Full Description
Charles Ives is widely regarded as the first, great American composer of classical music. But listening to his music is an adventure-hearing how a piece begins may not prepare you for what comes next, or how it ends. Knowing one Ives piece may not prepare you for another.Award-winning music historian J. Peter Burkholder provides an introduction to the composer's diverse musical output and unusual career to readers of any background, discussing about thirty of the best and most characteristic pieces framed with biographical sketches. Burkholder shows how Ives mastered each tradition he encountered: from American popular music to classical European genres, from Protestant church music to his own unique experimental idiom, and interweaving elements from all these traditions in the astonishing works of his maturity. Burkholder provides compelling and accessible walkthroughs of select pieces, bringing the music alive and guiding listeners to a newfound appreciation of the composer. Ultimately, it reveals that there is an Ives piece for everyone
Contents
ForewordAcknowledgmentsTimelineIntroductionChapter 1: A Most Unusual Career, and a Recital of SongsMemories * The Circus Band * Walking * The Cage * Down East * General William Booth Enters into HeavenChapter 2: An American Musical ChildhoodHoliday Quickstep * Variations on "America"Chapter 3: ApprenticeshipFeldeinsamkeit * Ich grolle nicht * Symphony No. 1 in D MinorChapter 4: Weaving the ThreadsString Quartet No. 1 * Psalm 67 * Yale-Princeton Football GameChapter 5: Seeking and FindingCentral Park in the Dark * The Unanswered QuestionChapter 6: Synthesizing American and European MusicSymphony No. 2Chapter 7: A New FormSymphony No. 3: The Camp Meeting * The Violin SonatasChapter 8: American HolidaysA Symphony: New England HolidaysChapter 9: American HistoriesOrchestral Set No. 1: Three Places in New England * Orchestral Set No. 2Chapter 10: American LiteraturePiano Sonata No. 2: Concord, Mass., 1840-1860Chapter 11: Transcendent JourneysString Quartet No. 2 * Symphony No. 4Chapter 12: Collecting Songs, and Late Works114 Songs * Psalm 90EpilogueSelected ReadingSelected ListeningAbout the Author
