{"id":1160,"date":"2009-01-02T22:11:38","date_gmt":"2009-01-03T03:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=1160"},"modified":"2018-08-10T00:48:10","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T04:48:10","slug":"charles-ives-the-universe-symphony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=1160","title":{"rendered":"Charles Ives: the \u201cUniverse Symphony\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>

Charles Ives on the Outside<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a>

and on the Inside<\/p><\/div>\n

We\u2019re an odd bunch, those of us who have the taste for the eccen\u00adtric music of Charles Ives, the ama\u00adteur com\u00adpos\u00ader and insur\u00adance sales\u00adman who inde\u00adpen\u00addent\u00adly devel\u00adoped (ahead of every\u00adone else) vir\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly every musi\u00adcal inno\u00adva\u00adtion of the 20th cen\u00adtu\u00adry. Unrec\u00adog\u00adnized and unper\u00adformed dur\u00ading most of his life\u00adtime, he com\u00adposed bizarre con\u00adcoc\u00adtions of polyry\u00adthms, poly\u00adtonal\u00adi\u00adty, quar\u00adter tones, and tone clus\u00adters, includ\u00ading aleatoric ele\u00adments, long before any\u00adone else dreamed of doing so. It was half a cen\u00adtu\u00adry, for exam\u00adple, before his unbe\u00adliev\u00adably com\u00adplex fourth sym\u00adpho\u00adny was per\u00adformed, and it still sound\u00aded \u201cfutur\u00adis\u00adtic\u201d to those who final\u00adly got to hear it. But, at the same time, Ives\u2019 music was extreme\u00adly Amer\u00adi\u00adcan, sat\u00adu\u00adrat\u00aded with pop\u00adu\u00adlar melody, brash\u00adness, and unabashed sen\u00adti\u00adment. It\u2019s real affin\u00adi\u00adty is not with the anti\u00adsep\u00adtic \u201cart music\u201d of the Euro\u00adpean schools, but with the exper\u00adi\u00admen\u00adtal jazz and rock music that lat\u00ader emerged from the Amer\u00adi\u00adcan chop suey.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ives did not pro\u00adduce much music after 1911. Few of his orches\u00adtral works were ever per\u00adformed, and his health was pre\u00adcar\u00adi\u00adous. But he did work con\u00adtin\u00adu\u00adous\u00adly on a last sym\u00adpho\u00adny, which was to devel\u00adop and extend ideas in the fourth. This is the \u201cUni\u00adverse Sym\u00adpho\u00adny\u201d, a work which fol\u00adlows twen\u00adty simul\u00adta\u00adne\u00adous musi\u00adcal lines; each mov\u00ading in a sep\u00ada\u00adrate meter, only coin\u00adcid\u00ading on down\u00adbeats eight sec\u00adonds apart. The ambi\u00adtion and com\u00adplex\u00adi\u00adty of such a work beg\u00adgars descrip\u00adtion. It was meant to be a sort of sci\u00adence fic\u00adtion\u00adal, meta\u00adphys\u00adi\u00adcal mag\u00adnum opus, some\u00adthing like Olaf Sta\u00adple\u00addon\u2019s fic\u00adtion in music. Its three move\u00adments are labeled: Part 1, \u201cPast: For\u00adma\u00adtion of the waters and moun\u00adtains\u201d, Part 2, \u201cPresent: Earth, evo\u00adlu\u00adtion in nature and human\u00adi\u00adty\u201d, Part 3, \u201cFuture: Heav\u00aden, the rise of all to the Spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal\u201d. Ives described it to friends as \u201ca striv\u00ading to \u2026 trace with tonal imprints the vast\u00adness, the evo\u00adlu\u00adtion of all life \u2026 from the great roots of life to the spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal eter\u00adni\u00adties, from the great inknown to the great unknown.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The work was not quite com\u00adplet\u00aded: the man\u00adu\u00adscript left var\u00adi\u00adous seg\u00adments unassem\u00adbled. It was not until the 1990\u2019s that musi\u00adcians worked up the nerve to assem\u00adble and per\u00adform it. Three sep\u00ada\u00adrate recon\u00adstruc\u00adtions were made, by David Gray Porter in 1993 (par\u00adtial), Lar\u00adry Austin in 1994, and John\u00adny Rein\u00adhard in 1996. The record\u00adings have always been too expen\u00adsive for me to afford, though I\u2019m a pret\u00adty devot\u00aded Ivesian. I recent\u00adly obtained a copy of the Lar\u00adry Austin ver\u00adsion, and I saved it to be my first new lis\u00adten\u00ading item for 2009. From what I\u2019ve read, the Austin and Rein\u00adhard ver\u00adsions are very dif\u00adfer\u00adent. I have the impres\u00adsion that the Rein\u00adhard ver\u00adsion is now gen\u00ader\u00adal\u00adly favoured. I can only quote this from a review by James H. North:<\/span><\/p>\n

