The Project Gutenberg EBook of Essays Before a Sonata, by Charles Ives
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Essays Before a Sonata
Author: Charles Ives
Posting Date: April 29, 2009 [EBook #3673]
Release Date: January, 2003
First Posted: July 11, 2001
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESSAYS BEFORE A SONATA ***
Produced by John Mamoun with help from the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team of Charles Franks. HTML
version by Al Haines.
ESSAYS BEFORE A SONATA
by
Charles Ives
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
INTRODUCTORY FOOTNOTE BY CHARLES IVES
INTRODUCTION
I--PROLOGUE
II--EMERSON
III--HAWTHORNE
IV--"THE ALCOTS"
V--THOREAU
VI--EPILOGUE
INFORMATION ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION
**********************************************************
BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Charles Ives (1874-1954) was probably one of the most
psycho-intellectually brilliant, imaginative and flexible Americans to
ever "walk the land of freedom." A graduate of Yale, he became a
multi-millionaire in the American insurance industry, introducing
brilliant innovations within that industry. He also, unlike a few
composers, found the time and the money (being a shrewd and practical
businessman) to get married and have children.
His accomplishments for which he is best known, however, are those in
the field of music. At the time of its composition, Ives' music was
probably the most radically modern in history, and by itself had enough
material to serve as the foundation of modern 20th century music. For
example, at the turn of the century, this eccentric composer created
band works featuring multiple melodies of multiple time signatures
opposing and complimenting each other within the same piece. Ives was
also a revolutionary atonal composer, who created, essentially without
precedent, many atonal works that not only pre-date those of
Schoenberg, but are just as sophisticated, and arguably even more so,
than those of the 12-tone serialist.
Among those atonal works was his second, "Concord" piano sonata, one of
the finest, and some would say the finest, works of classical m
|