Did Ives ever record anything else? On any instrument? (I'd especially love to hear him at the organ!). If so, where can I get these recordings today? The Charles Ives Society website is as clear as mud in this regard... I can find no mention of Ives' own recordings anywhere on there.
This is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard, and it does not sound disjointed, dark or aggressive as do too many other performances that I have heard by others of his music.
I love him more than every other USAmerican composer. He got personality, sensibility, and soul. He is not chaotic and not noisy. This peace is a good prove of it.
I think this recording is good in that it showed pianists that every part of this piece doesn't have to be exact (as in rhythm-wise and other things), but we should remember that composers are often the worst interpreters of their own music...
@drwolfe3fyzn What is that supposed to mean? I know two composers who can barely play their own works (one cannot play his more difficult works), but when they do play what they can of their own stuff, it is still correct... the phrasing is right, the dynamics and tempo(s) are right, etc. etc. so that even if they hit some wrong notes, you can still learn a great deal from their performance. Even a poor recording by the composer (and this is a GREAT one!) is far, FAR better than none at all!
No other composer could have captured the American spirit as well as Charles Ives. His music is exactly like our country: a melting pot of all kinds of styles and ideas that unite to create a very clear and beautiful narrative.
To understand Ives' concepts is to embrace Duchamp, Johns, Warhol and Rauschenberg. As far as his concepts in music construction, an argument could be made that Dvorak took what he heard about Ives from Ives teacher to Europe influencing Schoenberg. There are very good biographies on Ives that hint on it. Doesn't really matter, because we know Ives was working within a 12 tone structure long before anyone else. Ives over-rated? I think quite the opposite.
I like to think of him as the Walt Whitman of music. The first American of his idiom to embrace his own heritage and break all the rules to create something unique and stirring:)
As "Charlie" said to some self-annointed critic hissing during a performance,he said,"Stand up and listen to this music like a man!" If you don't know anything about Ives,its your loss,he preceded the so called avante-garde composers(Shostakovich,Stravinsky,& Penderecki)by
@ least 40 years! Ives was a HUGE influence on both Copland & Gershwin, he had incorporated jazz/syncopated rhythms,tone clusters,polytonality,etc. One barrier to his fame has been the sheer difficulty in playing his music!
Shostakovich and Stravinsky were never avant-garde, even though they made heavy use of formalism in their music. Penderecki's compositional efforts began after Charles Ives' death, and were for the most part much more avant-garde than Charles Ives.
That is not to say anything bad about Ives, who was also advanced for his time.
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
Is that a fact?? Like I said already about Shostakovich and Stravinsky,they were "so called avante garde",looks like I may have touched a nerve here when I talk about modern composers here...,well I'll tell you what I told another musician with a high falutin' college degree, "All the contemporary composers do is recyle all of the bad notes discarded by the 19th century greats!"
First of all, why in Thor's name are you getting angry? If anything, it seems as if *I* touched a wrong nerve. I responded to your post because I felt there was inaccuracy in your depiction of the three composers.
And once again, I should reinforce the fact that neither Shostakovich or Stravinsky made a claim to the avant-garde (though Stravinsky did make use of serialism in the 50s) — they only made use of certain techniques from the school.
Thats it! The "nerve" thats been touched!Most composing/performing musicians are plagued by thoughts of "inadequacy" & "inaccuracy" when it comes to critiquing their own performance...,but woe unto them that even appear to criticize a musicians' "roots"...,sorry about
According to an article from the New York Times written in 1987, Charles Ives was voted the most overrated composer of all time. Lol, I never even heard of him beforehand.
That's kind of strange, because when he composed his music, not many people favored it. Later on in the twentieth century, when avant-garde was becoming popular, his music was recognized. Clearly he was ahead of his time. Luckily he was able to listen to one of his pieces played by an orchestra before he died... Not sure which orchestra though. Anyways, one article is one opinion anyways.
What I find most notable is how you can hear in many of his notes the diminished 7th chords, which really wasn't made popular in writing till 1920's Jazz.
It's one of those things which really make me feel as if was far ahead of his time.
