Charles Ives in the Mirror: American Histories of an Iconic Composer by David C. Paul (review)

Abstract

Charles Ives in the Mirror: American Histories of an Iconic Composer. By David C. Paul. (Music in American Life.) Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2013. [xi, 288 p. ISBN 9780252037498 (hardcover), $45; ISBN 9780252080517 (paperback), $30; ISBN 9780252094699 (e-book), various.] Illustrations, bibliography, index. Pick up a copy of David Paul's Charles Ives in the Minor: American Histories of an Iconic Composer, and you will find yourself staring back at your own image reflected in the dust jacket. For the prospective reader who is dazzled by the shiny, silvery reflectivity, the initial response is perhaps surprise. The only opaque imprints are the text of the title, author, and a photograph of Ives's favorite fedora hat. This seems to imply that Ives inhabits the perspective of every expectant reader who holds the book in hand and sees the floating hat above his or her head. And as with a mirror, the perspective of each viewer and composition of each reflected image is different. For some, the mirror will inspire the notion that the histories of this iconic composer are ongoing, interactive, and even inclusive of the reader. For others, the title will evoke a breathing composer who gazes consciously at his own reflection in the mirror: responding to his own and perhaps mirroring the public persona that his devotees had created for him (p. 36). Indeed, it is fascinating to consider the degree to which Ives's perception of himself relates to the various legends (e.g., musical pioneer, American maverick, neglected genius, etc.) with which he has been so strongly associated. David Paul's interest lies with how Ives's reflection is colored by the viewpoints of other Americans. He has written the first book-length history of the composer since his relatively recent passing in 1954. His methodology is based on the idea that there exists no single reception or legacy of culture, but rather that its influence and interpretation are relative, fluid, and constantly changing. Paul links this approach to coined by intellectual theorist Stanley Fish (Is There a Text in This Class?: The Authority of Interpretive Communities [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980]). In fact, Fish's are basic to the structure of the book. Over the course of six chapters, Paul suggests six unique yet overlapping communities of discourse, from composers and conductors to scholars of various disciplines. The chapters are constructed roughly chronologically, corresponding to ten- to twenty-year segments of the twentieth century and characterized by broadly changing cultural, social, economic, and political tides. But there are other factors to consider in how the six interpretive communities are distinguished from each other, such as disciplinary approach, methodology, audience, and the setting of the discourse (popular newspaper, academic journal, lecture hall, and concert hall). The book addresses all of these ingredients, as well as the volume, variety, and endurance of voices that populate its various portrayed communities. That said, the communities themselves are nebulous and difficult to define even for Paul, in part because they are characterized by many disparate factors. After all, Paul is making a bid for relativism, plurality, and flexibility, and so his very methodology resists categorical assumptions. As is to be expected, there is also considerable overlap and disjunction within and among the interpretive communities, as Paul's subjects jostle for attention. If each chapter implies a particular community of discourse, then each chapter essentially asks the question: in what ways do its members share a common identity? What is the common thread? In the first chapter, Conservative Transcendentalist or Modernist Firebrand? Ives and His First Publics, 1921-1934, Paul provocatively suggests that Before a represents the first example of Ives (Charles Ives, Essays Before a Sonata [New York: The Knickerbocker Press, 1920]). …