David Thurmaier
American Music, Volume 32, Number 1, Spring 2014, pp. 46-81 (Article)
DOI: 10.1353/amm.2014.0006
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American Music Spring 2014
© 2014 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
DAVID THURMAIER
“When Borne by the Red, White,
and Blue”: Charles Ives
and Patriotic Quotation
Building a People’s World Nation
OnApril 24, 1943, Charles Ives recorded three takes of his song “TheyAre
There!” at Mary Howard Studios in New York City. “They Are There!,”
subtitled “Fighting for the People’s New Free World,” is a slightly reworked
version of his 1917 song “He Is There!” with text by Ives written
to support American efforts in World War II.1
In these recordings,
one is struck immediately by Ives’s exuberant and energetic singing,
particularly on the chorus of the song. The text of the first chorus reads
as follows:
Brave boys are now in action:
They are there; they will help to free the world.
They are fighting for the right,
But when it comes to might,
They are there, they are there, they are there!
As the Allies beat up all the warhogs,
The boys’ll be there fighting hard,
And then the world will shout
the Battle Cry of Freedom!—
(Tenting on a new campground)
While the entire song contains quotations from many popular American
songs, the first part of the chorus starts with an excerpt from one
particular patriotic tune that Ives belts out with passion and fervency.2
David Thurmaier is associate professor of music theory at the University of
Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. His research interests
include the music of Charles Ives, the pedagogy of music theory, the history of
music theory in America, and the Beatles.
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 47
Example 1 shows the opening measures of the first and second choruses
of “They Are There!” set to the first phrase of “Columbia, the Gem
of the Ocean.” This song, also known as “The Red, White, and Blue,”
is a familiar tune in the canon of Ives quotations.3
It is fitting that this
particular song is used at this point and over those words; the chorus
of a song is its most memorable part, and the poignant call for support
of American troops as well as Ives’s hope for a “people’s world nation”
where “every honest country [is] free to live its own native life” are values
expressed in the original text of “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean.”4
Accordingly, the prominent placement of “Columbia,” in combination
with text that alludes to the song’s subtitle—supported by Ives’s boisterous
performance—creates a rousing patriotic atmosphere.
In this article, I argue that such patriotic borrowings constitute a singular
stylistic category within Ives’s compositional practice. Recent discussions
of Ives’s stylistic heterogeneity—the idea that his music mixes
styles within the same piece, and that “strikingly different styles can
even occur simultaneously”—have pointed to hymns, ragtime, and parlor
songs, among others, as the most commonly recurring types of preexisting
music that Ives repeatedly refers to in his works; to that list I
add a patriotic style illustrated by his use of “Columbia, the Gem of the
Ocean.”5
Ives constructs this style, using “Columbia” in particular, in
clever musical ways across a wide variety of pieces: it can function in
a subdued and understated fashion, often used to highlight a specific
textual reference or evoke a memory; it can be treated as melodic source
material for development by formal compositional means; and the tune
can appear at a climax as a goal, referred and alluded to along the way
through snippets and fragments. Furthermore, the extramusical meanings
behind these borrowings of “Columbia” help to elucidate Ives’s
hon est coun try free to live its own na tive life.
there; they will help to free the world.
Then
Chorus 2
it’s build a peo ple’s world na tion (Hoo ray!) Ev ’ry
Brave
Chorus 1
boys are now in ac tion: They are
Example 1. Ives, “They Are There!”
48 Thurmaier
patriotic beliefs—“patriotic” in the sense of love of one’s country. Ives
espoused such fervent beliefs in both his writings and program notes.
“Columbia” and Ives
Although Ives quoted from well over a hundred different pieces, only
eight tunes were used more than a dozen times, with “Columbia” being
one of his favorites. According to Clayton Henderson’s tabulation in
his chapter on “Patriotic Songs and Military Music” in The Charles Ives
Tunebook, “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean” appears in at least eighteen
published and unpublished works.6
Not only does Ives borrow the tune
over and over, but he also incorporates it into the chief melodic material
of several major pieces, such as the Concord Sonata, The Fourth of July,
and the Second Symphony.
“Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean” was first written, copyrighted, and
performed in Philadelphia in 1843 as “Columbia, the Land of the Brave”
(though those words do not appear in the song).7
The subject of the song
may have its roots in the story of the “Columbia Rediviva,” which in the
1790s became the first American ship to sail around the world.8
Authorship
of the lyrics and music has been disputed, with three people listed
as composers or lyricists on various published editions: David T. Shaw,
Thomas à Becket (senior), and Stephen Meany.9
Moreover, there was
some debate whether the words of “Columbia” may have been taken
from a text by Meany (who was English) called “Britannia, the Pride of
the Ocean,” but James J. Fuld asserts that “no substantiation at all has
been given to support this claim,” observing that the English version
was published in 1852, nine years after “Columbia.”10
It is true that some
of the words could be conveniently substituted for others without any
alteration of the tune or its metric stress (e.g., “Columbia” for “Britannia”),
but Ace Collins points out yet another set of ambiguities regarding
the lyrics, explaining that “during the time when this song was written
a gem in the ocean was an island,” something the United States is not.11
Regardless of its complicated and ambiguous history, by the time Ives
knew the song its present title was firmly established. Ives seemed to
have appreciated and identified with the meaning of the text in “Columbia,”
which had acquired a broader cultural meaning in the mid- to
late nineteenth century, and perhaps acted as his personal symbol of
America. The first verse, which begins with the song’s title and ends with
its popular name, extolls the values of the military as well as nationalist
sentiments:
O Columbia, the gem of the ocean,
The home of the brave and the free;
The shrine of each patriot’s devotion
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 49
A world offers homage to thee.
Thy mandates make heroes assemble,
When Liberty’s form stands in view;
Thy banners make tyranny tremble,
When borne by the red, white, and blue!
In addition to the text, the musical characteristics of “Columbia” may
have appealed to Ives as well, since the song contains many hallmarks
associated with patriotic music in general: simple triadic harmony, fanfare
or bugle-tune melodic shapes (e.g., arpeggiated triads), repetition,
and march rhythms. Example 2 shows the melody of the entire song.
In short, the tune is accessible, easy to perform, and its melodic profile
lends itself well to recognition, even when it is distorted or appears out
of context in some of Ives’s knottiest works.
It is particularly notable that Ives quotes only the verse—the most
recognizable part of the song—and never actually uses the chorus (m.
16, beat 4 to the end). Moreover, as we will see, and in ways that hold
ramifications for interpretation, he often dissolves the quotation just
before the final measure of the verse in his more extensive borrowed
passages.
