A Union of Diversities: Style in the Music of Charles Ives

This chapter introduces works by Lyell Cresswell. His use of the voice as showcased in this chapter is highly imaginative and often demanding. The refreshingly uninhibited musical style defies easy categorization, but displays signs of an iconoclasm developed by Charles Ives. Cresswell achieves its effect by relatively simple means, including repetition. All the songs are brief yet sharply contrasted, and they convey a heady religious fervour that carries all before it. The third perhaps requires the most vocal virtuosity, and the sixth needs considerable stamina to bring it off, especially in some crucially loud spoken (shouted) passages. The final movement is a test of quick rhythmic articulation. The piano’s contribution is brimming with energy and drama, responding and adapting adroitly to the texts’ changing moods.

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Carter, Elliott (Cook Jr.) (1908–2012)

Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism ◽

10.4324/9781135000356-rem25-1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Brenda Ravenscroft

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

English Literature ◽

Modern World ◽

Musical Language ◽

Charles Ives ◽

Harvard College ◽

Elliott Carter ◽

Gustav Holst ◽

Nadia Boulanger ◽

Walter Piston

Born in 1908 into a wealthy New York City family, Elliott Carter enjoyed a cosmopolitan childhood, spending time in Europe and learning French at an early age. The composer Charles Ives mentored the young Carter, taking him to concerts in New York and encouraging his developing interest in music. Carter’s childhood, characterized by immersion in a culturally enriched environment and exposure to the modern world, provided the elements from which his artistic aesthetic and musical language would later be forged. When Carter entered Harvard College, he focused his studies on English literature, Greek, and philosophy, although musical activities continued in the form of lessons with Walter Piston and Gustav Holst, as well as singing with the Harvard Glee Club. Carter completed a master’s degree in music at Harvard in 1932, after which he moved to Paris to study composition with Nadia Boulanger for three years. He received a doctorate in music from the École Normale de Musique in Paris in 1935.

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A Descriptive Catalogue of the Music of Charles Ives (review)

Notes ◽

10.1353/not.2000.0045 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 57 (1) ◽

pp. 114-115

Author(s):

David Nicholls

Keyword(s):

Charles Ives

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Carl Ruggles: Two Early Works and ‘Sun-Treader’

Tempo ◽

10.1017/s0040298200031491 ◽

1980 ◽

pp. 3-12

Author(s):

David Babcock

Keyword(s):

American Association ◽

New Music ◽

Charles Ives ◽

Henry Cowell ◽

American Counterpart ◽

Pan American ◽

Close Friendship ◽

The Rich ◽

Active Membership

In his excellent book Charles Ives and His America (Victor Gollancz Ltd., London, 1976) Frank R. Rossiter presents the most thorough psychosociological study yet made of the life and times of this frequently misunderstood composer—dismissed as a hack by many, elevated to cult figure status by others, realistically appraised by comparatively few. Several chapters examine Ives's personal and musical relationships with other advanced composers working in America during his lifetime. Though he had virtually stopped composing by the 1920's and early 30's, Ives helped finance concerts for the Pan American Association of Composers—whose more active membership included Edgar Varèse, Wallingford Riegger, Henry Cowell, and Carl Ruggles—and the publication of much of their music in Cowell's New Music edition. Thus he became acquainted with these composers, in whose work is found ‘the American counterpart to the rich experimentalism of the Viennese school’. His relationship with them ranged from bitter antagonism (of Varèse) to close friendship (with Cowell and Ruggles). Before the recent ‘complete’ recording of his music, Ruggles remained comparatively unknown even in America, except to those fortunate enough to stumble across his name and music via Ives.

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Charles Ives and the American Mind.

American Literature ◽

10.2307/2925357 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 47 (3) ◽

pp. 458

Author(s):

David Robinson ◽

Rosalie Sandra Perry

Keyword(s):

Charles Ives ◽

American Mind

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