Matthew Guilford, blogging bass trombonist for the National Symphony Orchestra (and currently on tour), writes about Charles Ives and his Three Places in New England:
The finale movement of Three Places in New England, The Housatonic at Stockbridge, is a poignant music picture of this river. The strings provide the constancy of flowing water motion, with a rich C# major chorale from the winds and brass murmuring in and out of the texture, suggesting bends and dips in the river’s course. It sounds eerie, dark and beautiful to me. I can actually see the color of the water from listening to the music-it is a blue/gray shade so dark that it is almost opaque. The water is cold as well, the kind that would numb your ankles if you waded in longer than a few minutes. Only great music can paint these pictures for you.
Ives deserves better PR.
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