Ives: "The Unanswered Question"

[abstractduk]

there is an interesting tomita version of the unanswered question..

[PascalVillarubias]

De Ives, je n'apprécie que ce morceau... Pourtant, j'ai vraiment essayé de me laisser séduire mais enfin... Bref! ça na pas d'importance. Ce morceau est une perle , un bijou, un absolu et quand on a composé quelque chose comme cela qui va laisser une trace indélébile chez beaucoup, on peut mourir tranquille...

[NatoViolin]

Fucking genius. He is America's Chopin.

[lednew2010]

An amazing piece, especially when heard live. It's great to hear this revised/edited version. Terrific job of showing the score with annotations too. This must have taken you quite a while. Thanks so much for posting it!

[unklemozart]

music is able to say more than words.

Charles Ives is able to say more than music. Love this so much

[musicman2461]

Guess who's not sleeping tonight...

[eetherealflux]

gorgeous 

[marvidtelmo]

Inquietante.



[Rachel225566]

6:17 at this point, your dog goes insane.

[Halofan61]

I'm gonna sink my teeth into your Iiver. You're dying. See them birds up there? You know they eat you raw? Where you're going,

you're not coming back from. What are you to me? Nothing.

[lee2tre]

I went to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This is the first song that they played. I truly enjoyed this!

[KingsPwn]

I don't get it. What is so perfect about it? Someone explain it to me please. It sounds to me like random, unpleasant notes played over continual, slightly varying background music. What am I missing?

[Unbihexium]

@KingsPwn The point. May I try to explain why this piece and this particular performance is so nice for myself and others? You probably heard of bi- or polytonality which means that a piece has got more than one "key", Ives was one of the composers famous for this technique. If you listen to a lot of modern (or anything not too simple, "one-finger") music you become more and more trained to hear melodies, stuctures, harmonies somewhat separately. /to be continued

[Unbihexium]

@KingsPwn But your brain can put these together again, and you will experience something like Steganography in visual arts. This performance is charming just because they make the contrast between the question and no-answer part even more upsetting which is the point of the piece. One of the most depressing but sadly true pieces I know.

[Unbihexium]

@KingsPwn (First I wanted to write about stereo images but this hidden message thing is just as good...)

[MaestroEvans1]

@KingsPwn Read-the-description-and-the-c­aptions-in-the-video.

[goncalocurto]

isn't the trumpet player playing it wrong? i think he plays B natural instead of C natural

[jjaystar94]

@goncalocurto No, they're playing it right. I'm playing this song on trumpet which is pitched in Bb. The song is in the key of C, so we must transpose up a whole tone to sound "right".

[goncalocurto]

@jjaystar94 but it says "actual notes" so its not transposed

at 2.46 he plays B instead of C, thats the mistake i thought i heard, i checked it :)

[jjaystar94]

@goncalocurto Oh okay then. My bad!

[aggelosf1]

PERFECT PERFECT PERFECT!!!

[selaromyar]

Great explination, but please when the trumpet plays use the actual score not the edited same scene from the begining.

[pawdaw]

I find this music profoundly moving.

[ThomasPinching]

beautiful one, saw it in Thin Red Line and Run Lola Run

[1java2]

Well, no one is claiming that any American composer has written anything to equal Arnold Bax...

[jailbreakir]

@LeeGeorge08 it shouldnt be about where the composer was born on this little planet of ours, it should be about the music that they are creating

[kablamxafi]

@LeeGeorge08 Would you stop commenting on things that you (and the rest of Youtube) already know you hate? I thought Americans were intolerant; now I know Canadians are worse. Have fun on your high horse, and while you're at it, do Canada a favor and ride it off a cliff.

[bizintin]

@kablamxafi  Cool, "ride it off a cliff.." and fly.

[Elhardt]

I've been wanting to get the printed music for this and it's so simple that I can probably just jot it down on music paper right from this video.

Also, if you want a slightly different take on this piece, check out Tomita's version done on synthesizers from his 1978 album Kosmos, such as here: watch?v=JgYSthpbV6w

[rockgor]

Our Music Prof played this for us in Music 101. He didn't tell us that Ives

had died only 4 years earlier.

Ives was encouraged by his father George who had been a teen age

bandleader in the Civil War. Charles was a church organist for several

years beginning when he was 14.

Just finished reading a biography of Ives. Took a long time for his

music to be appreciated. Eventually he was a Pulitzer Prize although he

was not really thrilled with it.

Tnx 4 posting.

[killeraddiction]

This piece playing in 'The Thin Red Line' is beyond beautiful.

[MuseDuCafe]

It seems there are about 90 to 100 differences in extant copies found in the Ives estate! Some decades and many scholars later, this is likely one of those 'final' decisions. There is another fine performance of the chamber version, with reduced strings at least, conducted by John Adams on a CD titled "American Elegies." This amazing piece is now one hundred and five years old!

[janken919]

I love the flickering busy dissonance of the winds.

[therealericmeyer]

Goosebumps, everytime.