@ExVash i just played this in school for a quite important exame. it took me about a half of a year of working with this and the duchebags of teachers had me fail the course because "the rhythm wasn't going anywhere and it had no 'containment'". I worked very closely to this and to peloquins rendition of the peace. You tell me how far ahead of his time he was if the high nosed classical music pricks with their mozart and their bach even now don't get what its about.
Thank you so much for this. Ives was, simply put, a first-half of 20th Century genius. You can find sarcasm towards lighter music, excerpts from his works that later, much later, were found in some of Bill Evans' interpretations.
The more you listen to the Concord Sonata, the more you notice how unified it is. Besides the Beethoven motive, there are other motives that appear through the piece.
Ives was 50 years ahead of his time & his music wasn't widely appreciated until after his death. As Proust observed, the work of art creates the time in which it can be appreciated.
Ha! I had to look this up after reading a quote from Bruce Hornsby that he used this piece for Every Little Kiss. Hornsby says: They said, Youve stolen our song. And my reply was, Yes, youre right. It was an homage, and thats exactly right. They were so amazed that I said yes that they said OK, forget it."
There are references to Beethoven's fifth all the way through this sonata, 4444matthew. It's such a privilege to be able to hear this. Thank you for posting
This movement's intending to invoke not just Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, but Louisa May Alcott playing a transcription of it on the piano in her parents' parlor. Which is how most Americans who heard the new symphony in the 1820s heard it.
wow i just realized that the last 3 b flat major chords and the c major chor at the end have the voicing: bflat bflat bflat g....the same theme(beethovens fifth) AWESOME
If this recording is really Charles Ives, then he is a very good pianist. Also, this piece (at least the beginning) reminds me of The Sims. Gorgeous music in The Sims and by Ives.
This is wonderful. Thanks so much for posting it. Ives is known almost more in name than for his music and it is awesome to hear his music in new mediums. I think he might have liked YouTube, but he would never have admitted it. Check out Jan Swafford's book "Charles Ives, a Life in Music".
You can get a great and fascinating glimpse into his inspirations via Jan Swafford's super bio of the great man! Terrific!
harryslide 1 week ago
If this doesn't doesn't weird to you, you're American :)
cuallito 1 month ago
Did Ives ever record anything else? On any instrument? (I'd especially love to hear him at the organ!). If so, where can I get these recordings today? The Charles Ives Society website is as clear as mud in this regard... I can find no mention of Ives' own recordings anywhere on there.
This is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard, and it does not sound disjointed, dark or aggressive as do too many other performances that I have heard by others of his music.
KawhackitaRag 3 months ago
@KawhackitaRag Get on Spotify! The whole of "Ives plays Ives: the complete recordings of Charles Ives at the piano" is on there.
humperdinkysaurus 1 month ago
im related to him :D
killjoysxe 5 months ago
Didn't Ives own a tuning hammer?
anonysquirrel 5 months ago
I love him more than every other USAmerican composer. He got personality, sensibility, and soul. He is not chaotic and not noisy. This peace is a good prove of it.
zzausel 6 months ago
tan tan tan ...5th symphony of Beethoven quoted :)
I think Ives here shows to be an excellent pianis. I like very much Thanks
numestube 8 months ago
thanks for sharing!
missstrangeff 8 months ago
I think this recording is good in that it showed pianists that every part of this piece doesn't have to be exact (as in rhythm-wise and other things), but we should remember that composers are often the worst interpreters of their own music...
drwolfe3fyzn 8 months ago
@drwolfe3fyzn What is that supposed to mean? I know two composers who can barely play their own works (one cannot play his more difficult works), but when they do play what they can of their own stuff, it is still correct... the phrasing is right, the dynamics and tempo(s) are right, etc. etc. so that even if they hit some wrong notes, you can still learn a great deal from their performance. Even a poor recording by the composer (and this is a GREAT one!) is far, FAR better than none at all!
