Charles E. Ives

Three Places in New England (Orchestral Set No. 1) 1903-14

A.k.a. A New England Symphony

1. "St. Gaudens in Boston Commons"

2. "Putnam's Camp"

3. "Housatonic at Stockbridge"

written for fl, pic, ob/ca, cl, bsn, tpts, tmbs, tuba; timp, dms, long snare or small timp, GC & cym; piano, organ; strings

Three Places in New England was completed during a period in which Ives, including his most famous large orchestral works (1910-1918) wrote an extraordinary amount of music. While preliminary sketches of the individual movements suggest a later reorganization in Ives's mind of the idea of the piece, it was originally conceived as a symphony for full orchestra. By 1914, the three movements had been fully orchestrated, but by 1929 there still had been no performances of the work. Between 1914 and 1929 Ives added a few markings on the scores. Ives originally intended the middle movement of Three Places in New England to be a musical portrait of Wendell Phillips, a prominent abolitionist, and "the mob at Faneuil Hall ... " (Woolridge, 1974)

James Sinclair, who in 1969 prepared an edition based on the original full orchestra version, has produced evidence suggesting that the chronology of each movement was independent: (Sinclair, in Hitchcock/Perlis, 1985)

1901-first sketches of "Housatonic" appear on verso of a Tenor Aria (dated March 1898 76 South Middle), after Robert Underwood Johnson's poem first appeared:

River mists, leaves in slight breeze, river bed-all notes & phrases in upper accompaniment should intervene in an uneven way-riverside colors, leaves & sounds-NOT come down on main beat... (Woolridge, 1974)

1903-"Country Band March," "Overture and March," and "1776" separately composed to serve as incidental music for a play written by Ives's uncle

30 June 1908-first day that Iveses, recently married were at 70 West 11th Street in NY-sketch of "Housatonic"; based on experience of hearing church singing across a misty river on their Sunday morning walk near Stockbridge on the last days of their honeymoon, which had been the previous weekend. While Sinclair indicates this sketch was for horns, organ and strings, Woolridge (1974) suggests that the instrumentation was for flute, organ and violins. Text on Ives's sketch:

This is to picture the colors one sees, sounds one hears, feelings one has, of a summer morning near a wide river, the leaves, waters, mists &c all interweaving in the picture & a hymn song singing in church way across the river...

(-The Stockbridge Congregational Church on the west bank of the Housatonic is about 150ft wide at this point. The hymn-Zeuner's "Missionary Chant," was associated in Ives's mind with the opening of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. (Woolridge, 1974))

1911-Ives began to work on "Black March," a tribute to Shaw's 54th regiment, later retitled "The St. Gaudens in Boston Commons," referring to the relief in front of the Boston State House. First dated sketches indicate the piece had been started by summer; however, on 19 March 1910, Ives had to "yank back a page of the 'Black March,'" before showing his score of Symphony No. 1 to conductor Walter Damrosch. It was quite typical of Ives to have new music on his old manuscripts. (Woolridge, 1974)

1912-Ives orchestrated in full on oblong score paper "St. Gaudens." Also, "Country Band March" and "1776" recomposed in a piece using the "Country Band March" in the beginning, with a middle dream sequence and ending material from "1776"; retitled "Putnam's Camp." The material alternates between the two.

1913-"Housatonic"-full orchestration from what were sketches of a chamber work with horns, organ, and violins (see above references)

1914-"Putnam's Camp" orchestrated

-1929-piece sat on the shelf

1929-Ives wrote to Slonimsky, offering a special reduced arrangement of Three Places for Slonimsky's Chamber Orchestra; the piano picked up much of the full version's brass parts. Ives's letter:

Dear Mr. Slonimsky:

Last spring Henry Cowell told me that you had been kind enough to ask for a score of mine which your orchestra might play. I should have written before but have been laid up for some months back and haven't been able to attend to things-even correspondence; and also was not sure I could get anything ready by next fall, as all my longer scores are for larger orchestras. But I have one which I got out the other day for Henry Cowell who liked it and thought it should and could be done, with some revision reducing it to your chamber group... (Woolridge,1974)

16Feb1930-reading of Three Places before the American Committee of the ISCM in NYC.

10Jan31-"full premiere" at Town Hall in NYC.

