Orchestral Set No.1 "Three Places in New England" - Charles Ives

Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.

I - The "St Gaudens" in Boston Common (Col. Shaw and his Colored Regiment). Very slowly - Più mosso - Meno mosso - Più mosso - Meno mosso - Più mosso - Meno mosso: 0:00
II - Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut. Allegro (Quick Step Time) - Gradually slower - Quasi largo - Andante animato - Poco meno mosso - Più mosso - Allegro moderato - Più mosso - Animato - Più mosso - Con fuoco: 8:37
III - The Housatonic at Stockbridge. Adagio molto - Meno mosso - Più mosso e crescendo - Allegro moderato - Allegro con brio - Adagio molto: 14:38

Ives' Orchestral Set No.1 was finished in 1916, assembled from previous works from between 1903-12. It was revised multiple times and the piece exists in at least four versions. It was premiered in a private performance on February 16 of 1930 and conducted by Nicolas Slonimsky, performed for the American Committee of the International Society for Contemporary Music. The first public performance was in New York City on January 10 of 1931, performed by the Boston Chamber Orchestra conducted by Nicolas Slonimsky.

As the subtitle indicates, the piece portray experiences from the composer’s native New England and perfectly showcases his personal style; the reference and use of popular tunes (religious hymns, marches, patriotic songs, etc), the dissolution of musical forms and functional harmony, as well as the use of modernistic techniques Ives anticipated decades before other composers began using them; polyrhythms, polytonality and abrasive dissonances never heard before. Along the "Unanswered Question", it is one of Ives' most popular works that firmly established the American musical identity.

The first movement comes from the "Set of Three Pieces for Piano". The subtitle references the bronze relief on the edge of the Boston Common in honour of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the second all-Black regiment to serve in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Colonel Robert Shaw was the commander who led the Regiment in their assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina. Of the six hundred men who stormed the fort, 272, including Shaw, were killed, captured, or wounded. They were subsequently recognized for their courage and valour in battle. A poetic preface printed in the musical score describes the scene: a ghostly procession of soldiers steadily passing over a hill, their pace changing as the pitch of the hill varies.

The movement is a slow march built from several tunes; plantation songs like "Massa's in the Cold Ground" and "Old Black Joe" and civil war songs like "The Battle Cry of Freedom" and "Marching Through Georgia". These materials are interwoven in a dignified march only occasionally pierced by brass calls, gradually building towards solemn climaxes. The music then slowly disintegrates and fragments into these root tunes until a mournful, contemplative coda ends the movement with the sacrifices of the heroes.

The second movement fuses pieces "Country Band March" and the Overture and March "1776". It represents Ives' boyhood memory of two bands marching into town, each playing different music, and the resulting clash of sonorities. The piece is a fusion of tunes like "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean", "The Red White and Blue", and "The British Grenadiers" among many others. Ives also created a fictional story about a boy who falls asleep during a Fourth of July picnic and dreams about a battle waged at the camp. After a slower middle section, the tunes and march begin to pile up until clashing in a disonant coda in which the national anthem is briefly heard.

The third movement was based on an early version of the song "The Housatonic at Stockbridge". The Housatonic is a river where the composer shared a honeymoon walk with his new wife, Harmony, on a Sunday morning in the summer of 1908. "We walked in the meadows along the river, and heard the distant singing from the church across the river. The mist had not entirely left the river bed, and the colours, the running water, the banks and elm trees were some-thing one would always remember." Figures in the strings represent the waters of the river, before the hymn tunes "Dorrance" and "Missionary Chant". These materials are then developed and growing more and more expansive until reaching a deafening climax, followed by a brief hymn-like coda.

Pictures: (left) "General Israel Putnam" (1966-7) by American sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington. (centre) Robert Gould Shaw Memorial (1884) by American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. (right) Photograph of the Housatonic river.

Sources: https://t.ly/RTCsS and https://t.ly/8dYQ5

To check the score: https://t.ly/LONjt