Charles Ives, Three Places in New England - Ensemble intercontemporain

[@ronalddickman4591]

After all these years, Ives is still THE American composer! Beautiful performance.

[@andrewpetersen5272]

One of them

[@knd1940]

00:00 I. The “St. Gaudens” in Boston Common (Col. Shaw and his Colored Regiment)* 09:45 II. Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut 16:00 III. The Housatonic at Stockbridge * The 1989 movie "Glory" is about Colonel Shaw and his "Colored Regiment".

[@nickandmikec]

I have heard that Charles Ives began writing such music when he witnessed two marching bands pass one another during a parade. Lovely stuff.

[@knd1940]

Ives' father George was a bandleader and had the two bands march past each other to hear how it would sound.

[@garthamundson4400]

I was a trumpet player in the High School of the town where Ives lived....Danbury, Connecticut. We performed the piece to which you refer, marching toward the nearby town of Bethel Connecticut's H.S. band on Main Street, interlocking with them, turning simultaneously to face the audience while continuing to play, then turning and proceeding in opposite directions. That sparked my interest in Ives.

[@Nyalcoholic]

What is the piece titled?@@garthamundson4400

[@scottpardee6303]

I’m also from New England and find his music mesmerizing. Thank to performances like this, perhaps, his music will be included more in the repertoire.

[@knut-jrgenplesner4856]

Without formal restraints Ives describes the land, the spirit, the people. Such free and wonderful and joyful music.

[@DSAK55]

EXACTLY

[@markhenderson5431]

Ives is the composer that tipped the scale for me to become a lifelong music professor instead of persuing the pre-med I was in. I was right! I would trade ALL of Schoenberg after Pierrot Lunaire for just this one work of Ives. Also, I love the quality of the recording here as well as the performance. The arguments and pedantic declarations in these comments about things like how many strings Ives "wanted" and who is right and knows the "real true way" seem petty and worthless in the face of this magnificent music.

[@DSAK55]

you're braver than Ives, he kept his day job in insurance

[@makingmusicmusicando685]

Charles: When I knew you for the first time I realized that a New World was opening to me: A new world of emotions, inner feelings and much more. You overjoyed that with more than my brain was ready to understand. Now, thirty five years later you feed me still. I am glad to be your friend. Wait for me to carry on loving us.

[@yumapoint]

There's a lot I like about this performance, and one fundamental thing I don't, so I'll start with that: I don't much like doing this with only a few strings, making it into chamber music. It's an orchestral piece, originally written for full orchestra though that score is sadly lost. It was premiered by a chamber orchestra, but that was an expedient, and anyway I think they had more strings. (The existing manuscript is one that Ives cut down for the premiere.) That said, I like the playing and the interpretation. For one thing, European groups tend to play Ives like he's a mid-20th century European modernist, and he wasn't. He was a one-man post-Romantic American on his own wavelength. What is echt-American about him is that he's a maverick while absolutely thinking of his work in the context of the great European tradition. The playing here is warm and expressive, also nicely accurate. Maybe Putnam's camp could be rowdier and funnier, but it's OK. The Housatonic final movement needs more strings, needs that body of sound, but with this group it makes an interesting effect. And it's as beautiful as it needs to be. -Jan Swafford

[@garthdev]

I heard just yesterday a conductor saying "Stop romanticising" and this gets me and a bug bear as many do.. I agree this is for full orchestra and leaves the piece slightly underwhelming.. The interpretation mm yup but I don't get it and if I'm listening to Ives I've got to get it..

[@alexwatson7068]

Hi Jan. I'm an undergraduate composition student and in our 20th century history class we are studying Ives this week. What recordings do you recommend for this piece?

[@yumapoint]

@@alexwatson7068 Which piece? Three Places?

[@charlesreidy2765]

Ives approved a version of this rescored by Nicholas Slonimsky, who not only conducted it at a chamber music concert in New York City that Ives attended, but also in Paris, where many important European musicians heard an Ives work for the first time. While I like the full orchestra version best, I really enjoyed hearing this chamber music performance by such a great orchestra.

[@charlesreidy2765]

@@alexwatson7068 There are so many good ones. My current favorite is by Christoph von Dohnányi and the Cleveland Orchestra, but you can still get Ormandy's and Ozawa's from the 60s and 70s.

[@mrdProf42]

I think this works beautifully as a chamber orchestra piece, even though not written as such. I didn't know it could work like this. Good work, folks!

[@Tsull123]

From Wikipedia: The Three Places in New England (Orchestral Set No. 1) is a composition for orchestra in three movements by American composer Charles Ives. It was written mainly between 1911 and 1914, but with sketches dating as far back as 1903 and last revisions made in 1929. The work is celebrated for its use of musical quotation and paraphrasing. The movements (in Ives's preferred slow-fast-slow sequence, longest first and shortest last) are: The “St. Gaudens” in Boston Common (Col. Shaw and his Colored Regiment) Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut The Housatonic at Stockbridge

[@lightshineministries3549]

There is a power to this music with a direct connection to heaven.

