Listen to Ives

After carefully listening to the recordings on e-reserve I have to shamefully admit how truly ignorant I was of Ives’ music. My biased opinion of his style was completely uninformed and my textbook knowledge of his compositions did not do him any justice.
Hearing Chris play the recording of Ives’ earlier church music in class this week, sparked an instant interest. It was not like anything I’d EVER imagine Charles Ives composing. It was, well in a single word, beautiful. As Burkholder states, Ives wrote for his intended audience. And that makes a lot more sense now knowing what his immediate surroundings were and his primary musical influences.
But the most impactful element of the several pieces on reserve to me, is the commonality of patriotism that resounds throughout the works. Whether in text or musical quotation, I get the distinct impression that Ives was a true American in the most loyal and sincere sense of the word.

In listening to the recordings, I decided to take a different approach. I actually listened to the works before researching any musical or historical elements thereof. The results of which were exactly what I suspected. In my listening I tried to hear elements of compositions with which I was more familiar and link the two.
General William Booth Enters Into Heaven reminds me of Paul Hindemith’s later Concerto’s in which there is often little or no collaboration between the piano and the instrument/voice. The only hint that I had that it was truly Ives, was the use of quotation and the familiar march feel in the opening. (Morgan’s 'Anthology of Twentieth Century Music', gives a thorough analysis of this)
Majority was the stereotypical Charles Ives I have come to know in my previous fleeting studies of twentieth century music. The arm clusters were a dead give away but the beautiful sonorous ending caught me by surprise
Things Our Fathers Loved was another surprise auditory experience for me. It was unusually easy to listen to, with no extreme range. But again, the familiar sense of sentimentality and patriotism with the obvious quotation of Amazing Grace, was very Ives-like.
They Are There! This was a tough one. But recalling the quote from class “Don’t pay too much attention to the sounds. If you do, you may miss the music”, quoted by Ives’ father, helped to put it into perspective and reiterated the concept that Ives was truly a “musical chameleon
And finally, Three Place in New England. This reminded me a lot of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in feel and character. Here Ives used extensive quotations and although they sound very familiar, I am not exactly sure what they were (besides the obvious Yanky Doodle).

Any thoughts on these would be greatly appreciated…