Despite his apparent fascination with “Columbia,” Ives never explained
why he found this particular tune so attractive. Some of its allure
must have originated in its long-standing associations. Though written
21
ban ners make ty ran ny trem ble When borne by the red, white and blue.
17
borne by the red, white and blue When borne by the red, white and blue, Thy
13
ban ners make ty ran ny trem ble When borne by the red, white and blue, When
9
man dates make he roes as sem ble, When Lib er ty’s form stands in view. Thy
5
shrine of each pa triot’s de vo tion A world of fers hom age to thee. Thy
O Co lum bia! the gem of the o cean The home of the brave and the free The
CHORUS
Example 2. “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean,” 1862 publication (piano introduction
omitted).
50 Thurmaier
in the early 1840s, the song became wildly popular for the Union during
the Civil War because it hailed national unity, and it later entered the
repertoire of military bands, including the famous Marine Band directed
by John Philip Sousa.12
Given its popularity and Ives’s fervent nostalgia
for the Civil War period, it seems likely that he learned the tune from
his bandmaster father, George, or from the bands he heard as a youth
in Danbury, Connecticut.
Ives does refer to the song in his writings; for instance, in a description
of the last movement of his Second Symphony, he explains that the
music featured “The Red White and Blue and old barn-dance fiddles on
top,” but does not elaborate further even though the song is one of the
primary themes of the movement. Similarly, Ives mentions how “the tune
The Red, White and Blue was set over chords of fourths and fifths, and
they don’t go well together for some acoustical reason” in a discussion
of the Overture and March “1776” and The Fourth of July, two pieces where
“Columbia” is also a significant melodic theme.13
Once again, Ives omits
reasons for why he used the tune, but his comment is intriguing; despite
his apparent reservations (or regrets), he joins “Columbia” (played by
the tuba and basses) with quartal and quintal chords (played by the
other strings) at the beginning of The Fourth of July (mm. 8–12). He may
have likewise have been fascinated with finding connections between
“Columbia” and quartal and quintal harmonies, as one particular sketch
page for The Fourth shows both musical elements undergoing several
types of development and fusion.14
Clearly Ives viewed “Columbia” as
useful both musically and symbolically.
Where Is “Columbia?”
The following list contains Ives’s works that feature “Columbia, the Gem
of the Ocean.”15
The tune appears in compositions of diverse scope,
from songs to large symphonic works, and was a particular favorite of
Ives during the years 1910–20 when it was used in twelve of the sixteen
compositions listed. This decade was Ives’s most prolific (especially for
large pieces), but the fact that patriotic tunes appeared so often in these
works may suggest the influence of World War I and America’s heightened
role in world affairs.
Orchestral Music
The Fourth of July (movement III of Holidays Symphony)
Orchestral Set No. 3 (movement II: “An Afternoon or During Camp
Meetin’ Week—One Secular Afternoon in Bethel”)
Overture and March “1776”
Symphony No. 2 (movements I, IV, V)
Symphony No. 4 (movement II)
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 51
Chamber Music
String Quartet No. 2 (movements I, II)
Piano Music
The Celestial Railroad
Sonata No. 2 for Piano: “Concord, Mass., 1840–60” (“Hawthorne”)
Waltz-Rondo
Choral/Song
“He Is There!”
“In Flanders Fields”
“Lincoln, The Great Commoner”
“Sneak Thief” (chorus, trumpet, piano; incomplete)
“They Are There!”
“Tom Sails Away”
There is a good deal of overlap on the list, as several pieces are related
to one another. For instance, the Trio of Overture and March “1776” was
reworked and fashioned into the climax in The Fourth of July.16
Similarly,
“Hawthorne” from the Concord Sonata was drafted from sketches for
a projected piano concerto, and later became the basis for the second
movement of Symphony no. 4. This music was then reworked and used
for The Celestial Railroad, a fantasy for solo piano based on Nathaniel
Hawthorne’s short story of the same name; Ives then orchestrated and
reworked music from The Celestial Railroad and it became the present
second movement of the Fourth Symphony.17
Also, as mentioned earlier,
“He Is There!” and “TheyAre There!” are quite closely related, essentially
the same pieces with different text.
Patriotic tunes such as “Columbia” are more likely to be universally
recognized than those quoted from other Ives-favored genres such as
hymns, as these songs transcend religion, class, and musical background,
and are featured at prominent national events.18
It matters less whether a
listener recognizes the exact name of a tune than whether he or she can
identify the general style as patriotic.19
In addition to familiarity, these
tunes also share extramusical and musical similarities, much as hymns
or parlor songs might. As such, one finds several common features in
sections where Ives uses patriotic quotation. For instance, in nearly all
of the pieces listed above, “Columbia” appears concurrently with other
quotations that have nationalist associations (often from different time
periods, e.g., Revolutionary War or Civil War) in attempts to link borrowed
material thematically to the overall piece. Of course, the subject
matter of American patriotism links all the tunes together in creative
and sometimes unusual ways.
52 Thurmaier
The placement of “Columbia” at points within so many notable pieces
confirms Ives’s fondness for this particular tune and beliefs about its
function within a piece. As contemporary listeners we may be far removed
from the particulars of American life at the time when “Columbia”
was written and when Ives later incorporated it into his music, but
the sheer amount of borrowings makes us conscious of the importance
of this song to Ives. The various ways in which he includes “Columbia”
suggests a specific musical style when it is fused with his original music,
the particulars of which we turn to next.
“Columbia” in Three Ways
Ives uses “Columbia” in three salient compositional ways:
As a short fragment in a string of quotations of a similar style
designed to elicit a poignant memory;
As a primary or secondary melodic theme developed throughout
a movement or longer work, sometimes in a formalistic manner
(e.g., contrapuntally);
At the climactic point of a piece, marked for maximum audibility.
These diverse compositional strategies that I call “Understated,” “Developing,”
and “Climactic” are loose categories and display general characteristics
that capture the essence of how Ives uses “Columbia.” Of
course Ives’s borrowed excerpts do not always fit solely and neatly into
one category, and in some cases “Columbia” appears several times in
each work and thus in multiple places; for example, in The Fourth of July
Ives scatters numerous fragments of “Columbia” throughout the first
part of the piece seemingly used to evoke a patriotic atmosphere and
serve as a recurring melodic idea, while he saves the cumulative climatic
statement for the end of the work. In this particular piece, stacked with
stretches of quartal and quintal harmony, the melodic profile of the tune
with its emphasis on perfect fourths lends itself to maximum audibility
in each of its uses.