KawhackitaRag 3 months ago
Visit his museum in Danbury CT- I passed by it thousands of times unaware of this great composer, probably America's most important, period.
dwemmy 1 year ago
Ha - Mics a little too close for those big chords - Charlie is melting the mics in this.
clucaspik 1 year ago
This piece makes me so happy.
sp0590 1 year ago
It's great to hear the crazy man himself playing his music as it was meant to be played.
anonysquirrel 1 year ago 2
Thank you for posting this.
iameltomas 1 year ago 2
We like bar-lines, bar-lines are nice...
DaHappyGang 1 year ago
what an amazing gift!
flicks1and11 1 year ago
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this is crap
NuclearPlanet 1 year ago
Ives stole this from Bruce Hornsby. ;)
mylegsareswollen 2 years ago
@mylegsareswollen this is absolutely incorrect; they are from two different musical eras!! Ives composed this in the early 20th century!
MusicismyheartXO 1 year ago
@MusicismyheartXO
I think mylegsareswollen was kidding. :o)
buzundunga 1 year ago
@mylegsareswollen
Other way around, dude.
freshhh1994 1 year ago
@freshhh1994
I assume you missed the smiley at the end of his post. either that or your sense of humor is a 1/4 tone off ;)
JonP1961 8 months ago
Rollo loves it now
mudfacedoor 2 years ago
Mr. Ives is beyond brilliant. It would be fascinating to get a glimpse into his inspirations and influences.
Is there another musician/composer whose music seems so alive and open.
maximushuts 2 years ago
I love the resolution to the bVII6/Ab6 chord at the beginning!
ninebreaker21 2 years ago
charles Ives was amazing! this sonata is so beautiful
geecubic 2 years ago
No other composer could have captured the American spirit as well as Charles Ives. His music is exactly like our country: a melting pot of all kinds of styles and ideas that unite to create a very clear and beautiful narrative.
ludwigvan17 2 years ago 4
This is beautiful. There are no other words for it.
desertrickshaw 2 years ago 3
Love it, love it, love it!
Thanks, Uncle Chuck.
And to those who think he's overrated: it wasn't written for your ears, anyway.
zango227 2 years ago 3
hahah, good answer
Matelad 2 years ago
Strangely beautiful and dreamlike.
MrDmc44111 2 years ago
I agree, how can a composer that is virtually unknown compared to the 'bigger' names be overrated?
Ives' music I think represents America perfectly in it's ability to be both lyrically beautiful and nostalgic yet also rebellious and chaotic.
NGS712 2 years ago 27
This has been flagged as spam show
Quatertones are for pussies, Harry Partch used 43 tones in his compositions and dat nigga wasnt gay like Ives, Ives is a bitch-ass poser
pooshitcrapturds 2 years ago
agreed
TheEarlOfDublin 2 years ago
just by seeing your youtube name i could tell you were a dick.
220392123 2 years ago
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@NGS712
fuck off ya spastic you're only a fuckin spider
decko87 1 year ago
@decko87 nice
oceanviewgal 1 year ago
@NGS712 oh shit, like any other culture ?!
Beaudereck 9 months ago
@NGS712 you mean US of America right?
atrofalo 8 months ago
To understand Ives' concepts is to embrace Duchamp, Johns, Warhol and Rauschenberg. As far as his concepts in music construction, an argument could be made that Dvorak took what he heard about Ives from Ives teacher to Europe influencing Schoenberg. There are very good biographies on Ives that hint on it. Doesn't really matter, because we know Ives was working within a 12 tone structure long before anyone else. Ives over-rated? I think quite the opposite.
guywalker29 2 years ago
Wow! The intro is very similar to Bruce Hornsby's "Every Little Kiss"
REAL72769 2 years ago
Similar? It's exact. Hornsby is evidently quoting Ives as an act of Homage. ;-)
IFStravinsky 2 years ago 3
I was thinking that the first eight bars were imitated by Hornsby, too.
