arrangement of polychords. For example, the harmony of m.l is F#diminished Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 75 over Ab. This moves by parallel motion downward into the harmony of m.2: E# diminished over G. In addition to this, the minor dominant triad once again plays an important role. In fact, the closing harmony of this work is a minor v (in first inversion) with the added sixth occurring as the last note of the vocal part (Bb minor, add6). Perhaps this song ends inconclusively with a half cadence (I maj.7 O v6) because it closes with a question: "Shall we gather at the river?." However, one interesting feature which is unique to this work appears at the close of both periods mentioned above. Each one cadences by using a major triad built on the leading-tone as a substitute for V. Thus, VII# O I(Dmaj.C> Ebmaj. )occurs twice in this work, setting the words "throne of God." The Innate (1916) is a study of musical eclecticism. Ives contrasts adjacent phrases of atonality with those of various tonal centers. Sections of tertian harmonies are followed by nontertian simultaneities, and texturally dif ferent phrases of counterpoint are near those which rely on homophony and chordal structuring in the accompaniment. The work is unmetered and contains only five barlines which serve as suggestions for application of stress. The five vocal phrases which comprise the work, do not coincide with these five barlines, since Ives obviously means for this song to flow freely from beginning(Ex.13.0) to end(Ex.13.1) without the interference of predictable metric stresses. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 76 Slou/ lM M 1 , 1 1 . 1 n Q i f t o J 1 Ih. . i nh. 0 J . _ & Vfli-CES UV6 IM EVERS FINITE BEGINS-, IN IS y ra 6V-ER3 SOft-LEES LiFE'TlME. HEARTHEm ! u Example 13.0. Ives, "The Innate," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1935, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. The following five lines of text correspond to Ives's five musical phrases comprising the work: 1) Voices live in every finite being, In every godless lifetime. 2) Hear them! Hear them in you! In others! 3) They sense truth deep in the Soul; They know the things true Christians stand for. 4) Stand out! Come to Him without the things the world brings; Come to Him! 5) As a child and, as a poor man. Christians give all. Christians have all. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 77 A u l . Example 13.1. Ives, "The Innate," (Coda) From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1935, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. The setting of each line is handled differently. Line #1, like the instrumental introduction (Ex. 13.0), has no tonal center in either the vocal or the piano part. The chords of the accompaniment are nontertian, and thus, could be classified by using the analytical methods of basic atonal theory.29 Two important nontertian chords recur from the start of the song through Line #1 of the text. Pictured in Ex. 13.0, they are 5-28 (pc 0 in the bass) and 4-23 (pc 3 in the bass). But, once Line #2 enters, this method of analysis is no longer helpful until the close of the song (Ex. 13.1) where these two simultaneities recur transposed. Line #2 employs a contrapuntal texture structured around tertian harmonies - sometimes voiced as polychords. The vocal melody is in B major; this is supported by Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 78 emphasis on F#7(add 6) and B dim. over F# in the accompani ment. Line #3 uses a homophonic accompaniment against the G major melody in the vocal line. The polychordal struc tures become increasingly more dissonant(for example, E mi nor over Bb major on the downbeat of this phrase). Counter point returns in the fourth phrase. Vocal line #4, now in A minor, is presented against a dissonant fabric of poly chords; now present with greater frequency, density, and dissonance. The vocal line also reaches its climactic pitch during Line #4. Line #5 loosens the tension achieved by the previous phrase. The chordal texture is no longer as dense, and the tonal center for the vocal line changes back to what it was during Line #3 - G major. The accompaniment, however, is on an entirely different plane by the end of the song. This is due to the return of atonal simultaneities 5-28 and 4-23; the latter is voiced in perfect fourths. Both of these harmonies are transposed a whole-tone lower here than they were at the start of the work. Serenity (1919) is a unison chant. Originally sketched for chorus with an accompaniment for harps and violins, it was adapted as a solo song for the book of 114 songs.so The original version possibly dating back to 1909, is now lost. Serenity is derived from two hymn tunes connected to poet John Greenleaf Whittier texts: Dear Lord and Father of Mankind was originally set to music by Frederick C. Maker Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and known by the title, Whittier. The other Whittier text is Our Master, set first to music by William V. Wallace and entitled, Serenity.3i Both tunes are slow, mostly stepwise, and remain within a restricted range. The chantlike vocal melody centers itself around the note, A, during the first half of the song, while the remainder of the piece is cen tered around B - the final tone of the vocal part. The style of the vocal melody is as uniform as its accompani ment - in great contrast to the last song discussed (The Innate).The accompaniment consists of a regularly pulsating ostinato above the vocal line, involving only two chords: F major over a single tone, B, and E minor over the tone, C#. The oscillation back and forth between these two bi- tonal structures is briefly interrupted before each of the two cadence points in Serenity. Just before the first ca dence on A, the interruption is in the form of this pro gression: F O F+ O Bb O F. The other interruption appears just before the work closes on B. It is simply a transposed version of the first interruption : G O G+ O C O G. Both interruptions give the effect of plagal ca dences in the keys of F major and G major, respectively. One interesting feature involves the relationship be tween the metrical placement of the two bitonal chords and the words of the text. When the song starts, the more dis sonant of the two chords occurs on the downbeat of each Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 80 measure (F maj. over B), while the other chord (E min. over C#) is placed on the weak part of each measure. Once the words, "Take from our souls the strain and stress" are reached, Ives switches the metrical positions of these two chords by removing the more dissonant chord from the strong metrical position and assigning it to the weaker position previously held by the consonant harmony. Ives is considered to be an eclectic composer, yet Serenity shows that "Ives could, when he wanted to, write music as carefully controlled and homogeneous as any 'great' composer - he just preferred to be eclectic most of the time."32 Serenity received favorable reviews after its performance at the Yaddo festival of Contemporary American Music in the Spring of 1932. The review by Alfred H. Meyer appeared in Modern Music: "And with what touching sincerity and gentlest of impressionistic accompaniments Ives got to the heart of the genuinely religious in Whittier's lovely hymn."33 Nicolas Slonimsky called the work "obliquely ro mantic. "34 An analysis of Serenity appears in the first historically important dissertation devoted entirely to Charles Ives: A Study of Five Songs of Charles Ives (M.A. thesis) by Erwin Ruff for the Eastman School of Music in 1942.35 Religion (1920) and The Collection (1920) provide two examples of the importance of the subdominant at the close Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 81 of Ives's sacred songs. Many of his sacred songs use either a plagal cadence, half cadence (I-V: basically the same as a plagal relationship), or a closing subdominant at, or very near, the end. Religion is mainly in the key of G major, until the final seven measures (in Gb major) which close the work with the following progression: V7-I- V-I-IV. The Collection, written with an A major key signa ture, closes with this progression: I-V7/IV-IV-iv(add 6 and +11)-I. Consider the sacred song discussed above, Serenity, in which an interruption of the accompanimental ostinato (near the final measure) employs a plagal cadence. Even The River closes with a half cadence (I-v) which may also be interpreted as a IV-i progression. Hymn (1921) is another one of the few sacred songs by Ives in which set theoretic methods of atonal analysis are useful. Example 14.0 presents the first half of the song. The entire piece is supported by a five-note ostinato mo tive in the piano part, [02468] 5-33, which is transposed to various levels in the course of the song. After the first five measures, the initial figure, (C#,F,G,B,D#) or (t0), is transposed upward a minor third (t3). The first three pitch classes of this figure also appear vertically in m.7 as an [026] 3-8 trichord in the right hand part of the accompaniment. Then the original five-note motive is transposed up a minor seventh in mm.8-9 (tA). Then m.10 presents a new level (t6) and m.13 returns to (to). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Example 14.0. Ives, "Hymn," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 83 Disclosure (1921) provides another example of Ives's eclecticism. This fifteen-measure song may be divided into four sections of harmonic diversity. The element of con trast appears only in the accompaniment because the mostly stepwise motion of the exclusively syllabic vocal melody allows it to retain a homogeneity from start to finish. Section #1 lasts four and one-half measures. It is clearly atonal, yet the harmonic structures are tertian and mainly voiced with much spatial separation as polychords (for in stance, D min. over A min., D min.7 over G7, and F min. over C min.7). Section #2 employs a low C-G pedal through out its four measures. This pedal gives the second section more of a grounded feel than the first. Section #3 is once again atonal like the first section, yet it differs textur- ally from that chordal section by its homophony. (The vo cal melody is doubled for the first time in the right hand of the piano here.) Section #4 constitutes the final four bars and is the only section composed in a key: Gb major. The final progression of this sacred song includes emphasis on the subdominant: l6-IV-Vmaj.7(add 6)-Imaj.9. The signif icance of this was mentioned above in reference to Religion and The Collection. Christmas Carol (Words and tune by Edith Osborne Ives, Dec. 1924; accompaniment by Charles Ives, Nov. 1925) and In the Mornin'(Negro spiritual composed before 1850; accom paniment by Charles Ives,1929) are both simple tonal tunes. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 84 Ives chose to compose harmonically unsophisticated accom paniments for these tunes, perhaps because they were in tended for home performance by family members of modest musical abilities. The principal interesting feature of Christmas Carol is the interlude played between each verse. Hemiola occurs in the piano part as a two and one-half beat motive repeats three times in the 3/4 meter. The spiritual, In the Hornin', is a strophic song in which the most inter esting aspect is rhythmic. Ives's accompaniment achieves a freely rhythmic feel through his use of occasional triplet figures in the voice and meter changes between 4/4 and 3/4. In addition to this, the tempo fluctuates between the "slowly" sung verse and the more animated chorus. Ives also reflects the flavor of spiritual singing through an effec tive portamento gesture in the voice. At the words "When I rise," the singer performs an ascending glissando which elides into the downbeat of the next phrase. In general, Ives seems to be in a conservative mode when composing sacred songs. The music discussed in this chapter relies heavily on tertian harmonic structures, even during atonal sections. Thus, basic atonal theory is not particularly helpful in the classification of harmonic relationships in Ives's sacred songs. Tonal centers are frequent, even when these tertian harmonies seem to be non functional. Many times, Ives achieves this through a low register pedal effect. The melodies are also composed Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 85 rather conservatively. Aside from the use of borrowed hymn material, Ives composes his own sacred melodic material in an extremely restricted manner. The melodies are mainly stepwise with few leaps greater than a perfect fourth. They reach their climactic pitches slowly and steadily. All this may be due to his deep-seated reluctance to involve sacred music in musical experimentation. This feeling was perhaps reinforced by negative audience reaction whenever he at tempted radical harmonizations during church services. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 86 Notes to Chapter 2 1. Perry, Rosalie Sandra. Charles Ives and the American Mind. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1974. p.81. 2. Alexander, Michael J. The Evolving Keyboard Style of Charles Ives, (from Outstanding Dissertations in Music From British Universities. John Caldwell, ed.) New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1989. p.16. 3. Alexander, p.16. 4. Perlis, Vivian. Charles Ives Remembered. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1974. pp.18-19. 5. Wallach, Laurence. "Reviews of Books," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.LX, No.2. April 1974. p.287. 6. Crunden, Robert M. "Charles Ives's Place in American Culture," in An Ives Celebration. (H. Wiley Hitchcock, editor) Chicago, London: University of Illinois Press, 1977. p.8. 7. Perry, p.80. 8. Cage, John. A Year From Monday: New Lectures and Writings by John Cage. Middletown, Connecticut: Wes leyan University Press, 1963. p.40. 9. Hitchcock, H. Wiley. Ives. London, New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. p.20. 10. Westrup, J.A. and Harrison, F.Ll. The New College En cyclopedia of Music. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.,Inc. Revised edition, 1976. p.287. 11. Rublowsky, John. Music in America. New York and Lon don: Crowell-Collier Press, 1967. p.157. 12. Walker, Alan. An Anatomy of Musical Criticism. London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1966. p.97. 13. de Lerma, Dominique-Rene. Charles Edward Ives, 1874- 1954: A Bibliography of His Music. Kent State Univer sity Press, 1970. p.175. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 87 14. Solomon, Maynard. "Charles Ives: Some Questions of Ver acity," Journal of the American Musicological Society. Vol.XL, NO.3, Fall 1987. p.460. 15. Solomon, p.454. 16. Baron, Carol K. "Dating Charles Ives's Music: Facts and Fictions," Perspectives of New Music. Vol.28, No.l, Winter 1990. pp.20-21. 17. Hitchcock, H. Wiley. Ives. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. p.39. 18. Bruce, Neely. "Ives and Nineteenth-Century American Music," in An Ives Celebration. (H. Wiley Hitchcock, editor). Chicago and London: University of Illinios Press, 1977. p.37. 19. Yellin, Victor Fell. "Reviews of Records: Ives, The Celestial Country," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.LX,No.3, July 1974. pp.501-502. 20. Cowell, Henry and Cowell, Sidney. Charles Ives and His Music. London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1955. p.71. 21. Wooldridge, David. Charles Ives: A Portrait. London: Faber and Faber, 1975. p.144. 22. Hitchcock, p.14. 23. Blom, Eric, editor. Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol.IV, New York: St. Martin's Press, Inc. 1955. 24. Chase, Gilbert, editor. The American Composer Speaks: A Historical Anthology, 1770-1965. Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press; Second printing 1969. p.106. 25. Ives, Charles. "Children's Day at the Camp Meeting," Modern Music. Vol.XIX, No.2, January-February 1942. p.116. 26. Perry, Rosalie Sandra. Charles Ives and the American Mind. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1974. p.73. 27. Perry, p.73. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 88 28. Chase, Gilbert. America's Music: From the Pilgrims to the Present. Revised Third Edition, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987. p.436. 29. Forte, Allen. The Structure of Atonal Music. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1973. 30. Hitchcock, H. Wiley. Ives. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. p.40. 31. Burkholder, J. Peter. "Quotation and Emulation: Charles Ives's Uses of His Models," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.LXXI, No.l, 1985. pp.11-12. 32. Starr, Larry. A Union of Diversities: Style in the Mu sic of Charles Ives. New York: Schirmer Books, 1992. p.143. 33. Meyer, Alfred H. "Yaddo - A May Festival," Modern Music Vol.IX, No.4, May-June 1932. p.174. 34. Sloniiusky, Nicolas. Music Since 1900. Fourth edition. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971. p.549. 35. Block, Geoffrey. Charles Ives: A Bio-Bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988. p.332. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 89 H o m a g e f o N a t u r e Charles Ives's appreciation and respect for the won derment and beauty of nature is clearly observable in the twenty-two songs discussed in this chapter. Seven of these songs are specifically involved with water imagery and they are considered in a separate discussion from the rest of Ives's nature songs. Ives's transcendental belief in the connection of na ture with the "Over-soul" which unifies all mankind is in accordance with that of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson's Nature (1836), a strong motivating statement of American Transcendentalism, discusses the idea of "the universe." Emerson's universal bond links together all "natural ob jects, men's bodies, and men's souls."i Ives's musical depictions of nature scenes form a counterpart to the tran scendental literary models he so greatly admired. In fact, his "... tradition was a literary and philosophical one: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 90 that of Whitman, of Thoreau, Emerson, and the New England Transcendentalists. Ives set himself the job of creating, single-handed, a musical equivalent."2 An intimate friend of Ives, Henry Bellamann, described his music in 1933 as being musically equivalent to the spiritual values of the New England Transcendentalists.3 However, Ives was just as much in touch with the real (or practical) world as he was with his heartfelt Transcendental world. "While Ives did not believe that the Real and the Transcendental. . . could be reconciled in the conditions of temporal mortality, he believed that it was the duty of every man to attempt such reconciliation."4 His own personal attempt came as a result of complementary identities - Ives, the artist balanced by Ives, the insurance businessman. It is the author's opinion that within the body of song repertoire by Ives, it is the songs paying homage to nature which most clearly demonstrate his spiritual bond with the New England Transcendentalists and their philos ophy. Ives paid tribute to these literary figures for whom he had a warm admiration by composing his Second Pianoforte Sonata (The Concord, 1909-1915) and prefacing it with his extensive program note - Essays Before a Sonata (1919). In the literary portion, Ives critically evaluates the unique qualities and contributions of the principal New England Transcendentalists. Ives's "Preface" of Essays sets forth his purpose for creating this homage: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 91 The whole is an attempt to present(one person's) impression of the spirit of Transcendentalism that is associated in the minds of many with Concord, Mass., of over a half century ago. This is undertaken in impressionistic pictures of Emerson and Thoreau, a sketch of the Alcotts, and a scherzo supposed to reflect a lighter qual ity which is often found in the fantastic side of Hawthorne. The first and last movements do not aim to give any programs of the life or of any particular work of either Emerson or Thoreau,but, rather, composite pictures or impressions.5 Ives sees Emerson as a great prophet, yet, he assesses that . .he is greater, possibly, as an invader of the unknown - America's deepest explorer of the spiritual im mensities. . . a recorder freely describing the inevitable struggle in the soul's uprise."6 "One example of this is Emerson's Nature (1836) which broke through the shell of accepted opinions on a very essential subject . . . critics and philosophers could make nothing of it; but those who read it recognized signs of a new era. "7 Emerson was prob ably influenced by Transcendental music critic, John Sulli van Dwight, in the area of musical aesthetics. Dwight ob served that music originated in Nature and possessed the power of universal communication - power which Emerson acknowledged.8 Ives recognized in Thoreau a sensitivity to natural sounds. In fact, Ives states that "Thoreau looked to Nature for his greatest inspirations. In her, he found an analogy to the fundamental of Transcendentalism. The 'innate Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 92 goodness' of Nature is or can be a moral influence. . . ."9 Any mention of moral influence brings Hawthorne to mind. Ives observes: "Any comprehensive conception of Hawthorne, either in words or music, must have for its basic theme something that has to do with the influence of sin upon the conscience. . .Hawthorne would try to spiritualize a guilty conscience."10 Regarding the Alcotts, Ives observes a ". . .strong didactic streak in both father and daughter. Louisa May seldom misses a chance to bring out the moral of a homely virtue."11 Amos Bronson Alcott expresses his philosophy of Nature in one of his Orphic Sayings (1840): Nature seems remote and detached, because the soul surveys her by means of the extremest senses, imposing on herself the notion of dif ference and remoteness through their predomi nance, and thereby losing that of her own one ness with it. Yet nature is not separate from me; she is mine alike with my body; and in mo ments of true life, I feel my identity with her. . . .12 A discussion of Ives's compositional procedures in the water imagery songs begins with Tom Sails Away (1917) - a mature work demonstrating several avant-garde techniques. One reason why Ives's sacred songs sound rather conserva tive, even in his mature years, is due to the regularity and predictability of the metrical accents. Tom Sails Away is more representative of the metrical unpredictability that was typical of Ives's mature works. In Tom Sails Away, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 93 Ives avoids metrical indications even though the measures continue to change in duration throughout the song. He clearly wants the lack of metrical accents to portray the free-flowing nature of the sea. As a result, this song is unlikely to be performed in exactly the same way twice. Ives consistently disapproved of the fixed in all forms of art. He liked the idea of his music sounding different with each performance. He believed that "... the ear should focus on different features, that one should listen to the same music from different spots, the way one walks around a sculpture to see it from as many angles and distances as possible."13 "He willingly deferred to the performers with out insisting on sovereign control. In this kind of atti tude he was prophetic of the stance of a John Cage."14 As far as the design is concerned, that aspect of Tom Sails Away is very clear cut and as simple as Ives's earli est songs. The song reveals an ABA' design with an ex tremely truncated A' section. The A section is centered around no obvious tonal area. In contrast, the B section moves through rather lucid tonal areas in an ascending cir cle of fifths pattern: E major (over an F# pedal), E minor (parallel mode switch), E major again, then some tonal ambiguity reminiscent of the A section, B major (Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean fragment), and finally F# major (Over There fragment). When the B major and F# major sections overlap, this allows for some polytonality to close the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 94 central section. The A' section is reduced down to a mere two bars and only makes use of material from m.2 (Ex.15.0). Sktwl* AND fiUlCTLS SetHtS ntsM mv chilohm D a r c W i r M M C . l k m Example 15.0. Ives, "Tom Sails Away," From: Nineteen Songs. Copyright 1935, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Veto) Slowly, a; in bc&nnins- ScCnCS FROM m CHILDHOOD ARC FloAT- lie rsl^J- m Example 15.1. Ives, "Tom Sails Away," From: Nineteen Songs. Copyright 1935, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 95 However, A' transposes that material one half-step down from where it occurred at the start of the song. Measure 2 actually consists of an arpeggiated F# minor ninth harmony (with an added eleventh). This is a 6-32 (024579) classi fication which, when combined with the F minor ninth (with an added eleventh) of mm.26-27 (Ex.15.1 above), completes the total chromatic through the property of hexachordal combinatoriality. Thus, the start and finish of this song have a unique relationship. Tom Sails Away shows Ives at his eclectic best. The tonal and harmonic diversity in this song is extensive. In addition to the basic tonal orientation of the B sec tion, Ives also includes the brief use of two modes between these tonal areas. For example, Ives introduces an A# during an E major phrase which gives an E Lydian effect. Ives also has the vocalist sing in F Dorian briefly during the phrase: "'Tis after six, the whistles have blown." In addition to his use of major, minor, and modal scales in the B section, one also sees that the basic melodic mate rial of the A section consists of the contrast between both whole-tone scales and the chromatic scale. This first structural section for the voice is patterned as follows: whole-tone scale #l(m.l), whole-tone scale #2(m.2), fol lowed by chromatically ascending and descending scales. This section closes with the return of whole-tone scale #1. The atonal melody of the vocalist is supported in the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 96 piano by nonfunctional tertian harmonies and polychords which have absolutely no harmonic affiliation with what is going on in the voice. For example, sometimes the vocal line is harmonically neutralized during its chromatic scale while the piano plays a series of polychords: ie., G# dim. over Eb major, A aug. over F maj.7, A aug.(add 9 and +11) over Eb major, etc. Some of these tonally neutralizing scales used in Section A are interpolated into the pri marily tonal B section. First, the chromatic scale is frequently used as an inner voice ostinato line in the piano. Second, the voice also interpolates a brief section where "down the valley" is text-painted as a descending chromatic scale followed by "coming up the hill" which is, of course, an ascending chromatic scale. During the phrase "We run down the lane to meet him," this is text-painted as descending whole-tone scale #2. However, there is the piano part, which also plays the same whole-tone scale, but ascending, so as to give the visual effect on the score of the vocal and piano parts coming towards one another or "meeting" as the text so describes it. There is one further aspect of the text-painting in Tom Sails Away which should be mentioned; that is, how Ives handles the imagery of water in his songs. I think that Ives saw bodies of water in nature as something mysterious and beautiful. His water imagery songs reflect this through Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 97 a lack of the fixed and predictable. Most of Ives's songs which depict water seem to occur in his latter years as a songwriter, and thus, make extensive use of atonality (with great emphasis on the whole-tone scale or harmonies) and irregularity of meter (the ebb and flow effect). Ives tries to insure this effect in Tom Sails Away by writing the fol lowing into the score at various points: "a little faster," "slow again," "somewhat faster,""faster and more animated," "slowly but firmly," and simply "slower." The next water imagery song under discussion, The White Gulls (1921), also depicts the unpredictable ebb and flow of water through atonality, polyrhythm, and irregularity of meter. In The White Gulls (1921), Ives attempts to reveal the existence of God in Nature - specifically, in a water set ting. Ives's eclectic method of composition works well in portraying natural settings because it allows him to write from the heart rather than from the head. In other words, I do not believe that a logical and 'academic' manner of composition makes for a successful outcome when one is try ing to depict his deepest emotions about a memorable per son, place, or thing. Ives tried "to grasp the divinity behind nature through feeling and not through artificiali ties of logic. . .Ives follows Emerson. For him the natural world reflects the spiritual and so is of great concern."is Observe how The White Gulls and Tom Sails Away both aim to illustrate water imagery. Both songs open with an Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 98 A section which serves to neutralize any tonal implica tions through the use of both whole-tone scales. Tom Sails Away uses whole-tone scales and the chromatic scale in its vocal line. However, The White Gulls uses only whole-tone scales and parallel augmented triads in its A section to serve the purpose of neutralization. It saves the use of excessive amounts of chromatic scales in the vocal line for the C section while the piano presents many chromatically parallel minor seventh chords. T H E W hits GuilS MP_and wheel Example 16.0. Ives, "The White Gulls," From: Thirty-Four Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 99 In The White Gulls, measures 2-4 (Example 16.0 above) shows a 6-35 (02468A) melodic whole-tone hexachord in the left hand of the piano while the right hand repeats a (79B) harmonic trichord from the other available whole-tone hexa chord. This trichord which is actually 3-6 or (024) recurs through the entire A section. After the horizontal (scale like) use of the 6-35 whole-tone hexachord in the introduc tion, m.4 then verticalizes this hexachord into a cluster chord as the vocalist sings his first phrase. The impor tance of whole-tone harmonies in the expression of Ives's water imagery continues in the A section as a C augmented triad moves to a D augmented triad by parallel motion. The first three measures sung by the soloist are all based on the same (02468A) hexachord. The liberation from this type of melodic material occurs with the words: "as they spread their wings and fly." Not only is the whole- tone scale no longer used for the rest of the song, but the vocal line thereafter rises to higher pitch levels than any of those sung thus far. Like Tom Sails Away, the second structural section of The White Gulls moves into a briefly tonal realm. At this point, an F9 in first inversion (with an added eleventh) is prolonged along with an F major melody in the voice for eight measures. By the time Ives reaches the final chord of the piece, one may read this dominant seventh on F as V of the final harmony (a Bb major triad). As in Tom Sails Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 100 Away, The White Gulls also makes use of an ostinato figure in its tonal B section. Tom Sails Away uses a chromatic inner voice ostinato while The White Gulls uses a melodic fifth-chord 3-9 (027) which is presented only in the outer voices - first in the soprano, and later in the bass. When Ives moves away from this F9 prolongation in The White Gulls, a new structural section, C, begins, and is characterized by extreme use of the chromatic scale, even to a greater melodic degree than in Tom Sails Away. This section begins with a descending chromatic scale for the voice which is harmonized by chromatically parallel minor seventh chords 3-7(025) in the right hand and chromatically parallel 3-8 (026) trichords in the left hand. Thus, one observes polychords in parallel motion. Later occurring polychords accompany other chromatically descending vocal lines and become more recognizable as tertian harmonies. Four such polychords appear, the last two being the trans position (a major second higher) of the first two. This is a means of text-painting the word "fly": Bb7 over C# half- dim. 7 resolves to A7 over D half-dim.7, then transposes up a major second to C7 over Eb half-dim.7 resolving to B7 over E half-dim. 7. The final structural section recapitulates the tonal B section material. The vocal line can be interpreted as either F major or Bb major since there are no E-naturals or E-flats in this melody. However, since a prolonged F9 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 101 ultimately resolves to a Bb major triad, one could view both B sections as being in Bb major. In Tom Sails Away, Ives juxtaposes atonal and tonal sections to depict watery unpredictability. Furthermore, the ebb and flow of the water is illustrated through lack of metric regularity. However, in The White Gulls, irregu lar meter fulfills this purpose. For example, the first structural section is set up as follows: 4/2, 5/2, 6/2, 10/2, (the rise of the wave, perhaps); then 6/2, 5/2, 4/2, 3/2 (and the fall). In Ives's From the "Incantation," the first line of text ("When the moon is on the wave") inspires a repeated gesture (rising and falling left-handed piano arpeggios) which grounds the entire song in a single harmony, A dom.7 (bl3). The first visual impression of the song is a scenic view of the ocean during the time of day when the moon meets with the watery horizon. Ives text paints the ebb and flow motions of the wave through the arpeggios men tioned above. Watery unpredictability is once again de picted through metric irregularity. Firstly, there is no meter signature. Secondly, although Ives does employ bar lines, the number of beats per measure is everchanging be cause the A and B sections subtly oscillate between mea sures of 3, 3 1/4, and 3 1/2 beats. The A' section ("meno mosso" followed by "slower") expands the duration of a single measure to as much as 5 1/2 beats. The A section Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 102 presents one rise and fall gesture in the piano in each measure, counterpointed against the vocal melody which is also based on a one-bar, ascending to descending motive. Although every occurrence of the piano arpeggio is grounded in A7(bl3), the bass note on the downbeat of each bar is consistently altered, thus changing the harmonic inversion. Measures 3-10 present a pattern of these changing downbeat notes: m.3,F; m.4,G; m.5,A; m.6,G; repeats in m.7,F; m.8,G, m.9,A; m.lO,G. It is the author's opinion that this recur ring arpeggio is easily read as a tertian harmony contain ing both a perfect fifth and a minor sixth (bl3). This is why an atonal theoretic classification of 5-26 (02458) for this recurring harmony is not particularly helpful in the analysis. The one stable feature of the left-handed arpeg gio is its highest pitch which consistently sounds an F, (the minor sixth above the root). Several layering effects appear in From the "Incanta tion": The A section layers contrasting melodic materials, while the remaining sections, B and A', layer different tonalities. Perhaps the compositional technique of layering is appropriate in a work which depicts the ocean waves. The technique is analogous to the image of one wave rising and falling upon another. The melodic layering in the A section results in some polyphony. The voice enters (m.3, downbeat) with an Eb Lydian motive (Eb,F,Bb,A) which recurs 2 1/2 times in the next three measures. Ives creates a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 103 second layer by counterpointing this motive with its trans position (R.H., piano) a minor seventh higher (C#,D#,Ab,G), and displacing it by 1 1/2 beats within the measure. The third layer of musical material is the A7(bl3) ostinato (L.H., piano) described above. Three simultaneous tonalities are implied in the cen tral section. The vocalist sings in Bb minor and each hand of the piano part arpeggiates in a different tonality. The left hand continues its A7(bl3) pattern while the right hand arpeggiates an Ab major9 harmony. The A' section also implies polytonality because the Eb Lydian vocal motive from Section A appears altered to fit the Eb minor mode in the closing section. The left hand part of the piano (A7 arpeggio) continues its tritone relationship with the vocal line, as was initiated in the opening section. Only the penultimate three measures are in a single tonality (Bb major) and they texturally contrast previous material by being chordal. The final measure resumes the A7 arpeggio with a fading dynamics level to the fermata. Poet Louis Untermeyer visited Ives only once to dis cuss the union of his words with Ives's music. The result was The Swimmers. During this meeting, Untermeyer discov ered that although Ives looked musically to the future, he was poetically focused on the past. Untermeyer reminisced: "I wonder why he didn't compose songs to more contemporary Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 104 poetry. There was good poetry being written all around him at this time. He loved the past more. . .it seemed to me he cared little for what was being done around him. . . . "16 As in Tom Sails Away, The Swimmers (1921) also does not rely on barlines as a structural element. (There are only three barlines in the song.) This approach enhances the free-flowing images of a water scene. The rising and falling scale motives and arpeggios in the left hand of the piano are thereby given a greater degree of flexibility in performance. As in several other water settings by Ives, there is no meter signature to interfere with the unpre dictability of water in motion. In fact, Ives believed that flexibility was generally an important element in his music - a natural concomitant of his admiration for Tran- scendentalist philosophy. In Ives's opinion, music of "sub stance" generally retains an observable degree of flexibil ity, while music of "manner" does not.17 He discusses these concepts in his Essays Before a Sonata: . . . in two separate pieces of music in which the notes are almost identical, one can be of substance with little manner, and the other can be of manner with little substance. Substance has something to do with character. Manner has nothing to do with it. The substance of a tune comes from somewhere near the soul, and the man ner comes from - God knows where.18 Ives makes note of the importance of flexibility in The Swimmers in a brief instruction written at the bottom Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of the score: "Until the figure changes, (2nd measure page 63) the left hand continues the phrase (prestissimo), but not necessarily the exact number of times or in the relation, to the right hand, indicated."is Ives is refer ring to the point where he places the first barline on the word "plunge." The purposeful placement of a barline at this point secures a clear and forceful downbeat (fff) on "plunge" for both the vocalist and the pianist. The vocal line does indeed plunge downward while the accompaniment sweeps upward in an arpeggio constructed from three adja cent augmented triads: E+ O D+ O C#+. Whole-tone chords, arpeggios, and scales continue to play an important role in The Swimmers beyond this point. Whole-tone harmonies and scales neutralize any center ing on a single tonality. It appears that neutralization is what Ives frequently achieves in his water settings. In The Swimmers, Ives achieves neutralization through reliance on whole-tone scales, chromatic scales, and clusters.In the last song discussed, Incantation, Ives achieves this effect through a multiplicity of simultaneously implied tonali ties. Why might Ives associate the nature of water(through whole-tone harmonies, etc.) with tonal neutralization? Per haps he recognized water as an unstable part of nature - always in flux and never settled for long. This contrasts the stable quality of his non-watery nature scenes (ie., mountain peaks, forests, astronomical wonders, etc.). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 106 Although most of The Swimmers is tonally ambiguous, two brief occurrences of Bb minor appear in the vocal part during the B section and briefly interpolated B' section of an A B C(B')D through-composed design. A clear tonal centering on Bb is neutralized, however, by repetitions of an A minor7(+ll) arpeggio in the accompaniment. The Housatonic at Stockhridge (1921) was originally written 1914, as the third movement of Ives's First Orches tral Set, better known as Three Places in New England. Ives describes the river setting which inspired the work: The last movement, The Housatonic at Stockbridge, was suggested by a Sunday morning walk that Mrs. Ives and I took near Stockbridge the Summer after we were married. We walked in the meadows along the River and heard the distant singing from the Church across the River. The mists had not en tirely left the river bed, and the colors, the running water, the banks and trees were something that one would always remember.20 Ives received some unflattering remarks about The Housa tonic at Stockbridge while still composing it. A former Yale classmate of Ives, Bass Brigham, contributed to the multitude of criticism aimed at Ives which eventually led to his decision to not become a professional composer. Brigham commented, "Well, that is a funny collection of sounds. Your tonality and your chord relation is more wobbly than Cesar Franck's, which is bad enough!"21 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 107 The 'tonality' of which Brigham spoke is not mere tonality, but polytonality resulting from a multiplicity of layers. Layer #1 is chordal; low register quintal harmonies providing a double pedal point on C# and G# throughout the entire A section. (The B section begins where this pedal point ends.) Thus, the A section almost feels grounded in C#. The reason that a C# tonality is ambiguous is due to the effect of the upper registral voices in the piano (Layer #2). Originally played by muted strings in his or chestral version, Layer #2 is meant to depict the mists over the river, as described above. This layer presents thirds which move back and forth in no specific pattern and through no implied tonal areas. This layer is very chroma tic and contrasts the stability of Layer #1 beneath it. The vocal part forms Layer #3. It tonicizes several different tonal areas in the A section, starting with the enharmonic counterpart of Layer #1: Db major. The vocalist enters with a Db pentatonic scale motive. In fact, pentatonic scales form the basis for much of the vocal part. Db and E pentatonic vocal lines occur in Section A. The closing measures of the song transpose the initial Db pentatonic vocal motive to Gb pentatonic. Ives's water imagery is most apparent in the closing measures where he employs swiftly rising and falling whole- tone scales in the right hand of the piano part against Gb Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 108 pentatonic scale material in the vocal part. Just before the closing chords sound, the vocal part joins with the piano by also utilizing a rising whole-tone scale against the swiftly ascending whole-tone scale of the piano. A Sea Dirge (1925) is one of Ives's last songs. The text is by William Shakespeare (The Tempest, Act I, Sc.2). The song is yet another example of tonal neutralization used to depict a water setting. Ives relies on whole-tone chords (augmented triads) and chromatic scales to achieve this effect. The work opens with an instrumental introduc tion which slowly oscillates between two harmonies: C+(add 9) over A(bass) and C minor(add b9) over F. The written indication is "In a slow swaying way." All these combined features help the introduction to successfully portray the rocking motion of the sea. When the instrumental intro duction recurs later, as part of the body of the song, it is utilized to accompany an unusually long melisma for Ives (7 notes) on the word "change." The melisma also oscillates as it sways back and forth between a minor second (E and Eb). Slowly oscillating augmented triads also appear in the coda where the pianist sways back and forth between D+ (addb9) over G(bass) and Db major7 over E. The work closes on the augmented harmony, D+(add b9) over G. Chromatic scales play an important role in both the vocal and piano parts of A Sea Dirge. Chromatically de scending parallel perfect fifths in the right hand of the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 109 piano part appear during the words, "Those are pearls that were his eyes." This accompanies a chromatically descend ing vocal line. The phrase of chromatically descending perfect fifths appears once again, just prior to the coda where the vocalist sings,"Sea nymphs hourly ring his knell. Hark, now." A Sea Dirge presents an unstable harmonic foundation which successfully depicts the image of a body of water in flux - a tempest. In A Farewell to Land (1925), a man sets sail and bids his native land "Adieu." The song attempts to look at water scenes in the tradition of the Transcendentalists who, un like the writers of the eighteenth century, spoke of water in the same terms which they saw the human mind - as an active agent, rather than as a passive receptacle.22 Once again, unpredictable watery activity is repre sented by irregular meter. The meter signatures change in the central part of the song in the manner of The White Gulls. Ives writes a rising and falling ebb and flow effect of 4/4, 5/4, 4/4, 5/4, 4/4. The polyrhythm in this song is as sophisticated as in Tom Sails Away, and thus, gives the performer the freedom of never performing this work the same way twice. This tripart song (Adagio-Allegro-Adagio) is generated from atonal sets and Ives tries to avoid pitch class repe tition until many different notes of the total chromatic have first been sounded.