Charles Ives's Concord

Essays after a Sonata

Kyle Gann

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9780252086304
  9780252040856
• eBook ISBN:
  9780252099366
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Classical Music

In 1921, insurance executive Charles Ives sent out copies of a piano sonata to two hundred strangers. Laden with dissonant chords, complex rhythm, and a seemingly chaotic structure, the so-called Concord Sonata confounded the recipients, as did the accompanying book, Essays before a Sonata . Kyle Gann merges exhaustive research with his own experience as a composer to reveal the Concord Sonata and the essays in full. Diffracting the twinned works into their essential aspects, Gann lays out the historical context that produced Ives's masterpiece and illuminates the arguments Ives himself explored in the Essays . Gann also provides a movement-by-movement analysis of the work's harmonic structure and compositional technique; connects the sonata to Ives works that share parts of its material; and compares the 1921 version of the Concord with its 1947 revision to reveal important aspects of Ives's creative process. A tour de force of critical, theoretical, and historical thought, Charles Ives's Concord provides nothing less than the first comprehensive consideration of a work at the heart of twentieth century American music.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1 - The Story of the Concord Sonata, 1911–1947
• Chapter 2 - The Programmatic Argument and Henry Sturt
• Chapter 3 - The Human Faith Theme and the Whole-Tone Hypothesis
• Chapter 4 - “Emerson”: The Essay
• Chapter 5 - “Emerson”: The Music
• Chapter 6 - The “Emerson” Concerto and its Offshoots
• Chapter 7 - Hawthorne and the Celestial Railroad
• Chapter 8 - “Hawthorne”
• Chapter 9 - “The Alcotts”
• Chapter 10 - “Thoreau”: The Essay
• Chapter 11 - “Thoreau”: The Music
• Chapter 12 - A Harmony of Imperfections: The Epilogue
• Chapter 13 - The First Piano Sonata
• Chapter 14 - Editions (1920 versus 1947) and Performance Questions
• Appendix A - Correction of Misattributed Quotations in Essays before a Sonata
• Appendix B - Variants in Available Recordings of the Concord Sonata
• Appendix C - Must a Song Always Be a Song? Keynote Address to the 2009 Ives Vocal Marathon, Wesleyan University
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author