Ives Sherwood Article

7/25/2019 Ives Sherwood Article

1/28

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"Buds the Infant Mind": Charles Ives's "The Celestial Country" and American Protestant ChorTraditionsAuthor(s): Gayle SherwoodSource: 19th-Century Music, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Autumn, 1999), pp. 163-189Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746922Accessed: 26-01-2016 02:59 UTC

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2/28

B u d s

t h e

I n f a n t M i n d :

C h a r l e s

I v e s ' s

h e Celestial

Country

a n d mer ican

rotestant

C h o r a l

Traditions

GAYLE SHERWOOD

Over the

past

two

decades our

view of the

American

composer

Charles Ives

has

changed

considerably.

Although

still seen as

a

rugged,

independent

pioneer,

Ives

has

emerged

as

a

far

more

complex

figure.

We now know

that the

Ives

described

by

Time

in

1938

as the "most

individual,

most

authentically

American

of

con-

temporary

U.S.

composers"

drew

heavily

on

the

European

tradition well into his mature

compositions.'

And the earlier

image

of the

isolated

and

neglected

artist described

by

crit-

ics

in

1965

now

coexists

with that of the self-

promoting

businessman

who

shrewdly

ad-

vanced

his own

music

by

funding

various con-

cert series and

publications.2

The

integration

of

these

seemingly

incompatible

traits has cre-

ated

a

more nuanced

profile

of

the man

and

his

music.

Ives's

song

On the

Antipodes

from the mid-

1920s dramatizes that conflict.3 In

this

work

Ives

presents

the world-"Nature"-as a series

of

dualities.

His

own text describes

the

unpredictability and contradictions of nature,

while the

music

underscores its

inevitability

through

overlapping,

irregularcyclic

patterns.4

In

one

passage

(ex.

1),

he

juxtaposes

a seem-

ingly

innocent

description

of nature with a

sar-

19th-Century

Music

XXIII/2 (Fall 1999). ? by

The

Regents

of

the

University

of

California.

I

am

grateful

to Naomi

Andr6,

Amy

Beal,

J.

Peter

Burkholder,

H.

Wiley

Hitchcock,

and

Jeffrey Magee

for

their

suggestions

and

encouragement

during

the

writing

of

this article. Earlier versions of this

paper

were

read

at

the

1996

meeting

of

the Sonneck

Society

in Falls

Church,

Virginia,

and at the

1995

American

Musicological

Society

meeting

in

New York.

I"Music,"

Time

32/1 (4 July

1938),

p.

20. Review

of

Charles

Ives:

Six

songs.

Mordecai Bauman

(baritone)

and

Albert

Hirsch

(piano)

in

New Music

Quarterly

Recordings,

Bennington

College, Bennington,

Vt. For extensive studies

of

Ives's use

of

the

European tradition,

see

J.

Peter

Burkholder,

All

Made

of

Tunes: Charles Ives and the Uses

of

Musical

Borrowing (New Haven, Conn., 1995), idem,

Charles

Ives: The Ideas Behind the Music

(New

Haven,

Conn.,

1985),

and

idem,

The Evolution

of

Charles

Ives's

Music:

Aesthetics,

Quotation,

Technique (Ph.D. diss.,

Uni-

versity

of

Chicago,

1983).

For

the most

recent overview of

Ives

scholarship,

see

Burkholder,

"Ives

Today,"

in

Ives

Studies,

ed.

Philip

Lambert

(Cambridge,

1997), pp.

263-90.

2As recounted

in

Stuart

Feder,

Charles Ives:

"My

Father's

Song" (New Haven, Conn.,

1992),

pp.

320 and

325;

Gayle

Sherwood,

The Choral Works

of

Charles Ives: Chronol-

ogy, Style,

and

Reception

(Ph.D. diss.,

Yale

University,

1995), pp. 281-83;

Maynard

Solomon,

"Charles Ives:

Some

Questions

of

Veracity,"

Journal

of

the American

Musico-

logical Society

40

(1987),

463-64

and

passim.

3Ives dated

On the

Antipodes

"1915-23"

in

18

Songs (pub-

lished

1935):

the

song's

exclusion

from 114

Songs

of

1921

supports

the conclusion that

Ives

completed

it

between

1921

and

1935.

4For

a discussion of

cyclic

structures

in On the

Antipodes,

see

Philip Lambert,

The Music

of

Charles

Ives

(New

Ha-

ven, Conn.,

1997),

pp.

178-85.

163

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3/28

19TH

m u s i

14

Andante

grazioso

Some

-

times

Na

ture's

nice and

sweet.

as

a lit -

tle

pan

-

sy

8--------------

_I

L

Andante

grazioso

Presto or

Allegro

(between

a shout and a

drawl)

18

f f

ff

and. Some times "it ain't."

S3

loco

8--------loco

3

(as fast

as

it

will

go)

3

L3

Presto or

Allegro3

3

(as fast

as it will

go)

.- --? ,, 1 1, 0 ,

Example

1:

Charles

Ives,

On

the

Antipodes,

mm.

14-19.

Examples

1, 6,

and 10a

are used

by permission

of the

publisher.

?

Merion

Music,

Inc.

donic

disclaimer, accentuating

their

opposition

with

an extreme

musical contrast.

The inver-

sions of

text and

music

provide

a

revealing

portrait

of

Ives as

composer,

and

they

drama-

tize

the creative

tensions

that

recent scholar-

ship has reinforced.

Clearly,

the second

part

of this

passage

is

vintage

Charles Ives.

Crashing

dissonances

col-

lide

with a snide

parody

of the

sentimental

style

popular

at

the turn of

the

century.

Larry

Starr

described

the

first line as

"excessively

genteel,

banal

C-major

music,"

and

the second

line as

"ferociously

dissonant

music"

that cre-

ates

"a violent

and

wildly

humorous

effect."5

Yet

despite

its modernist

overtones,

this

pas-

sage

contains

a

surprising

quotation

from one

of Ives's

earlier,

less rebellious

compositions.

Measures

14-15

quote

a

moment

from the

third

movement of

Ives's cantata

The Celestial

Coun-

try,

"Seek

the

Things"

for

four-part

solo

quar-

sLarry

Starr,

A Union

of

Diversities

(New

York,

1992),

p.

87.

164



4/28

[Tempo I]

81

rail.

9

For ward when in child hood

For ward

when

in

child

hood

For ward when in

child hood

For ward

when

in

child hood

For ward

when

in

child hood

rall.

84

3

f

marc.

Buds the in

fant,

in fant mind: All

through youth

and man

hood,

f

marc.

A3-

Buds the

in

fant,

in

-

fant mind: All

through youth

and

man

hood,

Not a

fmarc.

Buds the in

fant,

in

-

fant mind: All

through youth

and man

hood,

Not a

f

marc.

Buds the

in

fant,

in

-

fant

mind:

All

through

youth

and man

-

hood,

Not a

Example

2:

Charles

Ives,

The

Celestial

Country,

"Seek the

Things,"

mm.

81-87.

Examples

, 4, 7,

and 11 used

by permission.

?

1971

and

1973

by

Peer

nternational

orporation.

nternational

opyright

ecured.

tet

(ex.

2).6

The

original

text for the full

passage

in

"Seek the

Things"

reads as follows

(the

pas-

sage

used

in

On the

Antipodes

appears

n

ital-

ics):

"Forwardwhen in childhood

/

Buds the

infant

mind

/

All

through youth

and

manhood

/

Not a

thought

behind."

