The Classical Music Book

255

Henry Cowell, who worked with Ives,

was one of the most innovative of the

experimental composers, as evidenced

by his Mosaic Quartet (1935).

See also: St. Matthew Passion 98–105 ■ Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune 228–231 ■ Le Sacre de printemps 246–251 ■

A Child of Our Time 284–285 ■ Appalachian Spring 286–287

MODERN 1900 –1950

music—Ives began working on his

gigantic Fourth Symphony, the

apotheosis of his entire output. The

influence of the Transcendentalists

continued here, as Ives based the

second movement (“Comedy”) on

Hawthorne’s short story “The

Celestial Railroad”—a reworking of

John Bunyan’s allegorical work, The

Pilgrim’s Progress. “The Celestial

Railroad” tells of a railway journey

from the chaos and mundaneness

of everyday life.

Layered complexity

Ives’s multilayered composition

style was at its best in his Fourth

Symphony, in which simultaneous,

cacophonous eruptions of sound

place the listener alongside the

pilgrims as fellow travelers inside

that train. Ives also utilized lighter,

“offstage” sounds—ethereal flutes,

a few strings, harp, a quarter-tone

piano, and women’s voices. In the

second movement, Ives gathered

a variety of sources to make his

famous layers: hymns, and gospel

tunes, brass bands, and popular

songs to represent small-town life;

as well as atonality, polyrhythms,

and grinding dissonances to

convey Hawthorne’s “iron horse”

locomotive heaving into motion.

The first movement, scored for a

chamber orchestra, begins boldly—

maestoso, played with majesty and

triumph—before moving into a

quieter passage. The first two

movements premiered in New York

in 1927 and were the only parts of

his great symphony that Ives heard

performed in concert. The simple

third movement (the fugue) and the

fourth, a rhythmically challenging

piece that required an extra

percussion ensemble, did not

premiere until 1965, 11 years

after the composer’s death. ■

Charles Edward Ives Born in Danbury, Connecticut, in

1874, Ives was schooled by his

father in band music, church

hymns, and the music of J.S. Bach.

After four years of musical studies

at Yale, he joined the Mutual Life

Insurance Company and remained

in the insurance business for the

next 31 years. Ives believed that

his insurance work was an

important life experience that

contributed to his compositions.

Ives also worked part time

as an organist in New York City

and spent every spare moment

composing. In 1908, Ives married

Harmony Twichell. Her influence

resulted in an outburst of

experimental compositions,

mostly written before 1915.

Many of Ives’s pieces, however,

did not reach a wider audience

until later in his life, after hand

tremors and diabetes had forced

him to retire from composition.

He died of a stroke in 1954.

Other key works

1904–1913 Holidays symphony

1906 The Unanswered Question

1910–1914 Three Places in

New England

1911–1915 Concord Sonata

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