1972-John Kirkpatrick suggested that Sinclair restore Three Places to its full orchestra original version. Sinclair took 14 mos. to sort out Ives's manuscripts and revisions; some of the pages were missing, with two histories of the work-one to 1914, one to 1929. The history up to 1914 included 3 oblong score orchestrations and preceding sketches including bits worked out on a leaf of another work. ("Celestial Country," cover page contains first sketch of ideas for "The Housatonic") Scores: pencil and maybe an ink version; when Ives revised the piece for Slonimsky's group, he had used the original sketches, rather than the full score, with a pencil (unfortunately) and ink, confusing the chronology. Sinclair studied the revisions; his edition is representative of the original full orchestra version.

The score of the first movement had previously been assumed lost; however, it was later discovered the missing pages were in possession of Goddard Lieberson, president of CBS/Records group. Ives had given a lot of his printed and photostatted music to Lieberson.

A search through the music resulted in a finding of the full orchestral score in Ive's handwriting, written in ink with many additional pencil markings by Ives. The timing of the finding was contemporaneous with Sinclair's edition, which was in the final stages before publication. The score is now in the Yale Ives collection, having been donated by Mr. Lieberson. (Perlis, 1974)

Ives and Slonimsky prepared three Places in New England for its premier performance by the Boston Chamber Orchestra from its original scoring for full orchestra. (Perlis, 1974) Elliot Carter, who said Ives also added new dissonances, witnessed this process. (Burkholder, 1985)

Ives had submitted Three Places in New England to the United States section of the ISCM for the society's annual festival in Europe. Slonimsky conducted the work in a rehearsal arranged by the United States section on 16 February 1930. (Rossiter, 1975) Although the American committee recommended the piece for performance, (Woolridge) the international jury in Europe turned the work down. (Rossiter, 1975)

Slonimsky developed a method of simultaneously conducting two different meters because of Ives's polyrhythmic combination. The "Putnam's Camp" scenario represents two marching bands in the village which meet. Although Ives wrote the music out in 4/4, Slonimsky decided to be adventurous: "... amazingly enough the orchestra could follow me... my right hand knew not what my left was doing." (Slonimsky in Perlis, 1974)

When Ives attended the 10 Jan 31 premiere, he never acknowledged his presence after the completion of the piece's performance. His attitude and humility is apparent in a letter he wrote to Slonimsky: "Don't pay any attention to me, just go ahead and conduct your Boston Symphony men and I will just sit back and listen to you." However, it is apparent from Ives's comments and actions that he did indeed care very much whether or not his music was played. Ives to Slonimsky: "This score would never have gotten off the shelf, if it hadn't been for you." (Rossiter, 1975)

Ives decided to have the score published by C. C. Birchard & Co. of Boston in 1935, which was his first published orchestral set. Ives financed the project, asking Slonimsky to supervise. In "Putnam's Camp," Slonimsky arranged the business of two different bands playing simultaneously by providing ossai staves of two simultaneous different bars with Ives's permission; however, this notation was not in the original. While Ives agreed to some of Slonimsky's suggestions, other of Slonimsky's suggested changes, such as the changing of enharmonic notations, were rejected by Ives. (Perlis, 1974.)

"St. Gaudens" was inspired by a bas-relief by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in front of the Boston State House celebrating Col. Robert Gould Shaw's 54th regiment, the first black regiment in the Union Army. Quotations from the movement that have been identified include Stephen Foster's "Old Black Joe", and two Civil War Songs: George Root's "Battle Cry of Freedom," and Henry Clay Work's "Marching Through Georgia." (Hitchcock, 1977)

"Putnam's Camp," is a boy's fantasy as he ponders a Revolutionary War memorial at an old campsite. The music combines the gayness and brass of a 4th of July picnic ('mistakes and mix-ups of a village band' from "Country Band March," and "1776"') with the boy's dreamy vision of ghostly military musicians. (Hitchcock, 1977) This piece reflects the famous story of George Ives marching his band past another while they both played different tunes, which was later confirmed by Danbury architect Philip Sunderland in a 29 November 1968 taped interview with Vivian Perlis. (Rossiter, 1975) The piece also illustrates a significant event for Ives and other Danburians: during the winter of 1778-1779, General Israel Putnam and his continental soldiers had camped at Redding; the camp was later made into a memorial park, where "long rows of stone camp fire- places still stand." Ives composed "Putnam's Camp" when he was having a house built a few miles from the park. Musically, the piece represents the opposition between Putnam and mutineers who marched to Hartford for relief by the settings of two tunes against each other; the clashing bands and story of Putnam are told through eyes of the boy Charles Ives. (Rossiter, 1975)