The

melody, pitch

level,

and

rhythmic

accents are

quoted

almost

exactly,

and the

harmony

is

virtually

identical

in both cases. Ives's allusion to this earlierwork

unites the secular modernist

On the

Antipodes

with its opposite: a conservative religious can-

tata that

premiered

in

1902.

Ives's

quotation

from his own

cantata

sug-

gests

several

interpretations.Perhaps

his is self-

criticism,

a

dismissal of his own

earlier,

conser-

vative work. It could

be an

in-joke perpetrated

by

the Ives of the

1920s,

the

increasingly

vener-

ated modernist

winking

at his unknown

con-

servative efforts.

Or,

the

key may

lie in

the can-

tata itself. This

previously unrecognized quota-

tion

offers,

in

microcosm,

clues

regarding

both

Ives's

relationship

to American Protestantcho-

ral traditions at the turn of the century and his

later interaction with those traditions

into the

1920s.

Viewed from

this

perspective,

On the

Antipodes

emerges

not as a

self-parody

but as a

self-portrait,

one

grounded

n

a careful reconsid-

eration of the

source

work,

The Celestial Coun-

try,

and its

place

within Ives's

early

career.

165

6My

identification

of this

quotation

was

first

reported

in

Burkholder,

All

Made

of

Tunes,

p.

476n.56.



5/28

THE

CELESTIALCOUNTRY

The Celestial

Country

was first

performed

on

18

April

1902

at Central

Presbyterian

Church

in

Manhattan,

where Ives was choir director

and

organist.

It then

disappeared

or seven de-

cades-until 1972-when the GreggSmith Sing-

ers

performed

it at

Columbia

University.

In

1974-the

Ives centennial

year-Peer published

John

Kirkpatrick's

piano-vocal

edition of the

cantata,

and the work was treated to

two re-

cordings:

one

in

Columbia's five-disc box

set;

and

the other

in

Harold

Farberman's

ecording

for

ComposersRecordings.7

The

recordings

re-

ceived much

critical

attention,

the

majority

of

it

negative,

including

a

highly

unfavorable re-

view

by

Victor

Fell Yellin

in

Musical

Quar-

terly

and several lukewarm

assessments

in

the

New YorkTimes and Records

and

Recordings.8

The context of these published evaluations are

significant

because of their

far-reaching

mpact

on

scholarship

to the

present.

The most

significant objection

to

the can-

tata has

perennially

involved its

relationship

to

the

style

of Horatio Parker

(1863-1919),

Ives's

teacher at Yale between

1894

and

1898.

Since

1974,

critics have

consistently

and

unfavorably

compared

The Celestial

Country

with

Parker's

1893

oratorio

Hora Novissima.

As

John

Kirkpatrick

and others have

noted,

the

most

obvious influence of

Hora Novissima

occurs in

the

second, third,

and sixth

movements of The

Celestial

Country,

where

passages

are modeled

on Parker's

bass

solo,

"Spe

modo

vivitur"

(ex-

cerpted

in

ex.

3).9

Ives's

cantata,

for

instance,

uses

the same metrical alternations

as Parker's

bass solo

in the second movement

baritone

solo,

"Naught

that

country needeth,"

in the

third

movement

quartet,

"Seek the

Things,"

and

briefly

in the sixth movement tenor

solo

"Forward lock of

Jesus" (ex.

4a-c). Assessing

its relationship to Hora Novissima, Victor

Yellin

concluded that Ives's cantata was "an

essay

in

conformity

to

late-nineteenth-century

taste in Protestant

church music

in

unabashed

imitation

of his teacher. Even

by

those stan-

dards

The

Celestial

Country

seems

insipid."'1

Some of the

anti-Parkerfervor

in

1974

was

surely

due to the

recently published

collection

of the

Memos,

which

presented

Ives's

bitter

memories of his

battles with the

conservative

Parker. These

anecdotes served as a

nucleus

around which

scholars

began

to

paraphrase,

embellish,

and distort

Ives's

representation

of

Parker,always to the effect of vindicating Ives

the

American

experimentalist

against

his tra-

dition-bound,

European-trainedprofessor.

For

example,

in

his recollections of

the First

Sym-

phony,

Ives

stated that "Parkermade me

write

another first movement. ...

(And

also he didn't

like the

original

slow

movement. . .

[so]

I

wrote a nice

formal one-but the first is

bet-

ter )."" Throughout

1974

writers

parlayed

this

memory

into

a detailed

vignette

that

scorned

Parker's conservativism and exonerated Ives.

Thus Adrian

Jack

criticized Parkerfor not rec-

ognizing

Ives's

brilliance, stating

that

the

First

Symphony

"is

a well

brought-up

work

(yet

not

well

enough

to

satisfy

Ives's

teacher,

Horatio

Parker).""

More

general

reproaches

n

1974

in-

cluded Robert Crunden's

condemnation of

Parker or

"snorting"

at

hymn

tunes,

Harold C.

Schonberg's

statement that Ives's

experiments

7Kirkpatrick's

vocal and

piano

edition was re-released

by

Peer

in

1974

(it

was

originally

copyrighted

in

1972).

The

cantata was revived

in

March

1972

by

the

Gregg

Smith

Singers

at

Columbia

University

in

New York

(cited

in

[unsigned],

"Things

You Should

Know,"

Music

Journal

30/

5

[May

1972],

50)

and recorded on

13-14

March

1972

by

the same

organization (Kirkpatrick,

liner notes to "Charles

Ives: The

100th

Anniversary"

[unpaginated]).

The

Gregg

Smith Singers also performed the cantata in 1975 in Frank-

furt. Cited

recordings

are "Charles Ives: The

100th

Anni-

versary,"

various works and

artists,

Columbia

(Col

M4

32504);

and Harold

Farberman,

London

Symphony

Orches-

tra and Schutz

Choir,

Composers

Recordings

(CRI

SD-

314).

8Victor

Fell

Yellin,

review of

The Celestial

Country

by

Charles

Ives,

Musical

Quarterly

60

(July

1974),

500-08.

9Burkholder,

All

Made

of

Tunes,

pp.

36-37.

10Yellin,

review of

The Celestial

Country,

p.

506.

Yellin

noted other

general similarities,

including

thematic rela-

tionships

between the

movements,

and

symmetrical

ar-

rangements

of the movements. Feder also noted that both

texts deal with similar themes

and

images

of

heavenly

redemption (Feder, Charles Ives, p. 171). All of these fac-

tors, however,

are also

present

in

many

other

religious

cantatas of this

period:

see below for a discussion of one

such work

by

Dudley

Buck.

"Ives,

Memos,

ed.

John

Kirkpatrick

(New York, 1972),

p.

51.

12Adrian

Jack,

review of

Ives,

First

Symphony,

Philadel-

phia

Orchestra,

Eugene Ormandy,

cond.,

CBS

77424,

Records and

Recording 18/1 (October 1974),

47.

166



6/28

31

poco cresc.

a

tri

-

a

splen

-

di-da,

Ter ra

-

que

flo

-

rida,

i be

-

ra,

A

poco

cresc.

pizz.

PP

37

14-

spi

Parinis,

i

splbe

-

ra

spi

da,inis

Pa

flow

rious,

Love hath pre

pared forsers,

t,

Thorn

less

thy

low

ers

O

1Z

I.elli1

.,-

.,. + _ ,

W

, W.. .I

V

10k?J I:

.

'

i

'4'4

Example

3: Horatio

Parker,

Hora

Novissima,

"Spe

modo

vivitur,"

mm.

31-40.

167



7/28

19TH

a.

