Charles Ives, a successful insurance agent, church organist, and composer in his spare time, was first taught by his father, a restless U.S. Army bandleader. Charles was barely ten years old when his father encouraged his interest in modern harmonies and polytonality. Anyone would think that being exposed to such experiences, little Charlie would have run away from music, terrified. Fortunately, this was not the case, and it was not long before the child was able to accompany his father in a bitonal duet. The father would sing a melody in a certain key and Charles, a future composer, would manage to sing the same melody in a different key. It became clear that Charles Ives would not follow a traditional path.
Author of symphonies, string quartets, and piano sonatas, as well as an insurance executive, the composer used to write during the commuter trains that took him to his offices in New York, without caring much about what the world thought of his music, clearly one of a difficult language. He sincerely thought so, we believe. But a review of his manuscripts, much later, showed that from 1920, the author began to falsify the dates of composition of the works, dating them at least twenty years earlier, to appear more pioneering than he was. There was no need. His music is today considered superb, intense, and an original that does not require any fraudulent revision.
Central Park in the Dark
Charles Ives (1874 - 1954)
The piece for orchestra was composed in 1906, conceived as a duo with his best-known work, An Unanswered Question. The idea of presenting the two works together is because both are based on the same experimental premise: the strings create a tenuous and stable atmosphere that remains in the background while the other instruments introduce contrasting, non-synchronous elements that will gradually accelerate.
Its original title is somewhat longer: A Contemplation of Nothing Serious or Central Park in the Dark in the Good Old Summertime. Slightly a long title. But the author himself takes care to explain what it all means:
"...the sounds of nature and events that could be heard thirty years ago, sitting on a bench in Central Park on a hot summer's night. The strings represent the sounds of the night and the silent darkness... interrupted by street singers.... [...] a carriage and a street band join the chorus [...] ...a fire engine... a horse... running away... walkers shout...[...] Darkness is heard again... and we return home."
However, the music that accompanied all this said nothing to some European critics of the time. Some went so far as to maintain that Ives was an amateur with no idea what he was doing. Today's thinking, on the other hand, at the turn of the 21st century, points out that Ives still has something to teach us today, and in terms of new ideas no less.
The performance is by the Budapest Bartok Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hungarian conductor Gergely Dubóczky.