[Johnnystrychnine]

I love it. I was listening to a part of it today on the Radio in Melbourne Australia; after getting in the car I switched on the radio to ABC classical as usual and got this permeating my ear with compelling awe. I waited until the radion announcer stated the composer and memorised it until I got home. Must say again, I love it.

[WaterlooFilms]

I feel like this could be the song that plays after you die

[bass109]

for the sake of Charles Ives repent to Jesus christ!

[haroldteunissen]

wisdom

[loomerlg]

"What are we here for?"

[LivingintheShire]

as a violinist, this piece is EXHAUSTING to play! never-ending! very interesting though

[goncalocurto]

@LivingintheShire agreed. sometimes the music might sound fantastic, but everyone will hate... i once composed a piece that was very tiring, so i'm not writing like that anymore!

[Caramellatta]

"A question is better than an answer, in the immensity of creation. And those determined to force the answers are apt to look foolish in the face of that immensity." Jan Swafford, on this piece.

[Gyurme25]

Thank you very much for posting this. The only thing is that I wish I could see the whole score not parts of it but all at the same time. Thank you

[semprini20]

I love Charles Ives. He's the Walt Whitman of music, bridging the gap between late romanticism and modernism, he threw away the rule book when it came to composition and he was thoroughly American at a time when "serious" music was still a European scene. He was working with atonality decades before Schoenberg.

[peggymount]

Love this piece. Thank you. First heard it years ago via the Tomita rendition and then found out it was a 'real' composition. It's so nice to see the score. He wasn't afraid of using accidentals was he. Love it.

[paradox7851]

Awwww Charles Ives you make my day...nihlistic....

[windstorm1000]

Charles Ives is the most American of our composers--and our first musical genius as well (after Stephen Foster). So why is he not more featured on American symphony programs dominated by German composers??? Why? Ives neglect was appalling in the 30's but now its criminal.

[war3gate]

wrong trumpet note at 4:42.

the score says Eb - C natural

but the played note is B natural instead of C natural

[crispinswank]

@war3gate I believe it is the video that is incorrect; it is showing the passage from the first time the "question" is asked.  At 4:28 you can see the correct B natural in the trumpet part before the uploader switches to a close-up of incorrect material.

[057gnb3316sef6]

This piece is amazing!

[veryevilaunty]

thank you very much for the video, the commentary is really helpful, i don't think i would be able to interpret the piece properly on my own - i find it rather difficult with modern art music... but this piece is lovely.

[MonsterXQuattro]

OMG,In my music class the prof forced us to listen to this shit,I felt like shooting myself in the face!!!

[SPLIMLETLET]

The unquestioned answer?

[SPLIMLETLET]

I arrived here with an unanswered question. I was not disappointed.

[craanstu22]

thank you very much for this music, the explanations and the score!!! very helpful!

[RatedPi]

This guy left me with an unanswered question.

[quasipseudo1]

Sounds like Twilight Zone music... but totally brilliant. Wish it lasted longer

[systemicfailure1]

The Question can be put in many different ways, but there is no answer. None.

[tommysonar]

Great post. Thanks a lot. I've loved this piece of music for years!

[apebyen]

shit piece

[Composerland]

Instructive, low-tech and useful to helping newer listeners grasp onto something (meaningful). Thanks for posting in this way.

[briandonohue100]

The performance is critical to appreciating this thing. I never got much out of this piece until I saw the famous conductor-less orchestra Orpheus do it at Carnegie -- nobody flapping his arms onstage, just a tiny pool of light onstage for the woodwinds (who were standing off-center), strings offstage, the horn somewhere in the balcony. Disorienting, mysterious, haunting: exactly the effect that Ives surely intended.

[KostyaCreepY]

This is beautiful! Very profound, very inspiring. This music is divine...

[marcodellamotta]

This is the first time I've heard this piece by Ives. It's absolutely brilliant! Thank you so much for posting it with the note and commentary!

[BuckshotLaFunke]

A surprise for me. I know his Holidays Symfony mostly. Many thanks!

[Pastrypoet]

This music was new to me and what a discovery! Thank you for posting this. You (and Ives) made my morning.

[SingHouse]

ah nice, the score + audio, one of my favourite activites....

[nostradamusguy]

One can hear the Druids and their blank innocence, as played by the strings.

[emejia1226]

Am I strange for finding this boring? I mean, I'm not trying to be insulting, but does anyone hear anything actually happening in this? Other than, maybe a few parts of it, i.e. 6:16 ?

[threviatghei]

@emejia1226 Well, the question remains UNanswered, so i guess it's ok not to have a sense of "oh my god something happened!" XD

[LaKimmois]

@emejia1226 Hi, no you're not strange. Just a fucking retard, why not slip on some Britney Spears, and fuck off to where you live, you dumb shitkicking twat. Much love peace out and die.

[SingHouse]

@LaKimmois lol you tell him dude

[MINORSECONDXXI]

@emejia1226 No, neither liking nor disliking this isn't strange.

There is always something happening: you hear sound. Sometimes the music is calmer, but if nothing happened, there would be just silence.