"Naught

that

country

needeth."

13

Where

the

God

-

head dwell

-

eth,

where the God

-

head dwell

-

eth,

Temrn

-

pie

there is

-44

b. "Seek the

Things."

I A

des

ert,

for

-

ward

through

the toil and

fight,

3

33-

3

-3

-3--

33-

-

3

--3-3

c. "Forward flock of

Jesus."

rall.

f

-P

a tempo

lov

-

ing

ray.

___

Sick,

they

ask for heal

f

collavoce

-

:,Vn j

__ Vla.

Example

4:

Ives,

The Celestial

Country:

Modelings

on

Parker,

Hora Novissima.

"disturbed the

academician,"

and Herbert

Kupferberg's

description

of Parker as "horri-

fied"

by

Ives's

experiments.13

Variations on

these well-worn themes are still

common,

as

in

Alan Rich's

mythological

recent

account of

the First

Symphony:

Not

surprisingly,

Horatio Parkerwas

aghast

at the

first

draft.

..

Parker

waxed

even more

furious at

the

"reprehensible"ending

of

the

work

(in-horror -a

'3Robert

Crunden,

"Charles

Ives:

The

Man

and His

Mu-

sic,"

Choral

Journal

15

(December

1974),

7.

Harold

Schonberg,

"Natural

American,

Natural

Rebel,

Natural

Avant-gardist,"

New York

Times

Magazine,

21

April

1974,

p.

12. Herbert

Kupferberg,

"Ives Centennial Hits Cre-

scendo,"

National

Observer,

26 October

1974,

[n.p.].

Horatio

Parker

is almost

entirely

excluded

from

Neely

Bruce's dis-

cussion of Ives and the American music tradition.

An

Ives

Celebration:

Papers

and Panels

of

the Charles

Ives

Cen-

tennial

Festival-Conference,

ed.

H:

Wiley

Hitchcock and

Vivian Perlis

(Urbana,

Ill.,

1977), pp.

38 and 41.

168



8/28

key

other

han

the

one at the

start),

nd

orderedves

to rewrite

it. This time Ives refused.

.

.

On

his

own,

removed

rom he

disapprovinglare

of Yale'smusic

faculty,

he

collegian

ves

composed rolifically.14

Compounding

its

problematic

links

to

Parker, The Celestial Country resurfaced at a

most

inauspicious

time,

when the "Ives

leg-

end" was at its

height.

As

promulgated

by

Ives

and

codified

by

the American modernist circle

and

subsequent

writers,

the

legend

claimed that

Ives was an

exclusively

experimental composer;

that

he was

already

composing

modernist works

at the turn of the

century;

and that he

was

uninfluenced

by

other

European

or

European-

trained

composers.'1

These

themes

had

domi-

nated Ives

reception

for the half

century

lead-

ing

up

to the

composer's

centennial,

and

they

influenced not

only

scholarship

but also

pub-

lished editions, premieres, and recordings.The

most

frequently performed,

recorded,

and

stud-

ied works-the so-called Ives

canon-used mod-

ernist

techniques

and relied on

identifiably

American

quotations

for

their musical mate-

rial.

In

this

way,

Ives's

modernist

works

were

linked to his

identity

as a

specifically

Ameri-

can modernist

composer:

an

identity

manifest

in

the numerous concert

series,

published

ar-

ticles

(both

academic and

popular),

and

record-

ings during

the centennial

year.16

The Celestial

Country-a

large

conservative cantata that

sounded neither modernist nor

obviously

American-served

only

to contradict the

leg-

end. It could thus not

be

admitted

to the canon.

In

sum,

The

Celestial

Country

re-emerged

within a climate

overtly

hostile to Parker

and

intolerant

of the conservative tradition in

gen-

eral. The

unfavorable review from

1974

in

the

New York Times revealed these two biases and

even

suggested

that the

piece

had been

written

underduress:"[TheCelestial Country was] de-

signed

to

please

Ives's

conservative

composi-

tion

teacher,

Horatio

Parker,

and

subsequently

of less

interest to

us. Ives seems to be

making

one of his rarebows to 'the nice old

ladies' here

and the

sanctimonious tone tends to

get

a bit

irritating."17

All

reviews

agreed

that

the

piece

was

not

significant

enough

to

warrant inclu-

sion

in

the Ives

canon,

describing

it

as

"banal,"

"no

great discovery,"

or

"surprisingly

conven-

tional."18

Many

reviews

emphasized

that Ives

had

already

written

mature

experimental

works

such as Psalm

67,

excusing

the cantata as

the

publicly

conservative effort of a

privately

mod-

ernist

composer.19

The

ongoing

discourse of

modernism

relegated

The Celestial

Country

to

the

status

of

a mere

"novelty"

or an

anomaly

("not

a

typical

piece")

within the

output

of the

great

American

experimenter.20

Because

The

Celestial

Country

offered evidence of

Ives's

in-

dependent,

willing participation

in

the conser-

vative

tradition as late as

1902,

that

is,

well

14Alan

Rich,

American Pioneers: Ives to

Cage

and

Beyond

(London,

1995),

pp.

37-38.

'5For

an

overview of the

legend,

see

my

"Questions

and

Veracities:

Reassessing

the

Chronology

of

Ives's Choral

Works,"

Musical

Quarterly

78

(1994),

429-30.

16Ives

the nationalist remains an

important

icon

for

con-

temporary

American

composers

to this

day.

Duckworth,

Talking

Music:

Conversations

...

Five Generations

of

American

Experimental

Composers

(New

York, 1995)

con-

tains

transcripts

of

interviews

with

Pauline

Oliveros,

Steve

Reich,

Philip

Glass,

and

John

Zorn,

all of whom

all

recog-

nize Ives as an influence. Reich states, "I believe that it

helps

the classical

music

and the

popular

music of a

pe-

riod

to

have some kind of a

discourse.

Charles

Ives,

George

Gershwin,

and Aaron

Copland,

everything

we consider

great

American music has had

either a

great

or small

amount of

that in

it,

because that's a

particularly

Ameri-

can truth"

(p.

317,

emphasis added).

Zorn

states,

"There's

a

very

deep

element

of

quotation

in

my music,

which is

something

that relates

to Ives

very

directly" (p.

470).

'7Peter

Davis,

"The Ives Boom on

Disk:

Every

Sketch,

Scrap

and

Masterpiece,"

New

York

Times,

20 October

1974,

sec. D, p. 26.

'8sack

described

the work as

"breezily

banal,

cosily

senti-

mental and sometimes

perversely abrupt.

.

.

. No

great

discovery

here,

perhaps,

but fun as a

novelty,"

while

Donal

Henahan found the cantata

"surprisingly

conventional."

Jack,

review of

Ives,

The

Celestial

Country,

recorded

by

the London

Symphony Orchestra,

London

Schutz

Choir,

Harold Farberman

cond.,

CRI

SD

314,

Records and Re-

cording

18/6

(March

1975),

p.

62;

Henahan,

"On

Listening

to

Mahler,

Ravel and Ives

Play

Their Own

Music,"

New

York

Times,

14

July

1974,

sec.

2,

13.

'9Feder maintains that Ives

was

composing larger

and

more

progressive

works

alongside

The

Celestial

Country,

in-

cluding

The Yale-Princeton

Football Game and the Sec-

ond

Symphony.

More

recently, Kyle

Gann

continues the

tradition of

dismissing

the cantata as "a work

patterned

after

Parker's

highly

esteemed Hora

Novissima,

and

one

far more conservative than other pieces Ives had already

written"

(Gann,

American Music

in

the

Twentieth Cen-

tury

[New

York,

1997], p.