Then again, a lot of classically trained musicians of our day tend to be inspired by the greats. (Fogelberg's 1812 nod in "Same Old Lang Syne")
IamaPoohnatic 2 years ago
Charles Ives is one of the real genius of western music. As Keith Jarrett said: we live in Ives's era.
carlitospop 2 years ago 5
I like to think of him as the Walt Whitman of music. The first American of his idiom to embrace his own heritage and break all the rules to create something unique and stirring:)
semprini20 2 years ago 5
As "Charlie" said to some self-annointed critic hissing during a performance,he said,"Stand up and listen to this music like a man!" If you don't know anything about Ives,its your loss,he preceded the so called avante-garde composers(Shostakovich,Stravinsky,& Penderecki)by
@ least 40 years! Ives was a HUGE influence on both Copland & Gershwin, he had incorporated jazz/syncopated rhythms,tone clusters,polytonality,etc. One barrier to his fame has been the sheer difficulty in playing his music!
xtremenortherner 2 years ago 5
Shostakovich and Stravinsky were never avant-garde, even though they made heavy use of formalism in their music. Penderecki's compositional efforts began after Charles Ives' death, and were for the most part much more avant-garde than Charles Ives.
That is not to say anything bad about Ives, who was also advanced for his time.
DannyDaWriter 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Is that a fact?? Like I said already about Shostakovich and Stravinsky,they were "so called avante garde",looks like I may have touched a nerve here when I talk about modern composers here...,well I'll tell you what I told another musician with a high falutin' college degree, "All the contemporary composers do is recyle all of the bad notes discarded by the 19th century greats!"
xtremenortherner 2 years ago
Comment removed
DannyDaWriter 2 years ago
First of all, why in Thor's name are you getting angry? If anything, it seems as if *I* touched a wrong nerve. I responded to your post because I felt there was inaccuracy in your depiction of the three composers.
DannyDaWriter 2 years ago
And once again, I should reinforce the fact that neither Shostakovich or Stravinsky made a claim to the avant-garde (though Stravinsky did make use of serialism in the 50s) — they only made use of certain techniques from the school.
DannyDaWriter 2 years ago
Thats it! The "nerve" thats been touched!Most composing/performing musicians are plagued by thoughts of "inadequacy" & "inaccuracy" when it comes to critiquing their own performance...,but woe unto them that even appear to criticize a musicians' "roots"...,sorry about
my sputtering; reflex action!
xtremenortherner 2 years ago
According to an article from the New York Times written in 1987, Charles Ives was voted the most overrated composer of all time. Lol, I never even heard of him beforehand.
ecko1o1 2 years ago
That's kind of strange, because when he composed his music, not many people favored it. Later on in the twentieth century, when avant-garde was becoming popular, his music was recognized. Clearly he was ahead of his time. Luckily he was able to listen to one of his pieces played by an orchestra before he died... Not sure which orchestra though. Anyways, one article is one opinion anyways.
Xylence 2 years ago
What I find most notable is how you can hear in many of his notes the diminished 7th chords, which really wasn't made popular in writing till 1920's Jazz.
It's one of those things which really make me feel as if was far ahead of his time.
alexcull 2 years ago 2
Ives was *WAY* ahead of his time.
ExVash 2 years ago 29
Comment removed
Bongoke 1 year ago
@ExVash i just played this in school for a quite important exame. it took me about a half of a year of working with this and the duchebags of teachers had me fail the course because "the rhythm wasn't going anywhere and it had no 'containment'". I worked very closely to this and to peloquins rendition of the peace. You tell me how far ahead of his time he was if the high nosed classical music pricks with their mozart and their bach even now don't get what its about.
CalmBefore6 1 year ago 5
@ExVash
Thank you so much for this. Ives was, simply put, a first-half of 20th Century genius. You can find sarcasm towards lighter music, excerpts from his works that later, much later, were found in some of Bill Evans' interpretations.
casch0101 1 year ago
I think Ives is seen as the most overrated composer is because of the prizewinning biography about him. Ives was a very curious man.
Sesquiltera 2 years ago
Ives is not overrated. if anything, underrated. His experimental music changed music in America.
chazums1898 2 years ago 5
simply touching
cirillod 2 years ago
is this aleatorik?
Lattenrost222 2 years ago
Comment removed
lzepp220 2 years ago
No, it was merely the byproduct of his efforts to create visual images through polytonality.
lzepp220 2 years ago
this is more beutiffull than enything iv ever heard in my life...
yoto806 2 years ago
The more you listen to the Concord Sonata, the more you notice how unified it is. Besides the Beethoven motive, there are other motives that appear through the piece.
