Symphony No.4 - Charles Ives

San Francisco Symphony Orchestra & Chorus conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas. I - Prelude. Maestoso - Più moto (poco agitato) - Slower: 0:00 II - Comedy. Allegretto - Largo - Allegretto - Allegro - Adagio - Allegro / Adagio - Adagio - Allegretto - Allegro - Meno allegro - Meno moto - Poco più mosso - Meno mosso - Andante - Più mosso - Allegro - Meno allegro - Più allegro - Più moto - Allegro molto - Largo - Allegro (con furore) - Largo - Allegro molto - Più allegro - Con fuoco: 3:32 III - Fugue. Andante moderato (con moto) - Maestoso: 15:12 IV - Finale. Very slowly. Largo maestoso - Chorus (Coda): 22:17 Ives' Symphony No.4, as with most of his music, was composed and assembled from previous pieces between 1910-6, but Ives continuously tweaked and revised the piece until 1929. It was partially performed on January 29 of 1927, played by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Eugene Goossens. It wasn't premiered in its complete form until April 26 of 1965, performed by the American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski, who was also assisted by conductors David Katz and José Serebrier. It was soon recorded by the same forces for the first time for the Columbia label. The work is one of the most complex and experimental pieces of Ives, making it a great challenge to perform and understand. It employs a massive orchestra with several off-stage groups, which require different conductors. Also as with most of Ives' music, many quotes from hymns, folksongs, march tunes and other forms of popular music are present, some clearly recognizable and others present in a very distorted way. Ives weaves all of this material into a dense tapestry with conflicting tempos, tonalities, melodies, and moods that seem to define chaos, but then find their way back into some semblance of order. It is widely believed to be Ives' masterpiece, and one of the greatest American symphonies. Ives intended the symphony to be a meditation on the "reality of existence and its religious experience". The first movement poses this question and different answers are provided in the following parts. The first movement suggests the Sabbath hour when the soul, beset and weary of earthly vexations, turns toward the Infinite, toward life and in upon itself with questions of the ultimate meaning of existence. The second answers with: "Well, it is all things as they appear to be". A parody of the hustle and bustle and overkill of noise in modern society. The third movement presents a religious answer, bound to the puritan Congregationalism in which a worshipping community offers the sought meaning of life. The fourth doesn't offer a final answer, as the previous ones are combined with the ticking of the universal clock to end with a desired closeness to God itself. The first movement is partly derived from the third movement of Violin Sonata No.1, and the song "Watchman!". It begins with a forceful and sombre orchestral opening, juxtaposed with an external group of solo violins and harp playing a fragment of Lowell Mason’s “Bethany” (“Nearer My God to Thee”). It is followed by a solo cello rendition of “In the Sweet By and By”. The chorus enters singing Mason’s “Watchman, Tell Us of the Night” set in a polytonal and polyrhythmic radiance. A peaceful coda ends the movement. The second movement is largely based on the "Hawthorne" movement from Piano Sonata No.2 "Concord, Mass., 1840-60". It depicts a “The Celestial Railroad,” inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s satirical short story from 1842. It begins with a bleak depiction of the sinful City of Destruction. Gradually, we hear the train pull away from the station and accelerate, its wheels grinding in the solo piano and lower strings. Suddenly, we hear the gentle strains of the hymn "In the Sweet, Bye and Bye" in the strings, which represent the pilgrims travelling on foot. The passengers on the train jeer at them, but the pilgrims continue on their way nevertheless. The ensuing cacophony, a dense wall of collage-like quotations of popular music of the early 20th century, depicts the revelry on-board the train and the horrors outside it. We can recognize the popular tunes "Turkey in the Straw", "Red, White and Blue" and "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean". [Musical analysis continued in the comments section] [Activate subtitles to follow the lyrics] Picture: "Kingdom of Ends" (2009) by the American painter Bo Bartlett. Sources: https://bit.ly/3kiXUuQ, https://bit.ly/3LrSQjB, https://bit.ly/3EQvK3H, https://bit.ly/39aaJ8e, https://bit.ly/38sYiUB, https://bit.ly/3shWBRl, https://bit.ly/3kfS5Ou, https://bit.ly/3rVK8SR and https://bit.ly/3vmMw7z To check the score: https://tinyurl.com/28b6uk5s