American Passions

Notes on the Program

by Steven Blier

The first half of today’s program is a single work written in a multiplicity of styles, embracing classical and popular idioms with equal affection and invention. It is only fitting that the second half of the concert should be drawn from an equally wide range of musical sources – the art song repertoire, a pair of cantatas, traditional Broadway musicals, an opera, and the big band music of the late 1930’s. We lead off with “At Sea,” composed in 1921 by Charles Ives. Although Ives’ songs have entered the standard repertoire by now, few of them were sung during Ives’ own life with any frequency. His song output is extraordinary for its variety, ranging from banal parlor ballads to the most unconventional, seemingly aleatory explorations of sonority. This one-page song is unusual even for Ives. For one thing, its harmonic language has a Ravellian, jazzy accent; Ives’ music is rarely as sensually beautiful as it is here. His word-paining is also far more literal than in his other songs, with a broad, sudden turn in C-major for the word “love,” and a high, ethereal bell-tone to indicate the light seen on a far-off shore at the end of the piece.

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