Austin\u2019s ver\u00adsion runs for 36 min\u00adutes, Rein\u00adhards for at least 65. The gap lies most\u00adly in Renhard\u2019s \u201cPulse of the Cos\u00admos,\u201d half an hour of pure per\u00adcus\u00adsion, much of it a slow\u00adly beat\u00ading sin\u00adgle drum. In the Austin ver\u00adsion, that music-\u201cLife Pulse Pre\u00adlude\u201d- is over\u00adlapped at the first Earth Chord, a rough equiv\u00ada\u00adlent of Reinhard\u2019s \u201cEarth Alone,\u201d and con\u00adtin\u00adues through\u00adout the \u201cPast\u201d sec\u00adtion; it is also faster, of which more below. Both divide the score into mul\u00adti\u00adple orches\u00adtras: Austin calls then Heav\u00adens Orches\u00adtras A, B, C and D; Life Pulse Per\u00adcus\u00adsion Orches\u00adtra; Rock For\u00adma\u00adtion Orches\u00adtra; and Earth Chord Orches\u00adtra. Rein\u00adhard names the Earth, Heav\u00adens, and Pulse orches\u00adtras. Both ver\u00adsions of the Pulse music have com\u00adplex rhyth\u00admic ele\u00adments we now asso\u00adciate with min\u00adi\u00admal\u00adism, espe\u00adcial\u00adly Steve Reich: instru\u00adments in the per\u00adcus\u00adsion orches\u00adtra oper\u00adate at dif\u00adfer\u00adent meters, com\u00ading into phase and then drift\u00ading out again. There are also micro\u00adton\u00adal fea\u00adtures, which can make the low brass seem bad\u00adly out of tune \u2014 in both record\u00adings \u2013 until one gets the drift of what is going on.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll try to obtain the Rein\u00adhard ver\u00adsion to com\u00adpare the two. But I must say that the Austin ver\u00adsion in no way dis\u00adap\u00adpoint\u00aded me. I lis\u00adtened to the whole thing in a vir\u00adtu\u00adal trance. It seemed to me that the piece was start\u00ading from the point that the enig\u00admat\u00adic fourth sym\u00adpho\u00adny end\u00aded, tak\u00ading Ives on a kind of 2001: A Space Odyssey jour\u00adney into alien land\u00adscapes. Ive\u2019s musi\u00adcal jokes and pen\u00adchant for quo\u00adta\u00adtions were left behind, and what was left was a very seri\u00adous beau\u00adty, albeit the cold kind of beau\u00adty that a physi\u00adcist can see in a mod\u00adel of the first instant of cre\u00adation, or that I\u2019ve expe\u00adri\u00adenced walk\u00ading on the shores of the Arc\u00adtic Ocean.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re an odd bunch, those of us who have the taste for the eccen\u00adtric music of Charles Ives, the ama\u00adteur com\u00adpos\u00ader and insur\u00adance sales\u00adman who inde\u00adpen\u00addent\u00adly devel\u00adoped (ahead of every\u00adone else) vir\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly every musi\u00adcal inno\u00adva\u00adtion of the 20th cen\u00adtu\u00adry. Unrec\u00adog\u00adnized and \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[947,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c-listening","category-cr-listening-2009"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1160"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8110,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1160\/revisions\/8110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}