Understated “Columbia”
The first way Ives uses “Columbia” is to plant snippets of it and other
patriotic tunes in the texture that in retrospect and reflection suggest
nostalgic sentiments. Ives usually extracts just the first phrase of “Columbia”
(and other tunes as well) for use in these sections. In so doing,
he presents the most recognizable portion of the tune, but fragments it
before it becomes the central focus of a melody. Many of these pieces also
contain text, which adds another layer of meaning to Ives’s expressions
of national loyalty. Works from the list above that feature “Columbia”
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 53
appearing in this manner include the songs “Lincoln, the Great Commoner,”
“Tom Sails Away,” and “In Flanders Fields,” along with The
Fourth of July. “Lincoln, the Great Commoner,” one of Ives’s finest songs,
works particularly well to illustrate this type of quotation because of its
rich textual and musical references.
Ives composed “Lincoln, the Great Commoner” from 1919 to 1921, and
it exists in two versions, one for chorus and orchestra, and one for voice
and piano.20
The following discussion makes reference to both versions.
Ives adapted the text from a noted poem by Edwin Markham called “Lincoln,
the Man of the People” (1900), which was read at the dedication of
the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, in 1922.21
The first part of the
poem depicts Lincoln as a man of the earth with a virtuous and noble
image found in all sorts of natural places (stars, trees, light, wind). Ives sets
the end of the poem where Markham paints Lincoln as a man of strength,
tested by adversity and challenges (earthquakes and whirlwinds), becoming
a martyr who “goes down with a great shout upon the hills.” In his
textual choices, Ives illuminates the common image of Lincoln as a man
of strength fighting for his grand ideals against all odds.
The song contains all the hallmarks of Ives’s mature compositional
style—a fusion of borrowed material with a thorny harmonic palette
that mixes clusters and polychords. As befits a song about a significant
American political icon, Ives quotes from several of his favorite tunes
that all reference national unity: “Hail, Columbia,” a tune stemming
from America’s Federal period, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” a
camp meeting song turned Civil War anthem, “America (My Country
’Tis of Thee),” and, of course, “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean.” Indeed,
Burkholder asserts that the borrowed fragments in “Lincoln” lend a patriotic
atmosphere to the piece, when consciously identified or heard as
“familiar-sounding snatches in the style of patriotic song.”22
Ives uses
“Columbia” in three places shown in example 3: from the last sixteenth
note of mm. 11 to 13 (where it appears superimposed with “Hail, Columbia”),
in m. 22, and in m. 28.23
The fact that all of the selected tunes
preach the virtues of an intact, strong nation (three of the songs predate
the Civil War) is particularly meaningful in a song about Lincoln and
the Civil War given the events of that time. In spirit, Ives seems to be
hearkening back to the days before the war, but the manner in which he
distorts and fragments the tunes is suggestive of the formidable challenges
to the idea of national unity during the Civil War.
The first quotation of “Columbia” from mm. 11–13 is brief and covered
by other voices. The music of this passage makes explicit the patriotic
meaning of the text (“One fair Ideal led our chieftain on”). Ives brings out
the image of a nation’s “chieftain” through numerous dotted rhythms,
an exuberant vocal line, and the references to “Columbia,” “The Battle
Hymn of the Republic,” and “America.” At m. 12, “Columbia, the Gem
54 Thurmaier
of the Ocean” sounds in the top voice of the piano in the key of F major,
but it is obscured by a quotation from “Hail, Columbia” in the voice and
a tremolo between E and F sharp in the left hand of the piano. In this
example, “Columbia” resolves on a whole-note A in m. 13; this parallels
what is played by the first clarinet in the orchestral version, while the
piccolo concludes the quotation by adding the “tonic” F (ex. 4).
13
3
on; He built the rail pile as he built the
L.H.
Cap
3
i tol, One fair I deal led our chief tain
10
22
So came our Cap tain with the
Example 3. Examples from Ives, “Lincoln, the Great Commoner” (arrows denote
“Columbia”). Source: Charles Ives: 129 Songs, ed. H. Wiley Hitchcock, Music
of the United States of America 12 / Recent Researches in American Music 47.
Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2004). Used with permission.
3a. Mm. 10–15
3b. Mm. 22–23
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 55
33
held the long pur pose like a grow ing tree— Held on through blame and
raf ters of the Home. He held his place— He
He held the ridge pole up, and spiked a gain The
30
28
3c. Mm. 28–33
Clarinet in B
Piccolo
Example 4. “Lincoln, the Great Commoner,” mm. 12–13, “Columbia” in orchestral
version (transposed score; Ives wrote “on picc” on flute part in published score).
56 Thurmaier
This is a small difference, but potentially important for interpretation.
By choosing not to finish the borrowed phrase in the voice-and-piano
version, Ives creates slight ambiguity about what happens next, but the
addition of the F in the piccolo in the orchestral version to conclude
the phrase lends more finality to the “one fair Ideal”—unity (i.e., of the
complete phrase)—that “led our chieftain on” expressed in the text. In
either case, however, Ives leaves the “Ideal” unelaborated and ambiguous
due to his omission of the next few lines from Markham’s poem in
his adaptation.24
When “Columbia” appears at m. 22, Ives again creates salient connections
between the tune and the text. Ives scores it in the right hand of the
piano, quite high in range, and in the key of F major (top of first violins
in the orchestral version).As in the previous example, its appearance still
seems slightly ambiguous in light of what surrounds it musically and
textually. The preceding music in mm. 18–21 is static with a long pedal
on E (which continues through the “Columbia” passage), full of very
thick chords and unstable harmonies. When “Columbia” does surface
in m. 22 sounding over the omnipresent E pedal, Ives brings out the
melody slightly with its high range and detached articulation. Though a
particularly astute listener may recognize the tune in context (or at least
parts of it), Ives obscures it harmonically so that it is only in retrospect
that the connections between the text and music emerge.
The fact that Ives included “Columbia” as the only borrowed melodic
segment in this passage as a bridge between phrases foreshadows
the text. The singer concludes the previous phrase with the line, “to
make his deed the measure of a man,” and after the “Columbia” quotation
he enters with the phrase “So came our Captain with the mighty
heart.” Markham’s allusion to Lincoln as “our Captain”—the leader of
a ship—recalls Walt Whitman’s eulogy “Oh Captain, my Captain,” and
Ives strengthens that textual connection by using “Columbia” at this
spot. Narratively, the statement of the full phrase (in the same key as
mm. 11–13) can be read as an inspiration for Lincoln to carry on with
the challenges ahead referred to in the text. So here, as in the previous
case, “Columbia” can be perceived intertextually as a memory or desire
floating in and out of the texture.
