The Things Our Fathers Loved

The Things Our Fathers Loved is a particular favorite of mine. I have the score if anyone is interested in having a look. I think this piece alone encapsulates a great deal of what Ives is known for. By that, I mean, the composition itself is idiomatically Ivesian, as well as the subject/topic of the composition, i.e. the structure and content.

1. Quotation is the most obvious perhaps, and that includes both direct quotation/allusion to specific tunes or pieces, as well as stylistic quotation, i.e. the conjuring of an impression that we associate with a particular venue or genre. Examples: mm. 7.4-9, the text "Aunt Sarah humming Gospels" is set to the tune of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing—a direct quotation.



Also, m. 13, the text "The town's Red, White and Blue" is set to part of the patriotic tune of Rally 'Round the Flag.



Interestingly, Ives is using tunes that we associate with "humming Gospels" and "Red, White and Blue" flags.

Stylistic quotations include places like mm. 5.4-7.3, where the text, "I hear the organ on the Main Street corner" is set to a strikingly different rhythmic pattern, from the preceding or following material—a hear it as more lilting and for me in conjures a sense of band concerts in the park around the turn of the century. Also, "The village cornet band, playing in the square," set in a much more miltaristic style than other passages of the song.



2. Some edgy dissonances. Clearly this in not his most obscure or crunchy piece, nor is it one of his entirely traditional, 1st symphony sorts either. One of the features I have always found most striking is the unexpected imitation at the very beginning. The voice begins in a very diatonic, and acceptable fashion that seems to imply C major, but within moments the piano is imitating the gesture up a major third. It doesn't really have time to imply a key, but if I had to pick, I'd say E major, perhaps. At the moment the piano enters (on a G#), it is creating a tritone with the voice above and the base pedal below, so it seems a little off-center from what the listener expects.

Interestingly, G# is exactly where the voice ends the song, and the whole last phrase of text sounds to me like the fulfillment of the hint given by the piano in m. 2. The the melodic gesture of that last phrase is, of course, the same as that at the beginning in the voice and imitated in the piano at a pitch level a whole step above the voices first iteration and a whole step below the piano's.



I suppose that's enough theory for now, though, eh? All that to say that within this one piece, Ives does indeed play the chameleon! Within three bars he reference something new and, in effect, switches "colors."