Piano Trio (Ives)
Encyclopedia
The Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano is a work by the American
composer
Charles Ives
. According to Charles Ives’ wife, the three movements of the piano trio
are a reflection of Ives’ college days at Yale
. He started writing the piece in 1904,
6 years after graduation, and completed it in 1911. It was written c. 1909-10 and significantly revised in 1914-15. The piano trio
consists of three movements:
The first movement is the same 27 measures repeated three times, though the violin
is silent for the first, the cello
for the second, and all three instruments join for the third. Interestingly, the separate duets seem full enough on their own, yet all together sound amazingly and uncharacteristically consonant.
The second movement, TSIAJ, employs polytonality
, timbral contrast, and quotation for a downright humorous effect. Fragments of American
folk songs are intertwined throughout the movement, although often grotesquely altered with respect to rhythm, pitch, and harmonic connotation. Folk songs appearing in the scherzo include "My Old Kentucky Home
," "Sailor's Hornpipe," "The Campbells are Coming," "Long, Long Ago
," "Hold the Fort," and "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood
," among many others. Drawing from his college days at Yale University
, Ives also quotes a number of fraternity songs including the Delta Kappa Epsilon
tune "A band of brothers in DKE," which appears prominently near the beginning of the movement. It is notable that one of his sketches for the movement includes the subtitle "Medley on the Campus Fence," referring to the songs popular among Yale students during his college years. And although the composer himself acknowledged that the entire movement was a "joke," it well characterizes the unique and novel musical world that only Ives had discovered.
The lyricism of the final movement of the piano trio contrasts strongly with the variegated montage of tunes in TSIAJ. Sweeping lyrical melodies alternate with lighter syncopated sections after the opening introduction and violin recitative. Nonetheless, Ives continues with his borrowing habits - quoting music that he had originally written for the Yale Glee Club
(though it was rejected) in the lyrical violin-cello canon in bars 91-125. The coda quotes Thomas Hastings
’ “Rock of Ages” in the cello
, ending the movement with Ives’ characteristic rooting in American folk and popular music.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
Charles Ives
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...
. According to Charles Ives’ wife, the three movements of the piano trio
Piano trio
A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music...
are a reflection of Ives’ college days at Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
. He started writing the piece in 1904,
6 years after graduation, and completed it in 1911. It was written c. 1909-10 and significantly revised in 1914-15. The piano trio
Piano trio
A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music...
consists of three movements:
- Moderato
- TSIAJ ("This scherzoScherzoA scherzo is a piece of music, often a movement from a larger piece such as a symphony or a sonata. The scherzo's precise definition has varied over the years, but it often refers to a movement which replaces the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work, such as a symphony, sonata, or...
is a joke"). Presto - Moderato con moto.
The first movement is the same 27 measures repeated three times, though the violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
is silent for the first, the cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
for the second, and all three instruments join for the third. Interestingly, the separate duets seem full enough on their own, yet all together sound amazingly and uncharacteristically consonant.
The second movement, TSIAJ, employs polytonality
Polytonality
The musical use of more than one key simultaneously is polytonality . Bitonality is the use of only two different keys at the same time...
, timbral contrast, and quotation for a downright humorous effect. Fragments of American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
folk songs are intertwined throughout the movement, although often grotesquely altered with respect to rhythm, pitch, and harmonic connotation. Folk songs appearing in the scherzo include "My Old Kentucky Home
My Old Kentucky Home
"My Old Kentucky Home" is a minstrel song by Stephen Foster , probably composed in 1852. It was published as "My Old Kentucky Home, Good Night" in January 1853 by Firth, Pond, & Co. of New York...
," "Sailor's Hornpipe," "The Campbells are Coming," "Long, Long Ago
Long, Long Ago
Long, Long Ago is a song dealing with nostalgia, written in 1833 by English composer Thomas Haynes Bayly. Originally named The Long Ago, its name was apparently changed by the editor Rufus Wilmot Griswold when it was first published, posthumously, in a Philadelphia magazine, along with a...
," "Hold the Fort," and "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood
There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood
"Praise for the Fountain Opened," commonly known by its first line "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood," is a well-known hymn written by William Cowper. It was one of the first hymns he wrote after his first major bout of depression...
," among many others. Drawing from his college days at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, Ives also quotes a number of fraternity songs including the Delta Kappa Epsilon
Delta Kappa Epsilon
Delta Kappa Epsilon is a fraternity founded at Yale College in 1844 by 15 men of the sophomore class who had not been invited to join the two existing societies...
tune "A band of brothers in DKE," which appears prominently near the beginning of the movement. It is notable that one of his sketches for the movement includes the subtitle "Medley on the Campus Fence," referring to the songs popular among Yale students during his college years. And although the composer himself acknowledged that the entire movement was a "joke," it well characterizes the unique and novel musical world that only Ives had discovered.
The lyricism of the final movement of the piano trio contrasts strongly with the variegated montage of tunes in TSIAJ. Sweeping lyrical melodies alternate with lighter syncopated sections after the opening introduction and violin recitative. Nonetheless, Ives continues with his borrowing habits - quoting music that he had originally written for the Yale Glee Club
Yale Glee Club
The Yale Glee Club is a mixed chorus of men and women, consisting of students of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1861, it is the third oldest collegiate chorus in the United States after the Harvard Glee Club, founded in 1858, and the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club,...
(though it was rejected) in the lyrical violin-cello canon in bars 91-125. The coda quotes Thomas Hastings
Thomas Hastings (composer)
Thomas Hastings was an American composer, primarily an author of hymn tunes of which the best known is Toplady for the hymn Rock of Ages. He was born to Dr. Seth and Eunice Hastings in Washington, Connecticut...
’ “Rock of Ages” in the cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
, ending the movement with Ives’ characteristic rooting in American folk and popular music.
External links
- Critical Commentary on Charles Ives' Piano Trio, ed. John Kirkpatrick
- Performance of the Piano Trio by Timothy Fain (violin), Marcy Rosen (cello), and Jeremy Denk (piano), from the Isabella Stewart Gardner MuseumIsabella Stewart Gardner MuseumThe Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum or Fenway Court, as the museum was known during Isabella Stewart Gardner's lifetime, is a museum in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts and near the Back Bay Fens...
in MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
format