These quotations, in combination with the rugged musical language,
underscore the text that describes the conventional historical image of
Abraham Lincoln and are employed in a largely subtle manner that enhances
rather than overwhelms the text. Recall that the original text of
“Columbia” extols “the home of the brave and free,” “heroes,” “Liberty’s
form,” and “banners [that] make tyranny tremble.” By analogy, Ives uses
the tune in a new context in its final place in the right hand of the piano
at m. 28 (played by the first clarinet and piano in the orchestral version)
to reflect sympathetic sentiments; in this case, the music is set to a regu-
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 57
lar beat and at the same volume, reflecting the fusion of text and music
that expresses Ives’s reverence toward Lincoln.
In the poem, Markham portrays Lincoln as a builder and someone
with a steady hand in perilous times:
And when the step of earthquake shook the house,
Wrenching the rafters from their ancient hold,
He held the ridgepole up and spiked again
The rafters of the Home.
In m. 28, “Columbia” is stated in the right hand of the piano in the
key of C-sharp major, though Ives surprisingly resolves the melody in
minor, writing an E natural instead of an E sharp, perhaps alluding to the
fuzziness and uncertainty inherent in forging national unity in difficult
times. A parallel connection can be made to the ending of “In Flanders
Fields” (another “war” song and an example of “Understated” borrowing)
from mm. 38–39 where “Columbia” is set to the words “We shall
not sleep though the poppies grow”; the tune is ostensibly presented in
A major, but resolves suddenly into A minor (C sharp to C natural) on
the word “poppies,” a last plea from the buried soldiers to the living for
the strength to continue their mission. This consistent theme of unity and
strength in peril’s path pervades Ives’s songs using American patriotic
tunes, particularly in this section of “Lincoln,” from mm. 28–33, after the
“earthquake” of the Civil War as represented by Lincoln.25
The entire section
that begins with “Columbia” thus sounds “patriotic”; the borrowed
tunes, moreover, are coupled with march rhythms enhancing this style.
A common thread of pieces that include “understated” borrowing,
such as “Lincoln, the Great Commoner,” is a conflicted message of reverent
yet conflicted nostalgia about their subjects: war, Abraham Lincoln,
American independence, and an idealized American innocence.26
Nostalgia,
and more specifically a type of “innovative nostalgia,” in Ives’s
music has been the subject of substantial scholarship and seems to be a
part of how he viewed his own patriotic beliefs as well.27
For example,
as Michael Broyles writes, “Ives gives voice to the pervading mixture
of anxiety, nostalgia, and revolution that did much to shape the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries [in American society].”28
David
Metzer’s interpretation that “Ives’s evocations of the past tie into both
Victorian conceptions of childhood and the contemporary anxiety over
new technologies and urbanization . . . [and] nostalgia serves as a way of
escaping those concerns and finding refuge in an idealized nineteenthcentury
small-town childhood” helps untangle the complex meanings
of a piece such as “Lincoln.”29
The fleeting, haunting, fragmentary quotations
in “Lincoln,” particularly of “Columbia,” not only evoke an immediate
sense of national loyalty and respect for a revered figure like
Abraham Lincoln, but for Ives they also hearken back to his childhood
58 Thurmaier
in a sense of sadness and loss when his conception of American ideals
(real or imagined) was very different. In other words, quotations in
these pieces seem to span both past and present; they evoke the innocent
grandeur and reverence attached to country, ceremony, and statesmen
like Lincoln as viewed from a child’s perspective, but coming from Ives
the adult, they also evoke a wistful, muted sadness about the realization
that much has changed in the present day.
Developing “Columbia”
In contrast to its brief, often muted appearances in “Understated” borrowing,
Ives sometimes employs “Columbia” more formally by utilizing
compositional techniques similar to his European counterparts. In
pieces using the “Developing” strategy, he presents the first phrase of
the tune as a primary melodic theme stated initially at the outset of a
movement that undergoes subsequent development, or uses the phrase
as the catalyst to build rhythmic momentum. Ives even treats the quotation
as the basis for contrapuntal explorations such as a canon. In this
regard, such segments can resemble Leonard Ratner’s “Learned” style,
that is, style topics associated with music of the church and often found
in the music of Mozart and others.30
The identification of this style in
the music of Ives makes sense given his background both as an organist
and church musician, as well as a result of his composition study with
Horatio Parker at Yale. Yet in these pieces, despite being subjected to a
more rigorous compositional structure, the patriotic tunes still retain
their associations. Works that illustrate “Columbia” used developmentally
include the “Hawthorne” movement from the Concord Sonata, the
Second Symphony, The Fourth of July, and the subject of this section, the
Second String Quartet.
The Second String Quartet (1907–13) is not overtly nationalist in its
title or theme, and yet it still has concrete extramusical patriotic and
programmatic connotations. The piece largely adheres to a program by
Ives that imagines a scenario where four men (the members of the quartet)
“converse, discuss, argue, fight, shake hands, shut up—then walk
up the mountain side to view the firmament.”31
Musically, the quartet
retains a largely modernist style throughout, with strong emphasis on
experimentation, atonality, and disjunction. “Columbia” appears in the
first two of three movements.
In an excerpt from the first movement entitled “Discussions,” (shown
in ex. 5), the first violin performs a snippet of “Columbia” from mm.
58–65 that begins a long developmental section fueled by the use of patriotic
quotation that creates a strong sense of momentum. This section
features rapid statements of fragmented American tunes in the manner
of a “discussion” that alternates between the instruments: “Columbia,
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 59
6 6
6
6
6 6 6
6
6 6
6 6
3
6 6
3
3 6
6
3
3
6 6
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
55 3
Example 5. Ives, Second String Quartet, Movement 1, mm. 54–65 (four patriotic
quotations denoted with arrows: “Columbia,” “Dixie,” “Marching through Georgia,”
and “Hail, Columbia”). “String Quartet No. 2” by Charles Ives. Copyright
© 1954 by Peer International Corporation. Used by permission
60 Thurmaier
6
6 6
6
6
6 6 6
6 6
6 6
6 6
6 6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6 6 6
6 6
6 6
6 6 6
6
6
Solo
6 6 6
6
60 accel. più mosso
6 6
6
Example 5. (cont.)
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 61
the Gem of the Ocean” is followed by “Dixie” in the viola, “Marching
through Georgia” in the second violin, and “Hail, Columbia” in the first
violin and cello. The borrowed tunes stand out in this dense, thorny
atonal landscape and sound like heated, interjected “discussions” between
the four instrumentalists. J. Peter Burkholder interprets the section
as a “conversation about politics, with a statement of national pride (‘Columbia’)
provoking a response from a southerner (‘Dixie’), who in turn
is interrupted by a rather chauvinistic northerner (‘Marching Through
Georgia’) before both are quieted by an appeal for unity in the name of
the nation and in the spirit of its founders (‘Hail, Columbia’).”32
This is
a creative interpretation, but irrespective of the geographical particulars,
the four tunes are unified generally as patriotic tunes that feature the
same type of musical characteristics.
