Piano Sonata No. 2, Concord, Mass., 1840-60 (1915). Charles Ives /love-hate/

Not surprisingly, the music of Charles Ives elicits different reactions...

my new obsession: charles ives. i'm in love with his piano sonata no. 2 "Concord, Mass., 1840-1860" it's beautiful.  Piano Fish

Should be learning all about Charles Ives, or doing financial aid crap, or practicing for voice lessons tomorrow, but I don't feel like it. ______stan___

The Residents loved Sun Ra. That fact, all by itself, isn't very remarkable: they've name-checked hundreds of musicians and composers, from Gershwin to Charles Ives to Michael Jackson. Popular Music Musings

I like unconventional, startling musical sounds, not the typical classical music boredoms of hundreds of years ago. Why slavishly mimic the past?
But classical music radio stations, even from university campuses, virtually ignore modern composers like Iannis Xenakis, Krzysztof Pendereki, Edgard Varese, [...] Alan Hovhaness, Morton Feldman, Charles Ives, and Arvo Part. ArtTestExplosion

It’s Symphony No. 3 ("The Camp Meeting") by Connecticut State composer Charles Ives. He’s a 20th Century composer, but he had been dead almost 40 years when they made him State composer. And I just read that this symphony won a Pulitzer Prize, which I suppose means that he could have hung with Seymour Hersh. After-Word

I will, however, admit to being less than thrilled by the Charles Ives piece Thanksgiving Day and/or Forefathers' Day. Fortunately, the Ives piece opened the performance and Hahn and the rest of the ASO's performance more than made up for it. Southern Appeal

So conditions were perfect for a walk in the park after dark (thanks, Charles Ives). Mingle Freely

But the real kicker was The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives. who knew that weirdo songwriter could write genius orchestral music? well, not me. at least until now. !!GO AMERICA!! Gratefull

Me, I walked at lunch playing back Ann Street in my head, finally realizing it qualifies as the second perfect piece by Charles Ives (after The Unanswered Question). Amazon stream here.

And via Green Tunes, a book on Amazon by Timothy A. Johnson (Baseball and the Music of Charles Ives: A Proving Ground):

Through intelligent discussion of Ives's musical compositions combined with solid research on the composer's lifelong love of the American pastime, Ives's pioneering spirit and unique creativity are highlighted most clearly in this fascinating work.

Comments

[Heather]

Count me in the "love him" camp. I'm so glad Ann Street grabbed your attention. I played it a few years back in a flurry of recitals and concerts, and while I can not stop raving about the piece, most people acknowledge it with a funny, perplexed look on their faces. "Oh, you mean that jokey little song? Uh, yeah, I guess it's ok. It's really short, right?" Yes, I must bring Ann Street up to snuff again, along with The Se'er.

[sfmike]

The Ives Fourth Symphony, live, at least when Tilson Thomas conducted it in San Francisco, is one of the great symphonies of all time, period. And the fact that it's nuttier than hell is only helping it to age well. I don't listen to much solo piano, because, well, I need to save something for my old age.