9).

20This

point

is

underscored

in

a review of a

performance

of

the cantata in

Frankfurt

on

19

February

1975,

where it is

noted that for a

revolutionary

composer

like Ives the

can-

tata

"really

is

not

a

typical

piece"

(Gerhard

R.

Koch,

"Das

Paradies

liegt

hinter

Danbury,"

Frankfurter

allgemeine

Zeitung,

19

February

1975,

p.

23).

169



9/28

after his

graduation

from Yale and his

escape

from

Parker's

immediate

influence,

it

was

abruptly

dismissed.21

A

quarter century

after the Ives

centennial,

the

views from the

1970s

of

The Celestial Coun-

try

persist:

that its

originality

suffers as

an

imi-

tation of Parker'sHoraNovissima, and that its

conservative

style

is

anomalous in

Ives's

pre-

dominantly

modernist

output.

Feder's 1992

study

of Ives discussed the textual

and

psycho-

logical

relationships

between

The

Celestial

Country

and

Hora

Novissima

at

length,

but

included

only

scant references to the music of

the cantata. Feder concluded that Ives's music

was

"uncharacteristically

erivative"of Parker's

and

emphasized

that the cantata

"represents

only

one facet

of

[Ives's]

creative work"

at

this

time.22

But these evaluations

contain

several funda-

mental

oversights,

all

relating

to Ives's musical

environment at the turn of the

century.

Al-

though

a

central

figure

in

Ives's

biography

and

a

significant composer,

Parkerwas

by

no means

the

dominant

composer

of American

choral

music at the end of the nineteenth

century.

In

fact,

Parker's

academic,

European-inspired

ho-

ral

writing

constituted

only

a small

part

of

the

mainstream of American choral music

at

the

time.

Moreover,

The

Celestial

Country

had a

wealth

of

predecessors

in

Ives's

own

service

music and anthems:

a

body

of work almost

completely

unknown in

performances

and re-

cordings

and little

represented

in

Ives scholar-

ship.

By

reawakening

the

multilayered reality

of American choral music

during

the

1890s,

we

can hear

The

Celestial

Country

as a

more

com-

plex and daring composition than previous

evaluations have shown. And the

redating

of

several of Ives's earlier anthems

suggests

that

The

Celestial

Country,

far

from

being

a

compo-

sitional

anomaly,

stands as the culmination of

years

of

work

within an

alternate and

currently

misjudged

choral

style.

IVES'S

CONSERVATIVE CHORAL

PERIOD

My

revised

chronology

of Ives's

early,

nonmodernist

choral

works

sheds

light

on

his

cantata

by placing

it

alongside

its immediate

predecessors.

The revised

chronology

follows

the methods for music

paper dating

and

hand-

writing analysis

outlined

in

my

dissertation

and earlier

publications.23

Redatedchoral

works

through

to

1903 are

presented

in

Table

1.24

Following

the revised

datings,

the

conservative

works

fall

into clear

chronological groupings,

demonstrating

a

strong

relationship

between

Ives's church

positions

and his choral

output

to

1902.

In

sum,

Ives functioned

as a

pragmatic

church

composer through

the

1890s,

composing

for

the unique circumstances of each congregation,

choir,

and denomination.

As

outlined

in

Table

1,

works intended for each church

are consis-

tent in

their text

sources,

performing

forces,

and

liturgical

function. Most sources redated

to

1893-94

are

service

music,

including

the

Benedictus,

the Communion

service,

and

the

Nine

Experimental

Canticle

phrases.

This

pe-

riod

corresponds

exactly

to Ives's

appointment

21These

harsh

criticisms

of the

cantata are

also

significant

given

the

warmer

reception

of

Ives's other

early

conserva-

tive

work,

the

First

Symphony.

Critics

saw the

symphony

as

a

symbol

of rebellion in Parker's class and

valued

the

work as

part

of Ives's

ongoing

vindication.

For

example,

in

1966

Theodore

Strongin portrayed

Ives

outclassing

his

teacher in the

First

Symphony:

"Ives's

originality

was

only

temporarily

dimmed

by

the

gentlemanly teaching

of

Horatio Parker.

....

Ives is

superamiable throughout

the

symphony's

four

movements;

perhaps,

out

of

deference to

academic

standing,

he

hid

most of his muscle. .

.

.

The

climax

[of

the second

movement]

is almost trite-could

Ives have been

teasing

his

teacher set?"

(Theodore

Strongin,

"When

Charles Ives

Was at

Yale,"

review of

Ives,

First

Symphony,

recorded

by

the

Chicago Symphony,

Morton

Gould

cond.,

RCA Victor

LM2893/LSC

2893,

New

York

Times, 5 June 1966, sec. 2, 19). Part of the difference may

lie

in

the

symphony's

conformity

to

the

Ives

canon

in its

nineteenth-century

genre

and use

of

quotation

in

its

themes.

Furthermore,

Ives's active

defense of the

sym-

phony

in

Memos,

in

his

extensive

recollections of

battling

Parker over the

work,

placed

it in a

much more

sympa-

thetic

light

than the cantata

that was

composed indepen-

dent of course

requirements.

22Feder,

Charles

Ives,

pp.

171

and

173.

23See

my

Choral Works

of

Ives,

"Questions

and Veraci-

ties,"

and

my

"Redating

Ives's Choral

Sources,"

in

Ives

Studies.

24Kirkpatrick's

dates are taken from the 1960

catalog

un-

less

followed

by

"REVCAT"

(from Kirkpatrick's

revisions

to

the

catalog)

or "AMGROVE"

(from

the

Ives

article in

American

Grove).

Ives's dates are taken

primarily

from

the

lists

as

published

in

Memos,

pp.

147-66. Dates

pre-

ceded

by

a

question

mark indicate

problematic

or

contra-

dictory

dates from

Ives,

either

in the lists or

manuscript

memos.

170



10/28

at St.

Thomas's

Episcopal

Church in

New Ha-

ven,

where

he

worked from

7

May

1893

until

29

April

1894.25

The formal

services of that

Episcopalian

church

probablyencouraged

these

liturgical

settings,

which

could

not

have been

used

at

Ives's

previous

or later

churches.

After leaving St.Thomas's, Ives held apresti-

gious position

as

organist

at

Center

Church

on

the

Green,

New

Haven,

between 1894 and

1898,

where he

composed

several sacred anthems

in-

cluding

Easter

Carol,

Crossing

the

Bar,

andTurn

Ye,

Turn Ye.26

At

this time he

received encour-

aging

support

from the

choir

director,

Dr.

John

Cornelius

Griggs.

Griggs's

choir offered Ives an

accessible

group

of

performers

in

the church

choir. Ives's anthems set

hymn

texts and

senti-

mental

religious

poetry

not

only

common

to

the

period

but also

specific

to

the choir's for-

mat,

more of

which

will

be discussed

shortly.

Surviving

choral sources from 1898-1902 are

again

related to

Ives's

changing

church

positions

as well as

to

his

graduation

from Yale

in

1898.

Between

1898

and

1900

Ives held a

position

at

the Bloomfield

Presbyterian

Church

in

Bloomfield,

New

Jersey,

and from

1900 to

1902

he

worked

at

Central

Presbyterian

Church in

New York.27

t

was

only

during

these

four

years

that Ives

held

positions

as

both

organist

and

choir

director.28

This was

a

significant change

from his

previous experiences. Working

under

other choir

directors,

Ives had had little or no

choice of choral repertoireand only limited ac-

cess to the

performing

ensemble itself. Both the

New

Jersey

and New York

positions

presented

significant advantages

because Ives

could now

try

out his own

compositions

as

he wrote them.

