Brian, Van Dyke, Charles Ives, and Americana

[The Heartical Don]

I just had to post this one, despite Willy's post about Song Cycle; it's because I think there's such a wide connection. Yesterday, I listened to a CD with music by Charles Ives, a great American composer. It features three orchestral 'sets', a term coined by Ives to describe small 'symphonies', the separate parts of which are also intended to be performed on their own. It was especially the second movement of the second set that amazed me. I seemed to hear all kinds of connections, hints towards Van Dyke Parks' style of arranging, and also to the Americana-theme of Smile. Here's a picture of the cover of this CD:



Strongly recommended. The sound is superb, and reviews are unanimously positive. It's available for beer money (€ 6.99 in Holland).

[the captain]

I think VDP is clearly indebted to Ives--though I don't recall seeing him ever mention the man. Someone ought to ask him.

[the captain]

And so I just did. I'll let you know.

[the captain]

And there you have it.

Dear Luther
I have loved Ives since adolescence.
I played his Concord Sonata then, and
was elated by Bernstein's debut performance of Ives' 2nd Symphony,
sensing the delayed validation he
had earned so long before.
Van Dyke

[willy]

Wow! Can you ask Brian what he thinks of Song Cycle? 

[the captain]

I wish.

[Mike's Beard]

Didn't know you were tight with the Van Man Luther. Impressed.

[The Heartical Don]

Didn't know you were tight with the Van Man Luther. Impressed.

Luther has powers and connections that mere mortals only can dream of.

[the captain]

I wish it were anything half as impressive. Van Dyke's contact info is on his website (and probably myspace and facebook, too). He has always been great responding to my questions. I just don't bother him often.

[exposedbrain]

I have an LP of some of Ives' chamber works called "Calcium Light Night".  Really great stuff. Very futuristic.

[The Heartical Don]

I have an LP of some of Ives' chamber works called "Calcium Light Night".  Really great stuff. Very futuristic.

Nice. I am fond of Ives' titles, also. They are very evocative. Plus, he invented his own musical language to tell performers how to play a certain section. I will try to come up with some examples later.

Oh... Ives is one of those composers whose works are too complex to grasp the first time around. Repeated listening is immensely rewarded. Only his first two symphonies are quite 'normal', in the European tradition (think Schumann).

[PS]

The Fourth Symphony is the masterpiece (recommend Stokowski's version - the very first was the best), one of the greatest pieces of American music ever written. Also recommended are the aforementioned Concord Sonata 9love Gilbert Kalish), the Orchestral Sets (especially the 2nd), the Second String Quartet, many of the - count 'em-  114 songs (look for Kalish/Degatani on Nonesuch), Three Place in New England, and of course, The Unanswered Question (see Malick's The Thin Red Line).

Ives was mentioned in that classic review of Song Cycle by Sandy Pearlman

Recommend Michael Tilsson Thomas' KEEPING THE SCORE DVD on IVES, which re-creates his father's experiments with crazed polytonality.

From the dearly missed Timothy White http://beatpatrol.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/timothy-white-van-dyke-parks-and-brer-rabbit-1985/:

“With Song Cycle, I wanted something that perfunctorily covered some autobiographical points, and expressed an American experience which would be uniquely disassociable from the Beatles/British pop viewpoint, which was then dominating the market. I think that because I was a rustic and because I was interested in things American, albeit eclectic, that I somehow became the only spokesman for a proud, even though remote, point of view.”

Song Cycle is an awesomely lovely pastiche: antic, affecting, lullingly surreal – the aural equivalent of Groucho Marx in Charles Ives’ pajamas. The record melds the heart-tugging delicacy of minstrel balladry and the melodic grandeur of Gershwin with the intoxicating stylistic vocabulary of Hollywood film composers like Alfred Newman and Erich Korngold – all the while detailing Parks’ picaresque journey through the pop wilderness. It became the most acclaimed record in pop history. Song Cycle is presently out of print.

[The Heartical Don]

The Fourth Symphony is the masterpiece (recommend Stokowski's version - the very first was the best), one of the greatest pieces of American music ever written. Also recommended are the aforementioned Concord Sonata 9love Gilbert Kalish), the Orchestral Sets (especially the 2nd), the Second String Quartet, many of the - count 'em-  114 songs (look for Kalish/Degatani on Nonesuch), Three Place in New England, and of course, The Unanswered Question (see Malick's The Thin Red Line).

Ives was mentioned in that classic review of Song Cycle by Sandy Pearlman

Recommend Michael Tilsson Thomas' KEEPING THE SCORE DVD on IVES, which re-creates his father's experiments with crazed polytonality.

From the dearly missed Timothy White http://beatpatrol.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/timothy-white-van-dyke-parks-and-brer-rabbit-1985/:

“With Song Cycle, I wanted something that perfunctorily covered some autobiographical points, and expressed an American experience which would be uniquely disassociable from the Beatles/British pop viewpoint, which was then dominating the market. I think that because I was a rustic and because I was interested in things American, albeit eclectic, that I somehow became the only spokesman for a proud, even though remote, point of view.”

Song Cycle is an awesomely lovely pastiche: antic, affecting, lullingly surreal – the aural equivalent of Groucho Marx in Charles Ives’ pajamas. The record melds the heart-tugging delicacy of minstrel balladry and the melodic grandeur of Gershwin with the intoxicating stylistic vocabulary of Hollywood film composers like Alfred Newman and Erich Korngold – all the while detailing Parks’ picaresque journey through the pop wilderness. It became the most acclaimed record in pop history. Song Cycle is presently out of print.

Well, for me this has to be the post of the day. Many, many thanks, also for the recommendations.