The Early Styles of Charles Ives

Abstract

Two rewards beckon the scholar who investigates the early works of a major composer: familiarity with neglected works worthy of study and appreciation, and deepened insight into the composer's creative maturity. Ideally they are concurrent. With some twentieth-century composers, however-and most notably with Schoenberg-there are early works of remarkable maturity, from one standpoint, that nevertheless have an oblique relationship to music from later in the career. Such is the case with Charles Ives, and the situation is the more complex since even his mature idiom bristles with complex issues and problems. It is possible with Ives (as with Schoenberg) to hypothesize a relationship between the earlier and the later music which illuminates works on either side of the imaginary line. In order to articulate the hypothesis, it will be necessary first to consider the large and sometimes bewildering group of compositions from before 1902. The rationale for using 1902 as a point of division in Ives's career will emerge as the early work is compared, in terms of style and artistic aim, with the products of his full maturity. Ives's compositions of the period 1888-1901, whether arranged by genre, style, or chronology, seem to suggest a patchwork quilt: of idioms and influences, of expressive characteristics, and of aesthetic ambitions. The chronology of these works is especially challenging, and not just because of the obvious difficulties of dating. Yet the very confusion of the early output, far from being a cause for consternation, is the key to a fuller understanding of Ives's later work. Most of the surviving early works are short pieces for a variety of ensembles. Particularly noteworthy are the songs for voice and piano 19th-Century Music VII/1 (Summer 1983). O by the Regents of the University of California.