This factor

may

well

have

proved

crucial to the

development

of Ives's

progressive

choral

style,

since the choral

sources from

this

period

in-

cludethe most

experimentalwriting

to that

time.

Ives's traditional

choral

works

(service

mu-

sic and

anthems), then,

do not

significantly

overlap

with such sources

for substantial

ex-

perimental

compositions

as

Psalm

67.

The

prac-

tical division

between conservative and mod-

ernist sources is

approximately

1898-the

year

Ives graduatedfrom Yale and the earliest date

of

compositional

work on

The

Celestial Coun-

try.

What this

suggests,

of

course,

is that

Ives's

cantatais most

obviously

connected to a

clearly

delineated

group

of

earlier,

nonmodernist

works.

The Celestial

Country

is best viewed

as

the

last and

largest composition

in

this conven-

tional

style,

which Ives had been

pursuing

for

over a decade.

Rather than

being

an

anomaly,

the cantata

is

fully

consistent with

Ives's efforts of the

pre-

ceding years

and

yet

was written

at about

the

time that Ives

began

serious

experimentation

in the choral

genre.

Because

they

formed the

immediate

backdrop

to Ives's cantata

and

pro-

vided a context for

Ives's own

sacred anthems

and those of his

contemporaries,

the

1894-98

Center

Church anthems merit closer

attention.

IvEs's

QUARTET-CHOIR

ANTHEMS, 1894-98

Ives's

description

of

the Center Church

anthems

placed

them

within

a

specific

historical

tradi-

tion. His

1929

list

included the

entry,

"about

20-25

anthems,

responses

and

hymn-anthems

(alla[sic] HarryRowe Shelley andDudley Buck)

during

four

years

at

Center Church." Turn

Ye,

Turn

Ye,

Crossing

the

Bar,

I

Come

to

Thee,

All-Forgiving,

and

The

Light

that Is

Felt are all

within this

group following

the revised chro-

nology.

The list is

significant

for

its

explicit

acknowledgement

of

Buck

(1838-1909),

and

his

lesser-known student

Shelley

(1858-1947).

Trained in

Germany,

Buck

enjoyed

a

success-

ful

career

in

Boston and

New York. His

Cen-

tennial

Cantata was

commissioned

by

the

United States

government

for

the

1876

celebra-

tions and received its premiere at the Centen-

nial

Exposition

in

Philadelphia

amid

great pub-

licity

and media

coverage.

Buck's

organ

works

were also

widely performed

and

published

in

the

United States. Around

1894,

Ives studied

briefly

with Buck and

Shelley

and

played many

of Buck's

organ

works over the first decade of

171

2"Ives,

Memos,

p.

326.

26Ives's

predecessor

at Center

Church

was

Harry

B.

Jepson,

organ

teacher

at

Yale

(Memos,

p.

183),

while his

successor,

David Stanley Smith, followed Parker as head of the Yale

School of Music. Elizabeth

Goode,

David

Stanley

Smith

and His Music

(Ph.D. diss.,

University

of

Cincinnati,

1978),

p.

29.

27Although

little

is

known about the choir at

Bloomfield,

it is

intriguing

to note that two of

Ives's

surviving

compo-

sitions from this

period,

Psalm

67

and Psalm

150,

use

boys'

choirs as well as mixed

chorus.

28Ives,

Memos,

pp.

57, 68, 237,

262,

and

327-28.



11/28

19TH

MUSIC

Table

1

Selected Revised

Datings

of

Ives's

Choral

Works,

1891-1901

REVISED CHRONOLOGY

KIRKPATRICK/IVES

IVES'S

CHURCH

POSITIONS

1891 5C16

Be Thou

(1891-92)

5C7

Crossing

Danbury Baptist

5C17 Oh God

My

(1891-92)

5C12

Communion

1889-93

5C13 Benedictus

5C14 Bread

(AMGR)

5D2 Seranade

5D3

Partsong

5C6 Nine

Exper. (1891-92)

5C15 Search Me

(1891-92)

1892 5C3 Ps.

42

5C16 Be Thou

5D1

The Year's

5C17

On God

My

5C4 Gloria

(1892-93)

5C18

I

Come to Thee

5C13

Benedictus

(1892-93)

5C19 ?Easter Carol

5C15 Search Me

1893 5C9 Benedictus (1893-94) 5C20 Life of

5C12 Communion

(1893-94)

5C21 Lord

God

(1893-94)

St.

Thomas's

Episcopalian

5C14

Bread

(1893-94)

1893-94

1894 5C6 Nine

Exper.

5C24

?Ps.

67

5C7

Crossing

5C26 Ps. 150

(REVCAT)

5C27

Ps.

54

(REVCAT)

Center Church on the

5C30

Ps.

24

(REVCAT)

Green

Congregational

5D4 Love

(1894-95)

1894-98

1895 5C10

I Think

(1895-96)

5C25

Light

That

5D2

Serenade

5D5

The

Boys

5D6

Partsong

5C7 For You

(1895-96)

1896

5C11

Turn Ye 5D8

Age of

Gold

5C19 Easter Carol 5D9 Partsong

5C20

Life of

5D10

Song of

5C18 I Come to

(1896-97)

5D5

The

Boys

(1896-97)

5D6

Partsong (1896-97)

5D10

Song

of

(1896-97)

1897

5D3

Partsong (1897-98)

5C28

Kyrie

5D8

Age of

Gold

(1897-98)

5C34 ?Ps. 23

5D9

Partsong

(1897-98)

5D11 Bells

of

(1897-98) (AMGR)

5D12

O

Maiden

(1897-98)

1898

5A1

Celestial

(1898-99, sketches)

5C31

All-Forgiving

5C24

Ps.

67

5D13

My

Sweet

5C25

Light

That 5C33 Ps. 100

(1898-99)

5C26 Ps. 150 5C34 Ps. 23 (1898-99) Bloomfield Presbyterian

5C31

All-Forgiving

1898-1900

5D11

Bells

of

1899

5D12

O

Maiden

(1899-1900)

5C35 Ps.

14

(AMGR)

5C13

My

Sweet

(1899-1900)

5C29

Ps. 25

(1899-1900) (REVCAT)

5C36

Ps.

135

(1899-1900)

5C37 Ps. 90

(1899-1900)

172



12/28

Table

1

(cont.)

Selected Revised

Datings

of Ives's Choral

Works,

1891-1901

REVISED CHRONOLOGY

KIRKPATRICK/IVES

IVES'S CHURCH

POSITIONS

1900 5C29

Ps. 25

5C36

Ps.

135

(AMGR)

5C30

Ps. 24

5C21 Lord God

(1900-01)

Central

Presbyterian

5C28

Kyrie(1900-01)

1900-02

1901

5B2

Harvest

II

(before

1902)

5B2

Harvest

III

(before 1902)

5C38

?Procession

1902

5A1

Celestial

County (parts)

5B2

Harvest

I

5B2

Harvest

I

5B2

Harvest

II

5C27

Ps. 54

(1902-03)

5C33

Ps. 100

(1902-03)

5C35

Ps.

14

(1902-03)

5C36

Ps.

135

(1902-03)

5C38

Processional

(1902-03)

his

career.

