Re: Ives Concord

[Michael Arnowitt <arnowitt@sover.net>]

At 10:22 PM 8/3/99 -0400, Bob Merkin wrote:
I've met many orchestra instrumentalists who just flat-out cringe
>when I ask them about their feelings about Ives. (There's the famous story
of the
>Italian maestro who ran from Ives' music shed screaming "This is not music!
This is
>noise!")
>

Yes, but what glorious noise!

Of course, I come from New England (actually grew up a town away from
Concord), so Ives' motor patterns and philosophies all resonate for me.

On the surface, you would think Ives' quirky character (both in his music
and in his personality) and the contrapuntal nature of much of his music
might appeal to Gould -- but I agree with your theory that the consciously
nationalistic side might have been a problem.  Perhaps this might also
explain Gould's disinterest in Bartok, French music, etc... although there
are exceptions, even within the composers we tend to label as nationalistic
that Gould did like, he tended to single out for praise pieces of music by
those composers that were pure (or at any rate not programmatic).

Michael