[@williamlenihan7536]

What a perfect ensemble for Ives! A group that can play the entire 20th century and beyond. I hadn’t listened to Ives’ music in years and so was delighted to year it played so exquisitely.

[@MarcoInchingolo83]

One of the best performance I've ever heard of this wonderful music.

[@Badmintonforall]

début 0:30 Years ago, I met in Paris a professor at Standford (I dont know what she teached), she was an old lady and she had never heard about Ives. She did not know who he was.

[@jimsonisolation]

This is a wonderfully capable group of Musicians! Brave and Sensitive players; Bravo!

[@ensembleinter]

Thanks Kyle !

[@ConfusedGuardsman]

Sensitive to the music sure, but I fail to bravery. They aren't risking injury or anything.

[@jacquesbekaert469]

Ives is certainly one of the most important composers of the XX century. Ives was also very generous to fellow composers

[@andrewpetersen5272]

I did not know that. Thought he was a bit of a recluse in his music.

[@PolkRidgeAesthete]

@@andrewpetersen5272 He financially supported Carl Ruggles for years.

[@jimsonisolation]

Wonderful playing! I feel as if I'm greeting an old friend after they've had a rejuvenating vacation!!

[@docbailey3265]

I understand the 2nd Movement was written in memory of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, which makes it even cooler.

[@david.carlton303]

Actually, it was the *first* movement--an evocation of the St. Gaudens monument to the 54th Massachusetts on Boston Common.

[@charlesreidy2765]

Amazing performance. Housatonic at Stockbridge was played almost perfectly... Ives doesn't get any better than this... and it should fill Americans with pride that such a great European musical ensemble programmed it.

[@lipby]

Programming Ives or Copeland or Glass or Reich or Carter shouldn't surprise anyone. This isn't 1890 anymore.

[@charlesreidy2765]

@@lipby I find it very surprising when I see Ives or Carter performed, because performances are rare. They require more rehearsal time than Copland or Glass.

[@andrewpetersen5272]

@@lipby Copland..no "e".

[@andrewpetersen5272]

@@lipby Yes but where is Griffes, Cowell, Mennin, Giordano, etc..

[@lipby]

@@andrewpetersen5272 Thanks

[@josephmiller5399]

this is SO brilliant! Thank you.

[@davidbart5141]

Thank you for this! Excellent!

[@mauriciolopesgalvao3777]

Bravo!!! Espetacular, complexo e difícil de acompanhar, um despertar da mente musical de cada um de nós! Bravíssimo!!!

[@ryanguerra2024]

I love that ending sequence

[@ryanguerra2024]

Bro this recording is epic

[@nostalgicmodernist1399]

Great interpretation, in particular, of the Housatonic movement (the third)!

[@ensembleinter]

Thanks !

[@walexwetchina487]

I agree

[@sonicsnap1173]

I agree too! Congratulations!

[@annakimborahpa]

Like much of Ives's music, that movement's title could be paraphrased as "Where's the tonic (key)?"

[@ramonm7900]

Excellent and fascinating playing.

[@benbob2008]

Excellent!

[@juanferestrada]

This music is magical

[@rwolfson1935]

one of few composers whose music makes sense. doesn't control the listener. also prince gesualdo; hildegard von bingen. wonderful performance.

[@allesvergaengliche]

r wolfson the holy trinity

[@wcsxwcsx]

A super-atmospheric performance. I think Ives would have approved.

[@krantiyatri2107]

Per i musicisti dell'Ensemble intercontemporain questa è musica perfettamente tonale. Capisco le loro difficoltà nell'eseguirla.

[@basourdi]

j'adhore la toux a 2:58 , merci beaucu : )

[@stevebeck3863]

New England is a great place t o live. I am happy here!

[@UNCERTAINAGEPOD]

stunning

[@davidmehnert6206]

Putnam’s Camp at 9:40. #Buckeye

[@jorgegarzaelli6238]

Excelente interpretacion y direccion de una obra interesante y dificultosa en su ejecucion. desde Argentina saludos amables

[@jorgegarzaelli6238]

Un segundo movimiento "perfecto" y con un estilo "jazzistico" de alto nivel

[@JM-lw3nx]

Amazing how much loud (and deliberate?) coughing goes on even in the quieter passages.

[@PaulCaruso53]

Keith Jarrett gives out cough drops at performances as a guard against this and has been known to completely stop playing if he hears a lot of coughing during a performance for a "group cough" so everybody can get over it.

[@MegaCirse]

Magnifique !! La musique tient ici le milieu entre la nature matérielle et la nature intellectuelle : elle peut dépouiller l'amour de son écorce terrestre, ou donner un corps à l'ange selon les dispositions de celui qui écoute, ses accords sont des pensées ou des caresses 🔥🕊

[@lightshineministries3549]

Even as a classical musician, I dismissed Charles Ives as nothing but atonal noise. It wasn't until after college and retirement that I've started to understand it.....started!

[@othermirth1866]

The man won the Pulitzer Prize for composition 20 years after he stopped writing music. Now, a hundred years later, 99 percent of classical music listeners still can’t free their minds to hear the beauty. I’m glad you finally made it.