Buck's Variations on "Home Sweet

Home"

for

organ

served as

a

prototype

for

Ives's

own Variations on "America"

of

1892.29

n

fact,

many

of Buck's works

including

the Star

Spangled

Banner

Overture

blended

Germanic

Romantic

orchestral traditions with American

sources and

sentiments,

and

they may

have

influenced

Ives's later efforts

in

the

same

vein.

Although forgotten

today,

Buck was

widely

known as

a

choral

composer,

and

his anthems

and

cantatas were

popular

with church choirs

well

into

the twentieth

century.30

Buck wrote

engaging, approachable

music for

the

most

widely

used choir format of the

time,

the

quar-

tet choir. The

quartet

choir consisted of

a

paid,

trained solo

quartet (SATB),

around which was

built

an

unpaid,

untrained

chorus.31

The solo

quartet

never blended

with

the

chorus,

and in-

stead

sang

solos, duos,

trios,

or

quartet

sections

within

larger

anthems,

or on their own.

Solo

quartets

became

so

popular

that some

congregations

relied almost

entirely

on them.

Although many

critics

disparaged

he solo

quar-

tet as a descendent ofsecular

glee singing popu-

lar in

America

in

the

early

nineteenth

century,

congregations enjoyed

the

polished

sound and

"personal

touch" of the soloists

in

a mixed

quartet.32Meanwhile,

the chorus offered ama-

teur

singers

in the

congregation

an

opportunity

to

participate

in

sacred

music

making.

By

the

last decade of the

century

the

quartet

choir

was

the most common ensemble in

American

Prot-

estant

churches,

and the

solo

quartet

was

given

significant

attention in church

advertisements.

A

survey

of the

Easter service

listings

in

the

New York Times from

1889-98

verifies that

the

large majority

of churches in Manhattan

29Laurence David

Wallach,

The

New

England

Education

of

Charles Ives

(Ph.D.

diss.,

Columbia

University, 1973),

pp.

147-48

and 152.

30John

Tasker

Howard,

Our American Music

(3rd

edn. New

York,

1946), p.

592.

31Summarized

from

Leonard

Ellinwood,

The

History of

American Church Music

(New York,

1953), pp.

72-75.

32It

is

listed

in the

United States as

early

as

1861,

in

The

American Musical

Directory,

1861.

Also

discussed

in Wil-

liam

Kearns,

Horatio Parker 1863-1919:

His

Life,

Music

and Ideas

(Metuchen, N.J., 1990),

pp.

193-94.

173



13/28

and

Brooklyn

listed the individual

quartet

sing-

ers in their

advertisements.33

Dudley

Buck's

anthems were the

most

suc-

cessful

compositions

for

quartet

choir and

rep-

resented

the

choral

mainstream.

If

the Easter

listings

provide

a reliable

gauge,

Buck and

Shelley were the only American composers

whose works were heard

regularly

n

New York

churches. Buck's

preeminence

as

a

composer

of

music for

quartet

choir

remained

strong

de-

cades after

his death. As late

as

1946,

John

Tasker Howard

wrote,

"As

a

choir

director and

composer

[Buck] helped

to

develop

our

litera-

ture for the

church,

and since he was fond of

the mixed

quartet

which has been a feature

of

American

worship,

and sometimes its

curse,

he

had

a

profound

influence on our

choir

mu-

sic.

"34

In

keeping

with the American

Protestant

musical mainstream, Ives's choir at Center

Church was a

quartet

choir.

One member of

the

choir,

Lewis

Bronson,

later described the

division

of labor

between the

professional

solo

quartet

and amateur

chorus,

both directed

by

John

Cornelius

Griggs:

Center Church

...

at that time

[1896]

had the best

church

quartet

that

I

knew about

....

At

first,

they

simply

had the

quartet

at

the

morning

ervice

and

the

four o'clock service on

Sundays.

Then

Griggs

made

up

his mind

that

he

wanted

to do

a little

broader

work,

andhe decided

o

get

in a small cho-

rus which he was able to pull togetherby offering

vocal lessons

....

The chorus

sang only

at the four

o'clock

ervice,

but

we

hadchoirrehearsals nd

gave

some

fairly

substantial

ieces

with Mr.

Ives

playing

the

organ

nd he

quartet

ndchorusdirected

y

Dr.

Griggs.

We

had

a

rehearsal

very

week,

and he mem-

bers

of

the

chorus

eceived essons

n

return.

We

had

a

good quartet,

so

that

we

could

really

do

some

pretty

elaborate

ieces.35

Griggs,

whom

Ives seems to have

regarded

as a

surrogate

father

(his

own

father,

of

course,

had

died

in

1894),

endorsed this

peculiarly

Ameri-

can

ensemble in

his doctoral

dissertation,

in

which he

asserted that it

"represents

he

people

and in

no manner

represents

the

priesthood

or

any

other

specially

ordained

class."36

On 25

October

1895,

Griggs

even delivered a

lecture

to the Yale

Divinity

School that included mu-

sical

examplesperformedby

the Center Church

Choir with

Ives

on the

organ.

In

this

lecture,

Griggs

discussed both the "Limitations

and

Ad-

vantages"

of the

quartet

choir and

apparently

offered

some further endorsement of the en-

semble in general. Survivingcalendarsdemon-

strate that the Center

Church

choir

regularly

performed

Buck's

anthems for

quartet

choir.37

Given

Center Church's choir format and

Griggs's

approval

of the

quartet

choir,

it is not

surprising

hat

virtually

all of

Ives's

sacredcom-

positions

from

1894

to

98

feature

quartet

solo-

ists

backed

by

an

amateur chorus.

Moreover,

Ives's

compositions

for this

ensemble

clearly

resemble the most

popularcontemporary

works

for

quartet

choir:

those

by Dudley

Buck. One

feature of

the

quartet-choir

anthem,

for in-

stance,

was its awareness

of the

limitations of

the amateurchoir; nstead,these anthems show-

cased the solo

singers. Larger

anthems

typi-

cally

begin

and end with

homophonic

sections

for

full choir

and

include more

complex music,

written for some combination

of

quartet

solo-

ists,

in

the middle

sections.38

Alternatively,

the

entire

work could be

sung

by

the

quartet

sing-

ers

alone,

without the chorus.

Accompaniment

33Listings vary

in

detail,

with the most extensive entries

for

1889-90,

and

1894-98:

general prose descriptions

are

found in 1888 and

1899-1900,

while the

remaining

years

have no music

listings.

For

example,

of the

twenty

churches

in Manhattan that

identify

their musical ensembles

in

1895,

sixteen list the

members of

their

mixed

SATB

quar-

tet by name and voice,.and many of these specify the

number

of

voices

in

the

accompanying

chorus. "Glad

Mu-

sic for

Easter,"

New York

Times,

14

April

1895,

pp.

17,

19.

In addition to the sixteen churches

with

mixed

quartet,

one church lists

a

quintet

without names

(Trinity

Episco-

pal

Church),

another identifies

a male

quartet

(Madison

Avenue

Presbyterian),

and two list

male

choirs. Five other

churches include insufficient

information.

34Howard,

Our

American

Music,

p.

592.

35Interview

with

Lewis

Bronson,

28

July 1969,

transcribed

in

Perlis,

Charles Ives Remembered:

An

Oral

History (New

Haven, Conn., 1974), pp. 20-21.

36Ives,

Memos,

p.

254.

37Ives

Papers,

box

51,

folder 1.

38Kearns,

Horatio Parker 1863-1919:

A

Study

of

His

Life

and

Music

(Ph.D.

diss.,

University

of

Illinois, 1965),

p.