"Housatonic at Stockbridge" was inspired by Charles and Harmony Ives's walk along the Housatonic River during the last days of their honeymoon. Ives used orchestral polytonality and polyrhythms to portray a human event (singing from a church across the river) as experienced through a "haze of natural events and objects." Ives thought of the fainter musical notes that departed from the usual rules of harmony as transcendental overtones of natural events and objects, which was a crucial Ives philosophy. (Rossiter, 1975) Indeed, the piece is reminiscent of a river with its "meandering chromatic swirls" with "cloud sounds" above, with a curving, freely developed melody that is spun out in the middle of the surrounding texture. This melody was later used with a Robert Underwood Johnson text in "Missionary Chant," from 114 Songs.

Performance History and Reception

While Three Places in New England was read during a rehearsal set up by the American Committee of the ISCM with Slonimsky conducting on16 February 1930, the piece received its official premiere on 10 January 1931 at Town Hall, New York City, by the Chamber Orchestra of Boston, with Slonimsky again conducting. While Ives did not normally attend

performances of his own music, this is one of the few times which he did attend such a program. While the crowd "booed and hissed," Ives was actually pleased with the outcome: "Just like a town meeting-every man for himself. Wonderful how it came out." He later reported his reaction, in the third person:

At this concert he [Ives} sat quietly through the "boos" and jeers of his own music-but when that wonderful orchestral work "Men and Mountains" of Carl R[uggles] was played, a sound of [a] disapproving hiss was heard near him. Ives jumped and shouted: "You g-ddarn, sissy-eared mollycoddle-when you hear strong masculine music like this, stand up and use your ears like a man-and don't 'flibby' faint over backwards."

Slonimsky: performance was "somewhat scrambling"; "... actually, the performance was excellent." The Town Hall concerts in NY attracted little attention by the critics. However, two weeks later at the Boston concerts, the piece was reviewed more extensively. The Boston Post noted that Slonimsky had included "the lunatic fringe of modern music"; the critic said "St. Gaudens" was "thickly and monotonously dissonant," and "bore no relation to its subject matter," while the end of "Housatonic" "might have provoked the thought that the Housatonic was in the throes of an ice-jam." However, the same critic noticed that at the end "came measures genuinely beautiful, measures of a nostalgic melancholy"; while "Putnam's Camp" was "an ingenious and sometimes humorous parody of the efforts of a country band." The critic of the Boston Herald was more sympathetic of Ives's work, describing "Putnam's Camp" as "... modern in the exact manner of those painters whose canvases-so redolent of this chaotic age-are a patchwork of jagged fragments overlapping, dovetailing, with an added complexity which painting cannot rival, namely that of a bewildering crowded simultaneity, an extraordinary contrapuntal freedom."

The paradox of Ives's work was that it was inspired by old-fashioned America of the 19th Century, while his inspiration was expressed in a way that critics took as representative of the 20th century. However, the critic of the Boston Evening Transcript apparently did not agree: "... in all three pieces more or less romantic brush was tangled about the modernistic saplings." "St. Gaudens" was described as being "lugubrious," and "semi-articulate"; "Putnam's Camp"-"clumsy"; while he said of the "Housatonic"-"as long as Mr. Ives is as respectful as he was of bar-lines and symmetrical phrases, he is far from being a practising modernist."

Slonimsky later described the reactions by musicians in his orchestra: "They said that the man who wrote this music didn't know what he was writing, and that the man who conducted didn't know what he was conducting, and that the whole thing was some sort of joke on the dignified members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra... I had much less of a problem with the Berlin Philharmonic, because they accepted it as a challenge. They didn't pass judgement on the music, but the Boston men… just said that it wasn't music." (Slonimsky in Hitchcock/Perlis, 1985)

Slonimsky conducted the work again in New York in February and in Havana, Cuba on 18 March 1931. The Havana concerts were quite successful, and as a result, there were several later performances of the work.

Meanwhile, Ives, and Henry Cowell planned for presentation of their works in the capital cities of Continental Europe, with Cowell arranging the concerts through his European contacts, Slonimsky conducting, and Ives financing the entire project. It was decided to play in Paris first, since it had been the leading European cultural center since the end of WWI. Ive's instructions to Slonimsky regarding his 1931 Paris performance: "Just kick into the music as you did in the Town Hall-never mind the exact notes or the right notes, they're always a nuisance. Just let the spirit of the stuff sail up to the Eiffel Tower and on to Heaven." (Letter of 28 May 1931, printed in Slonimsky's Music Since 1900 , 4th ed.)