Another interpretation of the cumulative effect of the staggered melodic
entrances could be one of humor and parody. Ives incorporates
“Columbia” (with the other tunes) into a type of parody in the quartet,
this time of a discussion, where all of the patriotic tunes actually elicit
humor despite the serious actions expressed in the underlying program.
The tunes themselves are not particularly funny, but when Ives subjects
them to compositional techniques designed to enhance their audibility
in contrast with their surroundings, they can become humorous to the
3
6
6
6
6
6 6
6
3
6
6
6 6
6 6
6 6
Tempo I
65
62 Thurmaier
listener.33
For instance, example 5 shows how the first two quotations
(“Columbia” and “Dixie”) are marked fortissimo (and with a “Solo” indication
for “Dixie”), while accompanied at a pianissimo level. The fragments
rise to the surface as the beginnings of debate that eventually get
swept away by the churning accompaniment (note the accelerando at m.
60). In this movement, Ives essentially elevates the tunes through the
use of formal “learned” procedures (e.g., staggered entries, contrasts
in dynamics, a “paired duet” in the first violin and cello playing “Hail,
Columbia”) and as a result informs his audience that the “discussion”
concerns patriotism.
Not only does the inclusion of “Columbia” evoke patriotism and
humor, but it is also used more formally to initiate a push in momentum
and metric periodicity in the particular statement of “Columbia”
that lasts roughly two bars (mm. 58–60). “Columbia” cuts through this
frenetic activity with its long note values in the highest register of the
first violin. The tune stands out not only because of its relatively slow
rhythm, but also because of its pitch construction. Ives writes the melody
as the top note of double stops in the “key” of Amajor (read with enharmonic
equivalency).34
But the bottom notes of the double stops produce
dissonant simultaneities that shade “Columbia” a blurry color. The dissonant
pitches that underlie the tune resemble a motor grinding into
motion and move toward consonance as the music continues; as such,
the subsequent borrowed tunes are stated more clearly and stand out
more prominently in the texture.
For the remainder of this developmental section (mm. 80–95, not
shown) fragments from “Columbia” recur to keep pushing the music
forward in this “discussion.” The song’s initial dotted rhythm outlines
a perfect fourth found in mm. 80–83, 88, and 90–91; it sounds as if the
members of the ensemble interrupt each other with fragments of “Columbia,”
but never go beyond the initial interval and gesture.35
These
utterances could represent Ives’s belief in the equality and wisdom of
the quartet, with each member allowed to offer his or her own opinion
in the “discussion.”
Whereas in the quartet’s first movement “Columbia” instigated development,
momentum, and a resultant rhythmic stability, in the second
movement, “Arguments,” Ives sets “Columbia” as the primary theme in
rather formal contrapuntal passages that commence at m. 42 and continue
intermittently until the end of the movement. In keeping with the
atonal harmonic language and mixture of multiple styles, Ives, according
to Wiley Hitchcock, writes various “canons without any harmonic underpinnings
[that] follow passages anchored to static harmonic-rhythmic
ostinatos.”36
Several such canons occur in the section from mm. 42–55
shown in example 6.
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 63
3
3
3
3
3
3
3
45
3
3
3
Allegro
3
3
Largo
3
Allegro
3
3
3
Largo soblato
ten.
ten.
3
ten.
Presto
40
Largo sweetota ten.
Allegro con fisto
Example 6. Ives, Second String Quartet, Movement 2 (mm. 39–56 shown), imitative
entries of “Columbia.”
64 Thurmaier
3
3
3
3
50
3
55
Example 6. (cont.)
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 65
He binds the four instrumental statements together by key relationship
(fifth), process (canon), and technique (stretto). Though “Columbia” is not
the first canonic theme, it figures prominently starting in the pickup to
m. 49 in the viola and contrasts with the first jagged, metrically ambiguous
canonic theme at m. 42. Ives writes this canon in stretto and with a
formal set of tonal entries distributed among the four instruments, which
demonstrates a certain rigor within an atonal harmonic language.37
The
viola enters with the first part of “Columbia” in E major accompanied by
the other instruments that suddenly lock into march-like figures (dotted
rhythms), a departure from the previous music. Immediately following
in the last beat of m. 49 the first violin launches into the same melody
minus the dotted introduction in the dominant key of B major. The cello
then answers this statement on the third beat of m. 50 up another fifth in
F-sharp major, and the second violin completes the canon at the pickup
to m. 53 with “Columbia” in C-sharp major. Even with these formal
principles, the section still holds characteristics of patriotic quotation
as “Columbia” is audible, and the instruments adopt musical features
of nationalist tunes even though they do not operate within an overall
tonal context. Immediately after this section, the music changes style
and becomes even more jagged and highly chromatic, characteristic of
the modernist style that governs most of the movement.
In the final pages of the movement, Ives propels “Columbia, the Gem
of the Ocean” very audibly into a musical “argument” about what Burkholder
describes as “[American] relations with Europe, European versus
American culture, or high versus low musical taste.”38
At m. 87,
Ives assigns “Hail, Columbia” to the first violin as the first in a stream
of American patriotic and European classical music quotations from
Tchaikovsky (cello, m. 88), Brahms (first violin, m. 92), and Beethoven
(second violin, m. 96). It is notable that the Tchaikovsky excerpt (from
the third movement of the Sixth Symphony) is constructed of fourths
similar to “Columbia,” foreshadowing the statement of the American
tune that follows it. In the midst of this activity, “Columbia” is written
in the viola and cello at m. 94 at the loudest dynamic in the piece (fff) in
the “key” of B major. The two instruments are written a fourth apart,
and this quartal harmony contrasts strongly with the fleeting sixteenthnote
passages in the violins. Again, Ives scores “Columbia” to be heard
through its dynamics, harmony, and relatively slower rhythm. Even
sandwiched between the Brahms and Beethoven quotations, the tune
shines prominently through the texture perhaps highlighting successful
international relations.
In these developmental examples of “Columbia,” Ives’s varied nationalist
impulses can be interpreted from at least three perspectives.
First, patriotic tunes starting with “Columbia” can be used to parody
an event—in this case a heated discussion between four people—with
humor in the midst of a very musically complex section, and “Columbia”
66 Thurmaier
in particular ends up being the melodic catalyst for a sarcastic “conversation.”
