Ives & Contemporaries

During the early portion of the 20^th century, there were a group of composers known as the “American Five”. The American Five was the American answer to (read: shameless Eagleland ripoff of) other composer groups of the time, most notably Russia’s “The Five”. The five men were a group of modernist composers, determined to break from European tradition to find a decidedly American style. What these men came up with has left a legacy whose effects are still being felt to this day. Atonalism is rampant in each of their catalogues, as well as aleatory elements, Serialism, Polytonality and Polyrhythm, among other elements. This group consisted of John J. Becker, Henry Cowell, Wallingford Riegger, and the two men this post will be detailing today, Charles Ives and Carl Ruggles.

Each member of the American Five had their own methods of composing, and these two men are no exception. Ives employed mostly polyphony in his works while Ruggles was contempt with non-serialistic dissonance. But there are times when the two men’s’ works converge and sound almost indistinguishable from one another. Such is the case with their tone poems: Ives’ Three Places in New England and Ruggles’ Sun Treader.

One does not normally associate Charles Ives with Patriotic Music. And it’s true: one would not expect to hear something like this:

in the American songbook. But this poem, Ive’s first major Orchestral Set, is still as American as Apple Pie because the piece is a Melting Pot of American folk tunes.

The 1^st movement, simply titled “The ‘St.-Gaudens’ in Boston Common (Col. Shaw and his Colored Regiment)”, pays tribute to the African Americans who served for the Blue Coats during the Civil War, specifically to the 54^th Massachusetts Regiment. He does this by inserting references and paraphrases to Negro Spirituals like “Massa’s in the Cold Ground” and “Old Black Joe”.

Even if one doesn’t recognize the tunes presented, anyone with a good enough knowledge of Spirituals would recognize the influence. Another way this movement pays tribute to the era is through patriotic songs of the time, like “Marching through Georgia” and “The Battle Cry of Freedom”, among others:

Of course Fort Wagner was held by the Confederates and Negro suffering still flourished, both represented through the polytonicism and chromaticism found in this movement.

On a side note, Ives was very focused on Politics (though whether or not he was Pro-Civil Rights is not known). In fact, he lobbied for a proposition for a 20^th Amendment that would give the People more say in the government. He was unsuccessful, but one can sympathize with his plight, especially when one considers the actual 20^th Amendment to the Constitution.

The second movement, “Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut”, is also militaristic: in the form of a military band, that is. This pays tribute to the 4^th of July Parades of Ives’ time, borrowing from such blatantly American tunes as “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean” and “Yankee Doodle” among others, in addition to the previously mentioned tunes.

What truly makes this a standout Charles Ives composition is its chaotic use of polyphony. In order to simulate the several Bands one typically finds in a Parade, Ives scores the movement so that various tunes are played at the same time, often in different tempos, keys, and even time signatures. A particularly standout example occurs at 3:44, with a conglomerate of tune playing at the exact same time (ex. The Strings playing “The Battle Cry of Freedom”, the Brass joining in with “Hail Columbia”, etc.)

The final movement, “The Housatonic at Stockbridge”, is based on only one tune, the hymn “Dorrnace” (isolated recording unavailable). It is also the most lyrical of the movements, and not just because it was arranged as a song in 1921. The piece has almost a Debussey-esque air to it, most notably in the Muted Violins throughout the movement and in the Violas and English Horn, suggesting a choir singing the above hymn. Further suggesting this Angelic setting is the fact that this movement is the only one with a set tonic, in Db Major. There’s hardly any dissonance in this movement until near the three minute mark, which is a conglomerate of the other two movements that builds up into a climax that ends the piece in an open cadence in the sub-dominant.

And that’s kind of the underlying motive that links these mind of what links these ovements: each one tells a story. Ives weaves together several musical devices in each movement to create an episode, each one united under a unifying narrative. This is something actually common of a lot of Modernist music: many of them are like paintings: they tell stories mostly without relying on written text. And Ives was by no means the only one to do this.

Carl Ruggles, another member of the American Five, was also a painter, and not just a literal painter, either:

His most famous work, “Sun Treader”, based on a single line from the Robert Browning poem “Pauline” (Sun-treader, light and life be thine forever), this piece captures the essence of the poem flawlessly. The piece is jarring, it’s frustrating, and it is restless, just like the narrator of the poem.

http://intercapillaryspace.blogspot.com/2007/04/robert-brownings-pauline.html

In the above blog post, the poem has been interpreted as being about the narrator’s inability to focus on the narrative of poetry. Ruggles’ use of his trademark dissonance is also a good way to visualize the narrator’s internal conflict. In the poem, the Narrator’s mind is restless, always going from one idea to another. Such is what Ruggles also suggests, with various leaps and falls and wild shifts in dynamics scattered throughout the piece. All these elements come together to create a narrative that is shared with the poem on which it is based. Sun Treader: a poem as unforgiving as a star in the sky.

Charles Ives and Carl Ruggles were friends in real life, even though their composition styles usually differed. They were mostly ignored throughout their lives by a nation who desired only the status quo. Their compositions were performed only either extremely late into their lives or after those lives were done. But they didn’t care about what anyone said about them. None of the American Five did. They composed what was in their hearts and none of them was going to let anyone else get to them.  And it was their compositions that would shape American Classical music to this very day. The American Five: their presence was overlooked, but their legacy cannot be overstated.