Ives as innovator? Considerations of sources, biography, and style for his songs based on models.

Abstract

The traditional image of Charles Ives is one of a composer who eschewed the European tradition completely. An exploration of his use of German models provides the means for re-examining his relation to the European tradition. This thesis treats the composer's songs modeled on settings with the same texts by Brahms and Mendelssohn. The analysis bears on Ives's musical style and on his approach to song composition. In addition it speaks to larger aesthetic questions related to his output. The elements considered in this analysis include form, text painting, and harmonic language. The study of these songs affords an opportunity to evaluate literary theories of influence that have been applied to the study of music, including Harold Bloom's "Anxiety of Influence", as they relate to modeled works. In order to understand these works better, the genesis of these works is explored through his early music training and his relationship to his teacher at Yale, Horatio Parker, by a consideration of the sources. His reworking of the past and his transcendental characteristics are situated within the larger progressive movement. A reconsideration of the composer's biography contributes to a fuller picture of Ives and his compositional output.