Second, the appearance of “Columbia” as the melodic basis for
the contrapuntal sections of the second movement becomes elevated
through Ives’s use of learned procedures and creates a continuity lacking
in its previous iterations. And finally, when “Columbia” is heard in
the midst of the European quotations, it raises the question of whether
we are expected to hear this as referencing the relationship between
American and European musical cultures, a subject of some discussion
in early twentieth-century America. If so, Ives answers with humor and
formal procedures, asserting the value of his European-influenced training
while thumbing his nose at it with his choice of melodic material
that trumpets his national pride.
Climactic “Columbia”
When segments that contain “Columbia” occur at climactic points in a
movement (such as the famous conclusion of the Second Symphony),
we can think of the resulting aural picture as resembling an explosion.
There is often a large buildup, complete with crescendos and broadening
instrumental ranges, and the tune is placed at the center of the surrounding
frenetic activity. These examples feature “Columbia” (often in
combination with additional borrowed material) at a riotous volume,
in the midst of the depiction of a parade or other celebratory event.
To enhance the musical effect of the quotation, Ives almost always includes
it within the formal context of emblematicAmerican music (e.g., a
march or “quick-step”) and uses most of the song (minus the refrain and
sometimes the end of the verse). Yet even when “Columbia” is clearly
audible and heard at the climax, Ives still distorts or fragments the tune
in unique and telling ways as will be articulated. Pieces in this category
include those with overtly nationalist themes like The Fourth of July, “He
Is There!”/“TheyAre There!,” and Overture and March “1776”; other more
abstract pieces that feature “Columbia” at a climax include the finale of
the Second Symphony, and Waltz-Rondo.
In these examples, Ives often sets the climactic statement of “Columbia”
in counterpoint with other tunes or material from earlier in the piece;
doing so not only reinforces salient melodic material from the overall
work, but its clear presentation heightens the importance of “Columbia.”
For instance, in the flag-waving coda of the final movement of the
Second Symphony, “Columbia” is stated emphatically by the trombones
(starting at m. 253), while melodies heard earlier in the piece played by
the woodwinds, trumpets, and violins are woven in simultaneously as
countermelodies.39
Ives likewise achieves this climactic effect in pieces
both with and without overt programmatic implications—in this analysis,
The Fourth of July, a work strongly associated with “Columbia,” and
Waltz-Rondo—lending credence to its role as a compositional strategy.
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 67
By far the most recognizable quotation of “Columbia” from The Fourth
of July, the third movement of the Holidays Symphony for orchestra, comes
at the climax of the piece, the “Quick-step” beginning at m. 99.40
The
preceding measures foreshadow a full statement of the tune in the brass
instruments (principally horns and trombones), but they continually break
off after several measures. Thus it is entirely appropriate that Ives would
set a full and raucous statement of “Columbia” for the denouement of the
work, in light of how nearly the entire movement up to this point consists
of such partial statements and developmental passages of the tune.
Ives strengthens the effect of the climax by his careful attention to detail
with respect to scoring. From mm. 99–113, when the quotation dissolves,
the brass instruments (cornet, trumpets, and trombones primarily) play
nearly a full statement of “Columbia” in a fashion resembling players in
an amateur band during a parade, but the tune is presented even more
carefully than it sounds. Within a nominal overall key of B-flat major
anchored by the low strings and horns, the trumpets and trombones
play the quotation in and out of the key, alternating in major sevenths
and minor ninths suggesting a conflict between B-flat major and B major.
This scheme was conceived early in the sketches for The Fourth as Ives
prescribes specific dynamics for these instruments; in the ink score-sketch
[f0793], he writes: “be sure cornets and any brass playing off key to mark
mp for off notes and ff for on notes.” In other words, the “wrong” notes
that slip into B major were scored at a softer dynamic, whereas the “right”
notes that reiterate B-flat major are scored loudly. Despite Ives’s request
that the “off” notes be placed at a softer dynamic, they are audible and
add to the frenzy created in the “Quick-step” at m. 99. Example 7 shows
an excerpted passage from the sketch [f0793], while example 8 shows
the trumpet and trombone lines from the published score.
Example 7. Ives, The Fourth of July, mm. 99–102 on [f0793] (Source: MSS 14, The
Charles Ives Papers in the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library of Yale University).
68 Thurmaier
In the sketch, the tune appears faintly in pencil with an incorrect B
natural and an errant C sharp andAflat in the following measures.Apart
from being highly amusing aurally, Ives constructs wicked dissonances
with the other parts: as seen in m. 100, the incorrect B natural in the
trumpet pairs with a B flat played fortissimo in the trombones, and the
trombones play an F sharp that clashes with a G and F natural played
concurrently with the trumpets in m. 101. This dialogue seems to be a
takeoff on amateur music making, with its players swept away by the
excitement of the parade and consequently sharping the pitch.
In addition to the unique dynamic relationships presented at the climax,
Ives also draws attention to “Columbia” through its irregular rhythmic
construction. Again, the sketches provide evidence that Ives thought
of stating the tune in a nonperiodic manner, at various points including
different meter signatures throughout this section (e.g., an alternation
between 7/8 and 4/4 on [f793]) that later made their way into the final
score (ex. 9, mm. 103–8).
The resulting jerky presentation of the tune (Ives essentially cuts an
eighth note off the melody in the 7/8 measures) furthers the idea of
amateur band members playing, but it also displays Ives’s modernist
compositional leanings. During this frenetic statement, the rest of the
orchestra is engaged in a mixture of background modernist techniques
(ostinatos, tone-clusters) in addition to playing two related and some-
Trombone
Trumpet in C
Example 8. Ives, The Fourth of July, mm. 99–102 from published score.
Trombone
3
Trumpet in C
3
Example 9. Ives, The Fourth of July, mm. 103–8, published score.
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 69
what audible patriotic tunes, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (high
winds) and “Yankee Doodle” (xylophone), thus enhancing the atmosphere
and engaging with “Columbia,” the primary theme. Ives skillfully
selected patriotic tunes—he also includes “Marching through Georgia,”
“Dixie,” and others—that relate not only topically with “Columbia,” in
their emphasis on national (dis)unity, but also musically, with most tunes
sharing intervallic and melodic profiles.
But it is curious why Ives presents many of these quotations, and especially
“Columbia,” in a distorted fashion, altering their pitch content
and rhythmic characteristics. In general, Ives rarely borrows and states
a tune unadorned, instead molding it to fit into his own original music.