The Paris concerts of the Pan American Association of Composers was given June 6th and 11th, 1931, attracting a great deal of attention. However, the concerts failed to convince the European critics that the Americans were writing an authentic indigenous music. The critics felt that the Americans had merely rejected traditional European models in favor of modernist ones. After Varese, who was represented in the programs, Ives received the most favorable response. Several critics compared Three Places in New England with the polytonality and rhythmic intensity of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps.

Boris de Schloezer: While Ives lacked "technical knowledge and skillfulness," he saw in Ives "a real forerunner, a bold talent," feeling the other North Americans were European imitators, while Ives had discovered modern techniques on his own: "... despite his awkwardness, or rather just because of his awkwardness, this modernism acquires a flavor all its own."

Paul Le Fleur: Ives was "the most spontaneously gifted musician, whose truculent boldness, although occasionally awkward, is not inconsistent with the feeling that he is trying to express."; "He is as scholarly as his companions and handles polytonality without it exploding in his hands. But he knows how to temper his science with something sensitive, fresh, and lively, something which is not a mere laboratory leftover."

Henry Pruniere, a New York Times critic, was disapproving of the Paris concert:

"There is no doubt that he [Ives] knows his Schoenberg, yet gives the impression that he has not always assimilated the lessons of the Viennese master as well as he might have."

Ive's letter to pianist E. Robert Schmitz, concerning Pruniere's remark:

"He says that I know my Schoenberg-interesting information to me, as I have never heard nor seen a note of Schoenberg's music. Then he says I haven't 'applied the lessons as well as I might.' This statement shows almost human intelligence."

On the other hand, Boston critic Philipp Hale, who had not even at- tended the Paris concerts, was offended by Slonimsky's choice of American works: "... the composers represented were not those who are regarded by their fellow-countrymen as leaders in the art, nor have they all been so considered by the conductors of our great orchestras." Hale's comment aroused Ive's ire by its assumptions, while its lack of logic refers to the general trend of critics at the time to blame Stravinsky, Schoenberg, or Hindemith for anything that they didn't understand. Memos, which was an expansion of Ives's letter to Schmitz, was initiated by Ives in response to critics who had reviewed Slonimsky's 1931 performances as a rebuttal "for the record", rather than for the public:

It is interesting to hear that I am influenced by Hindemith, who did not start to compose until about 1920, several years after I had completed the music, good or bad, which Hale says is influenced by Hindemith!... I have never heard nor seen the score of the Sacre du Printemps... Putnam's Camp, supposed to be influenced by Stravinsky, was written long before Stravinsky's name was known... Personally, I do not think they have anything in common. (Ives, 1972)

As a result of Slonimsky's European fame, he was invited to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic on 29 December 1932 in a performance of movements two and three of Three Places in New England, in Hollywood, which was the first and last times that an Ives work was performed by a major American Orchestra until 1948. Slonimsky: "... that was to them anathema, completely unacceptable..." The "uproar" caused by the music was disapprovingly remembered fifteen years later by some of the orchestra's patrons. (Perlis, 1974) While there were still hisses and boos, Slonimsky felt the occasion was a success.

Aaron Copland , in explaining some of Ives work in Our Music, said of Three Places in New England that the "... mixture of styles is not a happy one; it results in making them the least successful of those thus far considered..." (Copland, 1941)

The second Boston and New York performances of Three Places in New England occurred in1948 by Boston Symphony under associate conductor Richard Burgin, using the chamber orchestra score with a full orchestra, which made the strings out of balance with the rest of the ensemble.(Sinclair, in Hitchcock/Perlis) Ives stayed at home. The critics were favorable, with one critic recalling his 1931 remark of mvts. 1, 3 "indistinguishable and interchangeable", saying "That was a foolish remark..." The integrity of the statement satisfied Ives.

In the spring of1969, Three Places in New England was programmed by the LA Philharmonic in the Hollywood Bowl "as a great attraction because the name of Ives draws." In February of 1974 the work was also played in New Haven, Connecticut.

