Charles Ives - Böcker

Here are most of the previously unpublished writings of Charles E. Ives: a primary source book on this unique American composer. These "Memos," as Ives called them, were on separate leaves and dealt with his music, composition, criticism, autobiography, biography, and many other topics. During his lifetime Ives rearranged them, lent them out, mislaid and tucked them away in books so that, in the late 1940s, only about three-fifths of them were available to his biographer. After his death in 1954, Ives's papers were gradually put in order, and in time most of the remaining leaves came to light. These two “batches” are here dovetailed into a three-part form by John Kirkpatrick, who has devotedly arranged, edited, and annotated them. Part One, “Pretext,” sets forth Ives's aims, his views on music, critics and criticism. In part Two, "Scrapbook," Ives discusses his music. Part Three, "Memories," is devoted to biographical and autobiographical remembrances.

The Essays Before a Sonata was conceived by Ives as a preface of sorts to the composition. Ives's musings also explore the nature of music, discuss the source of a composer's impulses and inspiration, and offer some biting comments on celebrated masters. The writings in this collection—now featuring a comprehensive index-allow readers entry into the brilliant mind that produced some of America's most innovative musical works.

This authoritative volume of 453 letters written by and to composer Charles Ives (1874-1954) provides unparalleled insight into one of the most extraordinary and paradoxical careers in American music history. The most comprehensive collection of Ives's correspondence in print, this book opens a direct window on Ives's complex personality and his creative process. Though Ives spent much of his career out of the mainstream of professional music-making, he corresponded with a surprisingly large group of musicians and critics, including John J. Becker, Henry Bellamann, Leonard Bernstein, John Cage, Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, Ingolf Dahl, Walter Damrosch, Lehman Engel, Clifton J. Furness, Lou Harrison, Bernard Herrmann, John Kirkpatrick, Serge Koussevitzky, John Lomax, Francesco Malipiero, Radiana Pazmor, Paul Rosenfeld, Carl Ruggles, E. Robert Schmitz, Nicolas Slonimsky, and Peter Yates.

Timaeus is not an independent work. Rather, it is the premier dialogue in an unfinished trilogy that also includes Critias, of which we have only a fragment, and Hermocrates, which is forecast in Critias but was presumably never written. There is demand, and has been for some time now, for an account of the relevance between the extant parts of the trilogy, namely the pertinence of Timaeus’ cosmology to Critias’ war story. Over time this demand has been refined. There is now a more specific interest in the relevance of the cosmology to what is commonly known as “Socrates’ Request”—that is, what Socrates is asking of his interlocutors at the outset of the trilogy. While Charles Ives certainly addresses the former, more general demand, the primary concern in this book is with the latter, given the obvious aptness of Critias’ contribution. Socrates, at least in part, is asking for a story about a war, and Critias provides it. What is far from obvious is how Timaeus’ contribution fits into this picture. In order to illuminate the nature of this contribution, Ives first establishes that Socrates is asking for an encomium with two areas of focus, which will be taken up by Critias and Timaeus. Critias will speak on war—more precisely, on the war between ancient Athens and Atlantis. Timaeus will speak on the warriors’ education as philosophers, and in particular on the formation and nature of the philosophical soul. To show the relevance of Timaeus’ speech to the request, Ives highlights the educational aspects of the dialogue, charting the progress of an educational program that aims at health. The book especially focuses on the convalescence of intellect, which ushers in discussions of the medical dimensions of Timaeus’ physics; the markedly Platonic project of becoming like god; and the comprehensively philosophical soul that leads its possessor to success on the battlefield. Socrates’ Request and the Educational Narrative of the Timaeus is written for those interested in ancient philosophy and philosophy of education.