But in this case I contend that the final statement of “Columbia,” with
its fuzziness and eventual dissolution, can also be viewed in two extramusical
ways: first, as a literal depiction of the day’s events, when the
amateur band performs and then fades into the distance or is usurped
by the fireworks; and second, as a reflection on Ives’s national loyalty
at the time. American life was changing during the compositional years
of The Fourth of July (ca. 1914–18), again caught between an idealized
past—exemplified in depicting the innocent events of a “Boy’s Fourth”—
and a more fragmented and hectic modern present and future that now
blurred with remembrances from that earlier time; hence the distorted,
yet very audible “Columbia” at the climax of the “Quick-step.” As such,
Ives blends past and present and shapes this borrowed material to reflect
his new perspective on what it means to celebrate the Fourth of July in
the early twentieth century.
And thus the climax of The Fourth of July works on musical and extramusical
levels: it ties together the fragmentation and development of
“Columbia” that is foreshadowed throughout and pervades most of the
piece, it exposes Ives’s more modernist experiments with rhythm, orchestration,
and melodic construction, and it depicts aurally the authenticity
of a town band performing earnestly in a joyous patriotic celebration
from a time long ago.41
Ives also creates extramusical connotations with his use of “Columbia”
in more abstract pieces devoid of explicit nationalist references.
Waltz-Rondo, written in 1911, is unusual given the scarcity of Ives’s compositions
written in more traditional forms; it is cast in a quasi-rondo
form—an alternation between a repeated refrain and contrasting episodes—with
the refrain’s rhythm apparently suggestive of a waltz, or
at least its style.42
Ives employs “Columbia” to instigate a whirlwind
of quotations at the first of two climactic points: at m. 138, alongside
a mishmash of fiddle tunes (quite difficult to hear individually), and
in the coda of Waltz-Rondo. In the first excerpt it is initially stated in D
major, which correlates with one of the keys of the refrain that alternates
between D major and D-flat major, and at first the tonal center is established
by a pedal point. Example 10 shows the statement of “Columbia”
70 Thurmaier
D
150
8
D [ jaunty]
D
D
3
148
8
3 3 3
3145
142
138
F
D
Allegro molto sempre staccato marcato
5
Example 10. Ives, Waltz-Rondo, mm. 138–50.
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 71
in the left hand of the piano from mm. 138–50. Ives scored “Columbia”
prominently at this point, emphasizing it with octaves in the left hand
and loud dynamics. Moreover, though the tune is once again syncopated
through accents, it emerges as the main theme in this section from mm.
138–50. Yet the process by which the melody is fragmented, altered, and
rhythmically displaced is particularly striking. Example 11 shows the left
hand melody extracted from the score in a single line.
Ives embellishes the melody with chromatic passing tones (e.g., m.
143) and weaves in and out of the “correct” notes. He leaves the final
measures of “Columbia” unfinished and suddenly breaks back to the
rondo refrain at m. 151. Ives accommodates the duple rhythm of “Columbia”
in the triple-meter “waltz” by using syncopation and a slight
displacement. In combination with the series of fiddle tunes heard simultaneously
in the right hand, the sense of triple meter is lost; instead,
Ives emphasizes the tune’s march-like characteristics rhythmically and
thus alters the temporal flow.
After this first climactic statement before the final statement of the
“rondo” theme, “Columbia” appears in several notable places in the
coda, a section laden with references to other styles of music. Ives writes
“Coda or Exam-Digest—or the Higher the Fewer” above the Allegro
vivace tempo marking in the somewhat lengthy section (mm. 159–202),
perhaps as a reference to the extreme density of the section with its
multiple stylistic allusions.43
The section begins with the refrain theme,
but shifts style abruptly as Ives moves toward an emphatic statement
of “Columbia.” Example 12 shows part of this section.
In the measures preceding the example (mm. 180–83) Ives first evokes
romantic piano music gestures, especially if the higher melodic tones
are brought out. Next, the subsequent music (mm. 184–87) moves suddenly
to ragtime, a style alluded to several times earlier in the piece, but
not as explicitly as in this section, here brought out by the numerous
syncopated sixteenth-note figures and dance rhythms. When “Columbia”
enters at m. 188 as shown in example 12, the ragtime style ends, and the
tune is stated emphatically in the left hand again in octaves. Though
the sixteenth notes in the right hand continue, the syncopations allow
3
3
3
3 3
138
143
147
Example 11. Ives, Waltz-Rondo, mm. 138–50.
72 Thurmaier
the melody to emerge out of the texture. From mm. 188–91, Ives prefigures
the first part of “Columbia” in this section by stating it three times—
first in B-flat major, then in C major, before landing in B major where the
first phrase is completed. Once again, as with the embellished and offkilter
version of “Columbia” from earlier in the piece, Ives distorts “Columbia”
rhythmically and fragments the phrase, but he marks it for
3 3 3
3194
2 1 5
3
4 5
3 3
192
3 3 3
190
188
5
186
Example 12. Ives, Waltz-Rondo, mm. 186–95 (arrows denote fragmented entries
of “Columbia”; first in B-flat major, then C major, then B major, then D major).
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 73
recognition by including its recognizable opening fourth. This buildup
of opening fragments culminates in mm. 193–94 when “Columbia” is
presented explosively in D major, the original key of both the piece and
the first statement of the tune heard earlier. Ives shifts the tune to begin
on the downbeat and states the first phrase clearly despite the highly
chromatic accompaniment in the right hand. The piece ends after a humorous
quotation of “Marching through Georgia” and a grandiose and
bombastic I–IV–V–I progression in D major, in a reference once more to
the romantic piano style, as some bitonal melodic gestures answer the
primary triads.
The “Columbia” quotations in Waltz-Rondo represent typical examples
of a tune with explicit national associations used to suggest its own
style—a recognizable patriotic melody complete with its attendant musical
features helps create a separate stylistic type in between other styles.
Waltz-Rondo exemplifies this type of analysis because the various styles—
romantic piano, ragtime, patriotic, modernist, waltz—are clearly defined
and self-contained. Ives employs “Columbia” as the primary source
material at two different climaxes to provide an anchor to the flurry
of activity and to signal patriotic allusions. What makes these sections
particularly powerful is how Ives chose that particular tune to build to
the climax at the end of each section—though distorted—both times in
the home key.
I would assert that the use of “Columbia” in these climactic places
can be interpreted in two ways, which produces a unique paradox: on
one hand, Ives affirms his own exuberant and sincere feelings about
“Columbia” and by extension his patriotism such that even in a work
without nationalist themes like Waltz-Rondo he selected that very familiar
song to represent his sentiments and appear prominently; and yet on the
other hand, the distortion of “Columbia” and its placement within these
other styles suggests that Ives may be, in the words of Lawrence Kramer,
leaving it “sounding at once naïve and defamiliarized.”44
As we have
seen, this paradox recurs throughout pieces containing “Columbia.”
