Orchestral Set No.2 - Charles Ives

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra & Choir conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas (orchestra) and Geert Van Keulen (chorus).
I - An Elegy to our Forefathers. Very slowly: 0:00
II - The Rockstrewn Hills Join in the People's Outdoor Meeting. Allegro: 5:46
III - From Hanover Square North, at the End of a Tragic Day, the Voice of the People Again Arose. Very slowly - Andante maestoso: 10:33
Ives' Orchestral Set No.2 was finished in 1919, assembled from previous material from between 1909-19. The three movements were written as separate pieces in 1909, 1911, and 1915, respectively; only later did Ives decide to unite them under a single title. The work was premiered in West Berlin on January 27 of 1966, performed by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bruno Maderna.
While the first orchestral set represent different places and experiences of New England, the second set reflects more general impressions. Both sets are united by the mix of avant-garde and modernistic techniques such as polyrhythms, polytonality and collage-like musical structures, with a wide variety of tunes from American life; hymns, marches, spirituals and plantation songs, ragtime music, patriotic songs and ballads, fiddle tunes, etc.
The first movement began its life as an overture titled "An Elegy for Stephen Foster". It opens with an offstage group of zither, harp, and percussion featuring chimes and bells, creating a nebulous, mysterious atmosphere. Then follows the quotation of several tunes like Foster's "Old Black Joe" and "Massa's in de Cold, Cold Ground," but also snatches of African American spirituals such as "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen". The music grows more dissonant and eerie until reaching an expressive, multi-layered climax. Then it gradually fragments and dissolves as mysteriously as the movement began.
The second movement is largely derived from the "Four Ragtime Dances", which also references the camp-revival meetings Ives knew as a boy. It is a collage of hymn tunes ("Bringing In the Sheaves", "I Hear Thy Welcome Voice") and folksongs ("The Girl I Left Behind Me", "Rock-a-bye Baby") boldly transformed and distorted into ragtimes. It contains some of Ives' most trenchantly dissonant writing for the strings and brass in the centre section. Bells ring in the climax, consisting of a wonderfully sour rendering of "Bringing in the Sheaves" before the music quiets back down. A soft coda ends the movement.
The third movement recalls Ives's experience of May 7, 1915, the day that the news broke of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, preceding the United States' entry into the First World War. Ives's focus is not about the sinking per se, but rather "the reaction of a group of commuters". According to his own memoirs, the crowd waiting on the platform of New York's Hanover Square station spontaneously broke into the gospel hymn "In the Sweet By and By" a tune that was being played on a barrel organ on the street below.
Ives stated in his Memos: "Some workmen sitting on the side of the tracks began to whistle the tune, and others began to sing or hum the refrain. A workman with a shovel over his shoulder came on to the platform and joined in the chorus, and the next man, a Wall Street banker with white spats and a cane, joined in it, finally it seemed to me that everybody was singing this tune, and they didn't seem to be singing it in fun, but as a natural outlet for what their feelings had been going through all day long."
In this movement, Ives calls for a separate ensemble of unison chorus, horn, chimes, piano, harp, and strings, physically removed from the main orchestra and playing in a different meter. The chorus intones the Te Deum in English, and the distant ensemble provides a "background noise of New York rush-hour traffic." From there the music develops with melodies overlaying one another, including Foster's "Massa's in the Cold Ground" and "My Old Kentucky Home". These fade in and out of view, with In the Sweet By and By only being hinted. The main orchestra then enters with "In the Sweet Bye and Bye", getting gradually louder and louder until the hymn is intoned in a full tutti, only to thin out immediately as a lone accordion is left to finish the melody. Finally, all that remains is the distant ensemble with their rush-hour traffic noises.
[Activate the subtitles to read the lyrics.]
Pictures: (left) Photograph of Stephen Foster circa 1860. (center) Poster of the sinking of RMS Lusitania. (right) Hand-coloured woodcut of a Methodist Camp Meeting in Eastham, Massachusetts (c1850).
Sources: t.ly/lSmcj, t.ly/UJPHJ and rb.gy/h3534
Unortunately, the score is not freely available.

[@brucerobinson8498]

A masterpiece of the 20th century. Important recording to include with the Stokowski benchmark. Thank you for posting this.

[@karlyohe6379]

Sad that it took 50 years before it was performed. Haunting and magnificent

[@jedtulman46]

My favorite orchestral sets of Ives

[@dreyescope6926]

I was sure the offstage instruments near the beginning of the first movement were something electronic. Something anachronistic. But no. It's just Charles Ives again. Truly otherworldly for 1919.

[@stevouk]

Well you're not actually wrong: what you're hearing is a combination of chimes, zither and harp, generating a sound which seems much more modern than it is.

[@dialecticsjunkie7653]

RIP Charles, you'd have loved working with electronics and sampling

[@yowzephyr]

Wow. Just so wonderful. Thank you for posting.

[@garyscheele5118]

As always, thanks for the excellent notes on this.

[@Rahatlakhoom]

This is the out of the box macabre that I like so much about Ives.

[@carlose.johansson739]

❤❤❤

[@AndrewRudin]

Should rank in popularity with "3 Places in New England". One of his best.