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So, What Are You Listening To NOW?


JSngry

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1 hour ago, JSngry said:

But the line about "recorded under the supervision of the composer" takes me aback...I did not realize that Ives lived until 1954...I wonder if he ever heard Bird?

I doubt Ives ever heard Parker.  I don't have any evidence.  Just a hunch.

Ives was conversant with jazz -- but from an earlier time, both ragtime and "early jazz."  You can hear it in many of his compositions.

Regarding "under the supervision of the composer" note: John Kirkpatrick, who made the famous first recording of the Ives' Second Piano Sonata, also worked closely with Ives.  He tells stories of asking Ives questions about passages in the composition.  How to interpret this?  How to play that?  Ives never would answer in a straightforward way.  He might sit down and play it and afterwards remark, "That's how I do it.  You play it your way."  It frustrated Kirkpatrick, who was rooted in a more traditional "the composer's intentions are paramount" sort of understanding.

Clearly, Ives expect the interpreter to bring their own insight, mojo, juice to his music.  I think it's a sort of "jazz approach" to classical music.  I'm going to give you the framework, but you've got to carry it forward from there, breathe the life into it.  Of course, Ives' music isn't jazz.  But that spirit is there.  It's one of the (many!) things that makes Ives' music so special.

 

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2 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

I doubt Ives ever heard Parker.  I don't have any evidence.  Just a hunch.

Ives was conversant with jazz -- but from an earlier time, both ragtime and "early jazz."  You can hear it in many of his compositions.

Regarding "under the supervision of the composer" note: John Kirkpatrick, who made the famous first recording of the Ives' Second Piano Sonata, also worked closely with Ives.  He tells stories of asking Ives questions about passages in the composition.  How to interpret this?  How to play that?  Ives never would answer in a straightforward way.  He might sit down and play it and afterwards remark, "That's how I do it.  You play it your way."  It frustrated Kirkpatrick, who was rooted in a more traditional "the composer's intentions are paramount" sort of understanding.

Clearly, Ives expect the interpreter to bring their own insight, mojo, juice to his music.  I think it's a sort of "jazz approach" to classical music.  I'm going to give you the framework, but you've got to carry it forward from there, breathe the life into it.  Of course, Ives' music isn't jazz.  But that spirit is there.  It's one of the (many!) things that makes Ives' music so special.

 

Do you have the CD that's all Ives playing solo piano? Columbia released excerpts from it, but somebody put out a buttload of it. It's crazy, almost Cecil-ish in it's velocity, if not in it's precision. Very, VERY "splash-y". Well worth searching out!

I had no idea that the guy lived to 1954, no idea at all.

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19 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Do you have the CD that's all Ives playing solo piano? Columbia released excerpts from it, but somebody put out a buttload of it. It's crazy, almost Cecil-ish in it's velocity, if not in it's precision. Very, VERY "splash-y". Well worth searching out!

I had no idea that the guy lived to 1954, no idea at all.

Oh yeah.  It's AMAZING!   That recording -- more than any other -- unlocked all of Ives' piano music for me.  Like somebody threw a switch and suddenly everything was illuminated, it all made sense. ... CRI put it out originally.  Then New World reissued it, after they acquired CRI.  Regardless, it's "required listening" for anyone wanting to fully make their way into Ives' music.

I really do believe that Ives' music exists somewhere in the land between jazz and classical -- in its own unique, neither-one-nor-the-other place.  ... It's not that different than Ellington's in that regard, a bit overlap in their very different but equally magnificent musical legacies.

...

More on Ives and Duke:  I love the fact that Ives and Ellington both HATED the idea of finishing compositions.  The music always needed to be open ended.  That's how the music stays alive.  Never stopping, always dynamic.  The process is the thing, not the product.

A beautiful idea.  

 

Edited by HutchFan
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