1. "St. Gaudens in Boston Commons"

Sound-

-chamber orchestra

-homophonic, polyphonic, resultant textures

-thick orchestral sonorities

-string harmonics, alternations between pizz and arco, tremolos

Harmony-

-fluctuates between atonal, whole-tone and diatonic

-organized by pitch sets

-m1: d#m/am-similar to "Petrouchka" chord

-resultant from counterpoint

Melody-

-folk melody, motivic fragments

-imitative

Rhythm-

-polyrhythmic; irregular meters, with irregular groupings within measures;

-variety of amalgamated meters

-accentuation; offbeats, syncopation

-durations; divisible by 2's and 3's

-ostinatos create static areas

-tuplets-5's, 7's, 9's, etc.; divided over one or more beats; or amalgamated

-seldom steady pulse

-variation by figure/pattern, accents, phrases within rhythmic scheme

Growth-

-processive; return

2. "Putnam's Camp"

Sound-

-Chamber Orchestra

-polyphonic; complex

-thick orchestral sonorities; often use of full ensemble

-two simultaneous homophonic textures create resultant texture

-quasi-hocket

Harmony-

-tonal/atonal; functional mixed with non-functional-resultant

-dissonant

Melody-

-folk melody

-diatonic, chromatic

-"The British Grenadiers"-quotes

Rhythm-

-pulse(s)

-waltz, foxtrot

-2 military marches simultaneously combined create polyrhythms

- accented off-beats

-polyrhythmic; irregular meters, with irregular groupings within measures; meters w/ fractional beats

-variety of successive meters in a single line

-variety of amalgamated meters

-eighth-note as constant unit

-accentuation; offbeats, syncopation

-durations; divisible by 2's and 3's

-tuplets-5's, 7's, 9's, etc.; divided over one or more beats

-succession of notes which increasingly become shorter

-seldom steady pulse

-variation by figure/pattern, accents, phrases within rhythmic scheme

Growth-

-return/processive

-shifts between material

-amalgamations and juxtapositions of material

-ABA- "B" is non-pulse "dream-state"

3. "Housatonic at Stockbridge"

Sound-

-Chamber Orchestra

-contrapuntal/homophonic

-string tremolos; dense string textures

-soloistic use of individual instruments

-use of sound mass (third bar from the end)

-"The last movement of Three Places in New England is also based on the [Fifth Symphony] Beethoven theme, although it is disguised because of the addition of an extra note." (Slonimsky, in Perlis, 1974)

Harmony-

-tonal/atonal; non-functional

-harmonic counterpoint, simultaneous chordal leaps

-organized by pitch sets

-resultant

Melody-

-folk melody

-quotations w/ harmonic accompaniment

Rhythm-

-polyrhythmic; irregular meters, with irregular groupings within measures; meters w/ fractional beats

-variety of successive meters in a single line

-variety of amalgamated meters

-eighth-note as constant unit

-accentuation; offbeats, syncopation

-durations; divisible by 2's and 3's

-tuplets-5's, 7's, 9's, etc.; divided over one or more beats and amalgamated

-succession of notes which increasingly become shorter

-seldom steady pulse

-variation by figure/pattern, accents, phrases within rhythmic scheme

-ostinato figures

Growth-

-appears to be additive?

-Form not simple and clear

-underlying form from large unity of diverse elements used asymmetrically; reflects the individual's life experience

Work as a Whole

Unity

Contrast

Balance

Bibliography

An Ives Celebration: Papers and Panels of the Charles Ives Centennial Festival-Conference, ed. by H. Wiley Hitchcock and Vivian Perlis. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1977. (Music in American Life)

Burkholder, J. Peter. Charles Ives: The Ideas Behind the Music. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.

Copland, Aaron. "The Ives Case." Chap. in Our New Music. New York: Whittlesey House, 1941.

Cowell, Henry and Sidney Cowell. Charles Ives and His Music. London: Oxford University Press, 1955.

Hitchcock, H. Wiley. "The Orchestral Music." Chap. in Ives. London: Oxford University Press, 1977. (Oxford Studies of Composers, 14)

Ives, Charles E. Memos, ed. by John Kirkpatrick. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 1972.

Ives, Charles E. Three Places in New England. Bryn Mawr: Theodore Presser Company, 1935.

Perlis, Vivian. Charles Ives Remembered: An Oral History. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974.

Perry, Rosalie Sandra. Charles Ives and the American Mind. The Kent State University Press, 1974.

Rosenfeld, Paul. "Ives." Chap. in Discoveries of a Music Critic. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1936.

Rossiter, Frank R. Charles Ives and His American. New York: Liveright, 1975.

Woolridge, David. From the Steeples and Mountains: A Study of Charles Ives. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974.