(See Examples 17.0 and 17.1 below.) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 110 AM&IO k k1 _ , M i — t s r i f fo r, si Example 17.0. Ives, "A Farewell to Land," From: Nineteen Songs. Copyright 1935, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. A&A&IO ^ S u m THAT SETS UP - - ON THE S E A , WE F o i* U u / IN HIS F l i & H T j ' PARE - 3 f p e c re s s . ma non R it. 13 WELL A -W HILE TO HIM AND T H E E , Mi N A T -IV 6 LANP, G o o P -N lE H t! - tf/— w n IjT $ JSIL w Example 17.1. Ives, "A Farewell to Land," From: Nineteen Songs. Copyright 1935, Merion Music. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Ill A whole-tone hexachord, 6-35, begins this work in the piano part. This chordal structure is voiced as a D augmented triad over an E augmented triad. Overlapping this hexachord is the A section melody presented by the voice, which re lies heavily on a 4-4 (0125) tetrachord. This tetrachord is sung during "Adieu, adieu" (m.l), imitated in the piano two octaves and a half-step higher (m.2), then sequenced in the piano with an altered rhythm (m.3). It finally re turns to the vocal line a half-step lower than its first appearance (mm.3-4): "my native shore" (See Ex.17.0). The song consistently transposes atonal sets to various pitch levels. When 4-4 (0125) returns at the start of the A' second Adagio (m.10, Ex.17.1), it is transposed a half-step lower than its last presentation in the A section(mm.3-4). This occurrence is during the phrase: "Yon sun that sets." Set 4-4 appears twice more: transposed to yet a new pitch level starting on Bb in the vocal line (end of m.ll) and also as part of the codetta in the lowest register of the piano (m.13) as (180B). This shows the importance of regis ter in A Farewell to Land, since 4-4 goes from the highest register (m.2) down to the lowest register of the piano (m.13) in the course of the song. This may be interpreted as a text painting device because the song deals with a person bidding farewell to his native land as his ship moves farther and farther from the shore. The codetta is also striking for its series of eleven different adjacent Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 112 pitch classes during the closing words: "Farewell awhile to him and thee, my native Land, Good-night 1" (Only the Bb is lacking, although one may wish to consider the Bb at the end of the piano part in the bass as being the completion of the total chromatic.) The B Allegro section presents a rare occurrence in the Ives song literature: several lengthy melismas, not unlike those found in florid operatic repertoire. A Fare well to Land presents four of them, one right after the other.They are indeed used purposefully here as text paint ing devices bringing to life the "roar of the breakers" and the "shrieks of the wild sea-mew." Atonal theoretical methods of analysis prove useful in discovering the set relationships in A Farewell to Land. Allen Forte's method defines two important relationships: 1) Set Complex K - sets are associated by virtue of the "inclusion relation," that is, a complementary relationship of two sets where one is a subset of the other set (super set ). The subset does not have to also be in the super set 's complement set; 2) Set Complex Kh - the subset must be contained in both the superset and that superset's com plement set. Forte defines this as a "reciprocal complement relation."23 The matrix below presents K and Kh set rela tionships in A Farewell to Land. The method of diagramming follows Forte's conception: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 113 3-1 3-2 3-3 Kh Kh Kh Kh K Kh 4-2 4-4 Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh 6-35 (Set relationships in A Farewell to Land) There are few structurally important sets in A Fare well to Land, owing to the brevity of the song (13 mm.)* The nexus set, following Forte's hierarchy, is a large member set with the greatest number of Kh relationships. Either 6-1 or 6-2 fulfills these requirements in A Fare well to Land. It is possible that Carl Ruggles was instrumental in influencing Ives's occasional use of quasi-serial tech nique, as in A Farewell to Land. Ives always had a strong admiration for Ruggles's music. He was so greatly im pressed by Ruggles's Men and Mountains when it appeared in the first issue of Henry Cowell's quarterly magazine, New Music, that he immediately ordered twenty-five sub scriptions to the periodical.24 Ives and Ruggles both shared a spiritual identification with natural wonders.25 The titles of many of Ruggles's works suggest it;ie., The Sun Treader and Men and Mountains. Henry Cowell has Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 114 explained the theoretical reasoning behind Carl Ruggles's quasi-serial method of composition: He finds that if the same note is repeated in a melody before enough notes have intervened to re move the impression of the original note,there is a sense of tautology, because the melody should have proceeded to a fresh note instead of to a note already in the consciousness of the listener. Therefore Ruggles writes at least seven or eight different notes in a melody before allowing him self to repeat the same note, even in the octave.26 The songs discussed thus far in this chapter are all examples of how the composer creates impressions of water imagery. It appears to the author that the technical ap proach which Ives favors most in this song-type is neu tralization by two frequently employed methods: 1) Lack of a single, stable tonality through a reliance on whole- tone and chromatic scales as a harmonic foundation; and 2) Dissolution of metric regularity and predictability by avoidance of barlines or downbeats. When barlines do ap pear, the meter signatures change with great frequency. The remaining nature songs in this chapter principally deal with scenes which are not greatly in flux. The chief exception is songs about wind, which of course, is as un predictable as water. It is the author's observation that Ives's songs written prior to 1900 are, for the most part, construc ted using similar technical and structural compositional procedures, despite their classification according to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 115 the text. Point of fact, all of the pre-1900 nature songs discussed below, do rely on techniques employed in nine teenth century Romantic songs. The tonal designs are gen erally either strophic or rounded binary. The material generates itself through organic means, namely, motives of pitch and/or rhythm used in repetition, sequence, and imitation between the voice and piano. None of the early nature songs possess the descriptive imagery to be found in the post-1900 works. The World's Wanderers (1895), A Night Thought(1895), from "Amphion" (1896), and The South Wind (1899) lack descriptive vitality. However, Ives's chronologically next song about natural wonders is Rough Wind{1902), and in its powerful imagery, one sees the be ginning of Ives's mature songwriting years. The World's Wanderers makes repeated use of two mel odic motives in the vocal line (Ex. 18.0 and 18.1): m.4 Ex. 18.0. (motive "a") Ex. 18.1. (motive "b") "The World's Wanderers" "The World's Wanderers" The "a" (descending step) motive occurs three times during the eleven-measure vocal part. Each occurrence is at a new pitch level. The "b" (ascending Eb scale) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 116 motive is repeated twice, and then rhythmically altered during its third appearance in each strophe (b'). A Night Thought is another organically generated mo- tivic song. However, the motives in this work are rhyth mic with various groups of assigned pitches as pictured in Examples 19.0, 19.1, and 19.2: Ex. 19.0. (rhythmic motive "a") "A Night Thought" Ex. 19.1. (rhythmic motive "b") "A Night Thought" Ex. 19.2. (rhythmic motive "c") "A Night Thought" The vocal line is generated from three principal rhythmic figures and sometimes the duration of a note Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 117 within a figure is altered to suit an occasional change of meter signature (ie., b' in Example 19.1). Ives's From "Amphion" makes repeated use of two con trasting motives (Examples 20.0 and 20.1): m otivs V ( chrsmatk MOUrt-TAlM STlRRED ITS Example 20.0. Ives, "From 'Amphion,'" (motive "a") From: Ten Songs. Copyright 1953, Peer International Corporation, Reprinted by Permission. m otive V ( »i w w it,jM P g gfto ) mn, 10,11,43,AMD 24 Example 20.1. Ives, "From 'Amphion,'" (motive "b") Motive "a," (in the vocal line), contains a descend ing chromatic scale and always resolves to the tonic note (Eb). It always appears counterpointed in mirror inver sion against a variant of itself in the accompaniment which also resolves to Eb. Motive "b" (Ex.20.1), in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 118 contrast, is a descending, diatonic arpeggio figure which appears at the same pitch level until its final presenta tion where Ives allows the singer the option of either singing the same pitches one last time, or singing alter nate (descant) pitches. The South Wind (1899), (or Die Lotosblume), and Rough Wind (1902) are contrasting musical portraits of wind. The former work, originally an exercise in Lieder composition, portrays a gentle breeze while the latter work conjures up images of violent and unpredictable gusts of wind - something akin to a stormy sea. Although the character of each type of wind is clearly different, both songs share a similar trait - the material is funda mentally stepwise. Perhaps Ives associates the activity of any type of wind with smoothly composed lines for both the vocalist and the accompanist. Both works are tonal. The South Wind is in a major mode (F) and Rough Wind is in the relative minor of F(D minor). Yet, the latter work shows greater maturity for several reasons: 1) the design is through-composed and quite unpredictable in contrast to The South Wind's clearly delineated double period of parallel construction (Verse #1); 2) Rough Wind utilizes nonfunctional tertian harmony to retain its air of uncer tainty while the double period, mentioned above in The South Wind, traditionally closes with the tonic harmony Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. |¥J J * R M 6H WIN&, THAT l . p i - n - n - . j — ^ W M V -fS T L0V6 j K ' - n ~ n r r Lf ' f V Lf q g w Example 21.0. Ives, "Rough Wind," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. cam Fuoto Example 21.1. Ives, "Rough Wind," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 120 Rough Wind demonstrates a pyramid style method of layer ing each rhythmic line upon the next until a total of four simultaneous rhythmic lines occur; 4) Tonal neutral ization due to whole-tone and chromatic scales occurs at the end of Rough Wind; a device which Ives would employ at a future time in his water songs. Example 21.1 above, presents the final measures of Rough Windt the left hand of the piano part continues its descending chromatic scales which dominated the entire song, however, the right hand simultaneously presents an ascending whole-tone scale (D E F# G# Bb C D). The first and only whole-tone scale in the work occurs as the final gesture of a fierce windstorm. The choice of placement is interesting and holds a special importance, since the closing gesture of a work is generally well remembered by the listener. It is not surprising that Ives expressed his obser vations about wind through song. One of Ives's Transcen- dentalist New England mentors, Thoreau, was fascinated by wind sounds and frequently wrote of it: Another prominent metaphor which Thoreau used was that of the telegraph harp. He was fascinated by the sounds of the wind blowing through the tele graph wires which were being erected on the rail road right-of-way near Walden Pond. This Aeolian Harp was a man-made invention that had been blessed by the Spirit.27 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 121 Nature's Nay (1908) and Evidence (1910) were written only a few years after Ives started to seriously experi ment with atonality, yet, these two songs are tonal. They represent a temporary regression from Ives's experimen talist tendencies. Both songs rely on repetition as the principal structural device. As a result, the two works achieve a strong sense of homogeneity. The accompaniments of the works follow a consistent pattern with only slight variations (harmonic adjustments). Nature's Way sets Charles Ives's own words to relatively unchallenging mu sic. The work was probably intended to serve as part of Harmony Ives's vocal repertoire.28 The harmonies in Na ture's Nay are functional, with all secondary dominants (except one) resolving as expected. The only interesting feature in Nature's Way is the use of syncopation. It is used on two levels throughout the song: Level 1 is a text painting device representing "the distant evening bell." Ives uses recurring F octaves in the piano(R.H.) to serve as bell tones. The octaves always sound on the third beat of 3/4 time and they are allowed to 'ring' into the next measure. Level 2 involves the use of syncopation in the vocal line. Ives's procedure in Nature's Nay is to first present a one-bar vocal motive with no syncopation and then bring the motive back in the next phrase with subtle rhythmic alterations. Instead of starting the motive on the downbeat a second time, Ives shifts the entrance of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 122 the motive to the weak half of the first beat. This pro cedure breaks the monotony which could easily grasp the work. Evidence also uses repetition, however, entire phrases recur (sometimes transposed), rather than brief motivic repetitions as in Nature's Way. Thoreau (1915) is a brief atonal song with no meter signature and only one barline placed near the start of the third (final) section. The work is eclectic because each of the three sections retains its own unique tex tural quality. Section 1 is a chordal instrumental intro duction which is meant to imitate the vibrations of the "Concord bell." The introduction is based on a single harmony, a 6-z44(012569) hexachord which begins the work. The next harmony sounded is also 6-z44, but it is trans posed up a major third (t4). The third harmony sounded is yet another transposition of 6-z44 (t3 in relation to chord 1), but without the hexachord's highest pitch, thus creating pentachord 5-32 (01469). The remainder of the introduction alternates the t4 hexachord with the t3 pentachord. These piano chords occur between two regis- trally separated pedal tones: A# in the highest register of the keyboard and D# as the bass pedal. Together the two pitches form a perfect fifth; a very resonant, and appropriate choice of pedal tones which are meant to imi tate bell tones. The 6-z44 hexachord may also be inter Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 123 preted as a polychord constructed from two trichords: C# F A (048) 3-12,(an augmented triad) over Bb E G# (026) 3-8. After the sounds of bell tones vibrating through the pine needles fade away, two more sections of Thoreau re main. Section 2 suggests a tonal area of Db in its contra puntal piano accompaniment. The progression in this sec tion is vi O vii7 (half-dim.) O V7(no3). The seventh of the V7(Ab7) appears as a chanting-tone in the vocal part ("He grew in those seasons like corn in the night"). The contrasting third section of Thoreau allows the vocal line more freedom while the homophonic piano part plays a three-note ostinato figure in the left hand: B D A arpeg giates as B minor7. The right hand plays harmonies above the persistent B minor7 ostinato and this results in a polychordal accompaniment in the final section. The clos ing harmony is also a polychord: F# minor over F major (spelled E# A B#} over B major. The importance of complement-related sets in Ives's Afterglow (1919) is pointed out by Allen Forte in An Ives Celebration.29 Examples 22.0 and 22.1 below, present respectively, 7-19 and 5-19; two complement-related sets. 7-19 opens the work and 5-19 closes it. Example 22.0 also contains two adjacent complement-related sets, 7-28 fol lowed by 5-28: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 124 StOWt* AND VttS W6TLZ ? « , ,A i t LC9AT0 f i i b fH A ou w e irr •-» 8^ VJf q u itT ta .3 a u jL a .A N D iltfTAlWED THAflUftttUT Example 22.0. Ives, "Afterglow," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Pill X&H.S HALL. THI Plil TiH. I A A l l. Example 22.1. Ives, "Afterglow," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 125 One can see how atonal theoretical methods of analy sis prove insightful in Afterglow. Several important sets recur without their complements:3-8, 7-33, 8-25(Ex.22.0). The majority of simultaneities in Afterglow are best ana lyzed using atonal methods, however, there is one phrase in Afterglow which employs tertian chords. This phrase ("Beauty tarries loth to die") may be read as C O G(add 6 and 9) O F7 O B minor9 O C+(add maj.7). Atonality and the lack of a regular pulse are effective means by which Ives portrays something as amorphous as sunset light. The K and Kh relationships between only the tri chords, tetrachords, pentachords, and hexachords may be observed in the matrix below.(Note how 6-34 may be desig nated as the nexus set owing to its numerous Kh relation ships .) 3-3 3-7 3-8 3-10 3-11 4-16 K K Kh K K 4-24 K K Kh K K 4-25 K K Kh K K 4-26 K Kh K K Kh 4-28 K K K Kh K 4-16 4-24 4-25 4-26 4-28 5-19 Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh K K K K K 5-25 K Kh Kh Kh Kh K K K Kh K 5-26 Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh K Kh K K K 5-28 Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh K K Kh K K 6-zl2 Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh *6-34 Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh Kh 6-35 Kh Kh Kh (Set relationships in Afterglow) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 126 Maple Leaves (1920) is another mature atonal song which uses both tertian harmonies and atonal simultanei ties. The work may be divided into three sections deter mined by the motivic material presented in the accompani ment: A (2 bars), B (4 bars), A' (5 bars). The A and A' sections contain arpeggiated major triads in the piano part. The central section's texture, by contrast, is chordal and makes repeated use of set 4-14 and its trans position by t2 • This occurs above a pedal point lasting the duration of the central section. The Rainbow and So may it be! (1921) are the same song, but each possesses a different ending. (Compare Examples 23.0 and 23.1.) The Rainbow was originally an orchestral work, and so its ending (Ex.23.0) attempts to transcribe the effect of violins fading away. So may it be! does not attempt the effect, thereby ending sooner. (Ex.23.1). Once again atonal set analysis proves useful. Hexa- chordal combinatoriality occurs in So may it be! (The Rainbow). Example 23.2 presents two 6-32 hexachords which when combined, form the total chromatic. The first 6-32 appears at the end of measure 2 and ties over into the next measure. It is voiced as a quartal harmony. Its 6-32 complement is also voiced quartally, and occurs on the downbeat of measure 5. Example 23.2 also shows the importance of 5-27, occurring consecutively in three Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 127 different transpositions (nun.3-4). 5-35, and several transpositions of it, appear later in the song and all transpositions are voiced as quartal chords. ' tHft Son 6-MA3 END ONTHECHOto Example 23.0. Ives, "The Rainbow," (Final phrase) From: Thirty-Four Songs. Copyright 1933. Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. nr* H P *— • __ -------___ iT? ,1 Id 1 1 7>i i l N 'n W 7 V it To BE Soon ! * ’ 0 EACH TO EACH 69 ^ ---- =^l=_. NAT-URAL Pi - £ - TB. : ¥ ^ £ £ — naf - E f = f * r *4-stJ— — \-t4- f . h . .1/ Example Fron Meri 23.1. Ives, "So may i: 114 Songs. Copyrigt on Music, Inc. Copyrj P f ' ^ it be!" (Final phrase) it 1933, ight renewed. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 128 WHIM Example 23.2. Ives, "So may it be!" (Introduction) From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. The importance of the interval of a fourth in the accompanimental harmonies of So may it be! is derived from its use in the vocal part. Frequent perfect fourth leaps occur in the melody. Additionally, there are three instances where the vocalist sings a whcle-tone scale spanning the interval of an augmented fourth. Ives, like Thoreau, showed no special understanding of Oriental philosophies, but like Thoreau, he did make use of Greek subjects in his works. Aeschylus and Sopho cles (1922) for voice, piano, and string quartet, begins with a "Greek" Fugue30 as shown in Example 24.0 below. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 129 Perhaps Ives's interest in Greek subject matter was in spired by his interest in Thoreau: Thoreau was somewhat better fitted to understand and appropriate the Greek spirit than he was the Oriental spirit. Brought up among persons who knew the value of Greek, and writing in a company (Parker, Miss Fuller, Alcott) which was extraordi narily proficient in the Greek language. . . he read Greek without difficulty.31 ADAfiiO Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 130 Aufi&M — _____ Example 24.0. Ives, "Aeschylus and Sophocles," (Fugal Introduction) From: Nineteen Songs. Copyright 1935, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Aeschylus and Sophocles is a pastoral setting musi cally subdivided into three sections: slow and contrapun tal (introduction), fast and contrapuntal (when the voice first enters), slow and homophonic. The exposition (Ex. 24.0) presents all four entrances of the fugue subject in the following order: soprano, tenor, alto, and bass. The tenor answers at the major sixth, the alto at the tri tone, the bass at the perfect fifth. The free counter point which follows the exposition is similar to a poly phonic texture which Ives creates for On the Antipodes, completed only one year after Aeschylus and Sophocles. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 131 On the Antipodes (1915-23) for voice and two pianos is a polyphonic work containing three appearances of a chord progression patterned in palindromic fashion. The song is framed by two of the three appearances. The remaining occurrence is positioned in the center of the work. All three appearances are not identical, yet simi lar symmetrical patterning occurs with each presentation. The symmetrical pattern results from the type of inter- vallic voicing used to construct each chord. For example, the first time the progression occurs,there is a sequence of twenty chords comprising the palindrome. Chords 1, 2, and 20 are voiced entirely in perfect fifths. Chords 3, 4, 5, and 17, 18, 19 are constructed from a combination of perfect and augmented fourths. Chords 6 and 16 use minor and major thirds. Chords 7 and 15 sound major sec onds for only the duration of a sixteenth note. Chords 8, 9, and 13, 14 continue the pattern of intervallic dim inution by emphasizing major seconds with a few inter spersed thirds. Chords 10 and 12 use both major and mi nor seconds. The chord placed at midpoint (Chord 11) is a semitone cluster. The symmetry in On the Antipodes illustrates the idea of juxtaposing opposites - a study of dualism found in Nature: "Nature's relentless; Nature is kind. Nature is Eternity; Nature's today!" "In his Essays, Ives rarely introduces a concept without immediately pairing it with Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 132 its opposite, a juxtaposition that helps to define what he means. Some pairs clearly contrast traits that he values with traits he rejects. . . ."32 in fact, Ives makes it a point to find the unity in dualism. Such unity is provided by the concept of the "universal mind." Ives explains this notion by paraphrasing Bronson Alcott: "... that all occupations of man's body and soul in their diversity come from but one mind and soul!"33 Peaks (1923?) and Yellow Leaves (1923?) are songs about solid natural objects; that is in contrast to such things as water, wind, sunlight, rainbows, etc.. However, there occurs a brief section in each song which makes reference to an unstable creation in nature. It is at that point where whole-tone material is first introduced into each work. Yellow Leaves presents its first whole- tone harmony (C+) and whole-tone scale (C D E F# G# A# C) in its final three measures, during the words "deep, deep in old fountains." This reference to water imagery initi ates a whole-tone response in Ives. In Peaks, the vocal ist sings his first whole-tone scale at the mention of wind: "I cannot tell if it be wind" (D C A# G# E F#). The piano supports this vocal phrase with whole-tone har monies in the right hand and an ascending E Lydian mode in the left hand. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 133 In summation, Ives sets texts about tangible natural objects (ie., leaves, peaks, forests) differently than those texts dealing with unstable or amorphous natural creations such as water, wind, moonlight, or rainbows. Natural imagery in a state of flux receives neutraliza tion treatment, both tonal and metric. Tonal neutraliza tion used to text paint amorphous objects frequently uti lizes whole-tone scales and harmonies. Tonal neutraliza tion in songs describing tangible natural objects is fre quently achieved through nonfunctional major and minor harmonies and polychords. In addition, atonal songs about stable natural objects frequently employ either a pedal point technique and/or an ostinato: Nature's Way (pedal), Evidence (pedals), Thoreau (ostinato based on a B min.7 arpeggio), Maple Leaves (pedal in central section), Peaks (pedals), and Yellow Leaves (ostinato based on a D minor arpeggio). Such observations are most clearly made in Ives's post-1900 nature songs, since the earlier songs rely on nineteenth century mannerisms and functional har monies despite the text content. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 134 Notes to Chapter 3 1. Hopkins, Vivian C. Spires of Form: A Study of Emer son's Aesthetic Theory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1951. pp.6-7. 2. Salzman, Eric. Twentieth-Century Music: An Introduc tion. Third edition. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersy: Prentice Hall, 1988. p.137. 3. Burkholder, J. Peter. Charles Ives: The Ideas Behind the Music. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1985. p.20. 4. Mellers, Wilfrid. Music in a New Found Land: Themes and Developments in the History of American Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. p.47. 5. Ives, Charles Edward. Essays Before a Sonata and Other Writings. Howard Boatwright, editor. New York: W.W. Norton, 1962. p.l. 6. Ives, p.11. 7. Frothingham, Octavius Brooks. Transcendentalism in New England: A History. Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith Publishing, 1965. p.122. 8. Perry, Rosalie Sandra. Charles Ives and the American Mind. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1974. pp.24-25. 9. Ives, pp.53-54. 10. Ives, p.41. 11. Ives, p.46. 12. Miller, Perry. The Transcendentalists: An Anthology. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967. p.311. 13. Stone, Kurt. "Ives's Fourth Symphony: A Review," The Musical Quarterly. Vol. LII, No.l, January 1966.p.11. 14. Hitchcock, H. Wiley. Ives: A Survey of the Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. p.75. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 135 15. Carter, Elliott. "Ives Today: His Vision and Chal lenge," Modern Music. Vol.XXI, No.4, May-June 1944. pp.199-200. 16. Perlis, Vivian. Charles Ives Remembered: An Oral His tory. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1974. p.211. 17. Clark, Sondra Rae. "The Element of Choice in Ives's 'Concord Sonata'," The Musical Quarterly. Vol. LX, No.2, April 1974. p.173. 18. Ives, Charles Edward. Essays Before a Sonata and Other Writings. Howard Boatwright, editor. New York: W.W. Norton, 1962. p.77. 19. Ives, Charles Edward. 114 Songs. Bryn Mawr, Pennsyl vania: Theodore Presser Company, 1975. p.62. 20. Cowell, Henry and Cowell, Sidney. Charles Ives and His Music. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1955. p.65. 21. Cowell, p. 70. 22. Perry, Rosalie Sandra. Charles Ives and the American Mind. Kent State University Press, 1974. pp.29-30. 23. Forte, Allen. The Structure of Atonal Music. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1973. p.96. 24. Sablosky, Irving. American Music. Chicago and London: The University c- Chicago Press, 1969. pp.162-163. 25. Thomson, Virgil. American Music Since 1910. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1970. p.35. 26. Cowell, Henry. New Musical Resources. New York:Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1930. pp.41-42. 27. Ward, Charles W. "Charles Ives's Concept of Music," Current Musicology. No.18, 1974. p.117. 28. Wooldridge, David. Charles Ives: A Portrait. London: Faber and Faber, 1975. p.144. 29. Forte Allen. "Ives and Atonality" in An Ives Celebra tion. H. Wiley Hitchcock, editor. Chicago and London: University of Illinois Press, 1977. p.174. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 136 30. Wooldridge, David. Charles Ives: A Portrait. London: Faber and Faber, 1975, p.92. 31. Van Doren, Mark. Henry David Thoreau: A Critical Analysis. New York: Russell & Russell, 1916. p.97. 32. Burkholder, J. Peter. Charles Ives: The Ideas Behind the Music. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1985. p.8. 33. Ives, Charles Edward. Essays Before a Sonata and Other Writings. Howard Boatwright, editor. New York: W.W. Norton, 1962. p.96. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 137 4 (£ Iv e s th e Iliilo s o p lie r O Several of Charles Ives's songs pose philosophical questions about man and his spiritual essence. Five of these songs leave the questions unanswered: The Cage (1906),Soliloquy (1907), Immortality (1921), Premonitions (1921), and Walt Whitman (1921). The remaining philosoph ical songs either pose a question which is resolved by the end of the song, ie., From "Paracelsus" (1921) or forthrightly state a philosophical opinion based on man's experience, ie., Mirage (1902) and La Fede (1920). Half of the songs mentioned above were written in 1921. This suggests that 1921 was a year in which Ives was intensely focused on his inner self and its journey. It appears probable that at this late period of his composing years he became especially reflective. In his Essays Before a Sonata Ives states what he believes to be the composer's primary purpose: "... the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 138 translation of an artistic intuition into musical sounds approving and reflecting, or endeavoring to approve and reflect, a 'moral goodness', a 'high vitality,' etc., or any other human attribute - mental, moral, or spiritual."! Whatever area of life Ives attempts to translate into mu sical realization, ". . .he prefers to withhold some se cret, mysterious element for himself alone. For this rea son, it may be impractical to seek to reduce the Ives mystique to wholly comprehensible terms."2 Ives's biographers like to point to 1906 as being a turning point in his composing career. This was the year in which he finally took a firm grasp of atonal composi tional procedures. The Cage (1906) is a song which poses a question in order to ponder an aspect of life. Thus, it fits into the philosophical category of Ives's song repertoire. In general, the philosophical songs of Ives lack a sense of tonal stability. This tonal instability is an effective way of depicting a musical question with out a definite answer. The Cage was also written for chamber orchestra; In The Cage, for oboe, English horn, timpani, piano, and strings, was the result of a walk in Central Park one hot summer's afternoon, Sunday July 28, with Bart Yung (one-half Ori ental) and George Lewis (non Oriental): Sit ting on a bench near the menagerie, watching the leopard's cage and a little boy (who had apparently been a long time watching the leo pard) - this aroused Bart's Oriental fatalism, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 139 hence the text in the score and in the song. Technically this piece is a study of how 4ths and 5ths may throw melodies away from a set tonality.3 Ives thought enough of this song to include it in his collection of 114. He preferred his atonal or am biguously tonal songs to his earlier, tonal works. One reason for this attitude could be that Ives felt that music cannot effectively symbolize our emotional life if it remains tonal.4 For Ives, atonality and dissonance became important elements in portraying the human condi tion. The structure of The Cage shows advanced composi tional technique. Ives's evolution is apparent through the dissolution of the barline (Example 25.0). The two barlines in the work serve to delineate 1) the "vamp like" introductory phrase for the pianist and 2) to give a downbeat emphasis to the only whole-tone chord played by the accompanist in the entire song. Besides the lack of regular pulse, Ives logically writes in no meter sig nature at the start of this song. This one-part design retains the same texture and harmonic structure through out. The pianist's part remains in a chordal texture taking no part of the actual whole-tone melody, except for only three tones where the voice and piano exchange intervallic usage. This exchange occurs when the vocal line reaches its highest point on the note, E, thus Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 140 interrupting the whole-tone scale being sounded by the inclusion of two half-steps (D# E D#). £VEN u9 AND MECHANICALLY,----- NO RlTARC.; 0KIWSC., ACCEL, ETC. (M91KT 2 OK 3 V ME*) * A LE0P*AflD W ENT A-ROUND HIS CASE ffM ONEJlDfi T SACK TO THE 6TH-ER SlDE-.HE STOPPED ON-La WHEN THE KEEP-ER CAME AROUND WITH i l I l I , J MEAT; Example 25.0. Ives, "The Cage," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1955, Peer International Corporation, Reprinted by Permision. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 141 During this peak in the vocal line, the pianist plays B A B (whole-steps). At no other time in this song do the pianist's chords move by parallel whole-tones. Whole- tone structure is meant to be the melodic domain of the voice in The Cage. Harmonically, the only whole-tone chord for the pianist appears directly after this brief whole-tone melodic motion. The chord can also be concep tualized as a polychord constructed in three parts: an F dominant seventh chord on the bottom, an A+ triad in the middle, and a B+ triad on the top. The harmonic plan of the song creates a separation of intervallic materials between the voice and the piano. The voice uses both whole-tone scales in an alternating fashion with the single interruption mentioned above. The piano part uses chords built in perfect fourths and per fect fifths which move in parallel motion in melodic intervals not contained in the whole-tone scale; ie.,m2, m3, P4 and their inversions. This separation of materials is one method of creative text painting, portraying the separation between the leopard behind the bars and the boy observing the caged animal from the other side of the bars. The use of parallelism in the piano part shows that Ives may have associated parallelism with the physical act of walking. We will observe this same association in the Ives song, Walking. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 142 Aside from the parallel fourth and fifth harmonies, Ives also uses a 6-14 hexachord twice, voiced in two tri chords as(025, R.H.) and(037, L.H.). The first occurrence is in the introductory vamp. This hexachord fits in with the intervallic plan since it contains one perfect fourth and two perfect fifths. When it recurs on the second system of the score, it has been transposed upward by a fourth. The text painting of the idea of the leopard pacing back and forth is depicted in several ways. For example, the effect of alternating from one whole-tone scale to the other achieves this portrayal. Also observe the use of retrograde rhythm structure in the piano part at the start. The piano rhythms of the vamp bar are first used in their original form and then followed by their retro grade form - like retracing one's own steps from the other direction. This compositional technique of using retrograde of contour can also be observed in the next song, Soliloquy. The character singing the text of Soliloquy (1907) in a Yankee drawl ponders questions regarding the rela tionship between man and nature, and man's powerlessness over nature. The text contemplates this concept: When a man is sitting before the fire on the hearth, He says "Nature is a simple affair." Then he looks out the window and sees a hail storm, And he begins to think That "Nature can't be so easily disposed of!" Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 143 The man initially feels prideful sitting at the con tained fire on the hearth. At first, he believes that man has power over nature because he recognizes that he may easily dispose of the small fire. But when the powerful wrath of nature comes in the form of a hail storm, then the man is forced to recognize the ultimate power that nature has over man. As a result, the man develops a re spect and a fear of nature. The "unanswered question" is, to what extent does man retain some control over nature? The answer keeps changing as technology advances. These dual aspects of the power of man over nature and nature over man are reflected in the palindromic design of the work. The palindrome represents two opposite ways of viewing the relationship between a pair of things. The vocal part is independent of this palindromic structure. The palindrome begins in the second measure of the piano part and continues until the end of the song. The point of symmetry occurs where the pianist intervallically telescopes inward to a cluster constructed of minor sec onds using a chordal method earlier examined in On the Antipodes. The outermost points of the palindrome pre sent an arpeggiated, rather than chordal texture. The use of retrograde is frequently associated with atonal pitch organization, especially serialized atonal- ity. Soliloquy is atonal and utilizes pitch serializa tion, but only to the extent of sounding a set of eight Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 144 to twelve tones of the total chromatic with the conscious attempt of not moving on to new material until all mem bers of the set have been sounded. In Soliloquy, one observes sets of eight, ten, and twelve tones following the introduction. The opening Adagio section appears to express a reverence toward na ture even before the man in the song swallows his own pride and bows to its awesomeness. This reverence is expressed by the solemn chant-like vocal part (psalm tone on F) and also by the three-fold repetition of a succes sion of three chords: Db C> A9(no 3) O G half dim. over D maj.9. Could Ives have put emphasis on the number three in this introduction as an expression of the sacred Trin ity - the godliness of nature? After the chant-like introduction, the Allegro in troduces a twelve-tone row with the words, "Then he looks out the window and sees" (pitch classes 54367210BA98).5 The intervallic patterning reflects Ives's subtitle for this song: "A Study in 7ths and Other Things" (4 to 3 and 6 to 7 written as major seventh glissandij 1 to 0 and 9 to 8 written as major sevenths. The inversion of this interval (minor 2nd) is also well represented in the same phrase (5 to 4, 2 to 1, 0 to B, and B to A). The final trichord of this twelve-tone row: 8,9,A (012) 3-1, is repeated in order to finish the last few words of the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 145 sentence:". . .a hail storm." This 3-1 trichord returns once again (transposed to A,B,0) as the final three notes of the vocal part of Soliloquy. After the twelve-tone set mentioned above, the vo calist sings two eight-tone sets. The first is (754632A9) over the words, ". . .and he begins to think that. . . ." This is followed by another set of eight different tones (61027389) over, "Nature can't be so easily. . . ." The final words, "... disposed of!" are expressed by the return of the 3-1 trichord. The piano part presents the entire chromatic in pat terned arpeggiated chords. For example, at the start of the Allegro section the pianist plays the arpeggiated as cending pitch classes 12345(0), and immediately completes the total chromatic with arpeggiated descending pitch classes, BA9876. The corresponding measures on the oppo site side of the point of symmetry in this palindrome structure employ a similar dodecaphonic relationship. Immortality (1921) like Tom Sails Away, shows great harmonic and tonal diversity when one compares different structural sections of the design. Such eclecticism is used by Ives in a very purposeful and illustrative way in Immortality. This philosophical type of "unanswered question" song opens with a quasi-serialized introductory measure in which all twelve tones of the total chromatic are sounded in a phrase which expands outward from a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 146 unison Bb. The effect of this musical expansion could possibly depict the idea of a soul ascending from the limits of a single human body (represented by the unison Bb) outward into the infinity of the heavenly spheres (ascension). The end of Immortality introduces the greatest possible harmonic contrast, a single phrase com posed in purely diatonic C major which stylistically re sembles a sacred chorale. Thus, Ives runs from one end of the gamut to the other in this brief song of only seventeen measures. "Some composers. . .insulate them selves from new musical experiences in an effort not to be distracted. Others, whose curiosity and interest prompt them to follow what is going on, feeling, perhaps, as Charles Ives did, that 'eclecticism is part of his duty.'"6 The way in which Ives distributes the first differ ent twelve tones of the introduction seems to foreshadow later events in the Second Viennese School, specifically Alban Berg's creation of tertian harmonies in serial com positions. The progression of chords which Ives uses in the quasi-serial introductory bar are as follows: Eb mi - nor, D minor7, A minor7, C#7(b5), F major7(add #5), and the cadential chord of this phrase which is much better labelled through atonal nomenclature. This cadential simultaneity is symmetrically voiced between the right Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 147 and left hands of the keyboard as two 3-8's (026)+(026). From the bottom to the top this reads as Eb, A, C#, and F, G, B. The entire hexachord is 6-35, the whole-tone hexachord. Once again, Ives makes use of a whole-tone harmony to illustrate uncertainty. (One may recall the use of whole-tone scales in The Cage when other questions about life were being pondered.) Immortality may be divided into three sections fol lowing the quasi-serial introductory measure. The A sec tion begins with an abrupt contrast to the introduction by presenting a vocal melody of two measures clearly in F major during the phrase "Who dares to say the spring is dead." This two-bar phrase ends with a half cadence on a C9 with a raised fifth. The next two measures also con stitute a phrase, and here is where the tonal wandering begins. The word "radiant" is depicted by an A+ chord, and later a polychord (D major over B half-dim. 7) is in troduced for the first time on "glow!" This extremely chromatic phrase is followed by another contrasting two- bar phrase of the A section in which the ideas of purity and diatonicism appear through the prolongation of an A minor7 harmony. Then the final two-bar phrase of the first section continues to utilize the slow harmonic rhy thm of the last two bars, but reintroduces a more poly- chordal accompaniment, a prolongation of E minor7 over Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 148 G7. Together with the melody in the voice, the phrase sounds tonally centered around G. The first structural section (A) ends where exten sive tonal neutralization begins the second structural section. The B section starts with parallel chromatic scales and ends with chromatic scales in contrary motion. There is no suggestion of any tonal center in the B (cen tral) section and that sets it apart from the A section which suggests F major, A minor, and G major (with fre quent minor sevenths). As in the introduction, the B section also puts emphasis on presenting the total chro matic in a single phrase. The A' conclusion is a mere four bars, yet, like the A section, it also juxtaposes pure diatonicism and lush chromaticism during a single idea: "If God had meant she were to die, She would not have been." The first half of this sentence is scored in diatonic C major. In contrast, the second half harmonizes the diatonic F major vocal melody with many chromatic passing tones in the piano part. The final chord reverts once again back to the idea of the purity of the soul by finally cadencing on a simple C major triad. This conclusion, which sounds like a half cadence in F major, inconclusively ends Ives's song about death and everlasting life. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 149 Premonitions (1921) presents the philosophical atti tude that no matter what blessings have been withheld from one's life and whatever dreams may have gone unful filled, one must just accept the hand which Fate has dealt him and move "Forward! Where new horizons wait." No answers are provided in the text as to why Fate has been unkind. One is simply asked to move on in blind faith. Like The Cage (1906), Premonitions is another atonal philosophical song which avoids barlines. Only two bar lines appear in the work. They mark the start of two sec tions within a possible through-composed design of four sections. Three of these sections are atonal. The vocal line in Section 3 is, however, tonally centered in D mel odic minor. This mixture of atonal and tonal sections in the same song was also observed in the last philosophical song discussed, Immortality. Section 1 of Premonitions is the largest of the four sections. Most of this section appears in Example 26.0. It is the only organically conceived structural division. The motive which provides a sense of homogeneity in Sec tion 1 first appears as the opening three notes in the vocal part - dotted eighth to sixteenth note (repeated note figure) which leaps upward by a perfect fourth to the final note of the motive. The motive only appears in the vocal part and is used in inversion, with rhythmic Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 150 diminution, with intervallic diminution of the leap, and with slight rhythmic variations. SlOUUL9 rut & u m r m was N&vtft ruat « » « £ T h im 'S a m m Bwi ( I pa . j h. 1 4 2 1 and the * i p - p i b as t o e s p a s s whiiper of an unseen oaa}* An» rut m H PCMTATOMIC CLUSTER l . £ #4- * ^ — — ■■-=!)=— fM-K-n-rf-h- & h N . h .— =— S8 N& WE KNEW BB ROTE; SEEMS T0 _ FALTER v ? - IN THE THROAT; A FosT-FALL L — - _ r d ^- ■ P e N T A F O N l C ^ ^ i t - . A |-J C^enVatonic * 1 7 3« W - i p > ■ ■ ' — Example 26.0. Ives, "Premonitions," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed, Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 151 The eclecticism of Section 1 suggests the need for both atonal set theory and nonfunctional tertian chord labelling. Most of the harmonic simultaneities are polychords and the polychords themselves are structured with great diversity. Example 26.0 suggests a possible labelling for the polychords of the first system. Some of these polychords are entirely tertian, ie., the first two chords: B minor7 over A minor C> Bb minor over C mi nor. Other pclychords consist of two spatially separated atonal simultaneities, ie., 3-8 over 4-7 occurs in the middle of the first system. Yet another type of poly chord in the first system is a combination of a tertian chord spatially separated from an atonal set, ie., G7 over 4-7 follows the last chord mentioned. One last type of polychord appears at the end of the third system. Ives writes a pentatonic scale as a harmonic structure and places it above a tertian harmony, ie., C pentatonic over G minor7. The pentatonic scale plays an important role in the second half of Section 1. The pentatonic scale is only used harmonically in the song. This contrasts with its exclusively melodic use in the water imagery song, The Housatonic at Stockbridge. Pentatonic harmonic material first occurs in Premonitions at the mention of water in the text, "the ripples as they pass whisper of an unseen oar." A pentatonic scale cluster (F# G# A# C# D#) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 152 punctuates the phrase. The third system of Section 1 relies heavily on C# pentatonic harmonic structures over a C# pedal in the bass. Another philosophical song, The Cage, also uses the pentatonic scale harmonically in its piano part. Section 2 of Premonitions is motivically different than Section 1 in the vocal part due to its more stepwise and smoother lines. (The leap of a perfect fourth is an important structural element of the first section.) How ever, one important leap in the vocal line does occur in Section 2. This leap of a diminished fifth is the largest leap in the song thus far and the leap takes the vocal line to the highest note sung by this point (E on "bles sing"). The only pitch higher than this E is the final F. It is the climax of the song and closes the vocalist's final phrase with a sense of hope. "Forward! Where new horizons wait" is appropriately represented by an ascend ing whole-tone scale ending on this fff pitch F in the vocal part. Sections 3 and 4 are single phrases. Each is marked at the start by a barline. The first hint of tonal impli cation in Premonitions appears in the D melodic minor vocal part of Section 3. The piano part provides support in the form of parallel major triads voiced in sixths: C major, D major, Eb major, F major. Section 3 brings Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 153 back the leap as a structural melodic element in conjunc tion with new pp staccato articulation in the vocal and piano parts. Texturally, this is the most transparent section in the song. Section 4 presents contrasting ac cented articulation, tertian polychords at dynamic levels from f to fff, and chords moving in contrary motion as the vocalist ascends to 'new horizons.' Ives wrote a sketch of his Walt Whitman Overture be tween August 1913 and February 1914. It was one install ment in Ives's "Men of Literature" series.7 This original version was for chorus and chamber orchestra and the verse comes from Whitman's Song of Myself. In 1921 Ives transcribed it for voice and piano. One theme of the song is "the inward submersion to survey the limits of identity. . . Walt Whitman reveals this quest as asser tive and masculine."8 Ives greatly admired Walt Whitman. In Whitman's works Ives found a literary parallel to his own attitude about musical composition. "Strength and masculinity are his heroic pose, his ideal in music."9 Ives viewed the new music of Henry Cowell and Carl Rug- gles as strong and masculine. This strength is reflected in the opening instructions at the start of Walt Whitman, "Fast and in a challenging way." Walt Whitman is an introspective song which poses several "unanswered questions": "How is it I extract Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 154 strength from the beef I eat? What is a man anyhow? What am I? What are you?" The song alternates sections of chromaticism and density with sections of diatonicism and transparency. The first and third structural sections present a challenging jagged and chromatic vocal line. Section 1 includes a descending minor ninth for the vo calist. The accompaniment consists of dense and chroma tic polychords. Texturally contrasting Sections 2 and 4 both center the vocal line around a quasi 'chanting-tone' on E. The diatonic simplicity of the vocal line is matched by diatonic parallel fifth chords (triads without thirds). Perhaps the resonant and open quality of these chords is a text painting device depicting an optimistic attitude toward the possibilities for man's spiritual evolution. The three remaining philosophical songs do not pose "unanswered questions." Instead, they discuss the philo sophical aspects of an individual's life experience. All eight philosophical songs discussed in this chapter share a common feature - at least one musical parameter is so irregularly structured that it affects the stability of the entire composition. From this point of view, the philosophical and water imagery songs of Ives are simi larly conceived. Mirage (1902) is what the author considers to be Ives's earliest philosophical song. Although it may be Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 155 tonally centered in Eb major and Eb Mixolydian (Db's are numerous), it is metrically unstable and lacks resolution in its final measure. The irregular metrical framework alternates 3/4 and 4/4. In addition, the final harmony of the song is an unresolved major-minor7 chord built on the tonic containing an extremely unstable interval - the tritone. The text provides the reasoning behind this mu sical treatment. It discusses how an unfulfilled dream can cause one to view his or her world differently. The musical setting successfully paints the emotional insta bility one feels when she awakens from her dream of hope, feeling exceedingly "comfortless, and worn and old." Ives effectively text paints the moment in which the character awakens to reality by abruptly inserting an unresolved D dominant7 (add 6 and #11). La Fede, composed years later (1920), is metrically predictable (mostly in 2/2), but harmonically unstable. This brief atonal song of thirteen measures is filled with numerous text painting devices. The godliness and purity of faith born from one's heart is the issue. (Pre monitions also encourages one to retain his faith no mat ter what type of hand Fate has dealt.) The text points out that any person's faith is equally worthy and pure, whether it originates in grand or humble surroundings. The purity of faith is represented at the beginning and end of the work by the passages of perfect octaves in the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 156 accompaniment. The strength of faith is depicted by the forte dynamics indication during each passage in octaves. Antipodal lines of text are punctuated by contrasting harmonies: "0 data a un sol" ("sol" accompanied by a sin gle pitch class in octaves) is followed by "0 data anchor a cento" ("cento" is supported by a C major triad over a D quartal chord, and this polychord spans five octaves.) Another antipodal relationship occurs where the text re lates two opposite environments in which faith may origi nate: "in palese" (dense ff polychords) "0 data in una grotta" (perfect octaves). Such alternations between complexity and simplicity qualifies La Fede as another example of Ives's eclecticism. From "Paracelsus" (1921) is derived from Ives's Robert Browning Overture (1911), another installment in his "Men of Literature" series. The overture . .is based on Browning's dramatic portrait of Aureolus Para celsus, the 16th century alchemist, humanist, and meta physicist . "io The poetic form of the text is known as the "dramatic monologue" which Browning publicized, but did not invent.ii The text presents the introspective "... attempt of man to take unto himself the glory of God. There fol lows the despair of finding this futile; then comes the realization of error and an understanding of love that takes precedence over power." 12 Ives musically interprets Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 157 the character's psychological journey from inner turmoil to peaceful resolution by starting the work with complex polyrhythms and atonality in a polyphonic texture, and gradually progresses toward the simpler G major, homo- phonic chorale-style concluding section. The character's emotional resolution does not, however, appear to be com plete because the half cadence on the dominant of G major which closes the work, implies that the character's soul- searching is not yet over. In general, Ives's philosophical songs are quite similar to his water imagery songs. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that most of the songs con tained in both categories are late works, written after 1917. Like the water imagery songs, the philosophical songs possess extended sections of either rhythmic and/or tonal neutralization which results in unpredicta bility. However, the major difference between the two classifications lies in the degree of homogeneity within a given song. The water imagery songs have a fairly constant texture and harmonic language throughout, ie., Tom Sails Away, The White Gulls, The Housatonic at Stock- bridge, and A Farewell to Land. Philosophical songs by Ives are usually eclectic entities in which obvious divi sions within a single work require different types of theoretical methods, ie., Immortality, Premonitions, Walt Whitman, La Fede, and From "Paracelsus." The exceptions Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 158 to this conclusion are, of course, Mirage, The Cage and Soliloquy, which were written much earlier than the years in which Ives's philosophical song output was at its apex (1920-1921). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 159 Notes to Chapter 4 1. Ives, Charles Edward. Essays Before a Sonata and Other Writings. Howard Boatwright, editor. New York: W.W. Norton, 1962. pp.7-8. 2. Bader, Yvette. "The Chamber Music of Charles Edward Ives," The Music Review. Vol.33, No.4, November 1972, p.295. 3. Wooldridge, David. Charles Ives: A Portrait. London: Faber and Faber, 1975. p.127. 4. Lippman, Edward Arthur. "Symbolism in Music," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.XXXIX, No.4, 1953. p.554. 5. The letter "A" is meant to indicate pitch class 10 while "B" represents pitch class 11 in the analysis. 6. Carter, Elliott. "Shop Talk by an American Composer," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.XLVI, No.2, April 1960. p.194. 7. Wooldridge, p.169. 8. Perry, Rosalie Sandra. Charles Ives and the American Mind. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1974. p.85. 9. Solomon, Maynard. "Charles Ives: Some Questions of Veracity," Journal of the American Musicological Society. Vol.XL, No.3, Fall 1987. p.466. 10. Wooldridge, p.279. 11. Brown, Calvin S. Music and Literature: A Comparison of the Arts. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 1948. p.62. 12. Cowell, Henry and Cowell, Sidney. Charles Ives and His Music. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1955. p.190. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 160 Political Songs Charles Ives's published song repertoire contains six works which may be classified as political in nature and they may be divided into four subclasses. Vote for Names (1912) and An Election, also known as Nov. 2. 1920 (1921) are commentaries on the political concerns of spe cific national elections. The New River (1921) is an ecological awareness song. It comments on the effects of the Industrial Revolution upon the environment. War songs is the third subclassification illustrated by Ives's "Three Songs of War": Tom Sails Away (1917), He is There! (1917), and In Flanders Fields (1919). (Tom Sails Away may also be classified as a water imagery song and it was previously discussed in Chapter 3.) Popular song quota tions are particularly abundant in Ives's war songs. The fourth and final subclassification is an expression of Ives's basic political philosophy in the song Majority (1921). Ives's political songs stylistically reflect the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 161 tastes of the common man through employment of popular march and ragtime rhythms. Actually, Ives had little interest in the progres sive reform movements of the 1900's and 1910's. During these years prior to World War I, he gave generously to private charities, but preferred to avoid personal in volvement in any organized political or social movements.i Down to about 1914, current events and party bat tles do not seem to have concerned him even in a private way. He was obviously a progressive; yet he ignored the progressive movement during its hey day. One reason was that he was interested in pro gressive reforms - the initiative, the referendum, and "direct democracy" - which were less popular in the northeastern part of the country, where a more elitist and paternalistic approach to reform pre vailed. 2 The religious awakening between the 1870's and the 1910's greatly influenced the progressive movement and helped to initiate the Social Gospel movement. It proposed the socialization of the Protestant religion as a national code of ethics. Ives indicates his support for Social Christianity in his essay entitled, "The Majority."2 The hardcore progressives within this movement "... seemed to assume, almost unquestioningly, that a divine vision of a Kingdom of God on earth should motivate all kinds of reform activity.'"* The guiding principle in Ives's plan for social evolution is a strong faith in the judgment of the common Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 162 man. "Ives's work was motivated by the conviction that a logic, which he termed 'the instinctive reasoning of the masses,' remained hidden within the varied manifesta tions of human culture. "5 Ives felt that the government should more accurately represent the views of the masses, so he mailed out thousands of copies of his own proposed "Twentieth Amendment." This proposal suggests that the public send in their reform plans which Congress would consider. Then the best plans would be submitted for popular vote.6 Ives's job in the insurance business was another way in which he expressed his concern for the security of the common man and his family. Ives worked for the Mutual Life Insurance Company based in New York City. He started as a clerk in 1898, but when the company opened an agency for partners, he teamed up with Julian S. Myrick. Ives dealt with the agents' end of the job and Myrick made contacts.7 "They were set up by Mutual in 1909 as joint managers of an agency in New York City; and throughout the next decade, the Ives & Myrick Agency was extraordi narily successful in increasing its sales of life insur ance from year to year."6 When the United States entered World War I, Ives be came a fervent participant in the Liberty Loan drives. The turning point in his life came only one month before Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 163 the armistice when he suffered a heart attack. About three years later he began his semiretirement and by 1921 he lived in a state of social isolation. Many important philosophical and political songs were written in 1921, but after those works he nearly ceased composing for the remaining three decades of his life.9 An enthusiastic supporter in the war effort, Ives loved his country and its potential. His nationalistic bent is most clearly observed in his political songs. In 1936, music critic Paul Rosenfeld stated that "Ives is nothing if not a nationalistic composer."10 Ives fit Ro senfeld' s definition of a nationalist: ". . .the individ ual who, in becoming conscious of his own essence, simul taneously becomes conscious of the essences of his nation and its soil, and, put in touch with national ideas by his experience, invests them with worth and realizes them with love."11 Ives wrote a quite dissonant song about the 1912 presidential election entitled Vote for Names (1912). Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and William Taft were the nominees in this election which occurred during the high point of the progressive movement. Ives held little interest in the outcome of this election because in 1912 he believed that there was little difference between the three candidates' unpromising platforms.^ (Later, during Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 164 World War I, Wilson received Ives's wholehearted respect and admiration, especially with regard to a proposed League of Nations.) Ives creatively paints his cynical view of the elec tion in several ways. For example, the three accompani- mental piano parts are all based on repetition through ostinato technique from start to finish. Piano I enters first (Example 27.0) and presents its one-bar syncopated ostinato pattern: m.i *9= Example 27.0. Ives, "Vote for Names," (Piano I ostinato) Copyright 1968, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. This ostinato pattern may be labelled as set 5-1, the first five pitch classes of the chromatic scale. Ives makes the descending and ascending chromatic scale more interesting through octave displacement, thus giving the Piano I part a 4 and 1/2 octave range. The final six teenth note of the 9/16 meter is consistently tied over into the following measure, adding a touch of syncopa Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 165 tion. In addition, all five pitch classes contained in Piano I (45678) form a subset within the ostinato sets of Piano II and Piano III. Piano II also employs ostinato technique, however, its pattern consists of a three-measure unit based on accented sixteenth note groupings of a repeated poly- chordal harmony (Example 27.1): m.lr A ll Axtm m ths Example 27.1. Ives, "Vote for Names," (Piano II ostinato) Copyright 1968, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. The repetition of this D+(add b9) over E minor chord throughout the song is another way in which Ives illus trates his view of the repetitive and similar "hot air" rhetoric of the three candidates. The accents are placed so that consecutive groups of two, three, four, five, six, and seven sixteenth notes result within the consis tent 9/16 meter. The repeated seven-note polychord is preceded by an F grace note. The entire eight-note set comprising Piano II's ostinato is an 8-7 (234567AB). This Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 166 is both a superset of Piano I's ostinato pitch class set and a subset of Piano Ill's ostinato pitch class set. Piano III performs a one-bar ostinato throughout Vote for Names (Example 27.2): Example 27.2. Ives, "Vote for Names," (Piano III ostinato) Copyright 1968, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. The pitch class set comprising this ostinato contains ten different notes of the total chromatic. All that is lack ing is C-natural and C-sharp. These two pitches do not appear in Vote for Names until the first pitched entrance of the vocal part in m.ll. The first two sung pitches (C, C#) complete the total chromatic for the first time in the song. Up until this point the vocalist is instruc ted to speakt "Vote for Names 1 Names! Names:All nice men: Teddy, Woodrow and Bill." The rhythmic groupings of both Piano I and III coincide with the duple, triple, and quadruple sixteenth note groups contained in the first bar of Piano II's (three-bar) ostinato. Piano III plays two sixteenth notes followed by a dotted eighth note which is then followed by a quarter note. Thus, one Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 167 measure out of every three presents rhythmic homogeneity while the remaining two use polyrhythmic structures. The vocal part, for solo voice or unison chorus, presents a variety of interesting effects. As mentioned above, the voice first enters by speaking its words. When the pitched singing begins in m.11, the vocalist is instructed to freely sing the part without barlines and without reference to the activity in the piano parts. The vocal part is challenging due to its frequent utili zation of melodic major and minor ninths. These ninths are frequently sung as glissandi. Ives also employs a vocal tremolo for the duration of a half note. The largest melodic leap in the song is an octave plus a minor seventh upward followed by a minor tenth descending glissando into a vocal tremolo during the words ". . .the best way to vote. ..." The jagged melodic writing is contrasted near the end of the song by the indication to "chant" on a repeated Bb. Here the vocalist suggests that one should simply "Grab a ballot with the eyes shut and walk right out again 1" The pitch Bb may seem anticipated because it has not appeared in the vocal line prior to this chanted phrase. The only pitch missing from the total chromatic in the vocal part is Eb. However, great emphasis is given to that pitch throughout the entire song because it is the uppermost note of the repeated polychord of Piano II. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 168 Charles Ives writes at the top of the score of his Nov. 2. 1920 (An Election) in the book of 114 songs: "Soliloquy of an old man whose son lies in 'Flanders Fields.' It is the day after the election; he is sit ting by the roadside, looking down the valley towards the station." An Election is Ives's derisive commentary, in his own words, on how easily the American public rejected Woodrow Wilson and his plans for a League of Nations.is "Harding's victory meant the final collapse of Wilson's ideal. . . That day, Wilson had told his cabinet: 'You need not worry. The American people will not turn Cox down and elect Harding. A great moral issue is in volved. '"14 Ives's Note at the end of the song suggests that "... the voice of the people sounding through the mouth of the parties, becomes somewhat emasculated." The Note also invites the reader to request a copy of his re form plan in the form of a proposed constitutional amend ment. Ives's detailed article explains his plan and sug gests that "A Peoples World Nation in which every honest country will be free to live its own native life with the help of its World Army Police will bring the greatest hope of the world today to its realization. . . ."is "War would be entirely eliminated, Ives feels, if all the in habitants in every country were given the full truth and then the people themselves were allowed to make the final decision."is Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 169 An Election is an eclectic work which points the finger at those Americans not willing to stand up and fight for high moral principles, those who would rather be content with their present condition. Several para meters of the song are composed out through diversified means. The harmonies present are tertian chords, non tertian simultaneities, polychords, and diatonic (white key) clusters. Several of the tertian harmonic passages are indeed tonal, and diatonically functional. These tonally functional sections are juxtaposed with atonal sections constructed of nontertian simultaneities. Thus, labelling by both traditional tonal and atonal set theo retical methods is logical. The vocal melody also juxta poses tonal and atonal sections. Most of the tonal sec tions are purposefully interjected, from Ives's point of view, whenever the text makes reference to either taking the "easy way" out or being much too "timid" to make an effort. The overall design of An Election could be viewed as exhibiting a quasi-palindromic structure. The A section material, featuring a prolonged F# half diminished? (with various alternating added notes), returns at the end. The B section, primarily featuring parallel perfect fourths over a pedal, returns as the penultimate section. The central C section features the alternation of functional Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 170 and nonfunctional harmony and also contains elements from the other two sections. The A section of An Election principally uses chords and polychords built in thirds. However, there are two exceptions: First, the piano answers the vocalist's open ing phrase ("It strikes me that. . .") with several adja cent transpositions (t0 O t8 O t2) of the same nonter tian simultaneity [5-34]. This (02469) simultaneity is tightly voiced as successive descending clusters in the inner voices of the piano, while the highest voices simultaneously descend sounding harmonic major seconds. The second exception to tertian structuring in section A occurs in mm.4-5 (Example 28.0): r it. TIR6& , * FAJTtft, Bur in am s £ \iHtmmnkttonwd Cl rA rz Example 28.0. Ives, "An Election," (Primordial B section material) From: Nineteen Songs. Copyright 1935, Merion Music,Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 171 These two measures are not yet the actual B section, but serve as a portent of what is to come when the B section finally does arrive. Measure 4 also presents a nonter tian simultaneity which will undergo several transposi tions in the course of the work. The left hand ostinato in the piano repeats a 4-23 (0257) in mm.4-5. Later, in m.8 (Example 28.1) the B section proper begins: * i t P A s r e n E E l i i J L 1 h • 7 fccK -et Book and certain l it t l e . . . . . . . . . . . . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ THINGS TALKEDLOilOAND N D -B L6._ _ _ _ _ _ AND W . J ^ * IN A wtAH, AHt TlAESo/Ml WAK f PAJTES. can coci p i m Sot in m e u f k — ~ — r - iAi-, I ■ r s i-------- — Example 28.1. Ives, "An Election," (Start of Section B) From: Nineteen Songs. Copyright 1935, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 172 In Section B, Ives transposes the 4-23 from mm.4-5 up a minor third to t3. It also occurs at the transpositional level of t5 before the start of the C section. The B section of An Election is entirely based on parallel perfect fourths. However, Section A contains brief interjections of parallel fourths (mm.4-5), low register parallel perfect fifths, and chromatically de scending parallel tertian polychords; ie., F minor over C major C> E minor over B major O D# minor over Bb major (etc.). This final instance of parallelism in the A sec tion leads directly into the start of the B section (Ex ample 28.1). The C section utilizes a phrase of ascending parallel white key clusters (L.H. of the piano) against chromatically descending harmonic major seconds (ff) dur ing the words ". . .to hell with ideals!" Ives makes use of both musical and poetic quotation in An Election. In section A, a fragment of the World War I song Over There occurs when Ives' s own text reads ". . .but, over there our men did not quit." The poetic quotation is from Walt Whitman's poem 0 CaptainI My Cap tain! The last seven measures of An Election (Example 28.2) make this poetic reference to Lincoln. Ives also uses the vocal and accompanimental parts closing An Elec tion during the final measures of his song, Lincoln, the Great Commoner. The final repeated harmony in Ex.28.2 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 173 is an 8-21 constructed from a tertian polychord (A minor over C major) followed by an unstable whole-tone simulta neity (6-35) voiced in tritones. Ives voices the caden- tial 6-35 in the following intervallic pattern from the bass to the soprano: tritone, min.6, tritone, min.6, tri tone, maj.3 (the inversion of a min.6). jji& ff w m ~ * 'P iN tiT A*6*IN_»— -MM* &AP*TAlN*. fiA P 'T A lN . A H MM & A P - T4lN !tf r*in_»— MM CAP-TAlN, CAP*TAIN, OH _ ii tT-. t T - ff £ ff £ f £ £ " I £ £ zr=ja- iji f Tr * W Example 28.2. Ives, "An Election" (Coda) From: Nineteen Songs. Copyright 1935, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Ives voices his concern for the environment in The New River (1921). "The music describes and dramatizes river pollution, urban spread, the appearance and move ment of the river and broken rhythms where the industrial flume pours into it, by every means from gently flowing tonality to raucous noise. . . "17 Ives's original title was The Ruined River (1906). His own text pictures a scene in the Connecticut Valley. Originally sketched for Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 174 chamber orchestra, it was later transcribed for voice and piano and retitled The New River.18 Ives labels The New River a "rag" in his Memos.19 "Ives's ragtime carried certain tendencies in popular ragtime to great extremes. Passages in his rag idiom could include a multiplicity of syncopated figures in one hand accompanied by cross-metric ostinatos in the other."20 indeed, The New River utilizes typical ragtime rhythms, but overlaps them in a contrapuntal polyrhythmic fabric during the first half (Section A) of the song. Ives states his observations on ragtime in the "Epilogue" of Essays Before a Sonata: Ragtime, as we hear it, is of course, more (but not much more) than a natural dogma of shifted accents, or a mixture of shifted and minus ac cents. It is something like wearing a derby hat on the back of the head, a shuffling lilt of a happy soul just let out of a Baptist church in old Alabama. Ragtime has its possibilities. But it does not 'represent the American nation' any more than some fine old senators represent it.21 Two principal locales provided Ives an accessibility to ragtime music during his youth. Poli's was a vaudeville house in New Haven where Ives frequently went to watch an impressive ragtime pianist, George Felsberg. Much ragtime was also performed at the Hyperion Theater in New Haven, where conductor Frank Fichtl agreed to perform some of Ives's works.22 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 175 (I PAfcT MfiTWC^ f t —1+ b — I • ■ i i Example 29.0. Ives, "The New River," (Introduction) From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Example 29.0 above, is the four-measure instrumental introduction which does two things: First, Ives utilizes water imagery compositional techniques in the first two bars by including whole-tone scales in both the bass line and the descending tenor line of the piano. This serves to neutralize any tonal implications at the start of the song. Second, Ives employs a contrapuntal texture in the first half of The New River and places emphasis on the process of motivic permutation.One important motive first appearing in mm.3-4 of Example 29.0 consists of the out lining of a major third in sixteenth notes followed by an Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 176 ascending major sixth leap. The motive is used in imita tion in m.3 (and several other places). It is played against itself in parallel major ninths (mm.4-5). As the work progresses, the motive is subjected to inversion, rhythmic displacement, intervallic expansion and hemiola. Example 29.1(mm.9-10) is the start of the B section. Section B is the second half of the song and provides a contrast to the material of the first half: LB THE S91/NDJ 0 ? M A N , PHON - 0-& 5 a P H 5 AMD S fil' O - U t i S Example 29.1. Ives, "The New River," (B Section material) From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. The ragtime stride bass technique begins at this point, as do most of the tonal implications. Also, the irregular metric design of the first half is contrasted by the pre dictable 4/4 meter of the B section. The tonal implica tions in Section B are sometimes layered. For example, mm.9-10 present four layers of information. The voice Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Ill features an F Lydian tetrachord (0246), also a subset of the whole-tone hexachord. The piano (R.H.) is also in F Lydian as the L.H. centers around G, due to repetition of F# half dim.7 (no 3) C> G7. These three voices are sup ported by the fourth voice, a pedal on G. Later, Ives uses polymodality by composing B major (voice and upper voices of the piano) against B minor (lower voices of the piano). The polytonality and polymodality results in much dissonance representing "the sounds(noises) of man." He Is There! (May 30, 1917) is a war song written "in march time."The 1942 rearranged version of this song, They Are There! ("Fighting for the People's New World"), is the concluding work of Ives's song repertoire.23 The discussion below deals with only the original version. Musical quotation is an essential element in Ives's songs of war. At least thirteen popular tune fragments occur in He Is Therein Through musical quotation, Ives attempts to communicate an attitude toward the occasion described in the song. He is usually not concerned with the literal transcription of preexisting material, but instead, uses a fragment to serve as a symbol which hope fully evokes a meaningful response in the listener.2s The note at the bottom of the score of He Is There1 mentions some of the song references: Tenting Tonight (Walter Kit- tredge), Battle Cry of Freedom (George F. Root), and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 178 Marching Through Georgia (Henry Clay Work). The most often quoted songs in Ives's patriotic songs and military music are Battle Cry of Freedom,Marching Through Georgia, Columbia the Gem of the Ocean, Battle Hymn of the Repub lic, Over There, La Marseillaise, Maryland My Maryland, and Dixie's Land (by Dan Emmett).26 He Is There! is composed as a three-verse strophic design followed by a chorus with two alternate endings. (Verses 1 and 2 share the first ending of the chorus. Verse 3 leads into the second ending of the chorus which closes the work.) The traditional design employs a sim ple tonal plan. The work remains in Bb major until the final ending of the chorus. Then the tonal center shifts and remains in Db major (bill) through the final cadence: I Q V9/V O V O I. The shift of tonal center is a clever means of text painting the words near the end of the song, "Tenting on a new camp ground." Most of He Is There! is diatonic in the tonal area of Bb. Perfect authentic cadences and predictably re solved secondary dominants create a tonally conservative work for the mature Ives. Three brief chromatic passages occur within this sea of diatonicism: 1) Five measures from the end of the verse there occurs an unresolved dom inant seventh harmony on E (V7/VII). This E7 resolves by tritone relation back to the tonic (Bb). The following Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 179 two measures present chromaticism via an A# dim. 7 and an augmented dominant harmony (F+). 2) An extended chromatic bass line supports diatonic upper voices in the chorus. 3) The final seven measures of the work are functionally in Db major! The chorus of He Is There! presents layers of musi cal quotations. The "obligato ad lib Violin, Flute or Fife" written above the vocal line performs fragments from successive familiar tunes against contrasting melo dies in the vocal and piano parts. For example, the chorus opens with a fragment of Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean in the voice. Then the obligato instrumental part plays "I wish I were in Dixie" followed by a Yankee Doodle fragment. A few measures later Reveille (obligato instrument) appears against Columbia,the Gem of the Ocean (voice and piano). Shortly thereafter, the obligato part plays La Marseillaise against Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean in the other two parts. The Battle Cry of Freedom closes the work. In Flanders Fields (1919) is another song of war which is a patchwork of musical quotations. Ives's heart felt patriotic intentions expressed through the pre existing song fragments in the work were neither under stood nor well received during its premiere at a banquet of insurance men. The musical quotations include Colum bia, the Gem of the Ocean, God Save our Gracious King Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 180 (America), Battle Cry of Freedom, The Union Forever, Re veille, and La Marseillaise. "The mistake Ives made was in supposing that the sentiment of one national tune for one nation was good for all national tunes and all na tions. "27 Ives's partner, Julian Myrick, encouraged Charles to set the famous poem, "In Flanders Fields" to music after he discovered that the poet, Colonel John McCrae, was one of the Mutual Life's medical referees in Montreal. Myrick contracted professional musicians who rehearsed it in preparation for the insurance banquet performance. However, the rehearsals went so poorly that Ives sug gested they forget about it, which unfortunately, they did not.28 In Flanders Fields shares some common features with He Is Therel Both war songs quote fragments from Colum bia, the Gem of the Ocean, Battle Cry of Freedom, La Mar seillaise, and Reveille. In Flanders Fields also quotes from The Union Forever and God Save Our Gracious King. Both songs also perform two quotes simultaneously. Such instances in He Is Therel have been mentioned above. In Flanders Fields uses the Battle Cry of Freedom (voice) counterpointed with The Union Forever (soprano voice of the piano)for a two-measure duration in diatonic G major. This counterpoint is followed by ten measures of chroma ticism in the keyboard part, including a one-bar Reveille Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 181 fragment in F# major. However, the voice remains diatonic to D Dorian during these ten measures, making use of only a brief accidental (F#). Then both the vocal and piano parts return to a nearly diatonic phrase of quoted frag ments in G major. The tunes quoted simultaneously are La Marseillaise (voice) counterpointed with God Save Our Gracious King (piano). A section of polytonality results in the next phrase when Ives sets Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean in G major (voice) against God Save Our Gra cious King in C major (piano). He Is Therel lacks poly tonality during the counterpointed quotations. The opening and closing measures of In Flanders Fields concentrate on one quotation at a time. During these sections the piano simply doubles the vocal line. For example, the vocalist first enters by singing a fragment of Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean in G major. The soprano line of the piano is almost an exact doubling at the unison. The harmonization is mostly diatonic for three measures. Then Ives adds chromaticism in order to tonicize the next tonal center (A major). Next, the vocalist sings a phrase of God Save Our Gracious King in A major while the piano doubles at the unison. This part corresponds to the very last quoted fragment of the work (Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean) since its tonal center is also in A, however, the mode is minor at the end. Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean is modally shifted to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 182 A minor at the close of In Flanders Fields and it is the first and only time that a quoted fragment unambiguously occurs in the minor mode. Additionally, the final harmony of the work, D minor (+11), is unstable due to its har monic tritone. The harmonic activity at the end effec tively expresses the emotions inherent in the last line of the text: "If ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep though the poppies grow in Flanders fields." Ives probably felt that Majority (1921) was his most meaningful ideological statement in song form. He se lected it to open his book of 114 songs. Majority ". . . represents a paean to the community of all human kind. "29 By the time he wrote Majority, Ives was start ing to think seriously about current events. In foreign affairs, which came to the fore in Amer ica during 1914, he found a political subject that he considered truly worthy of idealistic thought and endeavor, for it dealt with the mas ses in all nations. And in Woodrow Wilson he began to discover a political leader capable of expressing that idealism. It was President Wil son's actions in bringing about the overthrow of the dictatorial Huerta regime in Mexico - his policy of teaching good government to the Mexi cans - that first earned Ives's approval. But it was the president's handling of the European war between 1914 and 1917 that made of Ives a real Wilsonian.30 Majority consists of a variety of stylistically di verse musical sections representing various activities of the masses: thinking, singing, yearning, and dreaming. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 183 There is no logical succession of musical events in Ma jority, so one may consider this mature Ives work to be an early application of collage technique.3i Majority consists of six structural sections. Sec tion 1 is the lengthy instrumental introduction and Sec tions 2-5 respectively represent the thinking, singing, yearning, and dreaming Masses. The sixth section textur- ally resembles the introductory section through its util ization of pentatonic 5-35 black-key clusters in the up permost voices of the accompaniment. The inner sections (2-5) are stylistically different from each other and also from the material in the introduction. Section 1 (instrumental introduction) is the most texturally dense due to the consistent use of white-key clusters (7-35) and black-key clusters (5-35) which to gether, of course, form a complementary relationship perhaps representing the universal whole of humankind. The very first measure opens with two different transpo sitions of pentatonic tone cluster 5-35 played simulta neously. The right hand plays a verticalized F# penta tonic scale while the left hand plays a verticalized A pentatonic scale. All clusters in Section 1 which occur in boxed notation have a two-octave span. The first section also puts great emphasis on trichords built from successive perfect fifths. These successive fifth chords always progress in parallel motion against the white-key Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 184 7-35 tone clusters. Tertian structured triads occur against the black-key 5-35 tone clusters. Section 2 is a slow march: "The Masses have toiled, Behold the works of the World! The Masses are thinking, Whence comes the thought of the World!" The slow dotted rhythmic figures of the vocal part in 4/2 meter are ac companied first by white-key clusters (L.H.) against open perfect fifths (R.H.). After two such measures, no more clusters appear in Majority until the final section. Then Section 2 continues its dense texture through employment of accented tertian polychords. Section 3, written in 6/8, assumes a folklike char acter. The texture is translucent. The vocal line sings in G major: "The Masses are singing, Whence comes the Art of the World!" As in folk music, the section is based on repetition. The repeated unit is one measure which includes a chromatically descending bass line pattern supporting a 5-23 (02357) repeated pentachord. The penta chord contains the first five notes of the B minor scale. Thus the G major vocal melody together with the B minor repeated pentachord creates polytonality. However, the greatest dissonance in Section 3 results from the paral lel chromatically descending bass lines of harmonic major ninths. Section 4 presents a G minor vocal melody in 4/4: "The Masses are yearning, Whence comes the hope of the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 185 World." This is the only section written in the minor mode. Ives equates the passion of "yearning" with G mi nor, but when the word "hope" appears, he pushes the mel ody outside the diatonic realm by writing an accented C# for the vocalist. Section 5 changes meter once again, this time to 3/4 for an atonal waltz. The mood is dreamlike with a dynamic level of pp as the vocalist sings: "The Masses are dream ing, Whence comes the visions of God!" This is the sec tion which most resembles Ives's philosophical and water imagery songs due to a heavy reliance on chromatic scale motives in the vocal part and harmonies with raised elev enths and lowered thirteenths which are rolled in the manner of a harp. Such harmonies include C# major9 (+11, bl3) which is successively transposed to B major9 (+11, bl3) and A major9 (+ll,bl3) in the first three measures of Section 5. The sixth and final section, as mentioned earlier, resembles the first section due to the inclusion of black-key 5-35 clusters. It differs from Section 1 be cause it contains one tonally centered cadence. The fi nal two cadential bars of Majority may be interpreted as being in one of two possible tonalities. The chord pro gression is paradoxical by being harmonically simple (C major to F major) yet, tonally ambiguous. The question is whether this is an authentic cadence (V-I) in F major Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 186 or an inconclusive cadence (I-IV) in C major. This is the only conventional progression in the entire work, yet its intended symbolic significance remains a mystery. It is the author's hypothetical guess that Ives would choose to end Majority with a less final type of gesture (I-IV in C major) in order to symbolize openness and hope for the future of the Masses. Ives's six political songs discussed in this chapter are mature works, all written well after his embracing of non-tonal procedures in 1906. Yet all these songs, except Vote for Names, feature tonal and/or polytonal sections. This stands in contrast to Ives's philosophical and water imagery songs and makes them more similar to the sacred songs. Also, the political songs feature popular musical rhythms in a marching, folklike (6/8), or ragtime style. The war songs have a special feature in common with the sacred songs - the reliance on quotation as a composi tional technique. Symbolically, Ives's political songs written after the start of World War I are an expression of his identification with the sentiments and aspirations of the common man fighting for a just world. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 187 Notes to Chapter 5 1. Rossiter, Frank R. "Charles Ives: Good American and Isolated Artist," in An Ives Celebration. H. Wiley Hitchcock, editor. Chicago and London: University of Illinois Press, 1977. p.20. 2. Rossiter, Frank R. Charles Ives and His America. New York: Liveright Publishing, 1975. p.127. 3. Perry, Rosalie Sandra. Charles Ives and the American Mind. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1974, p. 78. 4. Crunden, Robert M. "Charles Ives's Place in American Culture," in An Ives Celebration. H. Wiley Hitchcock, editor. Chicago and London: University of Illinois Press, 1977. p.6. 5. Blume, Stephen. "Ives's Position in Social and Musi cal History," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.LXIII, No.4, October, 1977. p.463. 6. Goss, Madeleine. Modern Mu sic-Makers: Contemporary American Composers. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.,Inc., 1952. p.20. 7. Cowell, Henry and Cowell, Sidney. Charles Ives and His Music. London, Oxford, New York: Oxford Univer sity Press, 1955. pp.47-48. 8. Rossiter. Charles Ives and His America, p.87. 9. Rossiter. Charles Ives and His America, p.89. 10. Rosenfeld, Paul. Discoveries of a Music Critic. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1936. p.319. 11. Rosenfeld, pp.318-319. 12. Rossiter. Charles Ives and His America, p.128. 13. Cowell, p.79. 14. Wooldridge, David. Charles Ives: A Portrait. London: Faber and Faber, 1975. p.200. 15. Yates, Peter. Twentieth Century Music. New York: Pantheon Books (Random House), 1967. pp.254-255. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 188 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. Goss, Madeleine. Modern Music-Makers: Contemporary American Composers. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. 1952. p.20. Yates, Peter. Twentieth Century Music. New York: Pantheon Books (Random House), 1967. p.260. Wooldridge, David. Charles Ives: A Portrait. London: Faber and Faber, 1975. p.158. Tick, Judith."Ragtime and the Music of Charles Ives," Current Musicology. No.18, 1974. p.112. Tick, p.112. Ives, Charles Edward. Essays Before a Sonata and Other Writings. Howard Boatwright, editor. New York: W.W. Norton, 1962. p.94. Chase, Gilbert. America's Music: From the Pilgrims to the Present. Revised Third Ed. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987. pp.433-434. Wooldridge, p.204. Hitchcock, H. Wiley. Ives. London, New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. p.10. Ballantine, Christopher."Charles Ives and the Meaning of Quotation in Music,"The Musical Quarterly.Vol.LXV, No.2, April 1979. p.168. Chase, p.436. Wooldridge, p.190. Cowell, Henry and Cowell, Sidney. Charles Ives and His Music. London, Oxford, New York: Oxford Univer sity Press, 1955. p.49. Starr, Larry. A Union of Diversities: Style in the Music of Charles Ives. New York, Toronto: Schirmer Books, 1992. p.131. Rossiter, Frank R. Charles Ives and His America. New York: Liveright Publishing, 1975. p.129. Vinton, John, editor. Dictionary of Contemporary Music. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.,Inc. 1971. p.360. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 189 “Common Man” Songs Charles Ives believed that the common man should be paid homage with the same respect that is given to any of the world's renowned political or spiritual leaders. Many of his songs are a fulfillment of that impassioned de sire. Ives's eleven common man songs may be divided into three subclassifications: 1) songs that are biographical 2) songs expressing the common laborer's work ethics and his attitude toward his fellow laborers 3) songs portray ing the type of tribulations which eventually reduce all men to a common level of being - illness and death. The biographical subclassification is the largest of the three, containing six works: A Son of a Gambolier, The All-Enduring, General William Booth Enters Into Heaven, Charlie Rutlage, Lincoln The Great Commoner, and The Greatest Man. The work ethics subclassification con sists of Tolerance, Luck and Work, and Two Slants (Duty and Vita). The illness and death subclassification Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 190 contains Like a Sick Eagle and Requiem. Most important, all of Ives's common man songs share a common theme, and that is ". . .a strength of hope that never gives way to despair - a conviction in the power of the common soul."3 The biographical songs are like folk ballads and the earliest one is A Son of a Gambolier (1895). Ives adapted this Yale work from two of his earlier piano marches and in it he quotes a traditional (Irish?) m e l o d y .2 The tra ditional tune appears in the closing Kazoo Chorus (for flutes, fiddles, flageolets, piccolos, ocarinas, and fifes). It is counterpointed against a tune that sounds like a 'college song' in the piano. The vocalist remains tacet during the Kazoo Chorus. Ives wrote many such songs (most of them unpublished) for shows produced by Yale clubs and societies.3 It is not surprising that Ives, being on some occa sions a practical composer, would write works for the Yale glee club which were uncomplicated both rhythmically (ie., entirely 6/8) and harmonically, thus avoiding the antagonism and ridicule of confused lettermen with 'un stretched ears.' A Son of a Gambolier is an unchallenging work with clearly marked sectional divisions due to the frequency of repeat marks and first and second endings. The phrases are symmetrically designed throughout the continuous binary design. Each of the two major sections may be further subdivided. Following the symmetrically Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 191 constructed 8-bar instrumental introduction (4+4), the A section is entirely in C major. It may be divided into Subsection 1 (8+8 measures of instrumental music with numerous chromatic passing and neighboring tones) and Subsection 2 (4+4+4+4 measures of two counterpointed mel odies in C major, one vocal and the other instrumental). Like the first subsection, strophic Subsection 2 (two verses) also is framed by repeat marks. The vocal por tion of A Son of a Gambolier is by far the simplest to learn. In contrast with the opening instrumental section, its lead melody (vocal) is purely diatonic to C major while the counterpointed instrumental melody contains only one chromatic lower neighbor and one chromatic pas sing tone during its sixteen measures. In addition, the harmonic rhythm is far slower in vocal Subsection 2 than in opening instrumental Subsection 1 of the A section. The second ending of the A section modulates to the subdominant via V7/IV C> IV(C7 C> F). In fact, all of the modulations in A Son of a Gambolier are to closely re lated tonal areas. The B section begins in F major (Sub section 1), modulates to D minor (Subsection 2), and re turns back to F major (Subsection 3) for its Kazoo Chorus which closes the work. Chromatic lower neighboring tones and chromatic passing tones are an integral part of the instrumental B section, especially in the inner voices and bass line. Section B features a college march tune Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 192 in F major during its first and third subsections. The first subsection presents it homophonically and the third subsection employs counterpoint. A one-bar broken V7 ostinato pattern supports a substantial portion of each presentation of the college tune. A hint of the tune first appears in only one measure at the start of Section A, and a fragment of the tune against which it is ulti mately counterpointed (traditional Irish melody) appears as the first seven notes of the 8-bar introduction. A Son of a Gambolier also contains other folklike and march melodies which are difficult to identify. This type of quodlibet composition was rampant in universities at the time of Ives's enrollment at Yale. In order to make the work appealing to Yale students and faculty, Ives retains a folklike simplicity through out A Son of a Gambolier by several means. First, the quotation of popular songs has been mentioned above. Second, the entire 6/8 work must be performed "in a fast two-step time." This is an indication of a cakewalk feel. Third, repetition plays an important role throughout the song. Aside from the repetition of entire sections and ostinato patterns already discussed, Ives employs a steady flow of the trochaic, iambic, and to a lesser ex tent, the spondaic rhythmic modes. The traditional Irish tune features trochee and iamb. The contrasting college march features spondee. The rhythmic content alone is Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 193 enough to make a homogeneous entity of this melodic patchwork. Not all of Ives's compositions for the Yale glee club were well received. The All-Enduring (1896) is one such example. So, he adapted the song for baritone solo. John Griggs premiered it at the Centre Church on Sunday, June 14, 1896.4 This G major maestoso work in 4/4 time contemplates the lasting effect of a man's sincere thoughts and deeds versus the transient importance of the power, wealth, or fame which one may acquire within his lifetime. Note the first, the penultimate, and the ulti mate stanzas of the text: Man passes down the way of years, And ruins mark his trail. He buildeth, and the hand of time Wipes out his structures frail. Thrones crumble, fall, and are no more, And nations grand decay, And power sinks to nothingness. Wealth bideth but a day. Fame from its lofty pedestal Disdainfully is tossed, But to the world no worthy deed Or thought is ever lost. The people to whom Ives pays homage in the song, General William Booth Enters Into Heaven (1914), are a group of social outcasts (convicts and handicapped peo ple), and of course, their spiritual leader, General William Booth, who ultimately leads them through the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 194 gates of heaven, where Jesus will heal and purify them. Most common man songs share a common feature. They fre quently possess tonal centers and several functional har monic progressions. Even when progressions are nonfunc tional and the tonality ambiguous, the harmonic struc tures are usually tertian. Sometimes the functional har monic progressions in this song category result from the traditional harmonization of a familiar tune. The author does not claim that Ives always harmonizes borrowed tunes with unambiguous chord structures, however, he does it frequently. For example, the Adagio interpolation of the Cleansing Fountain melody starting at m.82 (Example 30.0) is clearly harmonized in chords diatonic to Ab major. The tune is also harmonized in more sophisticated ways by the piano at other points, yet the vocal part always presents this borrowed melody in a straightforward, simplistic, and clearly tonal manner. Borrowed material is an integral part of several of Ives's biographical common man songs since that litera ture was so much a part of their everyday lives. One finds both popular and sacred borrowed material in this subclassification. General William Booth not only uses the Lowell Mason hymn, Cleansing Fountain, but also the popular James A. Bland song, Oh, Dem Golden Slippers when "banjos" are mentioned. When the "blare of trumpets" are referred to he introduces the well-known bugle call, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 195 Reveille. Ives had at his disposal "... the enormous body of church hymns, anthems, and organ music with which Ives, a church organist for many years, must have been familiar: a body of literature which is by no means still completely current."5 A d a g o ___ . m ■ ■ ■ , - - ■ H - . ' T - r - . I - « — , ■ L ----- H ---- r - » — ■— l L - r 7H- - - - - - - i s - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - H H -- - - - - ■ p— k'L,r l * 1 1 .. JlE -S U S came Wom th e Couat Hot JE DflOft, STMCHED HU HANDS $ = = t ^ i = \ A -iflV E t h e Passing- ^ = = p = , v— f ------- M — p — m ------- AOASIO A M WITH DISHIT3 - - ■ • f • - J — . r = p = W = -■ f = j « 1 = J J t m T r r IW L r L J — ■--- L 1 ^ * p ” br * *tTj------ * — » h — 1 f - - - - P 1 NOT, BUT LED HIS QUEER. > J — c ~ b j — ONES, Round and Round_ J L ... . P i -- iJ , J M I t j ^ r ------- -------- ' ■ Ex.30.0. Ives, "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven," From: Nineteen Songs. Copyright 1935, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. The use of the Cleansing Fountain revival hymn is the appropriate choice of borrowed material for the set ting of poet Vachel Lindsay's words which celebrate the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 196 militant type of revivalism of the first commanding gen eral of the Salvation Army. Ives imitates the Salvation Army's marching band drums through the use of an espe cially percussive piano part. Particularly effective is Ives's portrayal of the drums marching off into the dis tance during the coda. It appears that whenever Ives borrows material he is guided by his own principles regarding fundamental 'sub stance' and superficial 'manner' in music. "He points out that an 'overinsistence upon the national in art' may cause some composers to borrow from local musical sources merely for surface effect."6 "in other words, if local color, national color, any color, is a true pigment of the universal color, it is a divine quality, it is a part of substance in art, not of manner."7 The design of General William Booth is A B C A'. Each of the first two sections has a climactic point toward which all motion is directed. The A section con tinually builds toward the "ad lib" sfz indication of m.33 where an out of tune preacher is mimicked as he shouts "... the ways of Death. Are you washed. . ."(Ex. 30.1). The A sections's musical material mainly consists of the Cleansing Fountain theme presented in a variety of tonal areas: C major, E major, and later in Ab major (the A' section, m.82). Notice that these tonal relationships all exist in rising major thirds. The A section also Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 197 makes considerable use of a B minor/D major melody which may also have been known in Ives's day, however, it is unknown to me. LE&ieNS WlTHTHSllMUJ 6 F _ _ b £ A T H (A R £ -3 0 U — UMSH6D y * — 3 — r~“n --------------------- ----------------------P t t i " 5- " " — I / m b? ass non l = & s m m m th& B u is» or iW L A * = = ™ M 4( . S f l $ M k r r r r f V»o' i 1 > r^- > Ex.30.1. Ives, "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven," From: Nineteen Songs. Copyright 1935, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. The B section points all its energy toward its cli max at m.57 (Example 30.2) where the religious fervor of the group becomes frenzied and is reflected by the har monic and syncopated rhythmic chaos in the piano: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 198 T X tt JHAitKU AM SMS-l % te SW? M s !f o U MSHtt M T N fc BUM? -A-TICAU ftMJHMKID 4M S A M f l - . Ex.30.2. Ives, "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven," From: Nineteen Songs. Copyright 1935, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Emphasis is put upon the words, "They shrieked," by the inclusion of a rising and falling vocal glissando. The B section differs from the A section, in that, the harmonic structures become more complicated in Section B. Section A mainly uses chords built in seconds and fourths or tertian chords with added sevenths, ninths, and or elevenths. Some of them come close to being clusters of major seconds. However, the B section begins with the telescoping technique seen earlier in Soliloquy. In Gen eral William Booth, polychords occur in contrary motion and this is the first use of polychords in the song thus far.New harmonic materials continue to appear once whole- tone scales occur in both the voice and piano accompani ment. Section B does close with a very brief reference to the Cleansing Fountain which serves as a transition to the C section ("Hallelujah" section). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 199 The third major structural section, C, is compara tively shorter but extremely important because it marks the arrival of these social misfits unto the higher, more heavenly realms. This section occurs just before Jesus steps out to work his miracle upon the crowd. The shouts of "Hallelujah!" in the C section are accompanied by the piano in a harp-like fashion. The texture in the piano consists of rolled cluster harmonies and added-note chords. It serves to imitate the harp - an instrument generally associated with angelic beings. The other in strument usually associated with Heaven and Judgment, the trumpet, is also represented in this section, "Loons with trumpets blowed a blare," at which point Ives introduces the familiar bugle call, Reveille. Then the return of material from the A section occurs (A'). Several significant features distinguish the differ ences between the A and A' sections. First, the texture of the piano accompaniment is changed. In Section A, it served to imitate the drums in the band. In A' it appears more harp-like and reminiscent of the C section (rolled cluster harmonies). Second, the tonal areas in which the Cleansing Fountain appears differ from those used in the A section. "Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?" first appears in A' in Eb major. Later, the Cleansing Fountain melody appears for the first time in the piano part (L.H.) where it occurs in Ab major. This occurrence Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 200 is the very first time the listener may hear one complete phrase of the familiar tune without interruption. This Adagio is a sudden contrast to the density of harmonic construction which precedes it (clusters). The change of mood here presents the purest diatonicism in Ab major yet seen in General William Booth. A third difference in A' occurs as a result of text painting. At the words, "Booth saw not, but led his queer ones, Round and round - round and round," (etc.) a three- note motive(C,Bb,Ab) appears repeatedly in the voice while a two-note motive (F,Eb) is simultaneously presented in the soprano line of the keyboard. Then a return back to the accompanimental texture of Section A appears while the voice finally gives its first and only complete pre sentation of the Cleansing Fountain hymn (in C major). These C major phrases are followed by another Adagio ver sion of the tune (in E major). Recall that the A section also presented this tune in both C major and E major. A portion of this E major excerpt of the Cleansing Fountain is harmonized by clusters. The use of clusters here and elsewhere throughout the song may represent the crowds of people being cleansed together. One remembers the use of clusters to represent the masses in Majority. Charlie Rutlage (1914-1915) is the ballad of a cowboy who meets the unfortunate fate of falling off and under his horse - a fatal event. This unlucky Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 201 occurrence is followed by references to heavenly ascen sion and grace, not unlike the subject matter of General William Booth. Being a biographical common man song, Charlie Rut- lage naturally exhibits a popular song style of composi tion. In this case, ragtime rhythms and simple tertian harmonies are relied upon. The author does not recognize any borrowed fragments from popular song literature, how ever, many of the harmonic progressions are functional and the rhythms reflect musical styles familiar to the masses. For example, the coda of this song contains a two-fold repetition of an imperfect authentic cadence in Bb major. However, the final cadence reflects the closure of many familiar hymn tunes, IV-I, a plagal ca dence in Bb major. Charlie Rutlage reflects simplicity in a variety of ways. One way is through tertian chordal structures which may either be functional, or made nonfunctional through excessive parallelism. An interesting comparison may be made between the use of parallelism in both Char lie Rutlage and General William Booth. First, two major structural sections of Charlie Rutlage (Sections B and C) rely heavily on parallelism. However, in General William Booth, the parallelism is localized by only occurring in the A section. Both songs, as a matter of interest, have the same overall design of A B C A'. In General William Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 202 Booth, the use of parallelism occurs in mm.25-30 (Example 31.0): FfoM TH E A L - l E H - WMS M b M l/S - FlEftdS W j T T MlNbS STILL PAS'SION Rlb'DEH.SOUL PtulERS FRAIL:— V E R *M lM -E A T -£ tf Ex.31.0. Ives, "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven," (Parallelism technique compared to "Charlie Rutlage") From: Nineteen Songs. Copyright 1935, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Measure 25 makes use of ascending white-note clusters. This same technique appears in the C section of Charlie Rutlage at m.38 (Example 31.1) when the horse is just about to fall on poor Charlie: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 203 IS(T0rciUATU*£~OTt9 ffl ' C t u w t T t n f i i >» : M -N 8ITH ftoR C H fliuC W E ^ /T Example 31.1. Ives, "Charlie Rutlage," (Climax) From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1939 by Arrow Music Press, Inc. Copyright assigned 1957 to Associated Music Publishers, Inc. Reprinted by Permission of Associated Music Publishers, Inc. (BMI). In General William Booth, several atonal sets also occur in parallel motion. Sets (4-8) and (3-7) are used in descending motion during the words, "minds still pas sion ridden, soul powers frail." The (3-7) sets in Gen eral William Booth are voiced in such a way as to empha size the parallel descending perfect fourth interval on top. However, in Charlie Rutlage, Ives makes use of par allelism in order to text paint the plot of the song. This is true of the C section where Charlie is riding along faster and faster until the moment of truth. The increase of pace and tension is accomplished through the chromatically parallel rise of a four-note ostinato Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 204 pattern in the bass (Example 31.2). The chromatically rising figure eventually reduces to a two-note motive which appears in the tenor voice of the piano (mm.36-37): afa-l rrm ^irrlrtr VhfrT 1 h | l » M-H f r f t AS HE Roll TK6 RtUNP UP, A K IT TuftNEP BAtKftSME HERD; Ptil CHAAUE SH4VED HIM IN AfiAlN,HlS PASTE* AND PASTE* • - 1 d 1 J > LOUPE* AN D LOUPE* - - - - - - - a d t* PASTE* AND F A S r e * - - 1 - .fff lOUDE* AND fru P E A . ___________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ M M - ^ CuT-TlNG-HDRSE H I SPURRED; A n - o T H -6 * TURNED: AT THAT MOMENT HIS r m f M w Example 31.2. Ives, "Charlie Rutlage," ('Riding Rhythm') From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1939 by Arrow Music Press, Inc. Copyright assigned 1957 to Associated Music Publishers, Inc. Reprinted by Permission of Associated Music Publishers, Inc. (BMI). This is followed by use of the parallel ascending white- note clusters (m.38) mentioned above. The use of par allelism also continues after Charlie's horse has fallen on him during the phrase,". . .beneath poor Charlie died" (Ex. 31.1). The final chord of m.40 is a (6-33) hexachord Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 205 which slides by half-step into the downbeat harmony of m.41. The first harmony of m.41 is a polychord, A minor over G (no 3) which also moves by parallel motion (by whole-step) to B minor over A (no 3). It then slides back to A minor over G (no 3) again just before the re turn of material from the first structural section. The B section prepares the tension leading to Char lie's fall in the C section through rhythmically dis placed ostinatos and chromatic parallelism(Example 31.3): F a s t e r ( h a lf sp o k e n^ ippi R e c i t e - - foMuiMSrthe Piano =fr=fti £ 8 S A Cow-HoRSE F a llin g , Zl f a s t e r * W hile R d N -N IHCr Af - TER STflCKj 'T w A S / £ (OCTS. AO U S .) m $ ('Hold ba ck1 I ON THE SPRiNSr RouNO UP? Place where death m en m o c k , he w e n t (h o ld back h e r e ) 'ympse Example 31.3. Ives, "Charlie Rutlage," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1939 by Arrow Music Press, Inc. Copyright assigned 1957 to Associated Music Publishers, Inc. Reprinted by Permission of Associated Music Publishers (BMI) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 206 Measure 24 presents chromatically rising parallel minor triads in the piano while the vocalist sings, " A place where death men mock." The B section makes further use of chromaticism through extensive employment of ostinatos beginning in m.21. The patterns have a duration of only three beats in 4/4 time, so the result is hemiola. In ad dition, two transitional phrases use descending chromatic scales in the bass (the transition to Section B and the transition to Section C). The latter bridge presents a chromatic bass which leads down to the 'riding' accompa niment of the C section starting in m.33 (Example 31.2). The B and C sections of Charlie Rutlage serve as a great chromatic contrast to the extreme diatonicism of the outer sections (A and A'). Also, the harmonic rhythm is quite slow throughout the song and the chromaticism of the inner sections keeps the piece from sounding like a trite old ragtime tune. The tonal plan of the song in the diatonic A and A' sections reflects the closely related modulations of pop ular song repertoire. The A section begins in F major, then modulates to D minor via a quasi-French sixth (Bb, E, G#). The end of the A section modulates to the subdom inant tonality of Bb major, yet closes with an unusual cadence in that tonality: I O V9 O iii O vii(min.) O #V C> #VI (enharmonically bVII) C> I. The A' section also begins in F major, then suggests D minor through an Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 207 extended A7 harmony, and finally closes the work in the subdominant tonality of Bb major via two imperfect au thentic cadences followed by plagal closure (perhaps sig nifying 'God bless poor Charlie. Amen.'). Ives originally scored Edwin Markham's poem, Lincoln the Great Commoner for chorus and orchestra, "... not only because a single voice would not be loud enough against a vivid, rhythmic, crashing orchestra, but also because the composer wished the vocal line to have the impersonal quality imparted by many voices."8 The disso nant choral tone clusters in the original version repre sent Ives's own poetic stanza which appears at the top of the title page: The storm and stress of life! The curse of war and strife! The harsh vindictiveness of men! The cuts of sword and pen! What needed to be borne - he bore! What needed to be fought - he fought! But in his soul, he stood them up as naught! Lincoln, the Great Commoner (1921) is Ives's most technically advanced biographical common man song. It is a through-composed work and there are no barlines until the song's final system. Sections of counterpoint and homophony alternate. Cross rhythms result from the over lapping of contrapuntal phrases and motives. One finds numerous cross relations occurring in Ives's dissonant polyphony. For instance, the first system of the piano Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 208 introduction represents the "storm and stress of life" through dissonant counterpoint resulting in the following cross relations: E-natural (second sop. voice) with an Eb bass pedal tone, G-natural (sop.) with G#(alto), and an A-natural (sop.) with A# in the bass. The cross relations between the bass and the soprano provide an especially striking effect. More importantly, the first sound one hears in the work is a dissonance - a firmly intoned Eb bass pedal tone overlapped by an accented F. These two voices abruptly become a five-voice polyphonic texture. This piece shows how it is not unusual to observe Ives add or subtract any number of voices in an unexpected manner. The second system of the introduction contrasts the first because it is homophonic with a slower harmonic rhythm. Also, it utilizes motivic sequence in contrast to the non-repetitive free counterpoint of the first sys tem. The harmonies of the second system are clearly ter tian, F major (add 9), A major, and B minor in the upper voices of the piano. The bass line supporting the triads presents three different transpositions (descending by whole-step) of a dotted-rhythm motive. I prefer to think of Ives's consistent dotted-eighth followed by sixteenth note rhythm as a 'riding' rhythm, applicable to scoring text which indicates motion or travelling. This rhythm is common to Ives's biographical common man songs. The Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 209 'riding rhythm' is an integral part of Charlie Rutlage's fatal ride upon his horse. In Lincoln, the Great Commoner this dotted-rhythm motivic sequence prepares the way for the first line of Markham's text, "And so he came from the praire cabin to the Capitol." There is no mention of whether Lincoln travelled by horse, stagecoach, or train to the Capitol, but the idea of travelling is con tinued in the third system through three-voice contrapun tal manipulation of the same dotted rhythm applied to new pitch class motives. The vocal line moves in parallel major thirds with the soprano voice of the piano. The vo cal part avoids tonal centricity throughout the work.This makes Lincoln an unusual common man song. The only other common man song by Ives with absolutely no tonal implica tions anywhere is Like a Sick Eagle. Most of the harmonies in Lincoln may be readily la belled as tertian structures, however, set theoretical methods are quite helpful in identifying a few simulta neities where the text begins to tell of how Lincoln dealt with the nation's increasing unrest leading to the Civil War: "The conscience testing every stroke, to make his deed the measure of man." A second important, and contrasting, bass motive (this time in consecutive forte quarter notes) first appears at the mention of Lincoln's "conscience testing" (t0 level). One might consider this the 'integrity motive' of the song because it reappears Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 210 twice more (t3 and original level with slight variation) at the mention of Lincoln's moral stature, ie., "He held his place, he held the long purpose. . . ."(t3). The most interesting example of text painting in Lincoln occurs at the mention of the Civil War, "... and when the step of earthquake shook the house, wrenching rafters from their ancient hold. . . ." Ives employs a written out ascending vocal glissando against fff clusters played with fists on the piano. The phrase is followed by two simultaneous minor ninth tremolos played a major ninth apart. The right hand takes G to G# over F to F# in the left hand. The accompaniment at the end of Lincoln is nearly identical to the ending of Nov. 2. 1920, however, the vo cal line is completely different as necessitated by the text describing Lincoln's assassination and its effect upon the nation. The closing vocal fragment is taken from the opening of the The Star Spangled Banner. The Greatest Man (1921) is a song expressing a boy's pride for his father's character and abilities. There is little doubt that Charles Ives thought of his own healthy relationship with his father, George Ives, while setting Anne Collins's text. Charles "... was always frank and completely unabashed about his love for his father. The evidence for this is in his reported conversations, his letters, and in the music itself."9 His wife, Harmony, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 211 never quite reached an equal level of importance in Charles's life.io Young Charles was always fascinated by the succession of musical experiments concocted by George Ives. Aside from George's quarter-tone experiments (which will be explained more fully in the context of Like a Sick Eagle), he also attempted timbral and acoustic ex periments : ... he tuned a piano in actual partials, to match the sounds of the overtone series, and he devised and tried out, again with tuned glasses, some new scales without octaves. He was inter ested in echoes and played his instruments one at a time over Danbury Pond, which amplified the echo that came back to him. He made endless at tempts to imitate the sound of the echo itself, which he recognized as being different in quality - in tone color as well as in volume - from the initial tone.11 George Ives was a musician, teacher of harmony and ear training, and an experienced leader of bands and choirs. His pedagogical attitude toward music theory was refreshing for the time. "George Ives first gives the reason why something is and then encourages his reader to convince himself through his own auditory experience. In this way Ives avoids presenting the material as a set of rules."i2 George's influence on Charles was indubitable. An iconoclastic attitude toward the traditional in music coupled with a firm reliance on one's ears as the 'ulti mate judge' was clearly passed along from father to son.1 ^ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 212 In summation of George Ives's unique opinion of what is important in music, an amusing anecdote appears below: Once a nice young man. . .said to Father, "How can you stand it to hear old John Bell (the best stone mason in town) sing?". . .Father said, "He is a supreme musician." The young man (nice and educated) was horrified - "Why, he sings off the key, the wrong notes and everything - and that horrible, raucous voice - and he bellows out and hits notes no one else does - it's awfulI" Father said, "Watch him closely and reverently, look into his face and hear the music of the ages. Don't pay too much attention to the sounds - for if you do, you may miss the music. . . ."14 The Greatest Man is a late conservative work, prin cipally centered in G major despite the lack of key sig nature. The harmonic simplicity of the work represents the innocence of the young boy who brags of his father's exploits. Dotted rhythms seen earlier in Charlie Rutlage and Lincoln, the Great Commoner are abundant in The Greatest Man. Such rhythms provide a folklike mood for the work. In fact, the song quotes from two popular folk songs. The start of I've Been Working on the Railroad appears in mm.16-17 and the opening phrase of the chorus to Paul Dresser's On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away is expanded in mm.9-13.is The structural design of The Greatest Man is derived from the different exploits of the father. The A section moves through G major to C major (via an Italian sixth as pivot), and back to G major while the boy ponders the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 213 concept of 'great' men. After a brief transitional phrase in A minor, Section B begins and describes how well the father is able to ride the "wildest hoss." The charac teristic dotted 'riding' rhythm also found in Charlie Rutlage dominates the B section. Authentic cadences are avoided in Section B, however, several tonal implications occur due to a succession of dominant seventh harmonies: C7 C> G7 Q D7. Section B elides into Section C via an imperfect authentic cadence in C major. The C section ("Dad's some hunter too") begins with an ascending arpeg- giated triplet figure in the piano which imitates the call of a hunting horn. Section D is the most harmoni cally sophisticated part of the song. It begins with the only use of polychords in the song, set in a tonally am biguous phrase, "Once when I was sick 'n though his hands were rough he rubbed the pain right out."Augmented triads are featured in this phrase. A transitional phrase in C major leads to the final section A', entirely in G major. The dotted rhythmic motives in the vocal line and the harmonic progressions in the accompaniment are a varia tion on the A section. It is in the A' section where the boy concludes that his father must indeed be the greatest of all men. The second subclassification of common man songs deals with work ethics and one's attitude toward his fel low laborer. The three songs comprising this subclass, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 214 (Tolerance, Luck and Work, and Two Slants: Duty and Vita) all share a common structural feature. They are short works which traverse both atonal and tonal (or modal) re gions. Brief phrases of atonality and tonality are either juxtaposed in an adjacent manner or appear in a vertical relationship as simultaneous layers of tonal and atonal information. This trait contrasts the more tonally cen tered biographical subclass of common man songs. Tolerance (1909) expresses one's appreciation for the worth of another man's creation as if it were his own: How can I turn from any fire, Or any man's hearth stone? I know the longing and desire, That went to build my own! The design of the song is binary. Section A is tonally centered in D major and Section B is atonal due to the use of whole-tone harmonies and chromatically rising non functional 'color chords' expressing "longing and desire" (Example 32.0). Only a solitary two-beat tonal implica tion (G minor) appears in the B section (mm.9-10). The D major vocal melody of Section A is supported by domi nant and tonic harmonies. The first dominant seventh sup port (m.4) is colored with a lowered fifth and raised ninth in the uppermost keyboard voices. It resolves in m.5 to a tonic triad with an added sixth. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 215 AN - 9 AUNfc NCARTH can I t u r n prom a n - a F ir e with moAS ANb moRE Animation to THt CNF KNOW THE IONS- - INS' ANF F £ -flR £ Example 32.0. Ives, "Tolerance," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Luck and Work (1920) is also a binary design, but its atonal section appears first and the remaining sec tion is primarily modal (D mixolydian) rather than tonal. Example 33.0 presents the juxtaposition of atonal coun terpoint (the last two bars of Section A ) and homophonic modality (the start of Section B at m.5). The employment of atonality and modality is suggested by the text's con tent: Section A: (Tonally ambiguous "luck" section) While one will search the season over, To find the magic four-leaved clover, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 216 Section B: (Modally grounded "work" section) Another, with not half the trouble, Will plant a crop to bear him double. SuiMj? Example 33.0. Ives, "Luck and Work," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. The freely contrapuntal "luck" (A) section presents fre quent dissonance in the form of harmonic tritones, minor sevenths and major sevenths. Also, symmetrical harmonic structures like augmented triads (B+ and F+) and dimin ished triads (D dim.) appear. Frequently, the harmonic sevenths proceed in parallel motion. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 217 Duty and Vita (or Two Slants - Christian & Pagan) was first composed in August, 1913. Duty was scored for male chorus and orchestra and Vita employed unison chorus accompanied by organ. The later adaptation for solo voice and piano is dated 1921. The work was "... the result of hearing Daniel McCurry preach a guest sermon on the contrast between Christian and Stoic ideals, at Hartsdale Methodist Church, August 17, 1913."i6 Examples 34.0 and 34.1 show how Duty and Vita, re spectively, layer tonal and tonally ambiguous informa tion. The vocal melody of Duty begins clearly grounded in A minor. Notice that the high point of the first phrase (Ex.34.0) even emphasizes the dominant pitch, E. Yet, the piano accompaniment is quite chromatic, nonfunc tional, and tonally ambiguous. n y0M. O l1ST, Sff ■MASST054 Example 34.0. Ives, a) "Duty," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 218 The vocal line of Vita (Example 34.1) is purely dia tonic against a moderately chromatic chordal accompani ment. Once again, the vocal melody appears to be centered around A minor (natural minor in Vita) and the dominant pitch is utilized at the highest points. However, the chromatic tertian chords in the piano part are nonfunc tional and tonally ambiguous until the final cadence in A minor: IV C> iv(add 6) O i(with an added ninth in the vocal part). The end of Duty, in contrast, closes with a perfect authentic cadence in F major. Example 34.1. Ives, b) "Vita," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music,Inc. Copyright renewed, Used by Permission. The third and final common man song subclassification contains only two works. Like a Sick Eagle (1920) and Requiem (1911) both express one's possible emotions dur ing a period of illness and death. This common man sub class uses materials that are the least tonally oriented Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 219 of the three subclasses, and neither of these songs con tains functional harmony. The original setting of Like a Sick Eagle (for voice and English horn) was sketched on April 29 1909, only nine days after Ives's wife entered St. Luke's Hospital for emergency surgery and the removal of her gall blad der. The complications of the surgery suggest the possi ble termination of a pregnancy and also a hysterectomy.i? This undoubtedly must have been a particularly trying time for Ives. This atonal work, which avoids tertian harmonies, achieves a despondent mood through the use of melodic quarter-tones. Ives's original footnote for the perfor mers reads, "The + + over and between the notes means that between 1/2-tones a slide through a 1/4-tone may be made, and between whole-tones, through a 1/3-tone. This, done in a certain way, gives a more desolate sound. . ."18 Actually, the sound of vocal portamento and variable in tonations was a familiar experience for Ives as a boy since such vocal idiosyncracies were not unusual in nine teenth century congregational singing.18 Additionally, Charles's father introduced him to quarter-tone music through numerous musical experiments. Henry Cowell re lates one of them: The instrument that he built seems not to have worked out too well. It consisted of twenty-four Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 220 violin strings stretched across a clothes- press; they were let down with weights. He found it simpler to tune glasses to produce quarter-tones and other very small intervals; and the slide cornet was helpful too. Once he was able to sound the actual intervals, he drew on his family and friends for assis tance in discovering how adaptable they were to human musical use.20 It is a probable assumption that the father had made quite an impression on his son when one reads Charles Ives's attitude toward quarter-tone composition in "Some 'Quarter-Tone' Impressions": It will probably be centuries, at least genera tions, before man will discover all or even most of the value in a quarter-tone extension. And when he does, nature has plenty of other things up her sleeve. And it may be longer than we think before the ear will freely translate what it hears and instinctively arouse and amplify the spiritual consciousness.21 Like a Sick Eagle avoids tertian based harmony be cause Ives felt it was not appropriately suited to quar ter-tone music. He explains "... that if a triad is created by the addition of a quarter-tone interval to two notes which constitute a diatonic interval, the result sounds out-of tune, as for example the diatonic fifth C-G with D three-quarter-tones sharp added."22 instead of building harmonic structures as chords, Ives utilizes intervals which expand and contract (voice and right hand of the piano) over sparse figuration in the bass. The Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 221 intervals consistently expand and contract by minor sec onds. For example, during the opening words "The spirit is too weak; mortality weighs heavily on me like unwil ling sleep" (Example 35.0) the two uppermost voices begin on an augmented sixth and reduce by minor seconds to a major third which then expands outward to another aug mented sixth. This process continues throughout the work and may be representative of the life sustaining process which makes all men common to one another, and that is, breathing in and out. $L0WLiJ VEM S L O W L tf IN A WEAK AH6 BftAttrlNfr W AS i P* VJ.--- ■ ■ U J ' lJ J 1= Th e S f IM T IS TOO W EAK; M O R -TA L- i- T S WSISHS H E A V - I- L d ON ME UK6 U N -W lLL^ IIIfi-5LE E P , Example 35.0. Ives, "Like a Sick Eagle," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 222 Like a Sick Eagle is a brief, one-page song (with out barlines) abundant in text painting devices. First, the melody rises and falls as the text dictates: "Mortal ity weighs heavily. . ." (descending), "And each imagined pinnacle. . ." (ascending), "I must die" (descending), ". . . looking toward the sky" (ascending for the first time by major seconds at the close of the song). Second, the two highest vocal pitches occur within close proxi mity of one another on significant words. "Pinnacle and steep. . ." ascends to the pitch, C, which is immediately followed by a Db on the first syllable of the word "God like." So, "God-" is selected as the appropriate summit for the melody. Another important event in Like a Sick Eagle occurs on the same syllable, ("God-"). The first actual tertian structure appears in the form of a poly chord (F# minor over E minor). After this point, there are no more such harmonies until the last three words of the song, "... towards the sky." The closing progres sion during these words is C(no 3) over Bb Q D(no 3) over Bb dim. O E(no 3) over C7(add 6). The progression harmonizes the only occurrence of vocal melodic ascension by major seconds (G,A,B). These melodic and harmonic changes at the end provide a sense of relief from the previously desolate mood and could symbolize hope arising out of misery. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 223 Requiem (1911) avoids any tonal functions until its final cadence. Ives chooses to close the work with a plagal cadence (C C> G) implying a gratuitous 'Amen' on behalf of the common man laid to rest: "Home is the sailor, home from sea,And the hunter home from the hill." Some harmonies in Requiem may be classified by set theo retical methods and others are most readily observed as nonfunctional tertian structures. ABA'B' is a possible design option for Requiem. The A and A' sections are set in compound meter (6/8 and 9/8) and the B and B' sections employ duple and irregular meter (5/4, 4/4, and 2/4). The B section is clearly de lineated by its change of tempo (Adagio) and a new slowly oscillating figuration in the chordal accompaniment (Ex. 36.0). The Adagio (Section B) is also notable for its meditative vocal chanting on Ab. The return to "Tempo I" in 6/8 marks the start of A' (also Ex.36.0). The final nine measures of the work constitute the B' section due to the return of a slowly oscillating chordal figuration (C minor C> Bb major O C min. O Bb maj., etc.) in duple meter. The solemn demeanor of Requiem is achieved through the sustained effect of polychordal textures and pedal tones. The instrumental introduction is a series of chords and polychords over a C bass pedal. The final four harmonies which lead to the vocalist's entrance are Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 224 Ab maj.9(add bl3) O D maj. over C min. O D min. over D# min.7 O Db min. over D minor. AbAStO HE LIES WHERE HE LftN6£ft_ Example 36.0. Ivea, "Requiem," From: Nineteen Songs. Copyright 1935, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. In contrast, the Adagio B section contains nonter tian structures like a 3-8 (026) bass trichord which de scends in parallel motion by minor seconds beneath the oscillating figuration in the upper voices of the piano Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 225 and beneath the solemn chanting of the vocalist on Ab (Example 36.0) "This be the verse you grave for me." The mention of "the sailor" and "the hunter" near the close of Requiem evokes two interesting text painting devices. An extended two-measure descending chromatic scale bass line supports "Home is the sailor, home from sea." (Chapter 3 pointed out Ives's frequent employment of chromatic and whole-tone scales to represent scenes of water imagery.) A quasi hunting horn motive (dotted rhy thm, ascending perfect fourth gesture) repeats in the vo cal melody during the words, "And the hunter home from the hill." Ives also attempts to create an echo effect of the hunting horn motive by repeatedly imitating the vocalist's perfect fourth gestures in an inner accompani- mental voice written in smaller notes. Once again, Ives offers an optional means of performance. The three subclasses of common man songs discussed in this chapter are quite diverse in mood and harmonic function. In the course of the discussion it becomes apparent that the songs are increasingly atonal and less representative of the vernacular if one begins with the biographical songs which are frequently folklike (re peated patterns, popular song quotations, regular meter) and tonal. The songs about work ethics possess several tonal implications through functional tertian harmonies, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 226 yet, are not as tonally centered as the biographical songs. Finally, illness and death experience songs are set with tonal ambiguity, probably owing to the arcane quality of the subject matter. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 227 Notes to Chapter 6 1. Ives, Charles Edward. Essays Before a Sonata and Other Writings. Howard Boatwright, editor. New York: W.W. Norton, 1962. p.48. 2. Hitchcock, H. Wiley. Ives. London and New York: Ox ford University Press, 1977. p.13. 3. Elkus, Jonathan. Charles Ives and the American Band Tradition:A Centennial Tribute. University of Exeter, 1974. p.25. 4. Wooldridge, David. Charles Ives: A Portrait. London: Faber and Faber, 1975. pp.90-91. 5. Charles, Sydney Robinson. "The Use of Borrowed Mate rial in Ives's Second Symphony," The Music Review. Vol.28, No.2, May 1967. p.103. 6. Marshall, Dennis. "Charles Ives's Quotations: Manner or Substance?" Perspectives of New Music. Vol.6,No.2, Spring-Summer 1968. p.45. 7. Ives, pp.80-81. 8. Cowell, Henry and Cowell, Sidney. Charles Ives and His Music. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1955. p.179. 9. Feder,Stuart. "Decoration Day: A Boyhood Memory of Charles Ives," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.LXVl, No.2, April 1980. p.239. 10. Feder, p.239. 11. Cowell, p.20. 12. Eiseman, David. "George Ives as Theorist: Some Unpublished Documents," Perspectives of New Music. Fall-Winter 1975. p.144. 13. Eiseman, p.147. 14. Ives, Charles. Memos. John Kirkpatrick, editor. New York: W.W. Norton, 1972. p.132. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 228 15. Burkholder, J. Peter. " 'Quotation' and Emulation: Charles Ives's Uses of His Models," The Musical Quar terly. Vol.LXXI, No.1, 1985. p.11. 16. Wooldridge, David. Charles Ives: A Portrait. London: Faber and Faber, 1975. p.168. 17. Wooldridge, pp.144-145. 18. Wooldridge,p.145. 19. Alexander, Michael J. The Evolving Keyboard Style of Charles Ives in Outstanding Dissertations in Music From British Universities. John Caldwell, editor. New York,London: Garland Publishing,Inc., 1989.p.128. 20. Cowell, Henry and Cowell, Sidney. Charles Ives and His Music. London, New York: Oxford University Press, 1955, p.19. 21. Ives, Charles Edward. "Some 'Quarter-Tone' Impres sions" in Essays Before a Sonata and Other Writings. Howard Boatwright, editor. New York: W.W. Norton, 1962. p.109. 22. Perison, Harry. "The Quarter-Tone System of Charles Ives," Current Musicology. Number 18, 1974. p.97. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 229 7 Songs of Sentiment Ives's sentimental songs comprise the largest type of classification within his published song repertoire. The songs of sentiment are, in general, perhaps even more harmonically conservative than either his Lieder (Chapter 1) or his sacred songs (Chapter 2). Of the fifty-three entries in this category, only seven works avoid tradi tionally functional tertian harmonies and a reliance on tonal centers. Six of these seven nontonal songs are late works composed between 1920 and 1921: August (1920), September (1920), December (1920), At Sea (1921), The Indians (1921), and Grantchester (1921). A middle period work, Mists (1910), presents a harmonically static atmos phere due to a reliance on the hexachordal interaction of whole-tone sets. The remaining forty-six sentimental songs employ functional tertian chords and tonal centers whether or not a key signature is present. Traditional descriptive methods of tonal analysis and/or Schenkerian Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 230 analytical techniques (as previously applied to the Lie- der in Chapter 1) are two logical approaches to most of Ives's songs of sentiment. The seven nontonal songs men tioned above are harmonically eclectic, utilizing both tertian and nontertian structures. Thus, a combination of nonfunctional tertian chord labelling and set theore tical methods prove useful. The fifty-three sentimental songs may be divided into five subclassifications which will be discussed in the following order: 1) sentimental songs about a people or a specific person (unamorous), 2) love songs, 3) sen timent regarding a time of day or a month, 4) a place in one's memory, 5) a tangible or abstract object fondly re membered . Ives's childhood experiences provided much in spiration for his creativity. His creative urge ". . .may have found its ultimate outlet in musical composition solely because sound, surely the most evocative of the senses, had originally played a catalytic function in those experiences."! Ives believed in a progressive future of burgeoning spiritual awareness and economic equality.He thought that a successful future is best built on the finest values and accomplishments of the past.2 His respect for the past is clearly shown in his sentimental songs. Yet, Ives did not take pride in many of his tonally oriented senti mental songs because he considered a number of them to be Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 231 'nice' works - a retrogression in his compositional tech nique. " 'Nice,' in Ives's vocabulary, was a particularly damning epithet, meaning conventional, conformist, meek, and weak."3 Ives associated 'nice' music and all its com posers and advocates with a priggish mid-nineteenth cen tury character from children's books named, 'Rollo.' Many sarcastic comments addressed to 'Rollo' appear in the margins of Ives's manuscripts, the most famous being in his second string quartet.1 * Ives's whole life was a defense of rugged individ ualism, represented by his Concord heroes, and an attack on conformity, symbolized for him by "Rollo." As every New England schoolboy used to know, the Rollo books were a series of disguised Sunday-school stories with massive educational intent. And little Rollo himself was a model of perfection and propri ety sickening to any Yankee lad of spirit.5 George and Charles Ives both considered one of the most highly valued artistic achievements of America's past to be the song repertoire of Stephen Foster.Through out Memos, Ives reiterates his opinion that Foster's inspirational works are a music of the people. George Ives favored the music of Bach and Foster in his pedogog- ical contributions to the children of Danbury. Charles Ives proudly quotes Foster's tunes throughout his reper toire, and his Second Orchestral Set starts with a slow movement titled "An Elegy for Stephen Foster." Charles seems to have identified himself with the ideals of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 232 Foster because he felt that through his songs he was also creating a music of the people.e The earliest song in Ives's 114 Songs is Slow March (1888). Under the title Ives writes, "Inscribed to the Children's Faithful Friend." The work is a memorial tri bute to a family pet which young Charles apparently con sidered an important part of his youth. Slow March pro bably presents the earliest example of Ives's use of mu sical quotation.7 He borrows the melody of the "Dead March" from Handel's Saul (Act III) and from it he com poses the instrumental prelude and postlude. The vocal line is Ives's original theme which is structured in a sectional rounded binary format (ABA'). The A section is actually a four-bar diatonic phrase closing with a perfect authentic cadence in F major. The B section is comprised of three short phrases employing some repeated- note motives reminiscent of solemn chanting-tone liturgi cal repertoire. Although the vocal line remains diatonic to F major in the middle section, the piano accompaniment borrows some chromatic pitches from the parallel minor mode for the purpose of setting the words, "solemn march" (C min. O F min. in m.19). A half cadence in F major at the end of Section B prepares for the return of material from A. Section A' is a diatonic vocal phrase supported by a nearly diatonic accompaniment. (The piano part has only one borrowed chord in A' - a half diminished super Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 233 tonic harmony.) The prelude and postlude are purely dia tonic to F major. To Edith (1892), Karen (1894), and Marie (1896) are three 'sweet' sounding songs due to a minimal amount of dissonance and an extreme degree of harmonic predicta bility. Yet each work possesses a brief element of either harmonic or rhythmic surprise in order to break the mono tony of excessive homogeneity. Some important similari ties between the three works include the observation that each is written in a flat-tonality and remains in that area throughout the song without clearly establishing a secondary tonal center. Also, when secondary dominants appear in these three songs, they generally resolve as expected. Most of the secondary dominant activity occurs around the middle section of each work while the opening and closing sections remain diatonic. To Edith, in Eb major, is written in an A A' format with a one-bar chro matic instrumental interlude between the verse and its variation. The interlude is the only harmonic surprise in the song. It contains a chromatically parallel and nonfunctional progression over an Eb bass pedal: D maj.7 C> Db maj.7(VII O bVII). The rhythmic surprise in To Edith occurs when the piano accompaniment figuration of Section A returns in a syncopated version during A'. Karen, in Gb major, begins and ends in 3/4. However, the consistent accompanimental figuration is interrupted Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 234 for five measures (four bars of 3/8 + one bar of 4/4) to serve as a relief from excessive homogeneity. However, Karen avoids harmonic surprises until its inconclusive final chord (V7) which appropriately underscores the closing question, "Tell me little Karen what thy heart felt then?" Marie, in F major, avoids rhythmic surprises and syncopation is an integral element of the piano part through most of the song. However, two harmonically sur prising measures of bitonality appear in mm.9-10 where the vocal line remains in F major while the accompaniment supports in A major/F# minor. Shortly thereafter the bVH tonality is emphasied via secondary dominants, yet never becomes clearly stabilized. The remainder of the work is diatonic with the exception of conventionally resolved chromatic neighboring tones in the accompaniment. Karen and Marie both achieve their 'sweet' sound through suc cessive harmonic thirds in parallel motion during various passages. Additionally, Karen and Marie also attain a homogeneous state because they are organic works which present a motive and then alter it through transposition, intervallic expansion or diminution, and rhythmic trans formation. Motivic imitation is also utilized. The score of In the Alley (1896) remarks that the work was written "after a session at Poli's." "Poli's Bijou Theatre, on Church Street, was the home of minstrel shows right up until the end of the 19th century. George Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 235 Felsburg was the pianist there, the kind of rough-diamond musician Charles took to his heart."8 In the Alley, in D major, possesses some elements of Joplin's ragtime music. It contains some stride bass and the repeated use of an A# chromatic lower neighboring tone in the melodic line. However, I would not consider it to be a "rag" due to its minimal inclusion of the characteristic syncopated rhyth mic patterns upon which that genre relies. The work is merely reminiscent of Poli's atmosphere and Felsburg's playing.9 George could read a newspaper and play the piano better than some pianists could play the piano without any newspaper at all. When I [Ives] was in college, I used to go down there and spell him a little if he wanted to go out and get a glass, or a dozen glasses of beer. There were black-faced comedians then ragging their songs. I had even heard the same thing at the Danbury Fair before coming to New Haven, which must have been before 1892. . . .10 At one point during In the Alley Ives writes for the pianist, "Attention Geo. Felsburg! Turn newspaper." Dur ing that one bar, he places all voices of the keyboard part in the left hand, thus freeing the right hand for the function of turning a newspaper page. Later in the song Ives writes in an optional C7 chord(written in small notes) to "use Sat. night." The chord is meant as a sub stitute for the purity of a C major triad. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 236 In the Alley is a song of sentiment, not only for George Felsburg, but also for a fictional Irish lass named Sally about whom the vocalist endearingly sings. The work contains no surprises until its chromatic three- chord coda which follows a perfect authentic cadence in D major. The coda's progression contains a chromatic third relation and parallelism: bVI-bl-I (Bb-Db-D). Ives enhar- monically spells a major triad built on the leading tone (C#) as a flat-tonality chord (Db major). Prior to the coda the work is a conventional continuous rounded binary design with the central section written in the subdomi nant tonality. The Children's Hour (1901) has a text by Longfellow which recalls the sounds of children in the home at twi light ("the patter of little feet" and "voices soft and sweet"). As with most other songs of sentiment, one ob serves that this song has a primary tonality to which it returns, although, here it appears as a pseudo-bitonality of E minor over A major (Example 37.0). However, the cen tral structural section starting at m.ll (Example 37.1), goes so far afield that there is no actual tonal center except perhaps for a polychordal phrase (mm. 15-18 in Example 37.1) which insistently repeats its D pedal in the bass and two 1-bar tonal implications shortly there after. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 237 A da& o S0STENUT0 JQA _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ -••• . . . . . . . . . . . ■ • • • ■ ■ ■ / U f ^ T r r n ■ p b b l = f f l = r ft, ■ gS-0 i . l AW !— ■ - - - d-d — j- 4 ■ — j TWEEN Tt — -------------- J------- J---------- IE M A K AND THE m LIGHT, I r r v f f f WHEN T ~ 1 r I - n H E ^ ^ B ■ ^ 7 ■Hi m m r m m | T * - — ' " 1 j - n r r J J r---f Jt t h . - ^T» - J — - Mi t iixampl<e 37.0. I - y j i :ves, "The ( Ohildren's Hour," i = b s y From: Thirty-Four Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. The design of The Children's Hour is a continuous ternary format. The central section (B), which leaves the quasi-E minor over A major tonality, differs from the A and A' sections because its accompaniment is structured in separate phrases. In contrast, the bitonal sections have no cadence points in the piano part. The metric pulses in Sections A and A' are consistently displaced through the hemiola in the right hand(a six-note ostinato group which repeats E G A E A G). The vocalist has more clearly delineated phrases in Section A which correspond Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 238 to the punctuation of the text. In contrast to the free- flowing A section, the B section is constructed in balanced phrases of 2+2 (mm.11-14) and 4+4 (mm.15-22). PWIMTO HA_rrLT. i f-3—' m hear in the chamber above me the Patter of littie feet THE 4 M Mtfd 44 SttMO #F A BOOR THAT IS 0-PENEB AND VOI -C E S S o P T A H B s S I E t T ’ FROM M S '1 a-'+i t 4 . . i r r n. _ » ^ \ 3 f C f t o r • V 4 5 S T U - B S I S E E I N T H E L A M P * L I S H T 6 E -S C E N O - I N f i - W E 5 R & 4 B t f A l f e—£ - r . l J t a i R ? G r a v e y&\ = ^ = d = 4 F f l = F = # = H = : f = j = ^ 4 — j + T U - - . 1 4 /8 % 4 - i I — 1 Example 37.1. Ives, "The Children's Hour," From: Thirty-Four Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 239 The first two-bar phrase can claim no tonality owing to its reliance on a descending chromatic scale. Measures 11-12 are simply sequenced downward by whole-step to cre ate the second two-bar phrase (mm. 13-14). The B section is extremely important because it is an early example in Ives's song literature of his inter est in polychords. (See mm.15-18.) "Even in his early works of the late 1890's one finds chords of contrasting tone systems placed against each other. In many cases polychords are used one after the other, and there is in terplay of feeling between the component chords. . . ."n The polychords used in mm.15-18 appear over a D pedal in the bass, the first sign of stability in the B section. The component harmonies here are constructed in various ways. In m.15 the third harmony shows a tritone relation ship of A7 over Eb major7 and in m.16 the first harmony is constructed from fifth chords. Following this poly- chordal phrase, Ives text paints the personalities of three children mentioned by name: "Alice," "Allegra," and "Edith." At the mention of the name "Allegra" one hears the vocalist singing undeniably in Ab major. Then when "Edith" comes along the tonality changes to B minor. Ives once again uses a tritone relationship by following the D pedal phrase with the Ab major tonality representing "Allegra." The last two measures of Section B consist of a single harmony (D# minor7 with an added eleventh) which Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 240 is expressed both vertically and horizontally serving as the retransition to A'. (The secundal voicing of this harmony appears to be a portent of Ives's future interest in clusters.) At this point, a third tritone relationship occurs since the D# min.7 harmony of the retransition re solves to the A major bass tonality of the A' section. The A' section is hardly worth mentioning except for two things. First, it has been truncated down to a mere five measures. Second, it cadences on a harmony which has not served as a tonal center at any time prior to this. The final cadence is a C maj.7(add 6) resolving to a G major triad in the bass (IV-I). A suggestion of A minor appears over this closing G major harmony in order to retain the bitonal structure of the song. The vocal part of The Children's Hour is syllabic and full of text painting. The song opens with the phrase "Between the dark and the daylight." Could the choice of bitonal structure possibly be an allusion to this - the A major tonality being the "daylight" and the E minor tonality in the voice portraying the "dark"? When the phrase "comes a pause" appears, Ives actually inserts an eighth rest in the vocal part. It is the first rest to appear in that part since the entrance of the singer. Upon the words "the lamplight descending the broad hall stair," the vocal line also descends toward the end of the phrase. When the words"Between the dark and daylight" Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 241 once again return for the A' section, so does the bitonal structure that occurred in the very first measure of the song. Mists (1910)is an eclectic work which employs chords constructed of major thirds (augmented triads), perfect fourths and fifths, and traditional tertian harmonies which are nonfunctional. Mists also contains a variety of scales (chromatic, whole-tone, and major). There are sections of purely ambiguous tonality and other layered sections consisting of tonality(in the voice), over aton- ality (in the upper voices of the piano); all over a firm pedal in the bass serving as a quasi tonal center (G). Despite all this eclecticism and harmonic ambiguity, the G pedal of this work becomes the solid foundation upon which this song is built. (In addition, Mists closes on a very unambiguous G major triad.) This is one of Ives's sentimental songs because it expresses the feelings of Ives's wife, Harmony Twichell, upon the death of her mother, and it makes reference to her happy memories which will always remain with her. The ideas of the mists possibly signify ascension into the unknown. The unstable mists are text painted through the use of tonal neutralization. One compositional technique which induces tonal neutralization in Mists is the paral lelism of non-diatonic tertian harmonies. The instrumen tal introduction (Example 38.0) employs this technique in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 242 which the root movement of adjacent chords ascends and descends by step. The following chord succession appears in m.l: G maj. O A maj. O B min. O C maj. C> D maj. The start of the central section (Example 38.1) also uses the same technique: A maj. O B min. C> C#7 C> D maj. O Eb6 O F maj. £> Eb6 O D min. C> C# min. LARSO SOSTEKUTO OTSTS Example 38.0. Ives, "Mists," (A Section material) From: Thirty-Four Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. .THtoVW W E A V E S A SPELL, . He* /MU. ( »m> ' Example 38.1. "Mists," (B Section), Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 243 Ives also uses whole-tone harmonies in parallel motion as a means of neutralizing any tonal implications. Augmented triads appear in the A and A' sections and they are arranged in such a way as to produce the total chro matic through hexachordal combinatoriality. For example, measures 2 and 3 produce the total chromatic by using both 6-35 hexachords. Measure 2 presents (13579B) as aug mented triads while measure 3 does the same with(02468A). To add to the ambiguity, the voice simultaneously sings in the G major/E minor mode. Beneath all this, a third layer of activity presents itself as the only extended form of stability in the song (a G bass pedal). The design of Mists is ternary. Its eclecticism is especially apparent when one views this song in subsec tions. The first subsection of the A section has already been described as a triple-layered structure using aug mented harmonies. Several changes occur in the second subsection of A. First the pedal rises to C#, which is a tritone away from the quasi-tonal center of G. (The G to C# Lydian influence will also prove important in another sentimental song to be discussed, Walking.) Also, the vo cal part in Mists puts much emphasis on C# throughout this subsection, almost to the extent of it assuming the form of a chanting-tone. In addition, C# is consistently repeated in the highest voice of the piano part. Thus, there is great importance in the relationship between Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 244 G and C# in the work. The second subsection of Section A also differs harmonically from the first subsection. The harmonies are built from fourths and fifths with the in clusion of only one augmented triad per bar. The B section (Ex.38.1) has no subsections and it covers only five measures. After the use of nonfunctional parallel tertian harmonies (mm.11-13), the piano plays chromatically parallel descending whole-tone tetrachords 4-24 (0248). This descent functions as a retransition to the A' section. The retransition assigns the descending chromatic scale to the vocal part during the words, "mem ory weaves a spell." When the A section material returns, it has not been altered but simply truncated down to only four measures. The final bar of the song, a prolonged G major chord, seems to paint the image of the mists hav ing blown away, signified through the clarity of such a simple harmony. Aside from the text painting of the mists through whole-tone augmented triads, Ives also text paints speci fic words and phrases in Mists. For example, the word "weep" is supported by a descending minor second(a 'sigh' of C# to B#). Also, the word "farewell" is the last word sung by the vocalist before the start of central section B. "Farewell" is followed by two measures of solo piano music, thus allowing the vocalist a brief departure. When the vocalist returns at m.ll the words "But happier days" Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 245 appear as a rising melodic line signifying a rise in the spirits of one who is thinking of pleasant memories. The Last Reader (1921) was originally scored for trumpet, two violas, and organ. Ives later adapted the work to a text by Oliver Wendell Holmes and placed it as No.3 of 114 Songs. 12 The song makes reference to the most important object of sentiment in Ives's own life(a father tenderly looking after his child.) The Last Reader juxta poses conservative and radical elements. Only two bars of the work are tonally ambiguous due to parallel augmented triads supported by a chromatic scale bass line. The re maining twenty bars tonicize closely related tonalities. The design is determined by the meter signature and the tonal center. A B A' B' C is one possible design. The A material is centered around F major (6/4) and the piano chords are voiced in parallel perfect fifths. Some times the third missing from a piano voicing is found in the vocal line. The B material is primarily in 4/4 and employs the technique of mode shifting between Bb major and Bb minor. The texture of B and B' contrasts A and A' due to the closed voicings of complete triads in the accompaniment of the B material. In the final section, C, Ives returns to 6/4 and remains centered around Bb major until the final five bars which ground the vocal line D major. At one point in Section C, Ives uses the two parallel modes (Bb major and Bb minor) simultaneously. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 246 The voice sings in Bb minor with a prominent sounding of the flatted mediant tone (Db) lasting two full beats. The bass line in the same bar presents a tonic pedal (Bb) and the natural mediant tone (D) implying the parallel modal ity. Also, the only nontertian harmony in The Last Reader appears in Section C. It is a secundally (cluster) voiced 4-23 (0257) written into the right hand part of the key board over Bb major arpeggios in the left hand. Despite several radical elements in Section C, the final phrase of the song contains a perfect authentic cadence in D major preceded by the traditional preparatory tonic in second inversion. At Sea (1921) is the song of a sailor who misses "the dear one on a foreign shore." This brief thirteen measure piece is one of the seven nontonally oriented sentimental songs by Ives since its tertian chords func tion nontraditionally. Also, set theoretical methods are useful in a single phrase where Ives oscillates between two simultaneities in the piano's inner voices (4-23 and 4-16) over an extended G bass pedal. The oscillation may represent the motion of the sea. There is, however, a single traditional cadential formula used(V-I in C major) to set the words "by love." Remembrance (1921) is yet another tribute to Ives's father.13 once again Ives associates unconditional love with purity of tonality (diatonicism). The song uses only Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 247 the tones of G major until the final two measures (mm.8- 9). The first seven bars present a transparent texture. Its accompanimental figuration is an arpeggio voiced in perfect fifths constituting either the tonic maj.7 or the subdominant maj.7 harmony in G major. The piano part is written on three staves and the melodic line of the up permost staff is the 'follower' in a canon led by the vo cal part during measures 1-7. (The soprano line of the piano answers the vocal line at the octave in the same metric position one measure away - on the downbeat.) The final two measures abruptly shift into an intensely chro matic realm of great textural density. It is still possi ble to analyze the concluding progression (three chords) in G major: natural VII dom.9(add +5,+11) O iii min.7 (over E bass) O V (with both a major and minor third, add 6). The inconclusive half cadence closing Remembrance could perhaps imply that the memory of a loved one need never be conclusive. The biting dissonance of the last two bars may represent the pain of loss. The Indians (1921) is another one of the seven non- tonal sentimental songs by Ives. He illustrates his sen sitivity toward the plight of native Americans in song. The Indians presents the theme of Innocence Lost in a specifically American environment, for Ives's words deal with the American who is, in William Carlos Williams's phrase, "an Indian without a home." The winding, wandering vocal line is basi cally primitive and pentatonic; yet it achieves an Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 248 extraordinary poignancy as it floats aimlessly across the bar-lines, contradicted rather than supported by the oscillating chromatic harmonies which are themselves consistently dislocated.14 The Indians was originally written for chamber or chestra and featured an Indian drum part. Later, Ives arranged the work for piano and voice. John Kirkpatrick relates how the Indian drum part managed to be retained in the latter arrangement: . . . we arranged for the boy who was turning pages for me to play that Indian drum part,while I played the rest of the orchestra part on the piano. So I went down to a shop where they had Indian artifacts and got a beautiful drum with a thunderbird on one side,and I took it up to Ives to show him. He was delighted,and ran his fingers over it,and he found out all the different things he could do.So he kept up a kind of improvisation on this drum for about two minutes,just all sorts of jazzy rhythms - though he would have called them ragtime rhythms.15 Two Little Flowers (1921) in D major, is a sentimen tal and uncomplicated parlor song about young Edith Ives and her playmate. The text is written by Ives and his wife, Harmony.15 The only element of interest in Two Lit tle Flowers is rhythmic. Its accompanimental rhythm fea tures a repeated seven-note group gesture (eighth values) in 4/4 which constitutes hemiola figuration. The vocal line contains three unexpected rhythmic displacements at the end of three different phrases. Brief jolts of syn copation within a primarily predictable vocal part set Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 249 the following, . .in green," "... passing fair," and "... ever rare." The words "ever rare" are also colored by augmented triads which are indeed a rarity in this work since only a single phrase in the piece employs whole-tone harmonies - "The violet is ever dear, the or chid , ever rare." At Parting (1889) is apparently Ives's earliest pub lished love song. The design is structured into three verses (ABA). The B section (verse 2) is an early exam ple of Ives's future handling of chromatic voice leading. It also presents radicalism of tonal plan due to the ton- icization of a remotely related tonality (#i and #1). The A sections are written in G major and the central verse (B) begins in G# minor and then mode shifts to G# major. The first draft of At Parting was presented to Horatio Parker during Ives's freshman year. Parker found great fault with the manner in which Ives handled his dissonant chromatic tones. Ives relates the story: . . . a song, At Parting - in it, some unresolved dissonances, one ending on a [high] Eb [in the] key [of] G major, and stops there unresolved. Par ker said, "There's no excuse for that - an Eb way up there and stopping, and the nearest D natural way down two octaves." - etc. I told Father what Parker said, and Father said, "Tell Parker that every dissonance doesn't have to resolve, if it doesn't happen to feel like it, any more than every horse should have to have its tail bobbed just be cause it's the prevailing fashion.17 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 250 Ives takes the opposite approach in the handling of dissonance in When Stars are in Quiet Skies (1891) - a very conservative G major strophic love song(ABA' design) which Ives later reworked into an exercise for Horatio Parker in 1897 (Du hist wie eine Blume, text by Heine).is The chromatic dissonance is restricted to traditionally resolving passing tones and neighboring tones in the vo cal and piano parts. Furthermore, all secondary dominants (ie., V7/IV, V7/vi) resolve as expected without delay. Section B merely tonicizes the dominant. The only chro matic surprise is a minor-major iv7 borrowed chord which occurs at the close of the first ending and functions as a preface to V7. Ives employs canonic imitation from start to finish in Canon (1894). The E major work is structured in two sections, A and A', separated by a two-measure dominant prolongation. Each section presents a canon at the octave led by the vocalist. (The 'leader' and 'follower' both begin on the downbeats of adjacent bars.) In Section A, the 'follower' is the bass line of the keyboard which sometimes presents slight variations on the leader's rhythm and articulation. Section A' begins with the same canonic melody of Section A, but closes with new melodic material. Also, the leading voice of the canon (vocal part) is doubled at the octave in the highest voice of the keyboard. As in Section A, the 'follower' appears in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 251 the left hand of the piano part. Two very brief breaks in canonic flow occur in Section A'. The second break occurs near the end of the song and allows for Ives to set up the only rhythmically displaced motivic imitation in the entire song - during its final two measures. The final subphrase of the vocalist's part ("as love's young dream") begins on the first beat in 3/4 and the piano an swers in imitation at the octave by starting on the third beat of the same measure, thus causing the two subphrases to overlap at the song's close. The symbolic significance behind Ives's choice of canonic treatment for the work may be found in the text: "Oh! the days are gone when beauty bright, When my dream of life, from morn till night was love." Is the protagon ist of the song chasing a dream from his past which he will never again attain? The imitative 'follower' voice never does catch up with the 'leader' in Canon. Sentimentality is achieved through musical quotation (psychological association) in the brief D major song, Waltz (1895). This wedding song "... emulates the mel odic style, accompaniment, and form of the parlor song Little Annie Rooney by Michael Nolan, and quotes snatches of both tune and text (including the title character's name)."is Like the other love songs mentioned above, Waltz is a homogeneous composition due to the consistent nature of its accompanimental patterns. The handling of the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 252 chromaticism is highly predictable. The vocal line con tains only three tones outside of D major. Two of these chromatic tones belong to secondary dominants which re solve as expected and the third pitch (A#) is a lower neighboring tone. Ives employs sequential technique twice in the course of Waltz. Both appearances are in the vocal melody. The first is a D major diatonic sequence, "Went the whirling throng" is transposed up by whole-step to "moved with wine and song." The second sequence is chro matic owing to the inclusion of a D# (V7/ii in D major), "Was as gay as" is transposed down by a minor third to "birds in May." Similar to Waltz, An Old Flame (1896) is yet another 'sweet' sounding love song grounded in a triple meter, in this case, 6/4. All harmonic activity is functional and predictable within the F major tonality until the penul timate measure where a harmonic jolt in the form of a tritone relation to the tonic (B major triad) serves as a preparation to the final perfect authentic cadence. The chromatic parallelism of B major O C7 within the F major framework makes for a quite striking cadential formula underscoring the closing words, "Love, Bless theeI Love." Dreams (1897), a strophic love song in Ab major, is structured in a continuous rounded binary design. The B section tonicizes the closely related tonality of Db ma jor. One feature which sets this work apart from the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 253 other harmonically predictable love songs is Ives's con scious attempt at an organic foundation through the use of motivic augmentation, inversion, imitation and sequen tial treatment. Two motives are important in Dreams. Their melodic shape is dissimilar, yet they both share the same rhythm. Motive #1 appears in the four-bar in strumental introduction in brief imitative counterpoint. It is a four-note motive with three repeated eighth notes starting on the weak half of a strong beat (either Beat 1 or 3 in 4/4), followed by an ascending minor third leap to the next strong beat. The introduction presents Motive #1 in the tenor voice of the keyboard. Then it is imi tated two beats later, at the minor third, in the bass voice. The imitation presents a slight alteration, inter- vallic expansion of the leap (perfect fourth). The vocal entrance in the very next bar begins with Motive #1. Then the melodic focus shifts to a four-note ascending scale motive with the same rhythm as Motive #1.1 shall refer to this as Motive #2. It first appears in the vocal line of Section A as Ab Bb C Db, then recurs chromatically al tered as A(natural) Bb C Db. At the end of Section A, Mo tive #2 recurs in rhythmic augmentation at a new transpo sitional level with slight intervallic expansion (minor third leap) - Eb F G Bb. Furthermore, the Bb is ornamented by an upper neighboring tone. Motive #2 returns in A' and in the first and second endings. The first ending is Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 254 reminiscent of the imitative introduction, but its accom- panimental texture is much more contrapuntal. The first ending presents Motive #2 in its original and inverted forms. The second ending is entirely based on Motive #2 in its original form followed by sequential treatment of it in the vocal line (Ab Bb C Db O Bb C Db Eb). God bless and keep thee (1897?), in Db major, is a one-part design with the second strophe written out and slightly altered (AA'). Two nonfunctional chromatic sur prises occur within a primarily predictable harmonic con text. The first occurrence is the enharmonic spelling of a minor iv7 borrowed chord (Gb min.7) as F# min.7 which progresses to A dom.7. A7 avoids resolution along the circle of fifths. Instead, it progresses in a chromati cally parallel manner to the dominant(Ab9,add 11). Ives's second brief chromatic excursion into a sharp-tonality also makes use of parallelism. After a half cadence in Db major(to Ab7), an abrupt chromatic third relation pre sents an entire measure of E maj.7 followed by another full measure of D maj.7. The piano part of the D maj.7 measure is an exact transposition of the earlier E maj.7 measure, although the vocal line presents constantly changing motives. The return to the tonic area is accom plished once again through chromatic parallelism; D maj.7 slides down by half-step back to Db major. This may be Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 255 enharmonically labelled as bll maj.7 O I. Ives chooses to set the most important words of the text with this Emaj.7 O Dmaj.7 chromatic interpolation, "God bless and keep thee." No More (1897) is comparatively long for an Ives love song (61 bars). The reason for its length is due to its composite ternary design - rarely seen in Ives's songs. The A material is in D major (4/4) and when it returns as A' it is greatly truncated. (Some might even label it a coda based on material from Section A.) The B material could stand alone as an independent work in the area of A major (3/8). Sections A and B may be divided into subsections based on recurring melodic phrases.(A is aba'b' and B is aba. The central subsection (b) of the B section is a chromatic progression of secondary domi nants predictably resolving along the circle of fifths: V7/vi O vi, V7/ii O ii, V9/V O V. This is a great har monic contrast to its surrounding diatonic subsections (a). Omens and Oracles (1900) in C major, is Ives's ear liest truly expressive love song. His love songs prior to 1900 avoid the technique of text painting as an integral compositional component. The oscillating piano figuration (Example 39.0) and the prolonged lack of tritone resolu tion (B and F in G7) conjure up images of an uneasy man plagued by phantom voices telling him not to trust his Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 256 beloved Amara. When the V7 finally does resolve on the second page of the song, the chord to which G7 resolves is itself unstable - a dominant seventh harmony on I. A n d a n t e m o d e r a t o r r fte i i a h f r » Ph an ' m * ~ J» U = W MS O f TH E FU - r— t— I-------- — ~ - 3 - " 1 T u n e . / f c = 1 — ■ - Tup / --- » /'-"N ✓ -- % X _ I h t t i l. 1 y - -■ y / — - - - ^ — - — 2 l . 1 . " 1 1 yw ■ Example 39.0. Ives, "Omens and Oracles," (Introduction) From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1953, Peer International Corporation. Copyright renewed. Reprinted by Permission. An eight-bar relief from the tension-filled oscil lations of the keyboard appears when the night is over and the phantom voices fade away (Ex.39.1). Although this brief section is the most chromatic part of the work, the man's relief is aptly text painted through less agitated rhythmic activity and the resolution of harmonic tritones which were previously hard to come by: V7/IV-IV in mm.27- 28, V7/bill-bill in mm.31-32, V7/III-III in mm.33-34. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 257 V ivace ANIMANbO MOLTO i n Now THE DARK BREAKS,’ « « / THE LARK WAKES} N o u U THE V O I-C C S F L E E T A -lV A S , w CRESC. ' y< i--ir r f n j j i ' ' ^ iHl g. I 31 Now THE BREEZE A - BOUT THE B lO S -S O M } NouJ THE R lP -F lE IN THE R E E D ; > =* I_ll L = A JL Example 39.1. Ives, "Omens and Oracles," (B section) From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1953, Peer International Corporation. Copyright renewed. Reprinted by Permission. There is a Lane (1902) is yet another 'sweet' sound ing love song in waltz rhythm (3/4). All twenty bars of the work remain solidly fixed in Bb major. The entire work is a double period of parallel construction ending with an imperfect authentic cadence. The double period is structured in four phrases creating an a b a ' b ' design. Fourteen of the twenty bars in the song employ tonic-dom inant (low perfect fifth) pedal technique and most of the work is highly conservative with the exception of a sin gle polychordal measure. Cross relation (G-sharp against Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 258 G-natural) appears where a C major triad in the bass voices of the piano occurs beneath an unresolved E7 in the uppermost keyboard voices. The vocal line plays no role in the brief contrast of radicalism. Harpalus (1902) is the only love song featuring chords structured in fourths (R.H. of the piano) and fifths (L.H.) as in Example 40.0: -O j. HE SM) UN - HAP - PlEST UN - & £& SUNNSf W ould • THE Example 40.0. Ives, "Harpalus," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. The opening four measures and final six measures feature such harmonies. Between these boundaries, chords which Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 259 possess full tertian structuring and functional resolu tions do, however, exist. Ives subtitles the work "An Ancient Pastoral" and thus, he emphasizes two of the in tervals considered most pure and consonant in the ancient music of Western civilization. Harpalus is Ives's chrono logically last published love song. It is interesting to notice that Ives avoided composing in this type of innoc uous genre after 1902. Apparently he had other less amo rous sentimental longings post-1902 which he wished to capture in song. It is possible that the older Ives be came, the more he reflected upon the images of his boy hood - fond memories which he felt compelled to place upon a musical pedestal. Many of Ives's sentimental songs pay homage to either a time of day, a month, or a season. His two earliest songs within this subcategory describe a period of dark ness during the month of May. A Night Song (1895) in Eb major, begins "The young May moon is beaming."From "Night of Frost in May" (1899) in Bb major, also describes a drowsy world quietly pulsating with "... the low throb of expectancy." The latter song is actually a readapta tion from an exercise originally composed for Horatio Parker entitled Ein Ton (Cornelius, English translation by Laubach).20 Ives seems to associate periods of darkness with flatted tonalities. From "Night of Frost in May" remains Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 260 in Bb major throughout its A A' design because the entire text describes a sleepy time when "... white mother muteness pressed on leaf and herb." However, in A Night Song the tonic Eb major tonality is suddenly thrust into the sharp tonality of B major precisely on "bright" dur ing the phrase, "Then awake! The heav'ns look bright." The B section of the sectional rounded binary design(ABA) describes "All the ways to lengthen the days" and toni cizes remotely related B major(a chromatic third relation to the tonic) until the return to Section A (Eb major) where the text relates more images of the drowsy world at night. The next two chronologically ordered sentimental songs about a time are conventional works which pay trib ute to a season. Ives felt that Spring Song (1904) and Autumn (1908) were retrogressions in his compositional evolution due to their conservative mode of e x p r e s s i o n .21 It is possible that Ives believed these tonal songs to be inferior works because they both rely on the literal rep etition and transposition of motives (and entire phrases) as a means of generating the vocal melody. Autumn also relies on such motivic repetition to generate its piano accompaniment. in Spring Song (F major) a motivic rhyming effect is created when the final motive of Section A ("and called") reappears transposed down a perfect fourth at the end of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 261 the song ("and wait"). In addition, the first two bars of the vocal melody in Section B are transposed up a third to generate the next two bars. The song does, however, present a few surprises. First, Ives resolves some sec ondary dominant functions deceptively. And second, the work ends inconclusively by abruptly cadencing in the subdominant tonality of Bb major via, V O I dom.7 (or V7/IV) O IV. The text suggests a lack of conclusiveness because it tells the story of a man who calls out repeat edly to a woman in the woods who never answers ("I only heard her not, and wait, and wait"). Autumn, in Db major, generates its vocal melody by either repeating or transposing a two-measure phrase that is first seen setting the words, "Her work is done, her fields bare." The next two bars transpose the melodic phrase up a perfect fourth (t5). Later the phrase recurs transposed at the major seventh (tn ) with slight altera tions at its tail end ("thro' Fall's bright glow"). The final appearance of the phrase occurs at the (t0) level in Db major in a slightly altered form due to the omission of two pitches from its first presentation. In 1920, Charles Ives adapted, for voice and piano, a set of three stylistically sophisticated songs repre senting the months of August, September, and December. Actually, December was originally composed between August Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 262 1913 and February 1914 . . for unison chorus, piccolo, 2 clarinets, 2 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, and basses, to the Rossetti translation of a text by Folgore di San G e m i n i a n o ."22 The three month songs may be consid ered, in general, to be atonal works. (The vocal lines of September and December present briefly implied tonal cen ters amidst a sea of atonality.) Avoidance of tonal cen ter is a rarity in Ives's sentimental songs and the styl istic means by which atonality appears is a common fea ture in the harmonic language of all three. Case in point, August, September, and December all utilize minor and major triads nonfunctionally and fre quently in parallel motion. December, in particular, pre sents parallel triads in the right and left hand parts in contrary motion. The right hand ascends while the left hand descends. The three works also employ polychords, cluster harmonies as a text painting device, and nonter tian sets which are best classified using set theoretical methods. Occasionally, the nontertian sets either move in an oscillating or parallel motion. In short, the har monic language is eclectic in its variety and unpredicta bility. Unpredictability is also inherent in other musical parameters of Ives's month songs. Lack of meter and the irregular placement of infrequent barlines for the sake of occasional downbeat stress provide a sense of freedom Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 263 for all three songs. In addition, the through-composed designs of August, September, and December are as free as their metric parameters. Despite all of the musical simi larities mentioned above, each of the three month songs possess unique features. August sings the praises of lovely valleys, moun tains, and horseback riding. The mountain ranges are ex pressed through Ives's use of tertian structured poly chords in parallel motion, voiced with great spatial sep aration: V£X F nioaR HBOSS BVTOMft U K 51 Example 41.0. Ives, "August," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1954, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 264 Example 41.0 above, shows the voicing of the highest and lowest piano registers against one another upon the word "mountainous." Brief use of the whole-tone scale (C# B A F) appears shortly thereafter in the voice (also Example 41.0) upon the word "seawind." (No other whole- tone material appears in the song until this brief ref erence to water and wind.) The piano answers in the next system with its own whole-tone structures patterned into a hemiola figuration of three repeating eighth note val ues. The right hand set is D E G# A# or 4-25 (0268) over whole-tone set C D G# or 3-8 (026) in the left hand. That is the extent of the whole-tone material in August. For further text painting purposes,riding rhythms reminiscent of Charlie Rutlage occur when the text describes "a good beast" scouring miles and ridges.Ives employs a repeating rhythmic pattern of an eighth followed by two sixteenths fashioned with staccato articulation. September is a song describing motion: ie., hounds, travellers, but primarily birds in flight. The work em ploys extensive use of whole-tone hexachordal combinator- iality. This might suggest that Ives perceives some simi larity between birds soaring through the air (wind) and earthbound creatures riding on water. First, the work opens with the vocal line and piano part almost exclu sively grounded in what shall be referred to as whole- tone scale #1 (C D E F# G# A#). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 265 a . s T T \ O. ^/hUtJTB A H b in SlPTIM»CR,fAtteH5, AiM S,!HtfUN5 SPAtUVI-HAVlHS^eUS Bl»pS THAT uuAC "mA P « S T0 DA AS PAST AS MSlSLS I ^— X' 1 * USE &6TH PttALS TNUUMBI/T I &AM£ y IN F w C « S j A W ^HOUNDS 'W lT ^ E L L S ; \ B Example 42.0. Ives, "September," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Example 42.0 above, shows the ascending and descending harplike accompanimental figuration given to the pianist. Notice that the only pitches outside of whole-tone scale #1 are either at the extreme top (G,A) or bottom (C#,D#) of the pattern. Then in the second system (Ex.42.0) Ives completes the total chromatic by composing similar mea sures grounded in whole-tone scale #2 (C# D# F G A B). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 266 After the first completion of the total chromatic, the vocal line itself presents descending chromatic scale motives sung against continuing whole-tone material in the accompaniment. Furthermore, one brief tonal impli cation (F minor vocal melody) occurs near the end of the song against the unceasing flow of whole-tone arpeggios in the piano. December is the most stylistically stable month song due to the extensive repeated note (quasi chanting-tone) melodic lines in the vocal part (Example 43.0): ALLEGRO C O N SPlRlTO w i » « r ml M M u f t e a u aiK e c n u r u w lA S T ,ftR DECIMtER,HOUSES ON THE P L A IN .M iU N D P U C R S T# LIVE IN .L 0 6 S ,, J _ (R O U W IS ANA IN A HALF jp o K E N WAN) . ‘ ■*3 . » M . i A A I .-e-fo-U- 1 = 9 E 3 —I . *z. H E A P 'S A tO U N T A lN HIM * , CARPETS STRAWS A1ARCAT0 SEMPRi £ O n AND NEWEST &AMES TO TRSjTURCHSS tlT jA H O & rrS PROAAMAU TO MAN, SOUR HOST A DRUNKARD AND. Example 43.0. Ives, "December," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 267 December does not suggest motion (as in September), but instead, suggests warm and secure feelings about one's home, food to be cooked, wine to be drunk, and a generous drunkard host. The accompaniment of December avoids tonal implication, however, the vocal line pre sents two suggestions of the Lydian mode. Example 43.0 shows a possible F major vocal melody until the interpo lation of three consecutive B-naturals in the second system ("Your host"). After the F Lydian effect, the vo cal line seems to imply Eb major - until the inclusion of a single A-natural. The rest of the vocal melody in De cember avoids tonal or modal centering with the exception of one measure near the end of the song briefly implying F Lydian one last time. Evening (1921) is Ives's chronologically last pub lished time-oriented sentimental song. Ives originally intended that the work be #1 in 114 Songs, but later changed his mind and gave the place of special honor to Majority.23 Evening was then shifted to the #2 position in 114 Songs. The text is taken from Milton's Paradise Lost. The evening is seen as a time representing the loss of innocence. In the last section of the song the silence of evening is soon broken by the "amorous descant" of the nightingale and "Silence is pleased." It appears that Paradise is recaptured at the close of the song and thus, hope for the world is regained. If hope is truly the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 268 point of the song, then it is not surprising that Ives nearly put it first in his book of 114 Songs. Evening is a sometimes tonally ambiguous, through- composed work structured in three possible divisions. The first section begins in F melodic minor as the evening arrives, and then obscures tonality at the mention of "Twilight gray." Then Ives writes augmented triad poly chords and a whole-tone cluster in the piano part. The vocalist sings a whole-tone scale during the final bar of the first section. The second section is only four bars and paints a picture of the static nature of silence through ostinato figuration. The vocal line of the second ("Silence")section is atonal and supported by an ostinato pattern outlining the following progression: E min.ll O Eb maj.7 O G min.ll. The third and final section in E major focuses on the positive effect of the nightingale. The E major 'birdsong' in the vocal line is imitated in a high register of the keyboard and supported by a low reg ister, metrically regular E augmented ostinato gesture of three quarter note values in 3/4. The metric regularity subsides in the final three measures of the song when the new meter signature(4/4) appears, but the same three-beat ostinato figure continues and produces a hemiola effect. The fourth type of sentimental song in Ives's reper toire describes a special place which one holds dear in his memory. Ives wrote three such (published) songs prior Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 269 to 1900: A Song - for Anything (1892), There is a Cer tain Garden (1893), and My Native Land (1897). The first work, in C major, avoids harmonic or rhythmic surprises. Ives himself condemned A Song - for Anything in a "Note" written at the bottom of the score, which includes his belief that "... inferior music is inclined to follow inferior words and vice-versa. ..." Later in life, Ives parodied this song in his satirical song, On the Counter (1920) which targets "... the inability of song writers in 1920 to transcend 'the same old chords, the same old time,the same old sentimental sound'in their new songs."24 A Song - for Anything includes one verse describing an emotional attachment to Yale - a school which Ives had not yet attended in 1892. The song is a double period ending in a perfect authentic cadence. There are two phrases in both the antecedent and consequent. All four (4-bar) phrases comprising the work have parallel rhyth mic construction and every secondary dominant resolves as expected. Small wonder Ives had little regard for the work. There is a Certain Garden (1893) is another conser vative song in C major.The work sings of a special flower garden in which the protagonist loved his first love and "Where aye - young birds their matins sing and never ill wind blows." The most comparatively radical harmonic feature occurs for the purpose of representing the words, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 270 ". . . ill wind blows." At that point appears the only unresolved secondary dominant in There is a Certain Gar den. In fact, the effect is a chromatic third relation V7/IV(C7) C> V7/vi(E7) O vi. The only remaining unique harmonic feature appears several phrases later where an augmented triad (1+) is prominently sustained for four beats on the words "I say." Augmented harmonies appear in Ives's songs written prior to 1900, however, rarely do these early songs provide augmented chords with such sus tained prominence. Ives did not care much for the Eb major song, My Native Land (1897). In the margins of the manuscript he writes: This song is no good - written as encore for Ellis Giles, who sang it in a concert at the Waldorf. An organist, in NY then, came up after the concert, shook hands & said I had the gift of good melody, harmony & workman ship. This man later was a Prof of Music (I think at Columbia). His remark showed what a soft-headed, restricted condition music was in, in NY at this time. . . .25 Although Ives had a feeling of adversity for My Na tive Land, compared to the last two songs under discus sion, the work provides evidence of his evolution toward radicalism. For example, early use of polychords may be observed near the end of the song (D7 over the Ab quintal chord, Ab Eb Bb). Additionally, the work misleads the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 271 listener with two unresolved secondary dominant functions upon the words, "Ah! 'tis a dream." C# half dim.7 avoids resolution to the leading tone. Shortly thereafter, a V7/V progresses directly to the tonic upon the return of the melody from m.1 (Section A'). The vocal melody is less advanced than the piano part due to its symmetrical and repetitive phrases of parallel construction. The mel odic design of My Native Land is A A' and the accompani ment provides the only interesting features in A'. Thus, it is probable that the vocal part of My Native Land was Ives's greatest source of disappointment. Walking (1900-02) describes the sights and sounds of a fondly remembered place during a stroll through the town. Like most other songs of sentiment, there is a strong tonal center (frequently G Lydian here), due to an emphasis on many C-sharps. Some of the sights and sounds mentioned by the observer include the church bells rung on an October morning, the hills above a bridge, autumn colors, and a roadhouse dance. The motion of a person walking is represented in the piano by chordal passages which oscillate back and forth and metrically irregular ostinatos (hemiola). Also, extra propulsion forward is provided through the effect of accenting the weak second and fourth beats within the bar. Only once does the ob server stop walking to briefly watch a funeral service, and here the tempo slows. Then the observer's attention Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 272 is diverted down the road as he walks toward a dance ex pressed through Ives's use of ragtime rhythms. In Walking, the introduction (Example 44.0) is so tonally ambiguous that no one has a clue as to the tonal center of the work until the last chord of m.8 (G maj.7 voiced as a perfect fifth and a perfect fourth). And still nothing is yet stabilized. The 'moment of truth' occurs when the tonal center is finally established dur ing the perfect authentic cadence in mm.11-12 near the end of the introduction. iff lh. Example 44.0. Ives, "Walking" (Introduction) From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1939 by Arrow Music Press, Inc. Copyright Assigned 1957 to Associated Music Publishers,Inc. Reprinted by Permission of Associated Music Publishers,Inc. (BMI). The introduction may be divided into three possible subsections. The first subsection (mm.1-3) uses (026) trichords voiced in such a way as to produce parallel Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 273 oscillating tritones in the two highest voices. The oscillations occur over a C pedal which adds to the tonal ambiguity since the true tonal center will ultimately be G. The second subsection of the introduction (mm.4-8) makes use of bimodality because the left hand plays an ostinato in B minor while the right hand oscillates back and forth with two chords which fit the B major mode (an A# min.7 with an added eleventh and a B quintal chord). The third and final subsection of the introduction (mm.9- 14) is entirely in the true tonal center of the song. It presents major-seventh and minor-seventh chords voiced in fourths and fifths which move in parallel motion. Once the perfect authentic cadence(m.12) occurs, the bass line descends from G down to the Db of m.14. This Db at the end of the introduction is an important portent of the future sections, since the note C# (enharmonically Db) will fre quently appear and create a G Lydian effect. The intro duction is noticeably longer than most of Ives's earlier songs. It serves to adequately 'set the stage' and pace of the observer's footsteps. Walking is structured as a unique type of ternary design. It is unique in the sense that all three parts use the same tonal center of G. Thus, the overall struc ture may be thought of as A A' (interpolated instrumental interlude) and A. Ives may have felt that there was no need for a change of tonal center in the song due to his Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 274 frequent use of various synthetic scales and both the G major and G Lydian modes. The three final measures of the A section use a prolonged dominant seventh substitution harmony built on the flatted supertonic (Ab7) which then resolves downward by half-step into the start of the A' section (m.29) in G Lydian. (See Example 44.1 below.) _ --- ---------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ---m « . ------------- ,i .... J - , | , | q ' 1 i, i ~J 7 T 7 ^ = i jTT> U - l i n m 1 Example 44.1. Ives, "Walking," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1939 by Arrow Music Press, Inc. Copyright Assigned 1957 to Associated Music Publishers, Inc. Reprinted by Permission of Associated Music Publishers, Inc. (BMI). The end of the second structural section (Example 44.2) represents the funeral service mentioned above. Then measures 52-62 (also Example 44.2) give the pianist a chance to shine while the vocalist rests. This instru mental interlude uses ragtime rhythms to represent a roadhouse dance. G Lydian is once again emphasized by the G-C# quarter note ostinato. The ragtime measures are fol lowed by the retransition to A section material which corresponds to the third subsection of the introduction. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 275 ^ ' J f T H I V A lt W iA Example 44.2. Ives, "Walking," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1939 by Arrow Music Press, Inc. Copyright Assigned 1957 to Associated Music Publishers,Inc. Reprinted by Permission of Associated Music Publishers,Inc. (BMI). The bass (G C#) ostinato from the roadhouse dance returns later in the final three measures of the coda. The return allows the bass to cadence on C# at the song's ending, while the vocal part and the treble keyboard voices ca dence on a D minor7. The central (A') section serves as a contrast to the parallel fourths and fifths of the first section (A) through its use of parallel thirds and sixths over a G Lydian ostinato figure built in fifths and fourths. For added interest, the ostinato figure which starts in m.29 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 276 creates a hemiola effect since its duration is only three beats in 4/4 time. Finally, the coda is especially nota ble for its melisma of five notes on the word "walk." The melisma serves as a descriptive device depicting the act of walking through its oscillating melodic motion(DEDED). Although the designs of I travelled among unknown men (1901), Ilmenau - Over All the Treetops (1902), and Pictures (1906?) are all quite different, the three songs appear to be derived from the same compositional strat egy. That is to say, that Ives progresses from extreme diatonicism and pattern repetition to extreme chromati cism and tonal wandering, and finally returns to predict able diatonicism and homogeneity in the final section. The text appears to have nothing to do with the choice for either chromatic excursions or stretches of diatoni cism. A song of sentiment about England, I travelled among unknown men, originated as a conservative 1896 Lieder 'study' for Horatio Parker entitled Fruhlingslied, (text by Heine).26 I travelled among unknown men is structured in a traditional continuous rounded binary design (ABA'). The A and A' sections are extremely diatonic to C major, employ an extensive tonic bass pedal, and a repetitive two-beat chordal pattern in the piano part. However, Sec tion B produces an effect of wandering chromaticism. The B section borrows a harmony from the parallel C minor Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 277 mode (bill maj.7) upon which it starts and finishes a phrase. Within that same phrase, Ives repeats a dissonant polychord producing cross relation between F-sharp and F-natural (D7 over D minor). Section B also contains two unresolved dominant seventh functions (V9 of C and vii dim.7 of F). Ilmenau - Over All the Treetops tenderly describes the peace to be found at a place in the forest beyond the treetops. The E major through-composed vocal melody is supported by one of Ives's most simple, repetitive, and diatonic accompaniments in its first section. A repeated two-chord pattern (I-IV maj.7) occurs in nine consecutive measures of 3/4. This is followed by five very chromatic measures utilizing whole-tone harmonies (an augmented triad and a dom.7 with a b5), a borrowed minor subdomi nant, a pre-tonic augmented-sixth chord avoiding resolu tion to the tonic, and finally a V9/V C> V7 leading back to extreme E major diatonicism. The most chromatic pro gression in Ilmenau's central measures might be inter preted in E major as 1+ £> IV maj.7 C> iv O nat.II dom.7 (b5) [spelled like a French-sixth, F A B D#] O nat.II dom.7 [spelled like a German-sixth, F A C D#] O iv. Pictures is a set of four independent songs linked together in one composite design. The first and fourth scenes are composed in a very diatonic Eb major mode with Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 278 a repetitive (9/8) arpeggiated accompaniment. Picture #1 presents the image of a cornfield in a gentle wind. The vocal melody is simple (stepwise) and folklike. Picture #4 presents night imagery of a pond with leaves and a sleeping rose. The vocal melody of Picture #4 begins in a manner similar to Picture #1, but then new material un folds. The chromaticism in Pictures begins with a chro matic third relation shift to the b i l l tonality (Gb major) in Picture #2. This second scene describes a stormy, dark and fearsome sea represented by an agitated accompaniment of arpeggiated sixteenth notes.The end of the sea picture becomes increasingly tonally ambiguous as it transitions into the only harmonically unstable section of the work - Picture #3. Two more third relations produce a striking effect in a scene which describes a windy pine forest in which "The moor is a king's robe stained with blood." Picture #3 begins with a progression from a C major triad to an E major triad, then continues with nonfunctional tertian harmonies until its next third relation, F minor to Db major. The retransition back to Eb major (Picture #4) is accomplished via two types of dominant harmonies (Bb minor C> Bb+ O Eb major). Down East (1919) and Old Home Day (1920) utilize similar structural and technical elements. In addition, both songs express a love and fond remembrance of one's homeland. Down East sings of a village by the sea with Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 279 an old red farmhouse. Old Home Day is a more spirited "march time" song describing the most delightful events and memorable places from one's old home town: marching band and parading events, the opera house, and the little red school house. Each work presents an extensive atonal, polyphonic, and metrically irregular introductory section performed by both the piano and voice. This is followed in each piece by a tonally oriented, homophonic 'song proper.' The 'song proper' of Down East is a folklike 6/8 melody alternating between F major and minor which includes phrases from Lowell Mason's hymn "Nearer, my God, to Thee" (Bethany). The quote appears near the end of the song, "... revealing it as the nostalgic, perva sive source of the entire composition."27 The song proper follows in an A A' A'' design because the tonal center remains in F throughout the song. A' is a written out rhythmic variation of the melody of Section A. Section A'' presents the Bethany quote in F major followed by the final phrase of the song which contains new material. An instrumental interlude in F natural minor connects sec tions A and A' . The principal section of Old Home Day is in a stro- phic verse and chorus design. It gives the melodic and rhythmic impression of a popular Irish march in 4/4. The chorus makes reference to stepping "along to the tune of an Irish song." The verse is essentially in D minor, but Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 280 there is also an implication of bimodality through con sistent use of F-naturals in the vocal melody against F- sharps in the left hand of the piano. The chorus is in G major and includes an obligato instrumental part (ad lib) for "fife, violin or flute, only with 2nd verse." Like Down East, Old Home Day also quotes well-known tunes in its final section. The obligato part presents several familiar folk melodies, such as "Garry Owen" and "Arkan sas Traveler," which are altered chromatically and rhyth mically from their traditional versions. The introduction of Down East (Example 45.0) avoids a clear tonic, yet it implies two tonalities simultane ously in measures 4-7. The polytonal effect occurs in the two most prominent lines of the contrapuntal texture, the vocal melody (F# minor with added C-natural upper- neighboring tones) and the bass line (F tonal center).The bass line oscillates between the leading tone and tonic pitches of F major and minor. This activity points toward the F major tonality which is later established in the 6/8 folk song (Ex. 45.0, mm.8-10). The inner voices of the keyboard fill in the polyphonic texture with descend ing chromatic scales to further obscure the establishment of a clear tonal center. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 9 gftt* j Come w it h S t r a in s — o p j m ^ h o o O , Come w ith tu n e s we Sang- in Sm m l mM Mi y N § P jp p a tiTT LE f a s t e r , bu t „ iu , w it h a s io u re v E N r h s t h m % AND WITH SONGS FROM MOTHER'S HEART; V/aH ^ _ O OU IN E A S T . IN A VILLAG E BS THE 1 Example 45.0. Ives, "Down East," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1958, Peer International Corporation, Reprinted by Permission. Set theoretical methods are most useful at the be ginning (mm. 1-3) and the very end (m.7) of the introduc tion. In mm.1-2 Ives states a 4-25 (0268) on two differ ent levels (Bb D E G#) Q (C# F G B). The first phrase Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 282 cadences at the fermata(m.3) on a 5-26(02458).The chordal texture of mm.1-3 is then contrasted by the polyphony of mm.4-7. The contrapuntal strands eventually converge into a 6-34 hexachord at the close of the introduction. Similar to Down East, the introduction of Old Home Day (Example 46.0) is comprised of an arpeggiated chordal section followed by one of a contrapuntal texture (mm.5- 6). Measures 2-4 present a thrice repeated vocal motive supported by (6-35) whole-tone arpeggios (C# D# F G A B). Only the bass note(G#) and the final note of the repeated vocal motive (F#) lie outside of the whole-tone harmony during mm.2-4.The whole-tone activity of the introduction is a portent of the 6-35 whole-tone clusters which appear at the end of the chorus. The clusters are used to imi tate percussively the drums of a marching band. Together, the two occurrences of set 6-35 complete the total chro matic . The polyphonic portion of Old Home Day's introduc tion (Ex.46.0) displays tertian structured polychords. The harmonies are nonfunctional until m.6, when the fol lowing polychordal progression implies a tonality of D (minor/major): C min. _ G sus4 _ F+(+ll) _ C# dom.7 A maj. D maj. C# maj. (V) (I) (VII) (VII7) Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Example 46.0. Ives, "Old Home Day," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1958, Peer International Corporation, Reprinted by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction 284 In the above polychordal progression, observe how the lower chords of the progression first create an au thentic cadence in D and then move toward a point of rest on V7 of the mediant. Ultimately, all voices converge into a C# dom.7 at the fermata. In the next bar, a reso lution to a D augmented harmony (1+) occurs in the lower voices of the piano, however, the upper voices simultane ously introduce the upcoming vocalist's motive in C minor (mm.7-8, Ex.46.0). When the vocalist begins the march song in m.9, all voices finally coalesce around the tonal center of D, however, there is a bimodal effect produced by F-naturals in the upper voices against F-sharps in the lower voices. Grantchester (1920) is one of Ives's seven sentimen tal songs which avoid any clear establishment of a tonal center. The through-composed work is meterless, but pre sents occasional barlines to delineate the appearance of new material or to indicate metric stress. The piano part avoids modal or tonal centers, but the voice briefly ex hibits several stepwise fragments from various modes and scales without ever establishing any tonal center. For example, the first phrase of the vocal part begins with an ascending E Locrian mode fragment(E to Bb)and promptly descends through an E half-diminished scale(Bb to E). The second vocal phrase ascends stepwise by D Mixolydian mode (D to C) and then continues with an extensive descending Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 285 chromatic motion in preparation for a quotation (in the piano) from Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Example 47.0): l£ C la s s ic s u /eit nit— PtiP-IHS- THRMEH THE & R K N 1 Gl im p s e a n a i- a o's r e e d s head o r m a r s P C D . v v * T Ilf * ("L'APRtS-Mioi d'un Faune." Clause te B iW iO . Bs courixSsmnd 5 ; « c / a C X 5 t m r i - ZATlON OF THE PUBLISHER : JEAN JoBERT, PaR/S, 4 4 RUE t>J COuSEE. Example 47.0. Ives, "Grantchester," (Debussy Quote) From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1956, Peer International Corporation, Reprinted by Permission. The vocal line is almost entirely composed of ascend ing and descending chromatic scales during the Debussy quote in the accompaniment. The quote is quite purpose fully utilized in Grantchester because its text describes Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 286 a British town in which one can truly appreciate nature. After the borrowed material ends, the final section of the work begins with one phrase of spoken text ( "But these are things I do not know"), which is followed by a descending C major scale and a repeated chanting-tone on C. The piano accompaniment avoids the tonicization of C major by employing chromatic scale fragments in the bass line. The remainder of the vocal part relies on ascend ing and descending whole-tone scales. This static ending in the vocal part is matched by an equally static accom- panimental three-note hemiola pattern in the inner voices of the piano (Example 47.1): i f t — l ^ f r f i n t t h r a f 4 = $ — q C ambridge sk it ^ h j ------ — J— -— — -------- — S , A N P ,F u o u ;E R LUUE& A ..— 4 — - 4 a S leeps M a s s , he a r th e cml l 1 ' - - j t j - - - 4 --------- i A P S E 0 tK F MilIRS P - jiJ — P i n . i i r p j i s s , JE h ft 3 f ] ifc, . J i T S -Eg— ■^■bi__ % I t T t — y f t _ £ b b F ------ J - 1 0 C E N - TOR, - t \ ---------- 1 -^ - •4r r -J*-#5 -# ■ ’ * V 1 If J * V y IIS 8LEN0 A N & SlllR Id &RAM T-CHB-TER, W ....... ----------- — #c Hr ^ O EiftE S C A 4-ii. ftlTAftD M i • t J-b J = T H r =*> P b i m m .ly rt— h ft —tip T f % Of F Example 47.1. "Grantchester," (Coda), Copyright 1956, Peer International Corp. Reprinted by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 287 West London (1921) is derived from Ives's uncompleted Matthew Arnold Overture (1912) for chorus and orchestra.28 The song is a setting of Arnold's sonnet about a London tramp's daughter who, at her father's request, refuses to take alms from the rich, but only begs from the common laborers - "sharers in a common human fate." The sonnet ends with the optimistic implication that the girl's for titude "... points to a better time than ours." The final phrase of the F major (and D minor) song abruptly shifts into F# major (instrumental coda) and quotes the first few notes from Lowell Mason's hymn, Cleansing Foun tain. This hymn is also prominently featured in the com mon man song, General William Booth Enters Into Heaven. Cleansing Fountain refers to a fountain of Christ's sac rificial blood which will purify a sinner. Several quoted fragments from the hymn appear in F major. Perhaps the upward tonal shift to F# major at the close of the song represents the concept of one's spiritual Ascension 'to a better place than ours.' Resolution (1921) is a brief eight-bar song which points out that sentimental places are marked by Faith. The vocal line is a serene melody, purely diatonic in C major with the exception of a single Bb. The Bb takes part in a functional secondary dominant resolution of V7/bVll (F7) C> bVII (Bbmaj.). In contrast, the piano Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 288 accompaniment presents much chromatic activity. Borrowed harmonies from C harmonic minor such as C minor major7 occur at the mention in the text of "sentimental places." The work closes on a subdominant major7 chord which is an interesting feature, especially when one notices that the only unresolved dominant seventh chord in the song is a V7/IV in second inversion(m.3). Perhaps the delayed reso lution has a symbolic significance which may be found in the closing line of the text, "Who can tell where Truth may appear, to guide the journey!" Perhaps Ives implies that if one allows Truth to be one's guide in life, then Resolution will eventually be the reward. The fifth and final subcategory of Ives's sentimen tal songs pays homage to either tangible objects like a circus band or an opera house, or to intangible things such as the familiar sound of an old lullaby or bells chiming. With the exception of one work, The Things Our Fathers Loved, all of these songs possess a key signature reflecting the principal tonality. The Things Our Fathers Loved (1917) does emphasize a tonal center of F major, yet it avoids the use of key signature. The Circus Band (1894) describes "the grand and glorious noise" of a town band marching down Main Street. Ives's use of clusters appears to imitate the percussive effect of the drums in the circus band. At the start of the 6/8 meter change, the pianist forcefully pounds out Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 289 several 5-8 pentachord (E F# G Ab Bb) clusters (R.H.) over low register augmented fifths beneath the bass staff (Ab, E). Ives also imitates the thundering roll effect on the bass drum with a low register tremolo on the dominant octave (C). Also, successive diminished seventh chords in parallel motion(ascending and descending) form the ba sis of the last instrumental interlude. Such coloristic successions are common in late nineteenth century popular band music and barbershop quartet harmonizations. Songs My Mother Taught Me (1895) is written in the style of a poignant Eb major lullaby which a mother might sing to her child. The triple meter rhythmic pattern in the highest keyboard voice (a one-bar ostinato gesture) is quite repetitive, however, the monotony is broken when the pattern is transposed to various pitch levels. Ives also breaks the metric rigidity of the 3/4 by placing a single 2/4 bar at two points in the song. The first 2/4 measure marks the conclusion of the A section of the rounded continuous binary design. This 2/4 bar presents an Italian-sixth chord(Eb G C#)which serves as a harmonic pivot resolving to the new tonic in Section B (G major). Section B is more chromatic and dissonant, and for good reason. The images of tears flowing from the moth er's eyes are harmonically represented as dissonant cross relations (ie., A# against A) and as several diminished chords. The end of Section B cadences on a major triad Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 290 constructed on a leading tone root (F#). Then a fermata over an eighth rest separates Sections B and A'. The re turn to Eb major (Section A') is direct, in contrast to the earlier chromatic modulation. The chromatic third re lation of F# major to Eb major creates a striking effect. A Scotch Lullaby (1896) focuses on the warmth of a mother who protects her child while it slumbers. This conservative song was written during Ives's years at Yale university and may have been composed under the supervi sion of his professor, Horatio Parker. Signs of Ives's eclecticism are not yet observable in the work. However, Ives had some affinity for this early work because “A Scotch Lullaby was for several years his only printed song (except for his McKinley campaign song, William Will). "29 The design of A Scotch Lullaby is very traditional in terms of Victorian parlour music. For example, the phrase structure is perfectly balanced and uses parallel construction. The two-measure prelude is balanced by the two-measure instrumental postlude. The A section uses a phrase structure of 2+2 followed by 2+2. Parallel con struction begins at m.7 (Example 48.0). The A' section also employs parallel phrase construction. Such phrase patterning occurs during the parallel recurrence of the words, "Sleep! Sleep!, Sleep!." The A section presents a phrase group connected by several half cadences (mm.2,4, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 291 6,8,), however, Section A' connects its internal phrases in much more interesting ways. In addition to imperfect authentic cadences, a plagal cadence occurs after the final line of text, "Sleep on thy mither's breast." Then the two-bar instrumental postlude closes the work on the tonic harmony in first inversion (16). m Slaw! skirlin' wh^AW.TiRurt'vM’ ! REEK WHIRLIN'WIN' ! NIWT I (Mprtve M5TIVC b'/ AnPASTE SOST6NKTO i ^ Ca r - s r - 1 ( " f t — i c I n THE fia-RE THE C O O ’S Gt.V An'waRM,! 9 ACCEL, e CREEC, a ' retro&r b r WITH EnPftHSloM t i l l r f aRal,S5tk« Pi re na wink o'5t«m,Wmaup on the mnC-Skaui ih pic race. % m W 1 TS® I-J. J , 1 - 1 1 f r Example 48.0. Ives, "A Scotch Lullaby," From: Eleven Songs and Two Harmonizations, Copyright 1968, Associated Music Publishers,Inc. Reprinted by Permission of Associated Music Publishers, Inc.(BMI). Perhaps more interesting is the midpoint of the A' section(m.14, Example 48.1) where Ives briefly tonicizes the leading tone: Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 292 prrn _ run q ThS MlTHCft'5 MEAJT S H ALL 88THS RfST.CtlSE T H S BtHNlC — Sl££p ! Sl6£P! Sl6EP! Sl££ p 1 t,' . i f ... i t ; . f ; — £ _ Example 48.1. Ives, "A Scotch Lullaby," From: Eleven Songs and Two Harmonizations. Copyright 1968, Associated Music Publishers,Inc. Reprinted by Permission of Associated Music Publishers, Inc.(BMI). This tonicization is particularly affecting because the work remains essentially in its tonic key of G major from start to finish. The tonicization is accomplished through a secondary dominant of F# resolving directly to an F# major triad. It is doubtful that Professor Horatio Par ker would have encouraged such a digression within the given context. Whether it came from his (Ives's) Emersonian belief in man's capacity, and need to master new material, or from the example set by his iconoclastic father, or both of these sources, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 293 Ives never shared - even as a boy - that stifling belief in the rightness and inev itability of a traditional practice which stultified the ears of even so intelligent a man as his teacher at Yale, Horatio Par ker. 30 The melodic foundation of A Scotch Lullaby is based on motivic construction and manipulation. Motives serve to unify the entire song. The motive which will hence forth be referred to as motive "a," appears in Ex.48.0 in m.3 in the vocal line (three eighths and a dotted quar ter note, all ascending by step) where it is used sequen tially. A portent of motive "a" first appears in the in troduction. It contains an intervallic expansion of one interval (m.l, piano, L.H.). Later motivic manipulations appear in m.5 (voice) and it is also used in retrograde with intervallic expansion in m.6 (piano). Through paral lel phrase construction, it returns in sequence again in m.7. Although the A' section does introduce new motivic material, it still makes use of the "a" motive in retro grade with intervallic expansion of the first step which expands to a minor third. Motive "b" (Ex.48.0) serves to integrate Section A. It appears twice in the song proper (mm.4 and 8, piano, R.H.) and once in the introduction where it is rhythmi cally altered through the addition of a single dot (m.l) and adds an upper neighboring tone (C-natural in m.2). Altered versions of both the "a" and "b" motives occur in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 294 mm. 1-2. The second major section, A', presents the "c" motive (Ex.48.1). One may view the "c" motive as simply a lower neighbor gesture(C B C) in a dotted rhythm. This occurs in measures 9, 12, and 16. Motive "c" is empha sized through its doubling in the voice and the piano. This motive is foreshadowed in the final two-bar phrase of the A section (G F# G) where it is also doubled, but does not yet appear as the dotted rhythmic figure charac teristic of the A' section. The World's Highway (1897) presents a special fond ness for travelling. Ives reflects the idea of travelling through his tonal plan. The middle section of the sec tional ternary design traverses several tonal centers and two parallel mode shifts. The A and A' sections (4/4) are in G major. Section B possesses its own mood, tempo, and meter (3/4). "Piu mosso" marks the start of Section B with a spirited D major melody. The mode soon shifts to D minor as the traveller views a road which is "rough" and "stained with blood." The next implied tonality(m.21) is A minor during a brief progression(V7-i-V7). The final tonality of Section B is G minor which appropriately sets the following words, "My heart was sad for what I saw - I feared." The mode then shifts from G minor (B section) back to G major (A' section). The final section in the major mode is relatively consonant and observes things of only the "sweetest" nature. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 295 "Ives's affection for the theater orchestra was lifelong."3i He demonstrates his fondness for the opera house and the pit band in the first of his two songs en titled Memories, {A,Very Pleasant; B, Rather Sad}. The entire composition is actually a compound binary design. The end of the first song links together both songs with the imitation of a drum roll from the orchestra pit by the piano which plays a tremolo on the dominant pitch, G. The "Very Pleasant" song is a rounded continuous binary design: Section A(C maj.), Section B(E min.), Section A' (C maj.). The first song is a cheerful tune employing a very repetitive trochee rhythm in 6/8. The "Rather Sad" 4/4 Adagio melody is a one-part design entirely in Eb major which remains purely diatonic throughout, with the exception of m.17 which features diminished harmonies. The second song refers to an old "sweet" and "sad" tune which an uncle used to hum. The work closes with a rather lengthy (pp) vocal melisma of twelve attack points on the word "hum- - -ming." Flag Song (1898) and Allegro (1900) both emphasize functional secondary dominants near their midpoints, con trasting a comparatively diatonic vocal melody at their start and close. Flag Song, a march in C major, expresses patriotic feelings for The United States of America. The strophic verse also makes reference to "Yale's deepest blue." The dominant sevenths in Flag Song are made rather Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 296 effective through colorful chromatic alterations. For ex ample, the first eight bars of melody constitute a period ending with an imperfect authentic cadence. The dominant seventh chord is, however, colored by the raised super tonic scale degree V7(+5) O I. The most interesting har monic feature of Flag Song is a circle of fifths progres sion occurring just before the return of the diatonic C major chorus: V9/ii C> V7(+9)/V C> v maj.7 O I; [Or A9 O D7(+9) Q G maj.7 tX> C]. The chorus features clus ters and tremolos in the piano part,once again suggesting the sound of drum beats and rolls. Allegro is a much less harmonically challenging song than Flag Song. This F major one-part strophic song tells of the morning light and the promise of a new day. It is a work expressing the joy which renewed hope may bring. The central measures present predictable secondary domi nant seventh resolutions of unaltered harmonies(ie,V7/IV- IV, V7/V-V). Futhermore, the entire vocal part utilizes only two tones chromatic to F major, and both function conservatively as lower neighboring tones. Ives appears to set the concept of'hope' in this song in a quite sim plistic manner of utmost purity and homogeneity. Those Evening Bells (1907) is a unique composition for several reasons. First, the song begins in Eb major, but its final three bars tonicize C# major. The design is a straightforward A A', but at the end of A' the final Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 297 phrase is chromatically altered, thus allowing the work to close in the foreign tonality of C# major. The final harmony of the song is an added-note chord, C#(add 6 and 9). This chord balances the start of the song which fea tures the tonic harmony with an added sixth, Eb(add 6). The second reason the song is unique results from Ives's attempt at imitating the chiming of bells. To accomplish this, he chose the resonant intervals of the perfect fourth and perfect fifth. The right hand chord voicings in the piano feature perfect fourths and the left hand features perfect fifth intervals in parallel motion. A third interesting feature is the metric arrangement be tween voice and accompaniment. Each part exhibits a dif ferent rhythmic stress pattern because the voice sings in 3/4 while the bell-like accompaniment plays in 6/8. The Things Our Fathers Loved (1917) emphasizes a tonal center of F major, but the majority of its tertian harmonies are nonfunctional. This is in part due to the lack of linear continuity which results from a fragmenta tion technique used to construct the overall design. The work is actually a one-part design (with three possible subdivisions) pieced together by utilizing fragments of American popular songs. One of the borrowed tunes is easily recognizable as the Battle Cry of Freedom. However the other fragments are more difficult to identify. The tonal and motivic relationships unify the structure. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 298 The Things Our Fathers Loved is relatively conser vative for Ives to have written in 1917 when many of his works were clearly atonal. There is a clarity of texture in the song since there are no clusters or secundal har monies. However, chromatic alterations are abundant. Sim ple and pleasant memories as expressed by Ives's own text are set to music in the form of uncomplicated rhythms in which the anticipated downbeats of the barline remain in tact. The phrase structure is, however, irregular due to the fragmentation technique mentioned above, and it is patterned into the following measure groupings during the first fourteen bars, 3+3+2+1+1+1+3. The work consists of three possible subsections. All three divisions possess phrases which imply a tonal cen ter of F. Thus, one possible design is A A' A" . Sub section I begins on a dominant triad (C major) which is then altered chromatically in m.2 with the addition of a raised fifth, G# (Example 49.0). However, the G-natural remains sustained through m.2. A raised eleventh (F#) is also added and this chromatically colorful dominant chord finally resolves to an unadorned F major triad on the downbeat of m.3. Then the same procedure which altered the dominant triad in m.2 is performed in a sequential manner on the tonic triad of m.3. Such sequencing of mo tives is an integral occurrence in the vocal part of The Things Our Fathers Loved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 299 S i m a a n d Su s t a in e d £ THINK THERE MUST BE A PlACE in THE SflUL ALL Example 49.0. Ives, "The Things Our Fathers Loved," From: Fourteen Songs. Copyright 1955, Peer International Corporation. Reprinted by Permission. The second subsection begins in m.10 with a one-bar tonal digression (Example 49.1). An A major7 chord with a raised eleventh is emphasized during half of m.10. The 'home' tonality of F major returns (mm.11-13) and results in the most purely diatonic measures of the entire song. Measure 14 exhibits an abrupt contrast for the purpose of leading up to the dynamic climax on the word, "Now!" Ives attempts to increase the tension and excitement at this point, and he accomplishes this through emphasis on a new tonal focal point (D major). Ives writes on the score "in a gradually excited way" to describe the emotions of the townspeople as they listen to the village cornet band playing the patriotic tunes which are fragmented through out The Things Our Fathers Loved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 300 A LITTLE PASTER AND W/TH MP£ SMPHASli - M E R E V E - N IN & 5 . THE VIL-LA6E COR-NET I P la^ in & in T h E S Q U A R E . M I IN A GRADgALLS EXCITED WAS m T h e Town' s Rc&.Wh it e a n d B l u e , " ^ l l Re d , W h it e a n d B l u e . ; ’ f i l ) AceeL,----- - f h e a r t h e Songs 1 Example 49.1. Ives, "The Things Our Fathers Loved," From: Fourteen Songs. Copyright 1955, Peer International Corporation. Reprinted by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 301 Ives avoids the actual tonicization of a new tonal area, but rather, utilizes a major scale and a bass pedal on D (mm. 14-16). The approach to the D in the bass is accomplished by a descending D major scale in m.14. Yet, the descending D major scale is spelled quite curiously (D C# Cb A G Gb Fb D) . The third and final subsection begins in m.17 (Ex. 49.1) and suggests the original tonal center of F by sounding its dominant as a bass pedal tone in mm.16-17. Above the pedal, two independent ostinato figures appear in the piano and are affected by rhythmic displacement. The first ostinato (eight-note figure) starts in m.15 (sixteenth notes, piano) and continues through m.17 with brief interruptions between each appearance. Its second appearance in m.16 displaces it by three sixteenth beats and when it occurs a third time in m.17 it is displaced even further into the bar by one and a half beats from its original metric position. The second ostinato figure first occurs in m.15 (Ex.49.1) in the uppermost voice of the piano as a dotted-note motive (ECDE) on the second beat of the bar. When it reappears in the next measure, it is displaced by one beat. The second ostinato figure is possibly a fragment from an American popular tune be cause once it ceases to function as an instrumental voice ostinato, it continues to appear in the voice transposed to a new pitch level. The voice also presents the motive Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 302 in inversion near the end of the song. In addition, it reappears in the piano serving to imitate its use in the voice. The end of the third subsection takes another tonal excursion, this time to E minor, which is the leading- tone of the original tonal center of F. A new tonal focus is once again approached through a descending scale, de rived from E minor (C B A G F# E). One may recall a simi lar tonicization of the leading-tone in A Scotch Lullaby. However, in The Things Our Fathers Loved, Ives takes this harmonic effect one step further. He closes the piece on a D# minor chord (add 6 and 11). This harmony is the leading-tone chord of the leading-tone tonality(E minor). The text of Charles Ives's Cradle Song (1919) is taken from a New England singing school book, The Musical Spelling Book (New York, 1846). The book was compiled by a distant relative of Charles's, Elam Ives of Hartford. He also compiled and edited American Psalmody (Hartford, 1829) and collaborated with Lowell Mason on the Juvenile Lyre(Boston, 1835).32 The first few words set the scene, "Hush thee, dear child to slumbers." This E major song is a strophic lullaby of nine chromatically colorful mea sures. The rocking motion of the cradle is rhythmically interpreted in Ives's setting as a consistent metric oscillation between 2/4 and 6/8. The brief work is har monically eclectic due to the inclusion of functional Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 303 secondary dominants, added-note chords (add 6 and 9), quintal harmony, tertian structured polychords and a non functional, inconclusive final cadence (third verse only) ending on a polychord (minor v over major IV7). Although the key signature designates the principal tonality to be E major, the first half of the vocal melody is actually based on an F# major scale. Furthermore, the piano toni cizes the supertonic through the traditional resolution of a C#7. Finally, the last vocal phrase of the entire three-phrase design (a phrase group) is purely diatonic to E major. It is also worth noting that each of the three vocal phrases cadences on the mediant pitch (G#). The song of sentiment type presents a comparatively tame side of Charles Ives, especially with regard to har monic function. Since Ives composed more of this type of song than any other (at least fifty-three) the overall nature of his songs may not be quite as radical as one might first assume. It is important to remember that Ives continued to compose tonally oriented sentimental and religious songs as a mature and experimental composer well after his first atonal song, The Cage(1906).Although forty-six of the fifty-three sentimental songs may be considered harmonically tame, they are by no means dull. One of the great beauties of Ives's compositional method is his ability to create a harmonic or rhythmic surprise just as the listener settles into a sense of complacency. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 304 Notes to Chapter 7 1. Banfield, Stephen. "An Ives Celebration: Papers and Panels of the Charles Ives Centennial Festival Con ference (A Review)," Music and Letters. Vol.LX, No.2, April 1979. p.216. 2. Starr, Larry. A Union of Diversities: Style in the Music of Charles Ives. New York: Schirmer Books, A Division of Macmillan,Inc. 1992. p.69. 3. Hitchcock, H. Wiley. Ives. London and New York: Ox ford University Press, 1977. p.16. 4. Hitchcock, H. Wiley. Music in the United States: A Historical Introduction. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersy: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969. p.154. 5. Clarke, Henry Leland. "Reviews of Books: Essays Before a Sonata and Other Writings," The Musical Quarterly. Vol. L, No.l, January 1964. p.101. 6. Bruce, Neely. "Ives and Nineteenth-Century American Music," in An Ives Celebration. H. Wiley Hitchcock and Vivian Perlis, editors. Chicago and London: Uni versity of Illinois Press, 1977, pp.30-31. 7. Burkholder, J. Peter. " 'Quotation' and Emulation: Charles Ives's Uses of His Models," The Musical Quarterly. Vol. LXXI, No. 1, 1985. p.7. 8. Wooldridge, David. Charles Ives: A Portrait. London: Faber and Faber, 1975. p.89. 9. Rossiter, Frank R., Charles Ives and His America. New York: Liveright, 1975. p.65. 10. Cowell, Henry and Cowell, Sidney. Charles Ives and His Music. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1955. p.80. 11. Cowell, Henry. "American Composers.IX: Charles Ives," Modern Music. Vol. X, No.l, Nov.-Dec. 1932. p.31. 12. Wooldridge, p.158. 13. Starr, p.141. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 305 14. Mellers, Wilfrid. Music in a New Found Land: Themes and Developments in the History of American Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. p.43. 15. Perlis, Vivian. Charles Ives Remembered. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1974. p.221. 16. Hitchcock, H. Wiley. Music in the United States: A Historical Introduction. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersy: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1969. p.156. 17. Alexander, Michael J. The Evolving Keyboard Style of Charles Ives, (from Outstanding Dissertations in Music From British Universities; John Caldwell,ed.) New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc. 1989. p.21. 18. Wooldridge, David. Charles Ives: A Portrait. London: Faber and Faber, 1975. pp.88-89. 19. Burkholder, J. Peter. " 'Quotation' and Emulation: Charles Ives's Uses of His Models," The Musical Quarterly. Vol. LXXI, No.l, 1985. p. 10. 20. Wooldridge, p.88. 21. Cowell, Henry and Cowell, Sidney. Charles Ives and His Music. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1955. p.71. 22. Wooldridge, p.169. 23. Rossiter, Frank R. Charles Ives and His America. New York: Liveright, 1975. p.181. 24. Burkholder, pp.12-13. 25. Wooldridge, p.106. 26. Wooldridge, p.88. 27. Hitchcock, H. Wiley. Ives. New York and London: Ox ford University Press, 1977. p.11. 28. Burkholder, p.20. 29. Kirkpatrick, John(ed.). Ives: Eleven Songs & Two Har monizations. New York: Associated Music Publishers, p.iii. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 306 30. Boatwright, Howard. "Ives' Quarter-Tone Impressions," Perspectives of New Music. Vol.3, No.2, Spring- Summer 1965. p.25. 31. Elkus, Jonathan. Charles Ives and the American Band Tradition: A Centennial Tribute. Exeter: University of Exeter, 1974. p.19. 32. Cowell, Henry and Cowell, Sidney. Charles Ives and His Music. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1955. p.17. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. IreS the Eowic: Silly, W itt a and WiSe Despite Ives's chronic poor health after the First World War, he retained a salubrious sense of wit, satire, and fun which he expressed in numerous works. John Kirk patrick relates this memory of the mature Charles Ives: One picture I have of him is the growing into a kind of jiggity old age, because his sense of humor always remained very much as it was at Yale - that is, turn of the century puns. His ill health was a combination of heart con dition, diabetes, extreme nervous excitability, and some kind of palsy. His hand didn't shake constantly but you can see from his snaketracks how hard it must have been to write. He had cataracts which gradually accumulated and they were operated on in '37, successfully.1 Humor in Ives's songs is not, of course, isolated to any single category. Several of the songs in the pre viously discussed categories make use of it. Two cases in point are the common man song, Charlie Rutlage, which adds comic touches to an otherwise solemn setting and the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 308 political song, Vote for Names, which pokes fun at the pointlessness, from Ives's point of view, of the 1912 presidential election. In addition, many of Ives's unpub lished Yale fraternity songs for the stage are quite hu morous . The nine comic songs to be discussed here present, however, more than occasional touches of comic relief. They project, more specifically, the character of musical jokes in their entirety. Half of them are tonal works which parody the banal constructs in the repertoire with which Ives was familiar. These include Romanzo di Central Park (1900), On the Counter (1920), The Side Show (1921), and The One Nay (1923?). By contrast, the remaining tonal song, Slugging a Vampire (1902), also known as Tarrant Moss, is an example of Ives's satirical wit in the form of a musical attack on those institutions which attempt to deceive the common man. Finally, The See'r (1920) and "I, 2, 3." (1921) are nontonal works which do, however, contain tertian (albeit nonfunctional) harmonies. Only one song to be discussed in this chapter, Ann Street (1921), utilizes the nontertian simultaneities which are best classified by atonal analytic methods. The satire in Romanzo di Central Park (1900) is two fold. First, Ives's own ludicrous text parodies inferior poetic literature by being nothing more than a string of consecutive one-word rhymes. As the composer points out Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 309 at the top of the score,". . . Leigh Hunt, in his Essays, Rhyme and Reason, says: . . . 'yet how many 'poems' are there. . . of which we require no more than the rhymes, to be acquainted with the whole of them?" The following romantic text is to be sung with the instruction "Andante con grazia, con espressione e con amore" : (Section A) Grove, Rove, Night, Delight, Heart, Impart, Prove Love, Heart, Impart, Love, Prove, Prove Love, (Section A') Kiss, Bliss, Kiss, Bliss, Blest, Rest, Heart, Impart, Impart, Impart, Love. The second type of satire in Romanzo di Central Park parodies the musical style of a well-known composer who remains nameless in Ives's "Note" at the end of this mel- odically and harmonically banal love song: Some twenty years ago, an eminent and sure- minded critic of music in New York told a young man that ______ was one of our great composers; what he meant by "our" is not re corded, nor is it remembered that this pro found statement was qualified by the word "living" - probably not, as this arbiter of tears and emotions is quite enthusiastic over his enthusiasms. The above collection of notes and heartbeats would show, but does so very inadequately, the influence, on the youthful mind, of the master in question. Ives's opinion of this composition is apparent in his performance "Note" on the score, "... the voice Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 310 part of this 'Aria,' however, may be omitted with good effect. To make a deeper impression, a violin may play the right-hand tune, and may be omitted, - for the same reason." Romanzo di Central Park achieves a syrupy passionate quality through the exaggerated use of a single musical element - the utilization of extensive descending chro matic melodic and harmonic motion implying amorous 'sigh ing' throughout the song. Most of the vocal melody in the A section presents a series of descending semitones, but the second verse, A', substitutes several whole-steps for semitones during the varied repeat. The vocal part begins with a two-bar phrase of descending whole-tones. The next measure presents the first of two brief (eighth note) semitone 'sighs' (Db-C). After the first chromatic 'sigh,' one additional measure of melodic whole-tones occurs. Then the second brief semitone 'sigh' (G-F#) sets the word "Heart." From this point forward, the remainder of the first verse's vocal melody is a slowly descending chromatic series of'sighs' from A to C#. The piano accompanies this musical procedure in the voice by playing six measures of chromatically descending dominant seventh chords - none of which resolve by root movement of the fifth. The tonic area of F major emerges during this chromatic descent from F7(b5)to A7(b5). Once the V7 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 311 function of F is reached, Ives repeats the two-chord pro gression, bVI7-V7 four times before restoring the chroma tic descent.The bVI7 is actually spelled like an Italian- sixth (Db F B) and does indeed resolve like one. Ives colors the series of parallel dominant sevenths with sev eral chromatic alterations: 17(b5)-VII7-bVII7-VI7-[bVI7- VI, 3 times] -bVI7-V7 (b5) -#IV7 (b5)-IV7 (b5)-III7 (b5). A sim ilar but briefer passage during the instrumental coda be gins on the tonic and chromatically descends to the domi nant in preparation for the final perfect authentic ca dence: 17 (b5) -VII7-bVII7-VI7-#V7-V7 (+5 ) C> I. Tarrant Moss (1902) and Slugging a Vampire (1902) both share the same music, however, the former work is nearly textless, using only the first four words of a Rudyard Kipling poem. "Permission to use a poem of Kip ling's that he [Ives] had set never came, so he printed the song with Kipling's title(Tarrant Moss) and the first few words ["I closed and drew"]; a singer can fit the remainder in without difficulty."2 Slugging a Vampire was composed shortly thereafter and slight rhythmic altera tions needed to be made in the vocal line in order to accommodate the new text. Ives writes at the bottom of the score, "This was originally to Kipling's Tarrant Moss ("I closed and drew," etc.), but as copyright permission was not obtained, the nice poetry above was written later Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 312 (not by Mr. Kipling)." The "nice poetry" presents a wise and witty analogy between vampires and those bloodsuckers who perennially attempt to take advantage of consumers and voters: I closed and drew, but not a gun, The refuge of the weak, I swung on the left And I swung on the right Then I landed on his beak; He started to pull the same old stuff, But I closed in hard and called his bluff Yet his face is still a stickin' in the yellow sheet And on the billboard a down the street. Slugging a Vampire is composed in C major, however, the tonality is obscured in a few places through the use of polychords. For example, the first harmonized phrase ends in a quasi half cadence on a polychord: C(no 3) C> B(no 3) C> C(no 3) C> A minor over G+(V+). The next vocal phrase presents a parallel construction in comparison with the previous phrase. This second phrase is supported in the piano by a bass register perfect fifth (C-G) writ ten as a one-beat ostinato figure (one eighth, two six teenths). A chord progression appears (mm.4-5) above the sustained thirdless tonic harmony in the bass, thus cre ating a series of polychords. Two of the polychords in the phrase(E+ over C and C# dim. over C) produce a strik ing minor ninth dissonance during the words, "I swung on the left and I swung on the right then I landed on his Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 313 beak."The next use of polychords occurs in the final pro gression (last bar) of the song: C maj.(a major third ap pears in the tonic harmony for the first time) C> D(no 3) over C(no 3) C> C maj. O F#(no 3)over C(no 3). The final harmony of the work, F# over C, closes the composition with a double dose of appropriately 'biting' dissonance between C and C# (a minor ninth) and G and F# (a major seventh). J. Peter Burkholder suggests in his article, " 'Quo tation' and Emulation:Charles Ives's Uses of His Models," that it is apparent from an abundance of similarities(ie. harmonic progressions, phrase structure, melodic rhythm and contour) that On the Counter (1920) is modeled on Ives's sentimental song, A Song for Anything (1892).3 Thus, the later work obviously parodies the old "soft and sweet" sound of the earlier composition. Ives's opinion that early twentieth century songwriters were unable to evolve beyond the same old harmonies and sentimental style is expressed in this text of On the Counter: Tunes we heard in "ninety two," Soft and sweet, always ending "I love you," Phrases nice and neat; The same old chords, the same old time, The same old sentimental sound. Shades of __________ in new songs abound. The date mentioned in the above stanza (1892) makes a direct reference to the date which Ives attached to the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 314 second (secular) text of A Song for Anything. The first version of the work was written in 1888 and had a reli gious text.4 Ives makes reference to the religious ori gins of A Song for Anything by closing this parody of it with a plagal cadence, C major O G major. A musical quote from Auld Lang Syne appears in the upper register of the keyboard during the closing plagal cadence. The quote is adapted to fit the lilting waltz time(3/4) of On the Counter, and subtly implies that the "same old senti mental sound" is an old acquaintance which should "never be brought to mind" and is better left forgotten. The last line of the text leaves the choice of a few words up to the vocalist. Ives probably intended for a conserva tive composer's name to fill the space. Ives's "Note" at the bottom of the score of On the Counter implies that the song is so technically backward that it is an embarrassment: "Though there is little dan ger of it, it is hoped that this song will not be taken seriously, or sung, at least, in public." Yet, "shades of" the mature Ives are observable within the primarily saccharine quality of On the Counter. Dissonance results from a cross relation between the vocal part (D#, lower neighbor function) and the bass line (D) in m.12. This occurs appropriately on the word "nice" during a Vii(Dn). A second dissonance out of character with the "old sweet sound of 1892," occurs during the words, "ninety-two" Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 315 where Ives employs the tonic major chord(G) with an added sixth and a raised eleventh. The major seventh dissonance between the pitches D and C# is intensified by the tri tone dissonance between G and C#. The See'r (1920) paints an amusing portrait of an old man watching "the funny things a going by" all day long. The work utilizes technically advanced harmonic and rhythmic procedures within a nontonal format.Ives thought enough of the work to have it performed at the First Fes tival of Contemporary American Music, held in Saratoga Springs, New York on April 30 and May 1 in 1932, other wise known as the Yaddo-May Festival. It was performed along with six other Ives songs.s The instrumental ver sion was composed much earlier than the 1920 song: In May [1913], a piece for trumpet, clarinet, alto horn, piano, and drums, Scherzo: "The Se'er" - designed as the first of the series of six (the other 5 already written) forming the 1st Chamber Set. As usual, Ives had a text in mind when he wrote the piece, and la ter arranged it for voice & piano (no 29 of 114 Songs).6 Repetition of motives and harmonic progressions is a primary element in the organization of The See'r. Ives manages to create an air of unpredictability out of an otherwise predictable musical element through manipula tion of rhythm by layering hemiola patterns. ". . . Often Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 316 his musical sense of humor is like an awareness of rhyth mic incongruity - of two things going on at the same time, each of which would throw the other into a funny incongruous light."7 J j :Hl| I - J —I.JJ ] IJ t l l f l p rife VlL - Sfio - CEM STflfiE* HE LlKfiS T & WATCH~ 4 J il i-ili i —n _I Example 50.0. Ives, "The See'r," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1932 by Cos Cob Press,Inc. Copyright Assigned 1957 to Associated Music Publishers,Inc. Reprinted by Permission of Associated Music Publishers,Inc. (BMI). Example 50.0 above, exhibits several layers of rhyth mic information. Measures 6-11 repeat a pattern of two pitches in the vocal part (D,B) four times. However, the second, third, and fourth occurrences are rhythmically Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 317 displaced from the initial appearance in m.6. Also, the third occurrence is slightly altered melodically with the addition of the pitch, A. The final appearance alters the rhythmic duration of the note, D. The vocal line is the first rhythmic layer and the second and third layers ap pear in the right and left hand parts of the piano (mm.6- 11). The second and third layers of hemiola patterning share the same durational value (three eighths), but the right hand plays a three-chord pattern as the left hand repeats a two-chord progression. In m.8, the two layers in the piano part taken together produce a progression containing a polychord, B min. O E7 over G7(+ll). A sim ilar technique occurs in measures 11-17. The vocal motive Eb F G, repeats three times. The second occurrence pre sents rhythmic displacement and the third one reorders the pitch classes. In measures 11-16, the voice is sup ported by two layers of hemiola patterns in the piano which share the same durational value (five eighths). The Side Show (1921) and "1, 2, 3." (1921) both poke fun at the waltz. The former song is a parody piece which was written in a ". . . Russian/Irish waltz rhythm that took off the 5/4 "waltz" movement from Tschaikowsky's 6th Symphony. . . "8 Ives's text for "1, 2, 3." suggests that triple meter is inferior to a good strong duple meter which is much more appealing to a Yankee such as himself. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 318 The music for The Side Show actually originated dur ing Ives's enrollment at Yale. In May of 1896, Ives en tered a Junior fraternity. Soon after his initiation Ives composed a brief, textless 5/4 waltz for clarinet and piano to be played at his fraternity's spring concert. The work appears to present Ives's first use of parody during his college years.9 Ives's own text was added much later in 1921. The Side Show is a comical, yet sentimen tal work. Perhaps it is another fond portrait of realism from Ives's own boyhood. Like the sentimental song, The Circus Band, The Side Show is another circus song employ ing literal imitation of the original aural-visual exper ience. The comic imitation in the piece portrays not only "Mister Riley's curiously humorous personality, but also rhythmically conjours up the image of "the merry-go-round that gets stuck."10 Because the music for The Side Show was composed in 1896, the song is from Ives's tonal period. The entire work remains centered in Ab major and the harmonic vocab ulary is quite restricted, featuring mainly the tonic, subdominant, and dominant seventh. Only two secondary dominant functions occur and they resolve as expected: (V7/V-V7 and vii dim.7/V -VI). There is a varied phrase repetition in which the first vocal phrase returns rhyth mically altered at its end, and Ives utilizes motivic transposition for the purpose of composing out part of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 319 the vocal line. Despite the restricted harmonic and mel odic language, Ives manages to show his iconoclastic na ture through the use of syncopated rhythms in the piano and a consistent alternation between 3/4 and 2/4. Ulti mately, he constructs two measures of 5/4 during the last phrase. Incidentally, Ives composed this 5/4 waltz approximately one week after the visiting Boston Symphony Orchestra played Tschaikowsky's Sixth Symphony in New Haven; its 5/4 movement was received with great uneasi ness. ii It seems probable that either Ives attended that concert or learned of the audience's reaction later and found it humorous. "1,2,3." (1921) is a spritely atonal waltz in 3/8 meter featuring a contrapuntal piano accompaniment. The harmonies are tertian (ie.,maj.,dom.7,aug.,dim.) yet non functional. The rhythmic techniques are similar to those featured in The See'r because "1,2,3." contains rhythmic displacement of motives and two hemiola patterns. Like The Side Show, the vocal line of "1,2,3." is partly com posed out through the transposition of motives. (The second vocal phrase is sequenced downward from the first by a minor third.) Ives's text expresses one aspect of his musical taste: Why doesn't one, two, three Seem to appeal to a Yankee As much as one, two! Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 320 r f ' f l -jS-- k---W---ry------ ^ ' """ ^ t --------1 t-S— h m [ &---- ■---d--- San-kee as '1 p II AAUtU AS --------- 0S£f T l VS; in It _ = ===)-- -rmf— ---- ■ m i-iR ^ = E E = . 4| » 7--- , j r # > r 1 -i- ------- u Example 51.0. Ives, "1,2,3." From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1950, Mercury Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Example 51.0 above, presents the closing bars of the song. The final 2/4 measure emphatically (ff) underscores Ives's preference for duple meter. Yet, he does not allow the triple meter in "1,2,3." to become monotonous. One example of rhythmic complexity appears in mm.28-30 (Exam ple 51.0). These bars contain a hemiola pattern played twice in the left hand of the piano (A#-A#-Bb). The dur ation of the repeated pattern is four eighths played in 3/8 time. Ann Street (1921) presents Charles Ives at his eclectic best. An extraordinary degree of diversity in temperament, textural density, accompanimental figura tion, and harmonic language is packaged into only a mere twenty bars. The image of the song, a bustling street in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 321 New York City, inspires a lighthearted musical portrait of life in a constant state of flux: Ives, an insurance man by profession, knew the New York business district and its Ann Streets very well.He must have appreciated how success fully Maurice Morris's newspaper poem captured the breathless pace and feeling of impersonal ity that characterizes this particular corner of Manhattan. In Ives's setting, "Ann Street" speeds by with enough diverse material to in spire five or six songs by other composers - but then, that's life in the Big Apple.12 "The essential problem confronting the analyst here, as in so many Ives pieces, is that of understanding whether overall unity and coherence lie behind all the surface changes. . .[One may] seek out the role of recur ring intervallic and/or motivic structures. . . ."13 Addi tionally, one may also take notice of any recurring pitch class which comes across to the listener as a focal point without necessarily suggesting a condition of functional tonality. The pitch, A, appears to fulfill that function in Ann Street because it is prominently displayed at both the start and climactic point of the work("But business," ff). Also, two sections in the vocal part are modally centered around that pitch: A Phrygian ("Quaint name, Ann street, width of same, ten feet") and A Mixolydian ("Sun just hits Ann street,then it quits"). Seven possible sec tions comprise the song, and four of them either feature harmonies rooted on the note, A, at a crucial moment, or employ that pitch as a modal focal point. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 322 Q uaint n a m e — An n T L . STREET. Example 52.0. Ives, "Ann Street," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Section 1(Example 52.0) is the instrumental introduction. Stylistically, it is a fanfare of triplet rhythms ushered in by the ff ascending sweep of an A dom.9 arpeggio re solving to a D min.7 (mm.2-3). This repeated V9 C> i7 progression is the only traditional tonal function in Ann Street. The pitch, A, is prominent in Section 1: first, the opening bass note is sounded alone for an entire bar (m.l); second,the A9 arpeggio is emphasized through repe Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 323 tition (mm.2-3); third, the final harmony of the instru mental introduction is an A major7 marked "tenuto." One further point about the introduction: chromatic scale mo tives appear in the highest voice of the triplet fanfares (m.2 - F, E, Eb, D and m.3 - F, F#, G and D, C#). Similar chromatic motives occur in three other sections of Ann Street, thus serving as an additional unifying factor. Section 2 begins at m.4 (Ex. 52.0) and is modally centered in A Phrygian (A Bb C D E F G) .Both of the vocal phrases in Section 2 begin on the note, A(the "final" of the mode), and conclude on E (the "tenor" or "dominant"). The inner voices of the piano accompaniment repeat the same two pitches, A and E, as a harmonic perfect fourth while the uppermost and lowermost voices oscillate back and forth as if to portray the action of walking down the street. The implied harmonies of Section 2 are basically the repetition of A min.(add 11) to F maj.7. The transparent texture and diatonicism of Section 2 is sharply contrasted by Section 3 ("Barnum's mob, Ann street, far from obsolete.")The chromatic motive from the introduction returns in both the vocal and piano parts. Polychordal structures in the third section create a com paratively dense texture. The lowest harmony of the poly chordal structure throughout this section is Bb major. Above the Bb major foundation, the upper keyboard voices mainly move by semitone motion. The "mob" described in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 324 the text is represented not only by the density mentioned above but also by the first use of an asymmetrical rhyth mic structure in Ann Street expressing chaos and lack of balance) - a thrice repeated hemiola pattern (piano) of seven eighth notes. Section 4 is the first part in which it is logical to use set theoretical labelling methodology. The last two measures of this section appear in Example 52.1: Row/,BES, A w ’S t r e e t, Sur .Buii-wess, Example 52.1. Ives, "Ann Street," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Measure 11 presents a repeated whole-tone set 4-21 (0246) in the lowest piano voice. Against the ascending whole- tone motion of the keyboard the vocalist sings a descend ing chromatic scale ("Narrow, yes, Ann Street."). An abrupt return to tertian structures occurs at the climax of the song - C major(+11) over A major. The vocal line Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 325 takes its largest melodic leap (an octave) at this cli mactic point. The next bar ("Both feet") is a descending polychord progression which serves to punctuate the end of Section 4: Cmin. _ Bbmin. _ B7 _ G7 _ C#7 B7 C+ Bb F# Bb7 Set theoretical methods may also be useful in label ling the harmonies of the instrumental interlude (Section 5). The polychords in this section are not entirely ter tian. For example, the left hand repeats a 3-8 (026) trichord on the downbeat of the three adjacent measures comprising Section 5, while the right hand presents a B min.(b9) tremolo. S l o w e r £ fr jF £ w S u n j u s t h it s A n n s t r e e t . — THEN IT Q U IT S ’- Example 52.2. Ives, "Ann Street," From: 114 Songs. Copyright 1933, Merion Music, Inc. Copyright renewed. Used by Permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 326 Section 6 (Example 52.2) recapitulates the ascending dominant seventh arpeggio gesture so prominently featured in Section 1. However, the arpeggio ushering in Section 5 is G7(+11). Then the piano part remains centered in G Lydian throughout the section. The vocal line in this section contains only a few different pitch classes (G A B C#) which could be interpreted as either a subset of G Lydian or an implication of A Mixolydian. If one is to accept the latter option, then Section 5 becomes the only bimodal section in Ann Street. Section 5 is motivically quite similar to Section 2 due to the return of an oscil lating motion in the accompaniment portraying the act of walking down the street. Section 7 is the last measure of Ann Street ("Rather short, Ann Street. . ."). The vocal line contains a final reminder of the chromatic motive introduced in Section 1. It occurs as a chromatic lower neighbor gesture (D C# D) on "Rather short." The accompaniment is polychordal as the right hand arpeggiates Bb maj.7 in irregular rhythmic groupings of eighths (3,4,3) and the left hand oscillates between an Eb fifth chord (Eb Bb F) and a G fifth chord (G D A). Gesturally, the oscillating figuration of Sec tion 7 is similar to Sections 2 and 6. Ann Street ends quietly (p) and abruptly on one of Ives's favorite tri chords, a 3-8 (026) transposed here to Eb,G,A. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 327 The One tVay (1923?), like On the Counter, is yet another satirical musical commentary on the state of songwriting in the early twentieth century. At the top of the score, Ives remarks that his text pokes fun at "The True Philosophy of all Nice Conservatories of Music and Nice 'Mus. Doc's' 'IMBCDGODAMLILY'": (Verse 1 in F Major) Here are things you've heard before, Turned out daily by the score, Pretty rhymes you know, How gently on the ear They bring a smile or a tear. Do re mi fa mi re do. ("Nice Chorous" 1 in Bb Major) When we go a marching Down thro' life and the street, 0 loud and free must the music be With tunes to match the feet. Now a softer cadence, Now we change the key, Just to stage a comeback To the main strain of our glee. So if you'd go a marching To Fortune or to Fame, Perhaps the safest way's To play the same old game. The design of the song consists of two verses and choruses followed by a harmonically banal four-bar coda in Bb major(I V I V I V I, etc.).The verse is essentially diatonic to F major, however, the chorus presents much chromatic activity around and outside of Bb major. For example, several bars of tonal ambiguity in the chorus underscore a chromatic melisma on the word "feet." The Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 328 piano supports the melisma with a chromatic oscillation between two densely voiced harmonies in root position, G#7(b9,b5) O A7(+9,b5). Nearly all of the voices in these two harmonies progress in parallel motion. Then the next four measures present a harmonic joke: Ives juxtaposes two of the harmonically blandest measures in the song ("Now a softer cadence") next to two chromatic bars which tonicize two different tonal areas simultaneously ("Now we change the key.") Actually, Ives tonicizes two keys, G minor in the vocal line and uppermost keyboard voice while the remaining instrumental voices cadence in Eb major. After that moment of polytonality Bb minor becomes the next tonicized area in the chorus, and the return to Bb major is accomplished via the traditional use of a German-sixth resolving to V7 ("Just to stage a comeback to the main strain of our glee"). In his article, " 'Quotation' and Emulation: Charles Ives's Uses of His Models," J.Peter Burkholder elaborates on John Kirkpatrick's observation14 that the second half of this chorus is similar to the middle of the chorus of On the Road to Mandalay (1907) by Oley Speaks.is Burk holder notes a similarly pompous manner, a brief modula tion starting with an abrupt reduction of dynamic level, and a return to the tonic involving a change of figura tion to drum-like triplet gestures on the second and the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 329 fourth beats. Burkholder adds that part of Ives's text ("Just to stage a comeback to the main strain of our glee")corresponds to the same point in Oley Speaks's song ("Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay1") The majority of Ives's published comical songs are satirical commentaries on various types of artistic ex pression. Second rate poetry is targeted in Romanzo di Central Park. The stodginess of the waltz is parodied in The Side Show and "1,2,3." Conservative compositional styles are lampooned in On the Counter and The One Way. It is apparent that Ives also enjoyed composing humorous character portraits (ie., The Side Show, The See'r). Ann Street exudes its own amusing nature - a reflection of the colorful characters who might traverse the busy side walks of New York. It is admirable that despite his ill health after World War I, Ives retained a genuine sense of playfulness. Most of the lighthearted songs discussed above were written between 1920 and 1923. One would not have a clue as to Ives's state of health during those years by simply scrutinizing these impish musical jokes born from an undying sense of wit and humor. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 330 Notes to Chapter 8 1. Perlis, Vivian (editor). Charles Ives Remembered: An Oral History. New Haven and London: Yale Univer sity Press, 1974. p.224. 2. Cowell, Henry and Cowell, Sidney. Charles Ives and His Music. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1955. p.78. 3. Burkholder, J. Peter. " 'Quotation' and Emulation: Charles Ives's Uses of His Models," The Musical Quarterly. Vol. LXXI, No.l, 1985. p.14. 4. Burkholder, p.13. 5. Meyer, Alfred H. "Yaddo - A May Festival," Modern Music. Vol. IX, No.4, May-June, 1932. p.174. 6. Wooldridge, David. Charles Ives: A Portrait. London: Faber and Faber, 1975. p.168. 7. Perlis, pp.224-225. 8. Wooldridge, p.91. 9. Wooldridge, p.91. 10. Mellers, Wilfrid. Music in a New Found Land: Themes and Developments in the History of American Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. p.41. 11. Wooldridge, p.91. 12. Starr, Larry. A Union of Diversities: Style in the Music of Charles Ives. New York: Schirmer Books, A Division of Macmillan, Inc., 1992. p.20. 13. Starr, Lawrence. "Style and Substance: Ann Street by Charles Ives," Perspectives of New Music. Spring- Summer 1977. p.23. 14. [Sound Recording] "Charles Ives: The 100th Anniver sary," Columbia M4 32504, 1974. Unpaginated notes. 15. Burkholder, pp.10-11. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 331 Conclusion The preceding chapters have attempted to provide evidence of the artistic quality and extensive diversity that comprises Charles Ives's contribution to song liter ature. This impressive body of work provides us with an historical window to view late nineteenth century New England lifestyles and also allows us to encounter the social, spiritual, and intellectual concerns that faced the citizenry of the United States in a rapidly changing early twentieth century. In this regard, Ives provides a valuable historical service. It can be argued, that owing to the quality and variety of his songs, Charles Ives made a contribution to the American art song that is com parable to that of Schubert and Brahms in the European Lieder repertoire. The elements from popular culture that are evident in many of Ives's art songs (ie., march and ragtime rhythms, quotes of well-known secular and sacred melodies) also connect his contributions to those of such other revered popular songwriters in the American tradi tion as Jerome Kern, Cole Porter and George Gershwin. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 332 This dissertation has also stressed that the great diversity of texts chosen by Ives resulted in a startling variety of compositional procedures. This in turn, pre sents a rather daunting task for the musical analyst. In many of Ives's eclectic songs, more than one type of the oretical methodology may be needed in order to attain any analytical clarity. In addition, the analytical methods which are appropriate for Ives's early works are quite different than those necessitated by his mature pieces. In fact, one is able to trace the evolution of Ives's compositional language through the song because they form a genre which spans without interruption, his entire com posing career. Ives's song repertoire may also serve as a launching point for the understanding and appreciation of his cham ber music and orchestral works. First of all, as previ ously cited, some of the songs were originally conceptu alized as purely instrumental works (ie., The Rainbow). It has also been mentioned that Ives arranged several of his works for voice and piano into symphonic pieces for chorus and orchestra (ie., The New River). Secondly, the evolution of Ives's compositional techniques in his songs are paralleled throughout his life by the similar experi mental procedures that were utilized in his instrumental works. One notable case in point might compare The Cage and the orchestral work, Central Park in the Dark, which Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 333 were both completed in 1906, the year of Ives's emancipa tion from tonality. Both works achieve tonal neutraliza tion due to chromatic chordal backgrounds. The Cage pre sents perfect fourth and perfect fifth chords which pro ceed chromatically in parallel motion. A whole-tone har mony constructed from three different augmented chords occurs near the end of the song. Additionally, The Cage is notable for its melody derived from whole-tone scales. Central Park in the the Dark presents an atonal chromatic string orchestra background in which augmented triads, fourth chords, and fifth chords also proceed in parallel motion. In fact, Ives's break from tonality is decidedly expressed in the first measure of the composition where he states all twelve tones of the total chromatic in two whole-tone hexachords played by the strings. The reli ance on whole-tone scales and the technique of chromatic parallelism for the purpose of tonal neutralization is evident in both Central Park in the Dark and The Cage. Also, both works maintain freedom from metric regularity. The Cage avoids a reliance on the barline and in Central Park in the Dark Ives utilizes asymmetrical phrase struc tures in the string background. In addition to his genius as a musical innovator, Charles Ives made a great spiritual contribution to Amer ican music. His respect and admiration for sacred music (ie., Protestant hymns and gospel camp meeting songs) is Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 334 frequently revealed through musical quotation. Moreover, the philosophical and nature songs challenge the listener to see a person's soul not as a separate entity from all other things in the world, but instead as part of a great Over-soul connecting all life. This concept is, perhaps, best presented in a significant transcendentalist essay which served as a specific source of inspiration for Mr. Ives - Nature (1836) by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ives's patriotic spirit and hope for the future of America is best illustrated by his sentimental, politi cal and common man songs. Ives saw the seeds of greatness in each common fellow and always held the hope that the United States could ultimately evolve through such per sonages into a society of true equality with a diminish ing need for avarice. To many minds in a cynical society like that of the present day, Ives's societal ideals may sound like a fanciful search for Shangri-La. However, Ives's trusting and optimistic frame of mind was shared by many Americans who felt that out of the First World War would come a greater potential for good among all na tions. These ideals, ethics, and sentiments are prevalent throughout Ives's song repertoire and his writings. In the author's opinion, Charles Ives should be remembered as both a fine Yankee patriot and an esteemed composer who made a remarkable contribution to the repertoire of American song. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Bibliography Abrams, M.H. The Mirror and the Lamp: Romantic Theory and the Critical Tradition. New York: Oxford Univer sity Press, 1953. Alexander, Michael J. The Evolving Keyboard Style of Charles Ives, (from Outstanding Dissertations in Music From British Universities, John Caldwell,ed.) New York & London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1989. Bader, Yvette. "The chamber Music of Charles Edward Ives," The Music Review. Vol.33, No.4, Nov. 1972. pp.292-299. Ballantine, Christopher. "Charles Ives and the Meaning of Quotation in Music," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.LXV, No.2, April 1979. pp.167-184. Banfield, Stephen. (Book Review) "An Ives Celebration: Papers and Panels of the Charles Ives Centennial Fes tival Conference," Music and Letters. Vol.LX, No.2, April 1979. Baron, Carol K. "Dating Charles Ives's Music: Facts and Fictions," Perspectives of New Music. Vol.28, No.l, Winter 1990. pp.20-51. Bell, A. Craig. The Lieder of Brahms. Darley, Harrogate, Yorkshire: The Grian-Aig Press, 1979. Bellamann, Henry. "Charles Ives: The Man and His Music," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.XIX, No.l, January 1933. pp.45-58. Block, Geoffrey. Charles Ives: A Bio-Bibliography. New York, London: Greenwood Press, 1988. Blom, Eric(ed.) Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians Fifth Ed. Vol.IV.New York:St.Martin's Press Inc. 1955. Blum, Stephen.(Book Review)"Charles Ives and His America. By Frank R. Rossiter,"The Musical Quarterly. Vol.LXII, No.4, October 1976. pp.597-603. -------- "Ives's Position in Social and Musical History," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.LXIII, No.4, Oct. 1977. pp.459-482. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 336 Boatwright, Howard."Ives' Quarter-Tone Impressions," Per spectives of New Music. Vol.3, No.2, 1965. p.22-31. Brown, Calvin S. Music and Literature: A Comparison of the Arts. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 1948. Burkholder, J. Peter. Charles Ives: The Ideas Behind the Music. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1985. -------- " 'Quotation' and Emulation: Charles Ives's Uses of His Models," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.LXXI, No.l, 1985. pp.1-26. Cage, John. A Year Front Monday: New Lectures and Writ ings by John Cage. Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1963. pp.36-42. Carter, Elliott."The Case of Mr. Ives; Winter Notes,"Mod ern Music. Vol.XVI,No.3, March-April 1939. pp.172-176. -------- "Ives Today: His Vision and Challenge," Modern Music. Vol.XXI, No.4, May-June 1944. pp.199-202. -------- "Shop Talk By An American Composer," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.XLVI, No.2, April 1960. pp.189-201. Charles, Sydney Robinson. "The Use of borrowed Material in Ives' second Symphony," The Music Review. Vol.28, No.2, May 1967. pp.102-111. Chase, Gilbert (ed.). The American Composer Speaks: A Historical Anthology, 1770-1965. Louisiana State Uni versity Press, 1969. pp.105-106. --------America's Music: From the Pilgrims to the Pre sent. Revised Third Edition. Urbana and Chicago, Uni versity of Illinois Press, 1987. pp.432-442. Christy, Arthur. The Orient in American Transcendental ism: A Study of Emerson, Thoreau and Alcott. New York: Octagon Books, Inc. 1963. Citkowitz, Israel. "Experiment and Necessity - New York, 1932," Modern Music. Vol.X, No.2, Jan.- Feb. 1933. pp.110-113. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 337 Clark, Sondra Rae. "The Element of Choice in Ives's Con cord Sonata," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.LX, No.2, April 1974. pp.167-186. Clarke, Henry Leland. (Book Review) "Essays Before a Sonata and Other Writings by Charles Ives," The Musi cal Quarterly. Vol.L, No.l, January 1964. pp.101-103. Cooke, George Willis. John Sullivan Dwight: Brook-Farmer, Editor, and Critic of Music. New York: Da Capo Press, 1969. Copland, Aaron. "One Hundred and Fourteen Songs," Modern Music. Vol.XI, No.2, Jan.- Feb. 1934. pp.59-64. Cowell, Henry. "American Composers. IX, Charles Ives," Modern Music. Vol.X, No.l, Nov.- Dec. 1932. pp.24-32. -------- American Composers on American Music: A Sympo sium. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1933. -------- Charles Ives and His Music. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1955. -------- New Musical Resources. Second Edition. New York: Something Else Press, Inc., 1969. pp.41-42. de Lerma, Dominique-Rene. Charles Edward Ives, 1874-1954: A Bibliography of His Music. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1970. Desmond, Astra. "The Songs," in Grieg: A Symposium. Ger ald Abraham, editor. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press Publishers, 1948. pp.71-92. Eiseman, David. "George Ives as Theorist:Some Unpublished Documents," Perspectives of New Music. Fall-Winter 1975.. pp.139-147. Elkus, Jonathan. Charles Ives and the American Band Tra dition: A Centennial Tribute. University of Exeter, American Arts Documentation Centre, 1974. Evans, Edwin. Handbook to the Vocal Works of Brahms. London: W. Reeves, 1912. pp.204-205. Feder, Stuart. Charles Ives "My Father's Song": A Psycho analytic Biography. New Haven & London: Yale Univer sity Press, 1992. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 338 Feder, Stuart."Decoration Day:A Boyhood Memory of Charles Ives," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.LXVI, No.2, April, 1980. pp.234-261. Frothingham, Octavius Brooks. Transcendentalism in New England: A History. Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith Publishing, 1965. Gillespie, Don. C. "John Becker,Musical Crusader of Saint Paul," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.LXII, No.2, April 1976. pp.195-205. Gilman, Albert and Brown, Roger. "Personality and Style in Concord," in Transcendentalism and Its Legacy. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1966. Goss, Madeleine. Modern Music Makers: Contempory Ameri can Composers. New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, Inc., 1952. pp.15-28. Hansen, Peter S. An Introduction to Twentieth Century Music. Second Edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1967. pp.86-87. Herrmann, Bernard."Four Symphonies by Charles Ives," Mod ern Music, Vol.XXII, No.4, May-June 1945. pp.215-222. Hitchcock, H. Wiley. "Charles Ives's Book of 114 Songs," in A Musical Offering: Essays in Honor of Martin Bern stein. New York: Pendragon Press, 1977. pp.127-135. ------- Ives. New York, London, Toronto: Oxford Univer sity Press, 1977. ------- ed., An Ives Celebration: Papers and Panels of the Charles Ives Centennial Festival-Conference. Ur- bana, Chicago, London: University of Illinois Press, 1977. ------- Ives: A Survey of the Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. -------- Music in the United States: A Historical Intro duction. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersy: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969. pp.155-163. Holmes, Oliver Wendell. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1967. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 339 Hopkins, Vivian C. Spires of Form: A Study of Emerson's Aesthetic Theory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1951. Howard, John Tasker. Our American Music: A Comprehensive History from 1620 to the Present. Fourth Edition. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1965. pp.368-370. -------- Our Contemporary Composers: American Music in the Twentieth Century. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1941. pp.241-247. Ives, Charles Edward. "Children's Day at the Camp Meet ing," Modern Music. Vol.XIX, No.2, Jan.- Feb.1942. pp.115-117. -------- Essays Before a Sonata and Other Writings. How ard Boatwright, editor. New York: W.W. Norton, 1962. Kirkpatrick, John (ed.). "Preface," in Ives: Eleven Songs & Two Harmonizations. New York: Associated Music Pub lishers, Inc. pp.iii-iv. ------- A Temporary Mimeographed Catalogue of the Music Manuscripts of Charles Edward Ives, compiled by John Kirkpatrick, New Haven,Library of the School of Music, 1960. Lippman, Edward Arthur. "Symbolism in Music," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.XXXIX, No.4, 1953. pp.554-575. Lovejoy, Arthur. The Reason, the Understanding, and Time. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1961. pp.88-89. Lowens, Irving. Music and Musicians in Early America. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1964. pp.249-271. Marshall, Dennis. "Charles Ives's Quotations: Manner or Substance?" Perspectives of New Music. Vol.6, No.2, 1968. pp.45-56. Mason, Daniel Gregory. Contemporary Composers. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1929. pp.252-254. Matthiessen, F. 0. American Renaissance: Art and Expres sion in the Age of Emerson and Whitman. London, New York: Oxford University Press, 1941. pp.10-11. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 340 May, Henry F. The End of American Innocence: A Study of the First Years of Our Own Time, 1912-1917. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959. pp.45-46. Mead, Rita H. "Cowell, Ives, and New Music," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.LXVI, No.4, Oct.1980. pp.538-559. Mellers, Wilfrid. Music in a New Found Land: Themes and Developments in the History of American Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. pp.38-47. Meyer, Alfred H. "Yaddo - A May Festival," Modern Music. Vol.IX, No.4, May-June 1932. pp. 172-176. Miller, Perry. The Transcendentalists: An Anthology. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1967. pp.247-324. Muser, Frani.(Two Book Reviews) "Charles Ives Remembered: An Oral History by Vivian Perlis," "Charles Ives and the American Mind by Rosalie Sandra Perry," The Musi cal Quarterly. Vol.LXI, No.3, July 1975. pp.485-490. Osterweis, Rollin G. Three Centuries of New Haven, 1638- 1938. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953. pp.347- 348. Perison, Harry."The Quarter-Tone System of Charles Ives," Current Musicology. No.18, 1974. pp.96-99. Perlis, Vivian(ed.). Charles Ives Remembered: An Oral History. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1974. Perry, Bliss(ed.). The Heart of Emerson's Journals. Bos ton and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1926. Perry, Rosalie Sandra. Charles Ives and the American Mind. Kent,Ohio:The Kent State University Press, 1974. Phelps, William Lyon. Some Makers of American Literature. Boston: Marshall Jones Company, 1923. Pierson, George Wilson. Yale College: An Educational His tory, 1871-1921. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1952. pp.350 and 363. Rosenfeld, Paul. Discoveries of a Music Critic. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1936. pp.315-324. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 341 Rosenfeld, Paul. "Ives' Concord Sonata," Modern Music. Vol. XVI, No.2, Jan.-Feb. 1939. pp.109-112. -------- Musical Impressions: Selections from Paul Rosen feld 's Criticism. Herbert A. Leibowitz, editor. New York: Hill and Wang, 1969. pp.239-248. Rossiter,Frank R. Charles Ives and His America. New York: Liveright, 1975. Rublowsky, John. Music in America. New York: Crowell- Collier Press, 1967. pp.155-166. Rusk, Ralph L. The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1949. p.279. Sablosky, Irving. American Music. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1969. pp.155-163. Salzman, Eric. Twentieth-Century Music: An Introduction. Third Edition. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersy: Prentice Hall, 1988. pp.134-137. Samson, Jim. Music in Transition: A Study of tonal expan sion and atonality, 1900-1920. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1977. pp.67-68. Seeger, Charles Louis. "Grass Roots for American Com posers," Modern Music. Vol. XVI, No.3, March-April 1939. pp.146-149. Semler, Isabel Parker. Horatio Parker: A Memoir for His Grandchildren Compiled from Letters and Papers. New York: Da Capo Press, 1973. Slonimsky, Nicolas. Music Since 1900. Fourth Edition. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971. pp.549 and 1318-1319. Smith, David Stanley. "A Study of Horatio Parker," The Musical Quarterly. Vol. XVI, No.2, April 1930. pp.153- 160. Solomon, Maynard. "Charles Ives: Some Questions of Vera city," Journal of the American Musicological Society. Vol.XL, No.3, Fall 1987. pp.443-469. Starr, Lawrence. "Charles Ives: The next hundred years - towards a method of analysing the music," The Music Review. Vol.38, No.2, May 1977. pp.101-111. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 342 Starr, Lawrence. "Style and Substance: Ann Street by Charles Ives," Perspectives of New Music. Spring-Sum- mer 1977. pp.23-33. --------A Union of Diversities: Style in The Music of Charles Ives. New York: Schirmer books, A Division of Macmillan, Inc. 1992. Sterne, Colin. "The Quotations in Charles Ives's Second Symphony," Music and Letters. Vol.Lll, 1971. pp.39-45. Stevenson, Robert. Protestant Church Music in America: A Short Survey of Men and Movements from 1564 to the Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc. 1966. pp.118-129. Stone, Kurt. "Ives's Fourth Symphony: A Review," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.LII, No.l, Jan. 1966. pp.1-16. Thompson, Randall. "The Contemporary Scene in American Music," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.XVIII, No.l, Jan.1932. p.14. Thomson, Virgil. American Music Since 1910. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970. pp.22-39. Thoreau, Henry D. Walden. Princeton: Princeton Univer sity Press, 1971. Tick, Judith. "Ragtime and the Music of Charles Ives," Current Musicology. No.18, 1974. pp.105-113. Van Doren, Mark. Henry David Thoreau: A Critical Study. New York: Russell & Russell, 1916. pp.94-97. Walker, Alan. An Anatomy of Musical Criticism. London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1966. p.97. Wallach, Lawrence. "Charles (Edward) Ives," in Dictionary of Contemporary Music. John Vinton, editor. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1971. pp.358-361. -------- (Book Review) "Charles E. Ives: Memos. Edited by John Kirkpatrick," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.LX, No.2, April 1974. pp.284-290. Ward, Charles W. "Charles Ives's Concept of Music," Cur rent Musicology. No.18, 1974. pp.114-119. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 343 Waters, Edward N. "John Sullivan Dwight, First American Critic of Music," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.XXI, No.l, Jan. 1935. pp.69-88. Westrup, J.A. and Harrison, F.Ll. "Charles Edward Ives," in The New College Encyclopedia of Music. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.,Inc.,Revised edition 1976. p.287. Wooldridge, David. Charles Ives: A Portrait. London:Faber and Faber, 1975. Yates, Peter. Twentieth Century Music: Its Evolution from the End of the Harmonic Era into the Present Era of Sound. New York: Pantheon Books, A Division of Random House, 1967. pp.252-270 and 345-346. Yellin, Victor Fell. "Reviews of Records, Ives: The Celestial Country," The Musical Quarterly. Vol.LX, No.3, July 1974. pp.500-508. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 344 Discography Roberta Alexander (sop.), Tan Crone (piano). Etcetera KTC 1020, (CD), 1984, (26 songs). Roberta Alexander (sop.), Tan Crone (piano). Etcetera KTC 1068, (CD), 1989, (28 songs). Helen Boatright (sop.), John Kirkpatrick (piano). Over tone 7, 1954, (24 songs). Jan De Gaetani (sop.), Gilbert Kalish (piano). Nonesuch 71325, (17 songs). Jan De Gaetani (sop.), Gilbert Kalish (piano). Bridge BCD 9006, (CD), (9 songs). Henry Herford (baritone), R. Bowman (piano). Unicorn- Kanchana DKPCD 9111, Vol.I (CD),and DKPCD 9112, Vol.II (CD). Distributed by Harmonia Mundi, (3/92). Michael Ingham (vocal), H. Brant (piano). American Camer- ata Recording ACR 10306, (CD). Nicholas Isherwood (bass), E. Watson (piano).Accord-Musi- disc 20181-2. Radiana Pazmor (sop.), Genevieve Pitot (piano) and Morde- cai Bauman (baritone), Albert Hirsh (piano). Reissued by Composers Recordings,Inc.,(tape cassette) CRI 6014. (1934 Pazmor recording of General William Booth Enters Into Heaven. 1939 Bauman recording of six Ives songs.) Samuel Ramey (bass), W. Jones (piano). Argo 433 027-2zh, (CD), (6/92). Carolyn Watkinson (contralto), Tan Crone (piano).Etcetera KTC 1007, tape cassette, (5 Ives songs and works by other composers.) Albany Records has released a complete recording of 153 of the songs, 1992-1994; Dora Ohrenstein (sop.) and Phillip Bush (piano), Mary Ann Hart (mezzo-sop.) and Den nis Helmrick (piano), Paul Sperry (tenor) and Irma Valle- cillo (piano), William Sharp (baritone) and Steven Blier (piano). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Analytic Index Abide With Me 48-50 A Christmas Carol 56-57 Aeschylus and Sophocles 128-130 A Farewell to Land 109-113 Afterglow 123-125 Allegro 295-296 The All-Enduring 193 from Amphion 117-118 An Election 168-173 A Night Song 259 A Night Thought 116-117 Ann Street 320-326 An Old Flame 252 A Scotch Lullaby 290-294 A Sea Dirge 108-109 A Song for Anything 269 A Son of a Gambolier 190-193 At Parting 249 At the River 73-75 At Sea 246 August 263-264 Autumn 261 Berceuse 29-32 The Cage 138-142 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Camp-Meeting Canon Chanson De Florian Charlie Rutlage The Children's Hour Christmas Carol The Circus Band The Collection Cradle Song December Disclosure Down East Dreams Duty Elegie Evening Evidence Far From My Heav'nly Home Flag Song Forward Into Light General William Booth Enters God Bless and Keep Thee Grantchester The Greatest Man Harpalus His Exaltation 346 64-71 250-251 40 200-207 236-241 83-84 288-289 80-81 302-303 266-267 83 278-282 252-254 217-218 39-40 267-268 121-122 50-54 295-296 61 Into Heaven 193-200 254-255 284-286 210-213 258-259 71-72 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Housatonic at Stockbridge 106-108 Hymn 81-82 Ich Grolle Nicht 16-24 Ilmenau 277 Immortality 145-148 from The Incantation 101-103 The Indians 247-248 In Flanders Fields 179-182 In the Mornin' 83-84 The Innate 75-78 In Summer Fields 5-15 In the Alley 234-236 I Travelled Among Unknown Men 276-277 "It Strikes Me That. . 168-173 Karen 233-234 La Fede 155-156 The Last Reader 245-246 The Light That Is Felt 62-63 Like a Sick Eagle 219-222 Lincoln, the Great Commoner 207-210 Luck and Work 215-216 Majority 182-186 Maple Leaves 126 Marie 234 Memories: a) Very Pleasant; b) Rather Sad 295 Mirage 154-155 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 348 Mists 241-245 My Native Land 270-271 Nature's Way 121-122 Naught That Country Needeth 59-61 The New River 173-177 from Night of Frost in May 259-260 No More 255 Old Home Day 278-284 The Old Mother 33-37 Omens and Oracles 255-257 "1,2,3." 319-320 The One Way 327-329 On the Antipodes 131-132 On the Counter 313-315 from Paracelsus 156-157 Peaks 132 Pictures 277-278 Premonitions 149-153 Qu'il m'irait bien 37-38 The Rainbow 126-128 Religion 80-81 Remembrance 246-247 Requiem 223-225 Resolution 287-288 Rock of Ages 48-50 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 349 Romanzo di Central Park 308-311 Rosamunde 24-29 Rough Wind 118-120 The See'r 315-317 September 264-266 Serenity 78-80 The Side Show 317-319 Slow March 232-233 Slugging a Vampire 311-313 Soliloquy 142-145 Song for Harvest Season 54-56 Songs My Mother Taught Me 289-290 The South Wind 118 Spring Song 260-261 from The Swimmers 103-106 Tarrant Moss 311-313 There is a Certain Garden 269-270 There is a Lane 257-258 They Are There 177-179 The Things Our Fathers Loved 297-302 Thoreau 122-123 Those Evening Bells 296-297 To Edith 233 Tolerance 214-215 Tom Sails Away 92-97 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 350 Two Little Flowers 248-249 Vita 217-218 Vote for Names 163-167 The Waiting Soul 63-64 Walking 271-276 Walt Whitman 153-154 Waltz 251-252 Watchman! 71-73 Weil' auf mir 41-42 West London 287 When Stars are in the Quiet Skies 250 Where the Eagle 61-62 The White Gulls 97-101 The World's Highway 294 The World's Wanderers 115-116 Yellow Leaves 132 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
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Gilman, Janet Lynn
(author)
Core Title
Charles Ives - master songwriter: The methods behind his madness
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Doctor of Philosophy
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Music - Music Theory
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University of Southern California
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literature, American,music,OAI-PMH Harvest,philosophy
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English
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Moore, Robert (
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