Charles Ives: Power, Beauty and...Insurance?
Wednesday, January 9, 2013 at 4:52PM Event preview: America's Longing for Freedom
by Ellynore Florendo
Try to imagine a symphony that captures the raw tumultuous energy of Manhattan, the power of it, the brevity of it, the soaring trumpets and the fistfuls of piano. Through this cacophonous music there is the reflection of the paradox of life itself - the chaotic feel and the dissonance combined with the unmistakable sense that through this tangled mess of sounds, if one is attentive, there is a direction for all of it. Through the music one senses life is not a meaningless mess of unconnected noises or innovation for the sake of innovation but rather life is in fact being guided by a brilliant composer. That is the genius of Charles Ives' music. And his life is the picture of a new creation that is entirely original, endlessly vivacious, and inspired by the gift of faith!
Charles was raised in the late nineteenth century in the small town of Danbury known as “the most musical town in Connecticut.” His style of playing and composition was highly influenced by a father who raised his son with the same approach towards music as his own: respect the power of the music of your home, look deep into the heart of the music and do not to fear demolishing the standard forms. A piece of wisdom his father gave Charles when they stood listening to a man’s off key singing was, “Look into his face and hear the music of the ages. Don't pay too much attention to the sounds--for if you do, you may miss the music. You won't get a wild, heroic ride to heaven on pretty little sounds."
True to form, he didn’t fear breaking convention and instead of engaging in more formal training after university, he got a job at an insurance company and experimented on his own to develop an entirely new form of sound. But even in this seemingly unrelated line of work, the same quality of reverence as Charles had towards music was present. "There was not a service that I could render to my fellow man that was more important than the business of life insurance, because it instilled in the soul and mind of my fellow man the responsibility of meeting his obligations."
Event Details:
America's Longing for Freedom
Friday, January 18, 2013
9pm
Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY
Admission: Free of charge
The Manhattan Wind Ensemble, directed by Conductor Christopher Baum and Assistant Conductor Clara Yang, will perform The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives and other American masterpieces, accompanied by images and commentaries by Jonathan Fields, musician.
The live performance of The Unanswered Question, a work by American composer Charles Ives which has been rarely heard in New York, will constitute the centerpiece of the night. Aaron Copland, who conducted this composition quite often, considered it to be "among the finest works ever created by an American artist." By that work of 1906, Ives was over half a century ahead of his time, writing in collage-like planes of contrasting styles.
2013 
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