Charles Ives, Cowboys, and Indians: Aspects of the "Other Side of Pioneering"

Abstract

With texts that talk of hunting grounds and roundups, Charles Ives's songs Indians and Charlie Rutlage appear to be anomalies among the New Englander's output. When Ives chose an American topic, he seldom ventured outside the northeast corridor for basic material, but in these two instances Ives looked beyond the Berkshires and wrestled with cowboys and Indians. We are left to wonder why. The songs seem to have been paired in Ives's mind; at least at some level he thought of them as belonging together, as having something in common. This is borne out in his autobiographical Memos, where Ives suggested possible instrumental chamber sets one of which, Set No. 5, he entitled Other Side of Pioneering, or Side Lights on American Enterprise.' The set included, in order, New River, Indians, Charlie Rutlage, and Ann Street.2 While the texts to Ann Street and Indians appear initially to have little in common (to select what seems to be only the most incongruous pair), what unites all four songs is their sometimes subtle, sometimes outspoken challenge to the idea of progress.3 New is an unabashed ecology song. Ives plainly accuses humans of killing the River gods with noise and pollution; it is a text worthy of the most ardent Greenpeace activist. And Ann Street, even with all its stylistic heterogeneity and kaleidoscopic imagery, can be interpreted as manifest-