aworks :: "new" american classical music

"Gyp the Blood" or Hearst!? Which is Worst?! (1912). Charles Ives

For some reason, I'm listening to multiple versions of Charles Ives' "Gyp the Blood" or Hearst!? Which is Worst?!. The Hearst in question is newspaper magnate and California castle owner William Randolph Hearst. Gyp the Blood, aka Harry Horowitz, was an early 20th century New York City gang leader ultimately executed after a trial hyped in Hearst's newspapers.

The Ensemble Modern recording makes the musically odd sound forceful and enchanting.

This is also part of Ives' Set No. 2. The Ives Descriptive Catalogue says Gunther Schuller edited and arranged this music but substituted Ives' Ann Street for Gyp the Blood.

As for why Ives, I've spent the last month listening to Radiohead (before and after the subdued but excellent UC Berkeley concert) and to Kieran Hebden's electronic Four Tet (after adding to the collection). Returning to more traditional sounds, for me anyway, has been problematic e.g. Aaron Copland's music in comparison sounds lifeless and monochromatic. I know the music is worthy but it's like watching John Ford's Stagecoach again after seeing Deadwood. Fortunately, Charles Ives' work is audacious enough to compete.

Like a Sick Eagle (1913-17). Charles Ives

On December 10, 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. Article 5 states "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". Wikipedia

...But Cheney doesn't exactly inspire confidence at this point, does he? What I fear most is not just the next attack, but the response to it; and how, bit by bit, the West and our enemies may become gradually more and more alike...But the center is weak. Andrew Sullivan

Intimidation has not turned back one transcendent thought or one valuable idea from going where it was destined to go, and doing what it was destined to do. It may be temporarily delayed, or its species may revert only to propagate in a related form, but brute force (the world's greatest idiot) has never kept the germ from its divine order. A black eye never reformed a drunkard, a czar never stopped a free thought. Charles Ives

We don't yet live in interesting times but man, the times they are a confusin'...

• Personally, for this month anyway, it's summer, life is good, there are three or four World Cup soccer matches every day and despite a first game debacle, the US could still make it to the next round tomorrow. And yet, contemporary news makes it clear we torture, they torture, and others used to torture. I'm not a conscientious objecting purist but how did we lose the moral high ground?
  
• Although (or because) I grew up in a family of old-fashioned Indiana conservatives, I don't generally hang out around smart Gay Republicans. And yet I am closely following Andrew Sullivan's blog. Something about bloggers who also write for national publications -- gotta respect that. I do have a fantasy that Sullivan can be the tipping point and become our generation's Walter Cronkite by moving beyond the Republican Party. Or to phrase it differently, our short-term fate is in Republican hands and I believe there are enough traditional, responsible Republicans to think all is not lost. But time is running out...
• I also don't know what to make of the Charles Ives' quote. On the one hand, he's become my "desert island" composer. His work is so sophisticated, interesting, and pleasurable that I will never get enough of it. On the other hand, his comments in general and his music are rather "in your face." I won't call him or his music "brutish" but it definitely has an air of brashness, albeit in a humane way. It pains me to say this but I predict his music will be held in less esteem twenty years from now, similar to the cooling of avant-gardism between say 1922 and 1942 (John Cage notwithstanding). One can only hope it's a temporary lull.
• Finally, I already miss the "good ol' days" when Ligeti (and modernism) was alive...

youtube: john kerry steps up versus 'stay the course'. the dark side part one, courtesy dick cheney. "classic" torture from the original mess (video not safe for humans).
wikipedia: the phrase 'you are either with us, or against us' (as used by such notables as bush, jesus christ, anakin skywalker and indiana's current republican governor)
answers.com: like a sick eagle overview
aworks: charles ives
fourthturning eras: unraveling crisis
how to save the world: dave pollard

Serenity (1909). Charles Ives /memorial day 2006/

Today honors, among others, the five Gable brothers. In World War II, three served in the armed forces and returned, one stayed behind to take care of the Indiana family farm, and one served and didn't return. May they and their parents rest in peace.

From Ives' setting of John Greenleaf Whittier's The Brewing of Soma:

Drop thy still dews of quietness,  
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess  
Thy beauty of Thy peace.

wikipedia: indiana memorial day world war ii golden gate national cemetary (in san bruno)
serenity on free napster: thomas hampson jan degaetani dawn upshaw

Washington's Birthday (1909). Charles Ives /cowell in prison/

The latest American Music has an article by Leta Miller and Rob Collins titled The Cowell-Ives Relationship: A New Look at Cowell's Prison Years. The thesis of the article is that even though Henry Cowell was imprisoned for a sexual act with a minor, Charles Ives, despite his anger and distress, may have still wanted to continue their friendship. There is a hard-to-decipher note written by Ives to Cowell indicating he didn't know what to say or do about the situation but wished him well for the future.

I don't know what to make of this. What I found more interesting in the short note was Ives describing his own travails (circa 1937; he lived another seventeen years):

As far as music is concerned, I'm through--can't see it, can't hear it well, & can't play it except both hands or both feet.

The article also has Cowell writing to Nicolas Slonimsky on making the best of the circumstances while serving in San  Quentin prison:

"I have gotten in the score of his [Ives'] Washington's Birthday Symphony movement, and have been demonstrating it to a class of advanced students. They were mystified but highly interested."

Many of Cowell's friends wrote letters supporting his release, including from Ives. In 1940, Cowell was parolled and in 1942, received unconditional clemency from the California governor.