585. In

fact,

some of Ives's

early

experimental psalms

adapt

this

form

as

well.

Psalm

67,

despite

its

bitonality,

adapts

a

hornophonic

texture

in

the outer sections with

a

fugato

in

the

middle.

174



14/28

is limited

to

piano

or

organ,

which

doubles

the

chorus

sections

as an aid to the amateur

singer.

In his choral works

from

the Yale

period,

Ives

uses

a harmonic

language

similar

to

that

of

Buck,

as

shown

in ex. 5.

Both

composers

feature

the

close,

chromatic harmonies

that

showcase the solo quartet (andthat may have

been associated

with

contemporary

barbershop

singing).

Most notable are the constant

chro-

matic

motion and use of diminished

sevenths,

often

used

in

conjunction

(ex. 5a,

where

chro-

matic

motion

in

the

bass creates

a

diminished

seventh

on

C#;

and ex.

5b,

where

a

suspension

and

a chromatic

appoggiatura

create

a momen-

tary

diminished seventh

in

2

position

over

F),

and

parallel

chromatic

motion

in sixths and

thirds

(ex.

5c

and

5d).

All

of these

features are

evident

in a

passage

from

Turn Ye, Turn

Ye

of

1896

(ex. 6),

where

Ives accentuates

the dra-

matic character of the text

through

constant

slippery

chromaticism

(including

in

m. 16

the

double chromatic

motion to a diminished sev-

enth

on

B),

echoes,

and

pauses

as the voices

twist

and

turn, finally returning

"home" to

rest

in m. 15.

In

his

anthems Ives demonstrated

the

same

pragmatic

attitude

evident

in

his earlier service

music.

The anthems accommodated

the

per-

forming

ensemble at

his

disposal

and the de-

nominational

demands of

his

position.

More

than

thirty years

after

leaving

Center

Church,

Ives acknowledged the influence of Buck on

these works

in the

1929

list mentioned

above.

It is

striking

that after

a decade of

promoting

himself as

an

exclusively

modernist

composer,

Ives

clearly

allied himself with a

forgotten

nine-

teenth-century

composer

for

quartet

choir.

But

perhaps

this

open

admission is more

under-

standable

when we

recall Ives's declaration

at

the

top

of

the

list: "for

my

own

information,

not for

publication."39

IVES,

PARKER,

AND

BUCK:

A

COMPARISON

The quartet-choir heritage is crucial for under-

standing

The Celestial

Country,

a work that

Ives

began composing

at the end of his Center

Church

period.

Thus the

quartet-choir legacy

constitutes

a second

stylistic

influence in that

cantata,

albeit

one

that has been

eclipsed

by

excessive

emphasis

on its

borrowings

rom Hora

Novissima.

The

interrelationships

between

the

musical

styles

of

Ives,

Parker,

and Buck are

best

illustrated

through

a

comparison

of a con-

temporaryquartet-choir antataby Buck,Christ

the Victor

of

1896,

alongside

The Celestial

Country

and its

acknowledged

model,

Hora

Novissima.

Table

2

(p.

179)

summarizes

many

of the

pri-

mary

features of these

works,

including

overall

structure,

language,

accompaniment,

chorus

size,

and

duration. These

factors,

considered

along

with the level of

difficulty

of

the choral

writing,

indicate that The

Celestial

Country

more

clearly

resembles Buck's

quartet-choir

cantata

style

than

it

does Parker's

grand

orato-

rio Hora Novissima. Such a conclusion is rein-

forced

by

a

study

of the initial

impetus, pre-

mieres,

and

early performances

of

the works.

The cantatas

by

Ives and

Buck

were written with

the limitations of

congregational

choirs

in mind

and accommodated the

unique

features of the

quartet

choir.

According

to

William

Gallo,

five

of Buck's cantatas

published during

the

1890s

(including

Christ

the

Victor)

were written

"at

the

request

of

Rudolph

Schirmer

to fill

the cur-

rent need for works

of

about an hour's duration

and

of moderate

difficulty

to

be

performed

at

evening

musical

services."

John

Tasker Howard

described the same Buck cantatasas "not diffi-

cult to

perform,

and

any

one of them

may

be

performed

in connection with a Christmas or

Easter

service.'"40

Both

Gallo's

and Howard's

de-

scriptions

fit

The Celestial

Country

closely.

Ives's cantata received its

premiere

by

the

small

amateur chorus of seventeen that he directed

at

Central

Presbyterian

church,

plus

the standard

solo

quartet.41

he work lasts under an

hour

and

39Ives,

Memos,

p.

147.

40William K.

Gallo,

The

Life

and

Church Music

of Dudley

Buck

(Ph.D. diss.,

Catholic

University

of

America, 1968),

p. 101. The cantatas included Christ the Victor (1896),

Coming of

the

King

(1895),

The

Story of

the Cross

(1892),

and The

Triumph

of

David

(1892).

Howard,

Our American

Music,

p.

594.

41Ives's

choir at Central

Presbyterian

Church

in

New

York

included seventeen

voices

altogether

in the

chorus,

plus

a

solo SATB

quartet.

The chorus was

certainly

amateur,

since

Ives's nonmusical roommates were recruited

to

sing

in

the

choir on occasion.

175



15/28

a.

Ives, Crossing

the Bar

(5C7,

1894).

one

clear call for me

And

may

there be

no

moan-ing

of the

bar,

When

one clear call for me No moan ing _ of the bar, When

---

-

-- --- --

--

one clear call for me No moan -

ing.. .

of the

bar,

When

one clear call for me No moan

ing

......

of the

bar,

When

Glo

ry, glo

-

ry

be to

the

Fa

-

ther,

B.

-L

Example

5:

Comparison

of

quartet-choir writing

by

Ives and Buck.

Examples

5a and c

reprintedby permission.

? 1974 and 1983 by Associated Music Publishers,Inc. (BMI).

constituted

only

half of the

evening's program

at its

premiere,

which

took

place

in

a

church.

More

importantly,

The

Celestial

Country

and

Christ the Victor

reveal

their

intended

perform-

ers-the amateur chorus and

professional

quar-

tet standard

in

American

churches-through

the choral

writing,

which is "of moderate diffi-

culty"

for the amateur chorus. Both works use

the chorus

sparingly,

and then

only

in

simpler

textures: most choral

writing

is

homophonic,

doubled by the organ, and even in unison and

octaves,

as in the final movement of The

Celes-

tial

Country

(ex.

7)

and

in

the ninth

movement

of

Christ

the Victor

(ex.

8).

In The Celestial

Country,

the chorus

sings

only

in the

outer

movements

(one

and

seven),

while Buck's work

is

distributed

among

unison or

two-part

cho-

ruses

(divided

between men and

women),

the

quartet

soloists, and,

in

a

truly

inclusive

ges-

ture,

the

congregation.

In

Buck's

work,

the full

chorus

usually

leads the

congregation

in a

fa-

miliar

hymn,

thus

underlining

the

religious

con-

text

of the work while

accommodating

the ama-

teur choristers

as

well as the entire church

population.42

Both

cantatas feature soloists ex-

tensively,

in

smaller ensembles

and

against

the

amateur chorus.

Hora Novissima stands apart from the two

other works in both

style

and function. Parker's

oratorio was first

performed

on

3

May

1893

by

420nly

movements

III, V,

VI,

and XI use full

chorus,

and

then

only sparingly.

176



16/28

c.