[@KAZVorpal]

So many classical musicians/fans still haven't grown up enough to really understand Stravinsky, Debussy, or Schoenberg, much less Ives.

[@KAZVorpal]

@doinkdoink49 Yes, Schonberg was trying to "free tonality", like Stravinsky did to rhythm and Debussy did for compositional structure. But, ultimately, Stravinsky and Debussy were only confusing to people too bound by previous tradition, whereas Schonberg's efforts often led to sounds that were objectively harsh and/or hard to enjoy, from an esthetic standpoint. Ironically, even Schonberg understood this, and sometimes commented on feeling sorry for those of his friends who would insist on listening to performances of his works. His stuff is great because of its intentions, breaking existing patterns and traditions. It's fascinating to watch him struggle to do so, like with his arbitrary 12 tone rule. But unlike his predecessors, discarding all tonal structure has no long-term esthetic benefit. The problem is in order for human ears to learn to enjoy it, there must be SOME tonal system, SOME pattern to latch onto. And of course his goal was to avoid such patterns.

[@xtremenortherner]

I'm not a classically trained musician per se, but here goes..., I can say this because I'm a "New Englander" myself! Ives was a Transcendentalist composer, by that I mean that he thought that since mankind was a member of the natural world, then music ought to cross/"transcend" that boundary...,and hence elevate people emotionally...,

[@Gnurklesquimp]

Some of Ives' stuff happened to connect with me before really expanding what I can process, but it's wild how things that used to sound a bit haphazard to me can now sound exactly right. Funnily enough, I never liked the majority of ''safer'' classical music, with major exceptions like quite a lot of Chopin's work, but learning what goes into it helped me appreciate those pieces too, almost like an inverse of your situation. The majority of those pieces still don't resonate with me, nor do quite some sections in pieces I otherwise love, but I love that I can still have a good time being engaged in it.

[@machida5114]

so good...

[@jimwalsh1958space]

I'd kill to get a vinyl disk of this please help. No, i mean it i want this so much it hurts dunno why.

[@MiguelBellusci]

Is this version for chamber orchestra arranged by Ives himself? It is published in this format? Thank you for the information!

[@林思婷-k1l]

3rd mvmt 16:06

[@mikesmovingimages]

Wonderful performance, great music, but PLEASE hold the damn camera still!

[@sandraaltenfeldersilvs4124]

Ouvido pensante Murray Schafer pag 91...❤

[@boonrutsirirattanapan100]

Wowwww

[@sethwexler6910]

I wouldn’t consider Ives atonal. Everything is tonal just with many tonalities at the same time. As is the same for the polyrhythms .

[@docbailey3265]

Oh. This was Stravinsky’s favorite work of Ives.

[@timprice6394]

2nd mvmt 9:44

[@lbicudo1049]

10:53

[@ramongonzalezalvarez4039]

aun existia Notre Dame

[@jwmchannel1559]

The first movement is way too slow. It drags. Listen to the Tilson Thomas recordings!

[@depauleable]

Dope

[@ВікторіяНадгребельна]

9:46

[@ariginting2089]

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

[@sidehfdl]

00:34

[@aasherwright4130]

genius

[@ServerWrestler]

this sounds odd. somebody dosed my coffee. 😵‍💫

[@stevenwiederholt7000]

Could some kind soul PLEASE explain why I'm supposed to like this?

[@whatthestuffisthis]

It's about war. And the being seduced by war. But set in the frame work of the Remembrance of War...With familiar themes, the glorification of the Civil war...hearing a military band playing..the bright costumes and 'heroism' and joining up. And then the reality...the chaos...the explosions..the notes that clash..the beating of the drums...and finally the homecoming that the familiar themes are now twisted and out sych with what you thought was glorious when you joined up. But it's not set in the civil war..it's set at a time when people where glorifying the civil war. It was inspired by Ives seeing old Civil war vets...broken and beaten and military parades that play up the glory of war with out the dissonance.

[@MarcusHK1]

There is no obligation to like this.

[@jorgegarzaelli6238]

Made you mind free!!! and you are going to uindesrtand the new sound of our world. You can do it!!! for sure!!from Argentina

[@DanRad44]

Also said someone who tried wine for the first time.

[@korinnedutton8040]

@@DanRad44 that might just be the most amazing description I have heard for his music! It really is an acquired taste!

[@nathanniehaus2651]

Ok, I get that his ability to conduct this music presumably heightens the chances that his general taste is better than mine, but for christ's sake the purple graphic tee under a blazer is just awful.

[@Alix777.]

Very poor performance. Leave this music where it belongs, they can't play it properly.

[@DSAK55]

🤡🤡

[@rowlandsmx1]

Scaromouche

[@starmoonsunstarmonn2011]

Hurts my ears

[@DSAK55]

🤡🤡

[@lightspeed174]

I don't get this. To me this is a miss mash of noise. Sorry to say very boring.

[@kevinprzy4539]

You must not have a good ear or an appreciation for classicals

[@DSAK55]

🤡🤡

[@user-lc5uh4ic1z]

this sounds like nails on a chalkboard

[@DSAK55]

🤡🤡

[@lbicudo1049]

13:52