Download 6 Charles Ives

Charles Ives
When one thinks of Charles Ives one would I think usually conjure up musical
images of dissonance, polytonality, and extreme 20th century modernism, a far cry from
ancient chant. However there is a strong link to the traditions of the past even in the
works of this great 20th century American composer. We know that Ives borrowed from
the wealth of American folksong but there is also evidence to suggest that his musical
interests and influences even extend further back then that. What, you may ask, can
possibly be drawn from the music of Ives that in any way shows a relationship to
plainsong? Well, the answer is twofold. Before we explore the specifics let me just say
that influences can be implied as well as overt. For instance, we may not find an exact
quotation of Gregorian chant in Ives’ music but does that mean that the influence don’t
exist, perhaps not. The influences of many of the great European romantic and classical
composers is a given in Ives’ music. Associations have been made to Dvořák, Brahms,
and Tchaikovsky, and he has used direct quotes from Beethoven, Bach, and Wagner in
his various works. In her article, Medieval and Renaissance Techniques in the Music of
Charles Ives: Horatio at the Bridge? The author Ann Besser Scott suggests that Ives in
fact was heavily influenced in his actual compositional techniques by the early Medieval
and Renaissance composers who as we know were essentially still working with chant
and chant-based melody. These influences were she says inspired in Ives when as a
student at Yale he attended lectures on early polyphonic music given by Horatio Parker.
“…various sorts of stratified or layered textures
often found in Ives’s music. The effect of layering results
from a variety of means, including polytonality (as in the
“Variations on America”); the superposition of markedly
contrasting harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic styles (as in
“The Unanswered Question”); and hierarchal orderings of
multiple diverse elements, ranging from ostinato
backgrounds to sharply profiled foreground themes (as in
“Central Park In The Dark”). But we associate one
technique in particular with Ives; the contrapuntal
combination of different melodies (as in “Putnam’s
Camp”). This kind of layered texture, created by the
stacking of equal but heterogeneous elements into an
aggregate, is closely related to that found in the thirteenth
century motet, a genre featuring the successive addition of
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one or more melodies to a preexistent tenor.” (Scott. 1999.
448-489)
Herein then lies the first of the two ways in which Ives pays tribute to ancient music, in
his handling of various voices using a kind of layering approach. One sees this approach
in all of the earliest polyphonic music. The works of Léonin and Pérotin immediately
come to mind as well as that of Tallis. Long before reading Scott’s article I had often
speculated on how there are striking similarities in the way music was arranged and
composed in the 11-14th centuries, this layering of independent voices (chants or chant
derived), and the way music is now composed using sequencing programs and computers. Over and over we see the past becoming the future. Of course this is not a direct
link to chant per se but in these earliest days of polyphonic music chant was still very
much the “stuff” of which these compositions is comprised. She goes on to illustrate how
Ives’s orchestrating techniques parallel earlier polyphonic efforts giving numerous
musical examples she then make this rather interesting observation:
“Again, medieval and Renaissance music provides a
precedent: the use of secular tunes as the structural foundation for
sacred motets and masses. Is Ives’s use of, say, “Camptown
Races” to generate much of the Second Symphony’s final
movement any more stylistically irreverent than Dufay’s use of Se
la face ay pale or L’homme armé as the structural basis of a mass
setting?” (Scott. 1999. 454)
This I think is a rather interesting observation, perhaps there is not much different
between the composers of then and those that engage the craft today? Ives was fond of
voicing chords in fourths and open fifths; again this is a sonority we associate with the
early polyphonic chant arrangements or organum. It seems reasonable to suspect Ives’s
interest in early music may very well have been piqued by the lectures by Parker that he
attended. Luckily the notes from these lectures exist in tact today and from them we can
make some substantial deductions.
“ he (Parker) actually devoted fully half of the year
to music up to the time of Palestrina. Beginning with a
discussion of ancient and non-western musics, Parker
moved on to Greek and church modes; the work of such
medieval theorists as Hucbald, Guido d’Arezzo, Marchetto
and Franco of Cologne; music of the troubadors and
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Minnesingers; the so-called Netherlands school, including
Dufay, Ockegham, Josquin, and Willaert; and late sixteenth
composers, such as Palestrina, Lasso, and Byrd. (Scott.
