{"id":896,"date":"2015-03-24T07:00:41","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T12:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=896"},"modified":"2015-03-24T09:47:58","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T14:47:58","slug":"charles-e-ives-memos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2015\/03\/24\/charles-e-ives-memos\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles E. Ives: Memos"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was searching for Charles Ives correspondence in our music library, I came across a book called\u00a0Charles E. Ives: Memos<\/em>. \u00a0It is a collection, constructed\u00a0by John Kirkpatrick from Yale University, of previously unpublished loose leaf writings of Charles Ives. \u00a0Some were initially handwritten by Ives himself, while others were written in shorthand by his secretary, Miss Florence Martin, and edited by him later. \u00a0After his death in 1954, these loose leafs were collated and organized by when they were written, and ultimately published in this book. \u00a0As with any correspondence collection, it does not include every single “memo” Ives ever wrote; it is believed this collection includes approximately three-fifths of his loose leaf writing.<\/p>\n

The book is in three main parts: “Pretext,” “Scrapbook,” and “Memories.” \u00a0While it looks as if each section is written in prose, that may not necessarily be the case. \u00a0Kirkpatrick took the time to mark each piece, sometimes a paragraph or a few sentences, with identifying information revealing where those words came from. \u00a0“Pretext” focuses on Ives’ aims, his views on music, critics, and criticism. \u00a0“Scrapbook” reveals the composer’s notes on his own music. \u00a0“Memories” provides the reader with biographical and autobiographical information.<\/p>\n

Below, I have included the pages from “Scrapbook” of Ives’\u00a0Second Piano Sonata<\/em>, since we are studying this piece in class (number 30). \u00a0Ives provides insight as to how each of the four movements came to fruition. \u00a0He reveals that he never really came up with an ending for the first movement, “Emerson,” or developed one way to play it. \u00a0For the second movement, “Hawthorne,” Ives describes the cluster chords on page 25 of the score, how to play them and what effect they are supposed to have on the listener. \u00a0In his words about the third, “The Alcotts,” and fourth movements, “Thoreau,” Ives reveals that he had intentions of expanding his orchestration to include organ, strings, woodwinds, etc. \u00a0Some of the material from the fourth movement came directly out of a string quartet Ives had been working on but never finished.<\/p>\n

\"Ives<\/a>

Kirkpatrick, J., ed. Charles E. Ives: Memos<\/i>. New York: W. W. Norton &, 1972. 78-79.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Ives<\/a>

Kirkpatrick, J., ed. Charles E. Ives: Memos<\/i>. New York: W. W. Norton &, 1972. 80-81.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Ives<\/a>

Kirkpatrick, J., ed. Charles E. Ives: Memos<\/i>. New York: W. W. Norton &, 1972. 82-83.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

These notes by the composer about his or her own pieces are eye opening, especially to the performer. \u00a0They are very insightful and allow the performer to get into the mindset of the composer, and learn more about exactly what the composer meant when he or she wrote the piece.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kirkpatrick, J., ed. Charles E. Ives: Memos<\/i>. New York: W. W. Norton &, 1972.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was searching for Charles Ives correspondence in our music library, I came across a book called\u00a0Charles E. Ives: Memos. \u00a0It is a collection, constructed\u00a0by John Kirkpatrick from Yale University, of previously unpublished loose leaf writings of Charles Ives. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[365,388,330,367,327,389],"class_list":["post-896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-charles-ives","tag-concord","tag-correspondence","tag-ives","tag-piano","tag-piano-sonata"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-es","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":909,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896\/revisions\/909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}