I hope your Charles Ives birthday celebration went well today...
Recently, Kyle Gann has had some important and surprising posts on Charles Ives:
Of course, Ives was actually a Wilsonian Democrat whose ideas were too radical even for 1930s Democrats, let alone today’s: he favored a world government to prevent wars (the League of Nations being a first step), a cap on annual salaries of executives, national phone voting for national issues to more directly register the national will, and a prohibition on any rich person having the right to interfere in government. Oct 19
Ives assigned the royalties for his Third Symphony to Lou Harrison, who conducted its premiere in 1946 (and gave him half of the Pulitzer Prize money he won from the work). I don’t know how “out” Lou was by that point, but I find it difficult to believe that Ives was in complete ignorance of his sexual orientation. Oct 17
When we’re through this cursed war,
All those dynamite-sneaking gougers,
Making slaves of men (God damn them),
Then let all the people rise and stand together in brave, kind humanity. (from Ives' They Are There!) Oct 14
For my celebration, I just bought the Gerald Finley Ives recording on Hyperion titled A Song - For Anything. By the way, anyone who sings both Ann Street and opera by John Adams is by definition exceptional.
Ives birthday posts: - Jeremy Denk, Jerry Bowles, Voices, and MCI Journeys
Gann PostClassic/Ives comment: David McIntire
New doctoral dissertation on Ives' use of hymn tunes in his Third Symphony (via Bluescreen): Mark Alan Zobel
Since it's still Thursday here on the West Coast, I get the last word on Ives (unless any Hawaiian classical bloggers want to chime in). For today anyway, what's the last word that best captures Charles Ives and his works?
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