1999. 459)
I personally am not at all surprised that Ives’s had been exposed to this sort of knowledge
but it is an interesting fact that we can indeed document that he did study this early
music. In fact I’d venture to guess that probably most or not al of the important composers while perhaps not consciously aware of the influence that the first 10 centuries of
Western music had on their work that on some level it certainly is present. The Parker
notes also illustrate that he in fact used chants, organum, and the music of Josquin and
others as actual musical examples in the teaching of this course. The most interesting
snippet from these notes from Parker’s lectures, at least in-so- far as this paper is
concerned, has to be this one:
“Parker acknowledges that “Gregorian chant is the
central point from which all the older compositions of the
Catholic Church proceeded and upon which they were
founded. The classic forms of the old masses, motets, etc.
including the works of Palestrina and his school, sprang
from the Gregorian chant and owed their very existence to
it.” (Scott. 1999. 465)
I couldn’t have found a more supportive paragraph for the premise of this paper had I
bought and paid for it! There in black and white for all to read this one concise paragraph
sums up the totality of my thoughts and suppositions since my initial involvement with
this study some 8 months or so ago. If he can extend this train of influence to Palestrina
well then it is accepted knowledge that from Palestrina comes Baroque music and beyond
I think we can without worry extend that lineage to the present time for the continuum is
there, it is all part of one central thread that thread being the ancient chant. In a very real
sense all music from ancient Greece where the basic musical system was invented, to
Ives is one continuous flow or one tradition from which all the various styles emanate.
Scott shows us quite clearly how some of unconventional (for the time) techniques can be
traced to early music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance and how he probably
discovered these techniques as a result of the lectures he attended in Parker’s classroom.
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Earlier I mentioned that there was two ways in which Ives’s works may have been
influenced by early Western forms; let’s look at the second now.
We’ve already examined how Bach used plainsong as the basis for his
harmonized chorales, well Scott raises the point that since Ives was indeed employed as a
church organist at various times in his life, (actually the only time he actually made a
living in music was as a young man playing the organ in various churches), these
experiencee as a church organist were indeed an influence on his music writing. Peter J.
Burkholder wrote an entire article on this very topic which he titled; The Organist in Ives.
From that article we find this interesting paragraph:
The effects on Ives’s music of his long experience
with the organ were profound and wide-ranging. An
examination of music he played, music he composed for or
with the organ, and pieces he adapted from his own organ
works demonstrates that he was deeply influenced both by
his practical knowledge as an organist and by the repertory
he performed. This influence worked through habits and
ways of thinking native to church organists of his time and
through individual traits of particular pieces he played. It
is revealed in turn through a surprising variety of features
characteristic of his music, including its relation to
improvisation, difficulty of execution, employment of novel
sounds to represent extramusical events, approach to
orchestration, prominent textural and dynamic contrasts,
spatial effects, innovative harmonies, mixture of classical
and vernacular traditions, polytonality, use of fugue and
pedal point, frequent borrowing of hymn tunes, and use of
cumulative form. Although these features may see to have
little in common, in each Ives extends elements from the
tradition of organ music. Even what seems most radically
new has roots.” (Burkholder. 2002. 254.)
So Ives’s familiarity and time spent with the organ as a working organist influenced his
writing but is this really supportive of the premise that chant was a major influence as
well? I speculate that yes it does indeed imply that very thing due to the strong chant
influence that chant had on that champion composer of music for organ, J.S. Bach. This
has already been shown in the earlier section on Bach in this paper.
Ives was a skillful organist even in his teens, as
shown by his practice regimen, repertory, and youthful
success. A childhood acquaintance later recalled that he
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was “a kind of boy prodigy” as an organist. By age
thirteen, he was studying Bach’s Tocatta, Adagio, and
fugue in C Major, BWV 564, renowned for it’s long and
difficult passages for pedals.” (Burkholder. 2002. 264.)
Still is there any concrete evidence that at any time Ives was a student of Bach’s chorales
for these indeed are the pieces we know to have a direct connection to chant.
“ He (Ives) was influenced by characteristics in the
music he played that go the organ as a n instrument and
relate to it’s literature: fugue, pedal point, and elaboration
of hymns (often chant derived.) These standard elements of
the organ repertory led Ives in new directions, including
the mixture of classical and vernacular traditions,
polytonality, harmonic experimentation, and formal
innovation.” (Burkholder. 2002. 289.)
The passing down of tradition is something we see throughout the history of Western art
music and even though time may tend to blur the associations they nevertheless do exist.
Still there is no clear-cut evidence that Ives had anything more then casual involvement
with the Bach harmonized chant or chorales.
“it is unlikely that Ives played Bach chorale settings
I his work as a church organist; they were not standard
fare in the churches for which he played, and none was
included in the two volumes of Bach organ music he
owned. But he may have encountered some in his studies at
Yale, in Parker’s lectures on music history or in the
counterpoint class he took as a junior, which included
“accompanying chorales and canti firmi.” Whatever Ives’s
experience with Bach chorale settings, he knew organ
music by nineteenth-century composers who used methods
similar to Bach and to his later cumulative-form
movements. (Burkholder. 2002. 289.)
It is valid then, I think, to surmise that on some level Ives’s music was certainly
influenced by early chant both through his study in his student years with Horatio
Parker and through his professional experiences as a church organist.
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