Charles Ives, The Housatonic at Stockbridge

Charles Ives, from Three Places in New England no. 3, The Housatonic at Stockbridge, Howard Hanson conducting the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra.

The Artists in order of appearance:




Frederic Edwin Church (1826- 1900). (2 paintings)
Martin Johnson Heade (1819- 1904).
Thomas Worthington Whittredge ( 1820- 1910).
Alexander Helwig Wyant (1836- 1892). (2 paintings)
Looking from Heaton Hall, Stockbridge, MA; from a 1912 postcard published by Allen T. Treadway, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Asher Brown Durand (1796- 1886).
John Joseph Enneking (1841- 1916).
The final scene; The Village Street, Stockbridge, MA; from a c. 1910 postcard.
The composer took his wife near Stockbridge the summer after they were married. "We walked in the meadows along the River," wrote Ives, "and heard the distant singing from the Church across the River..."

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Charles Ives
• Three Places in New England
• Howard Hanson
• Eastman-Rochester Orchestra
• Frederic Edwin Church
• Martin Johnson Heade
• Thomas Worthington Whittredge
• Alexander Helwig Wyant
• Asher Brown Durand
• John Joseph Enneking
• classical music
• painting

[harryslide]

What a fabulous assemblage this is! Many thanks!

I wonder if this music means as much to people who are not familiar with the hymns Ives loved and used, or with his amazing love for his wife, and her love for him?

I thank Jan Swafford for his most excellent book on Ives. 'never thought I'd be an Ives fan, but I now am. What a wonderful discovery!

[mangott]

@harryslide Thank you so much for watching and your insightful comments. I'm sure everyone can probably interpret this piece in their own way,,, but as you say, I also have to imagine Ives strolling along the river with his wife, throught the forest, listening to the sounds from the village, an unexplainable perception, a moment of spiritual revelation?

[harryslide]

@mangott

He seems to have been a deeply spiritual man, and certainly deeply introspective. Always thinking, observing, always listening for music, or ideas for more music to write. I think we who worship music have at least an inkling of what it must be to be a composer. As an improviser, I'm always going over heads (themes), and endless variations on them. What fun!

[mangott]

@harryslide Thank you again for your thoughtful and expressive contributions. Based on the Arts from the turn of the last century, it appears to me society has lost some of the spiritual element that was possibly more prevalent in lives of people of that time (?). For me, it is revealing to examine those works and ask myself some questions....

[choirboyfromhell1]

This guy was so far ahead of his time....deeply electrifying......

[SeladorCellardoor]

This is, I believe, the first recorded performance of this work, and is IMO the best. Miles better than the Michael Tilson Thomas travesty, in which he has the chorus singing the words. Another example of people taking Ives' notes for performers as notes for perfomance.

I love the inner parts of this, especially the string parts, and the wonderful shimmering chord at the climax, which changes as you listen, in the way that light on the water changes.