[AnAmericanComposer]

OWW!!!!!!!! (Looks at 6:19, scowls, grins hahaahahaahaha)

[AnAmericanComposer]

Sorry, 6:16 is the fun chord

[MichaelBakrnchev1989]

Thank you for actually putting in the time and effort to explain what was happening. It was an extra bonus to be able to read the score, so thanks - it was a really nice experience for me.

[HO11STER]

i like it it blends well

[blondiesoprano]

This is fantastic!! Thank you for posting :D

You greatly helped by giving me a running start for my paper on this piece.

[celeluwhen]

Hey, thanks for your videos. I'm studying for and exam, and it's very helpful. Actually, I like them so much that I'll take the time to watch them all when it's over...

[Politykin]

Эх вы, немцы, блядь! Ну как вы могли допустить приход и долгое время удержание фашизма? Великие люди, нет! - Человеки! - Достоевский, Шёнберг,... (не будем перечислять многих Великих). А Ницше - заблудшая овца, но овца какая, а!

[Alexknobsob]

Curdles the milk even now

[ridiai99]

This piece was used in the film 'The Thin Red Line', brilliant thanks for posting

[RLBscoring]

Beautiful piece. Thank you for posting it and explaining the ideology behind it.

[Erudecorp]

Actual notes?

Is it just me? I couldn't hear the lower woodwind parts the first time. Almost every time, it seemed like the upper part was highly emphasized, except for the second time.

[NewMusicXX]

@Erudecorp Ives apparently re-wrote his music throughout his lifetime (usually for the purpose of increasing the level of dissonance). I know that there are at least two versions of this work (original and revised). Both are recorded on the Michael Tilson Thomas/Chicago Symphony CD from which this recording came. I picked up the score when I was in college and don't know which one it best represents (maybe neither!). At least you can follow the broad outlines and get a sense of the harmony.

[Terrapin9614]

@NewMusicXX this is the revised version, you can tell because of the trumpet part, which in the original version began and ended on the same note.

[MsJantje666]

@Erudecorp if you listen carefully you can hear them

[drzaki123]

the solo trumpet part is used in the movie "The Zodiac" soundtrack

[ViewerNotes]

yes! it's truth!! Nice soundtrack also

[FungoBoy]

looking at the score, ives seems to have sugeested the possibility of other instruments playing the trumpet theme; has anyone ever heard it played on "english horn, oboe, or clarinet?"

[fluffaduck]

I dont know about you guys but its hard to play rhythm to this XD

[froodgoose]

thank you for the very useful video.... great music too

[Malocosa]

I love this piece, it's both harmonious yet spatially dissonant like different tides of slow moving water colliding but moving forward in a determined rhythm. The same with clouds moving across the sky.

[yofoghorn]

Amazing! And love the info annotations!

[ajwiebe]

It would have been amazing to hear what it would sound like if it were developed even further.

[Virtuosic1]

It doesn't need further development. It was the 1st piece of its kind, an antiphonal (spatial) counterpoint of musical events, not just harmonically and melodically contrapuntal, its complete and perfect within itself, as Ives heard it, master that he was.

[bizintin]

@Virtuosic1 And yet just another way of expressing the beauty of this piece. I am in happiness to see words of you and gabarra just after you, match the music with your comments.

[smeeeeed]

Such an incredible piece, musically and psychologically.

[gabarra]

It's like if you are in an empty, isolated room without any sound, with a complete silence and you open a door and let it open for 7 minutes to another dimension where this music always flows without interruption, eternally, with no beginning and no end...

[hakanozelguitarist]

@gabarra totally!! This music is always playing, behind everything we do, all through our lives, through all history; this music is playing

[greenpokerchip]

@gabarra wow.what an artist.

[bizintin]

@gabarra Oh, my God, you can write! Such shimmering truth in your words and I am blessed, sweet being of the written word, you rock. Along with this music. 

[CruelTutelage]

thank you so much for showing the score of this. =) i've been searching for it forever. fantastic performance too.

i know no other music as honest as here

[beautykeys504]

this is not my favorite...but it is definitely very interesting and captivating...

wen my school's orchestra played it i thought they performed great but i didnt really get it...ur captions helped me much!!!!

it made me feel like i was part of a movie..:)

brilliant work

[ashaam]

who's playing this? Best performance I've ever heard of this piece....

[NewMusicXX]

This is the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas, a CBS recording.

[RodrigusVI]

great piece, I've heard about this work a lot, but never listened to it, its quite interesting and beautiful.

[lorenzarthur91]

very nice, a perfect mix of tonal harmonies with atonal motvies.

[PianoplayerPaul]

This is probably the best performance I've ever heard of this classic Ives masterwork. The musical contrasts between the soft gentle touching strings and the piercing restless questioning trumpet/woodwind motives were just incredible.

[DeepSeaSeamus]

wow!

[NGS712]

Wonderful. There's not much more you can say than that.

[frankbass1]

Wow, beautiful, I've never heard this!