Ives,

I

Come to

Thee

(5C18,

1896-97).

rpt.

oco

rt.

f

a tempo

rock,

my

shield,

In

-

to

Thy

hands

my

soul

I

yield,

my

life,

my

poco

A

rit.

f

a tempo

Srit.

I

-

fa

teIpo

shield,

In

Thy

hands

my

soul

I

yield, my

life,

my

poco

t.

f

a

tempo

shield,

In

-

to

Thy

hands

my

soul

I

yield, my

life,

my

d.

Buck,

Festival

Te Deum

in

E6,

op.

63,

no. 1.

Thou ...

hadst__

o

-

ver

T.

,0'6

-

.

.

-

o

-

ver

B.

When Thou hadst

fr

6.

"L

Example

5

(continued)

the

Church Choral

Society

of

New

York at

the

Church

of the

Holy Trinity:

it

was

the

only

work on the

program.

According

to Parker's

biographer

William

Kearns,

this

was "the most

important performance

n

[Parker's]

areer"due

to the

high profile

of the

performing

ensemble,

the

growing reputation

of

the

composer,

and

the expectations of New York critics that Hora

Novissima would be "the

major

effort

in

the

field of American oratorio

up

to that

time."43

The

Church Choral

Society

was

a

formally

trained ensemble that

met the

nineteenth-cen-

tury

demand for

religious

content and

culti-

vated

context,

and that

counted

among

its

pa-

trons the wealthiest and

most visible

Manhattanites,

such

as

J.

Pierpont

Morgan

and

the

Vanderbilts.44

ounded

n

1888,

the

society

was

organized

"for the

purpose

of

holding

mu-

sical services in the largerchurches where the

sacred

compositions

of

the

great

musicians

43Kearns,

Horatio Parker:

Life,

Music and

Ideas,

pp.

18,

19.

44Reviews and announcements of

Church Choral

Society

concerts are from the

New York Times on the

following

dates: 4

May

1893;

20 December

1893;

19

January

1894;

19

December

1894;

21 December

1894;

22

February

1895.

177



17/28

Slow

ALf

pp

p

(

P

f

.PP

=

P

(IIIV

S.

Je

-

sus

in

-

vites

you,

the

Spir

it

says,

"Come." An

-

gels

are

wait

-ing,

wait

-

ing

to

A.

Je

-

sus in

-

vites you, the Spir

-

it says, "Come." An

-

gels are wait

-

ing, wait

-

ing to

T.I ke I I I

Je

-

sus

in

-

vites_

you,

the

Spir

-

it

says,

Come." An

gels

are

wait

ing,

wait

-

ing

to

B.

Je

sus

the

Spir

it

says,

"Come." An

-

gels

are wait

-

ing,

wait

-

ing

to

Slow

12 :

F)

~p

S.

' '

I

- I

11

" L" '

I i

"

.

.

wel come

you

home,

to wel come

you

home. So

why_

will

ye

die?

wel

-

come you home, to wel

-

come you home. So why will ye die?

p

wel

-

come you home.... to welc

-


wel

-

come you home, to wel

-


2pp

T.

IWW

O

I

.II

I1

T

I

I

nR

M

7

do",,

Example

6:

Ives,

Turn

Ye,

Turn

Ye,

mm.

7-16.

could be

properly

rendered."45

To

this

end,

its

programsincluded works by Dvohik, Mozart,

Liszt, Mendelssohn,

and

Wagner.

According

to

Parker,

Hora

Novissima

was

written

for this

socially

and

musically signifi-

cant ensemble that

presented

concerts "of

a

veryhigh order."46 ut despite its excellent cre-

dentials,

the Church Choral

Society

did not

adequatelyperform

Hora

Novissima.

Critic

Wil-

liam

J.

Henderson lamented the

"inadequacy

of

45New York

Times,

20 December

1893, p.

12. 46Ibid.

178



18/28

Table 2

Comparative Summary

of Parker's

Hora Novissima

(1893),

Ives's

The

Celestial

Country

(1898-99)

and

Buck's

Christ the

Victor

(1896)

PARKER,

HORA

NOVISSIMA IVES,

THE

CELESTIAL

COUNTRY BUCK,

CHRIST THE

VICTOR

Movements: 1.

Introduction and

Chorus

1.

Chorus

1.

Solo

(Baritone)

2.

Quartet

2. Aria

(Baritone)

2.

Chorus

(Women)

3. Aria

(Bass)

3.

Quartet

3. Chorus

(Men)

4.

Chorus

4.

String

Quartet

Intermezzo 4.

Quartet

and

Chorus

5.

Aria

(Soprano)

5.

Double

Quartet

a

cappella

5.

Chorus,

Solo

(Tenor),

Hymn

(Congregation)

6.

Quartet

and

Chorus 6.

Aria

(Tenor)

6.

Chorus

(Men)

7. Solo

(Tenor)

7. Chorus

7.

Chorus

(Women),Trio,

Hymn

(Congregation)

8. Double

Chorus

8. Duet

(Alto

and

Baritone)

9. Solo

(Alto)

9. Chorus

10. Chorus a

cappella

10.

Hymn

(Congregation)

11. Quartetand Chorus

Text

Language

Latin,

12th-century poem

English,

19th-century

English,

19th-century

and

Source:

by

Bernardof

Cluny

hymn by

Alford

hymns

(var.)

and

Bible

passages

Accompaniment:

Full

Orchestra

plus

organ

Organ, String

Quartet,

2

horns

Organ

Chorus Size:

Choral

Society,

unknown

Central

Presbyterian

No

premiere

on

record

Handel and

Haydn

Society:

ChurchChoir:

17 voices

383

voices

Approximate

84

minutes

50 minutes

45

minutes

Duration:

the chorus" and

stated

that

"the work

ought

to

be

given by

a

chorus

of

300 or

400

voices

to

get

full

justice."47

This

obstacle

was

overcome with

the 4

February

1894

performance

by

the

Handel

and

Haydn

Society

in

Boston

Symphony

Hall.48

In

this

much-anticipated

concert

by

an even

more

venerated

ensemble,

the choir

consisted

of

383

voices

accompanied

by

an

orchestra of

fifty-seven.

The size and

quality

of this

perfor-

mance

removes

Parker's

work from

the modest

amateur context in

which

Ives's

cantata

first

appeared.49

Furthermore, the musical style of Hora

Novissima-the choral

writing-was

obviously

suited

to a trained ensemble

such as the

Church

Choral

Society

or the Boston Handel

and

Haydn

Society.

As H.

Wiley

Hitchcock

noted,

the

cho-

ral movements

"are

the

pillars

of

the

work":

indeed,

the

full

chorus is

used

in six

of

the

eleven

movements

including

a

double

chorus

("Stant

Syon

atria,"

movement

8)

and the

a

cappella penultimate

movement

"Urbs

Syon

Unica"

(ex.

9).

The

difficulty

of the

part writing

in "Urbs

Syon

Unica" was

acknowledged

at

the time

by

critic

Louis

Elson,

who

wrote,

"That

an

American

can write

such

music is

some-

thing that we should be

proud of;

that the

Handel and

Haydn

Chorus

could

sing

it

(unac-

companied)

is

something

to

congratulate

them

upon."

50Parker's

demanding

score

incorporates

47New

York

Times,

4

May 1893,

p.

5.

48Kearns,

HoratioParker:

Life,

Music and

Ideas,

p.

22.

49Historyof

the

Handel and

Haydn

Society,

2

vols.

(Bos-

ton,

1883-1913;

rpt.

New

York, 1977-79),

II,

37.

SOIbid,

.

38.

179



19/28

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Ives Sherwood Article