Ives... what glorious chaos!!!!!
mothershipjellyfish 2 years ago 2
Wonderful. Thanks so much for posting. I didn't know Ives was ever recorded.
yearlings 3 years ago
Ives was 50 years ahead of his time & his music wasn't widely appreciated until after his death. As Proust observed, the work of art creates the time in which it can be appreciated.
wordzly 3 years ago 3
This is very beautiful and captures something that is so very much lost in today's world...
CamillusUSA 3 years ago 3
Bravo, Ives!!! forever...
cajasa08 3 years ago
Ha! I had to look this up after reading a quote from Bruce Hornsby that he used this piece for Every Little Kiss. Hornsby says: They said, Youve stolen our song. And my reply was, Yes, youre right. It was an homage, and thats exactly right. They were so amazed that I said yes that they said OK, forget it."
MJaxESL2 3 years ago
It's funny, Ives played some passages much faster than other recordings I've heard.
One recording I like very much is the one by Steven Mayer...
fpagliato 3 years ago
I just love this movement of the Concord Sonata.
yourforte 3 years ago
anyone have sheet music for this?
J0hnLemon 3 years ago
Yes, I do. It's widely available and inexpensive.
Cramnella 3 years ago 3
in the beginning of this sonata there is no indication of the meter! the bar seems to be endless.
plerimest 3 years ago
There are no bar lines on the sheet music :)
asdfjksammy 3 years ago
The first truly American Composer--the Walt Whitman of music:)
semprini20 3 years ago 4
Agreed.
DannyDaWriter 2 years ago
There are references to Beethoven's fifth all the way through this sonata, 4444matthew. It's such a privilege to be able to hear this. Thank you for posting
yourforte 3 years ago
Wow,I just heard it.
gigosai 3 years ago
This movement's intending to invoke not just Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, but Louisa May Alcott playing a transcription of it on the piano in her parents' parlor. Which is how most Americans who heard the new symphony in the 1820s heard it.
uhhhclem 3 years ago 3
Oh I see - thanks for the information
yourforte 3 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Ives stole this from Bruce Hornsby!
mylegsareswollen 3 years ago
what are you smoking? ives died the year hornsby was born
keefy420 3 years ago 3
wow i just realized that the last 3 b flat major chords and the c major chor at the end have the voicing: bflat bflat bflat g....the same theme(beethovens fifth) AWESOME
4444matthew4444 3 years ago 2
If this recording is really Charles Ives, then he is a very good pianist. Also, this piece (at least the beginning) reminds me of The Sims. Gorgeous music in The Sims and by Ives.
TheIzzoGuy 3 years ago
thank you, noahmushroom!
zoomoozophone 3 years ago
This is wonderful. Thanks so much for posting it. Ives is known almost more in name than for his music and it is awesome to hear his music in new mediums. I think he might have liked YouTube, but he would never have admitted it. Check out Jan Swafford's book "Charles Ives, a Life in Music".
jcad1009 3 years ago
Hey thanks for posting!
GraniteQuarrier 3 years ago
Thank you for this treasure. The video part is much appreciated, too!
reallyharried 3 years ago
Thank You SO MUCH for Allowing us to Hear this Beautiful Recording
DAVIDDAMIENR 3 years ago
I played this in high school... loved the piece so much. Need to get back into learning it again...
dpva94 3 years ago
Beautiful, precioso, Gracias
kalashnikovIII 4 years ago
The fusion of chords is just delicious... You can really feel what he's saying through this music.
Xylence 4 years ago 5
This is such a great piece, I'm learning it at the moment but it is absolute hell! By the way I loved your Schoenberg playing ;)
BornAgain2989 4 years ago
Amazing piece; the whole work. Thanks.
kub73158 4 years ago
gracis pel teu treball
rata373 4 years ago
very interesting, thank you for posting
binna42 4 years ago
Thanks! It's beautiful.
sshuck 4 years ago