Memories (1897). Charles Ives

Primi Divi on the recent Gerald Finley recital:

...but Mr Finley’s selection included a number of the more accessible songs, “Memories”, for example, perfectly captured the excitement and anticipation of waiting for an opera to begin: a feeling likely to be well-known to Mr Finley’s fans (this song, incidentally, was one of Mr Finley’s encores in his last recital)...

The fun part of the song:

We're sitting in the opera house, the opera house, the opera house
We're waiting for the curtain to arise with wonders for our eyes

And the adagio part, which makes this song so bipolar:

It is tattered, it is torn
it shows signs of being worn
It's the tune my Uncle hummed from early morn

The song was first performed in 1949.

By the way, I finally bought a copy of 114 Songs by Charles Ives (they were out of the Stravinsky Refresher Score for the Overly Modern). If I'm exiled to the proverbial desert island, I'll be ready....

They Are There! (1942). Charles Ives

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?

The Housatonic at Stockbridge (1908-12). Charles Ives

  The Standing Room posts about a Berkshire trip and visits a legendary place as well as the Housatonic River. The Housatonic at Stockbridge is one of Ives' Orchestral Set No. 1: Three Places in New England. Scott Mortensen writes:

Ives began the work in 1908 immediately after returning from his honeymoon, where he had seen the Housatonic River with his new bride. In 1911,  three years after the initial sketch, Ives sketched the whole movement. In 1912, Ives scored the movement (for full orchestra), considerably simplifying the texture.

Various The Housatonic at Stockbridge streams (no pun intended) here. Wikpedia describes the Housatonic River (including a note about PCB pollution) here. And did you know Stockbridge was the setting for Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant and is home to the Norman Rockwell museum? American culture, one and all...

Variations on "America" (1891-92, 1902). Charles Ives

I somehow had never heard this piece until just now. I'm ambivalent of Ives' use of popular songs and melodies in his compositions but America the Beautiful works well as a series of variations, in this case performed on piano.  It's on a CD Patriotism, Diversity, and the Pioneer Spirt: An Introduction to the 19th- and Early 20-Centruy American Music along with Stephen Foster, Scott Joplin (played by Roger Shields), Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, etc. There are no liner notes and looking at the back of the CD, this must be a re-packaging of recordings on Vox.

I'll also link to the recent NY Times article "A Slice of Americana with a Big Scoop of Ives," where Anne Midgette reviews works by Marcus Maroney (blog here), Anna Weesner, Ingram Marshall, and David Rakowski:

The concert was called "Out-of-Towners," but it could have been called "Americana for Our Time." It consisted of new and recent work by four non-New York American composers performed by members of the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble. (Held on Saturday afternoon at the Chelsea Art Museum, it was the last in the group's "Second Helpings" series.) Its loudest statement was "Charles Ives lived" - the pieces, while not exactly derivative of Ives, were certainly evocative of him.

I'll also quote from a rather creative blog post by Bob Merkin where he, among other ideas, talks about good prospects for the music of Ives:

Ives would give the bitter angry Yankee finger to American Patriotism at this sad and pathetic moment in America. Thank God for the Future. Ives, with Sinclair's dedicated and brilliant creative assistance, has a chance to bring true and the best Patriotism -- Lincoln's, Jefferson's, Col. Shaw's -- back to the hearts of Americans gathered around the parlor piano. The flatscreen High Def TV will increasingly be: OFF as America learns again to sing The Songs Our Fathers Loved. I do so wish I had studied the piano. But I can sing Ives, in the Parlor, in the shower.

oh the PEOPLE! NOT! the politicians goddam thieves

He also rants on the use/misuse of the American flag in the name of patriotism. Although I display the flag for holidays and see that flickr American flag photo feed everyday (picture of an American flag in an English phone booth here), I also downplay the patriotic aspect on the aworks site -- no red/white/blue color theme nor even any flag. Given that up to half of aworks readers are not from the US, I figure they don't need an emphatic display of American boosterism (even if I am subtly advocating for American music). Still, I do take the American flag seriously, and I think it is partly because as a child, I would visit my Uncle on Memorial Day in Indiana (while my Dad and brother would attend the Indy 500, I was too young), and help him place American flags on graves of veterans.

And with respect to Merkin's high def tv comment, we all celebrate patriotism in our own way. Since I have no high-def tv to turn off and I certainly can't sing and there is no one around this morning who deserves "the finger," instead I'm off to SF to see if I can find a CD of band arrangements of Ives' music.  A genuinely patriotic activity even if not particularly authentic...

Good program notes of Variations on "America" here:

From the perspective of Ives's later work, Variations on "America" stands out for its decorous, almost pedantic good behavior. This may seem a strange assertion, given its rather cavalier treatment of the main theme, a melody sacrosanct even in Ives's day. But compared to the boldly experimental approach to musical form characteristic of all of his mature work, this piece, with its clear invocation of the centuries-old structure of introduction, theme, and variations seems positively reactionary

The Alcotts (1915). Charles Ives /band arrangement/

The Masked Mayhem lists his desert island CD compilation, including a band arrangement of The Alcotts (which intrigues me). The list looks fine, well, except for the Stravinsky and the Kansas... Ok, I'll admit that I have recently been listening to Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet that was on that Gordon Getty CD.

This reminds me of one more musical moment on my recent trip where I was listening to an MP3 of Roger Shields playing The Alcotts while walking through the United terminal in Chicago. I don't really use music for specific "mood management" but in this case, it felt exultant. Not a word normally associated with O'Hare Airport...

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.