Little known piano works of Charles Ives

[dfrankjazz]

Fellow ivory freaks, you may enjoy this in-depth master class on the piano works of the Great Ives. Free.

[ted]

I thought I had deja vu here, and indeed I had. How many times have you posted this about Ives Dave ? Not that he isn't worth repeating I suppose. I can only post what I said in replying seven years ago.

As I implied in my response to this on Pianoworld, your videos on anything are always worth my while downloading and watching slowly in detail on the television. I have recordings of much of Ives, and was attracted to his music over forty years ago, especially the first piano sonata. I don't listen to him much now, but I don't listen to much of anybody so the observation is academic.

For me the big lesson of Ives, his life and music, is that we should all be ourselves, and only ourselves, and have the courage to create the sounds we enjoy regardless of fame, money, ought tos, shoulds or social consequences. The impression I get is that he created his music because it was the sort of music he enjoyed; he didn't write it out of homage to famous precursors or in consequence to fashionable intellectual speculations and theories, and certainly not to appear iconoclastic. He just played the sounds he loved and bugger what people thought. I like that. I think it shows in his music and I think it is the way we should all create.

I wouldn't have got on with Ives the man, his jingoistic philosophy and such repel me, even Elgar came to loathe what his Pomp and Circumstance represented, but once we get past a certain point in life the composer as a man is irrelevant. All that matters is the sound, and Ives created plenty of wonderful sound.

[dfrankjazz]

agreed, this wild genius was himself 100%

[georgey]

Ives (b. 1873) knew that he would not be able to earn a decent living for his family composing in the dissonant style.  He decided to become an actuary and cofounded the Ives & Myrick insurance agency in New York City.  As a millionaire in the days when a million dollars meant something, he was able to pursue his hobby without caring about financial matters.

Just going from memory.  I may be off here by a few years: It is interesting to compare his early D major string quartet with that of Schoenberg (also born 1873).  Both his and Schoenberg’s string quartets were written in about the same year maybe around 1895 when both were about age 21.  Both quartets were written in the musical vocabulary of Brahms and both are in the key of D major.  Brahms did hear Schoenberg’s work and praised it.  Of course, Ives and Schoenberg knew nothing of each other at that age.  Both composers then went on to develop their own style of dissonant music and atonalism.  Ives was completely isolated and on his own in his development.  I have not read of any comparisons of these 2 quartets.  I personally find Ives quartet to be of higher musical value, although both are fine works that demonstrate an early mastery of the old style.  Schoenberg became the more important composer as judged by history.

Ives wrote in a variety of styles.  Here is the work that I love the most of his.  It is one of the most moving pieces ever written to me and is in a much less dissonant style.  I wish he wrote more along these lines.

Ives Symphony #3.

[georgey]

Hi. Quite a while ago (when I posted my prior post here), I listened to and enjoyed your presentation here!  I might be wrong, but I think I remember you saying that Ives was responsible of the start of use of Actuarial mortality tables.  I am a retired actuary.  We never learned about the history of actuarial tables in our actuarial exams, but I looked this up just now.  When the Actuarial Society of America was founded in 1889, British tables were still used extensively by actuaries in the United States.  Ives was still in Yale until 1898 and studying music.  Mortality tables were used in US as early as 1865 from what I see. 

I apologize if I misunderstood what you said about Ives and actuarial tables.  If Ives was responsible for the use of certain actuarial tables, can you please supply where you found this info?  Thanks.