A Fusion of Strategies: The Fourth of July
A prominent example of climatic quotation was identified above in The
Fourth of July, but this piece also exhibits the other compositional strategies
(“Developing,” “Understated”) as well. The fact that Ives wrote this
entire movement based on “Columbia” affirms his commitment to and
interest in this song and its potential meanings. In addition, he skillfully
weaves snippets of other types of music (styles) into the patriotic mix
and in so doing shows how various styles can interact.
As before, Ives uses “Columbia” as the main melodic material that
gets developed, fragmented, and harmonized. The first measures of the
piece illustrate this process, resembling how “Columbia” is used in the
74 Thurmaier
Second String Quartet. While Ives does not subject the tune to a formal
contrapuntal process like a canon, he develops “Columbia” in several
parts and in different keys that lead toward the climax at m. 99. The
opening measures (mm. 1–3) present the violins playing the first part
of “Columbia” very softly in the key of C-sharp major over an F-major
triad held in the lower strings. After a fermata, the bass enters with the
tune in B major, partially stated and rhythmically displaced. The tuba
then continues the tune fragments at m. 8 in the key of C major, again
displaced but still the primary melodic material. The tune is developed
further and subsequent statements are louder, until the climax when
“Columbia” is stated in full.45
The principal difference between the use
of the melody in The Fourth of July and the Second String Quartet is that
in the initial statements of The Fourth of July, “Columbia” is dimmed by
music that harbors modernist features. This textural complexity exhibits
a superimposition of styles, analogous to the mixture of borrowed music
that appears at this place. So while “Columbia” and its patriotic musical
characteristics eventually emerge, the music is initially obscured and
seems to operate in at least two different temporal levels.46
This musical
conflict might represent the “quiet of the midnight before” that “grows
more raucous with the sun,” described in the accompanying program;
“Columbia” cuts through the texture more prominently and becomes less
distorted as the celebration moves into full swing. It may also illuminate
typical Ivesian ambiguity and conflict regarding his patriotic messages
in his music in general cited throughout this essay.
In addition to the powerful climatic statement of “Columbia” as well
as its developmental use, Ives fragments the tune in several places in a
string of quotations that chatter on the musical surface in an understated
way. As in “Lincoln, the Great Commoner,” this particular use of the
borrowed tunes points to a specific message about national loyalty. As
Jennifer Iverson explains, “Ives selected tune fragments carefully and
purposefully, usually adding additional fragments that enhanced or nuanced
the programmatic narrative already at work in the piece. . . . For
Ives, the structural connections between quoted tunes were important,
but perhaps even more so were the thematic associations.”47
In a section of The Fourth of July from mm. 18–55 (entrance of percussion
and tempo change), Ives borrows several favorite patriotic tunes,
such as “Marching through Georgia,” “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,”
“The Battle Cry of Freedom” as well as a fanfare (“Assembly”) and a
popular reel (“Fisher’s Hornpipe”) all between statements of “Columbia.”
Though not always quiet in volume, the borrowed tunes largely
interact within a more modernist style, once again producing multiple
temporal levels; on one level, Ives presents the quotations, often zipping
in and out of the texture, while on another level, he couches these
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 75
quotations in a dissonant, freely harmonic framework that produces a
sense of discontinuity.
The Fourth of July contains more complex structures than the other
works analyzed in this article, largely as a result of the density and superimposition
of other styles that challenge the audibility of the nationalist
tunes; yet even here Ives has carefully chosen recognizable tune
fragments to signify a patriotic style. In this case, “Columbia” fragments
dart in and out of the music suggesting a nostalgic vision of a patriotic
moment of the past that is understated and developed toward a completion
fulfilled at the climax when the “annual explosion sets the Town
Hall on fire.”
Meanings behind Patriotic Quotation,
and a Patriotic Topic
Ives’s patriotic borrowings reflect his own multifaceted view of national
allegiance—humorous, nostalgic, and reverent; he also expressed his beliefs
in his writings and translated them into music. For instance, he was
a passionate believer in “Direct Democracy,” also called “Initiative and
Referendum,” a system where decisions of national importance would
be voted on directly by the people instead of elected officials. As Judith
Tick details, interest in this form of government took place during a time
in American history (ca. 1890–1919) when experiments in government
were rampant.48
Ives wrote impassioned essays and music in support
of this system (e.g., the essay and song “The Majority”), which suggests
that he had great faith in the wisdom of the populace as a whole
to make decisions. While this idea garnered some support at various
times throughout the twentieth century, some scholars have interpreted
Ives’s interest in direct democracy and politics in general as naïve, sentimental,
and nostalgic.49
And analogous sentiments also marked Ives’s
views and outlook on American nationalism. In his writings, he tended
to emphasize optimism and the wisdom of the people, in addition to
national unity.50
Though Ives’s beliefs were challenged by America’s
involvement in World War I in particular, its rise in nationalism and
subsequent actions, these general tenets held for all of his life and were
expressed through his writings and music.51
Ives’s egalitarian approach toward life and music is illustrated by the
wide diversity of quotations and styles found in his music, including
patriotic tunes. As I have asserted, Ives references American patriotism
more or less explicitly through borrowing these tunes, subjecting them
to a variety of musical techniques and including them in all genres.
Whereas scholars have identified and labeled the tunes, and in some
cases even explained how they are incorporated into Ives’s music, these
76 Thurmaier
borrowings have not been treated as a separate musical style. The case
of “Columbia” and its myriad compositional uses laid out in this article
alone would argue for the identification of such a “patriotic style.”
Building upon the work set out by Burkholder that explores and ascribes
the idea of topics (or styles) to Ives’s music, I propose that any list
of topics used to describe the stylistic heterogeneity in Ives’s music—such
as late nineteenth-century popular or parlor song, ragtime, hymn, and
modernist, to name a few—should be broadened to include a patriotic
topic.52
For a composer to translate patriotism into music, he or she could
base a work on national topics, include representative and distinctive
instruments (e.g., a fife and drum), and, in the case of Ives and others,
take tunes with explicit national associations and weave them into the
fabric of an original composition. Ives was certainly not the first to use
this technique inAmerican music, but he made use of it most frequently.53
When these tunes are marked for audibility, hold some expressive meaning,
and are identified and recognized by the listener as patriotic, they
can be understood as topics, similar to those Ratner identified as “subjects
for musical discourse”; the topics in Ives’s music would resemble
what Ratner calls “styles,” defined as “figures and progressions within
a piece.”54
The identification of a patriotic topic (or style) fits three criteria required
for a topical designation in Ives’s music as defined by Burkholder:
first, there must be a “coherent segment of music . . . marked off from its
surroundings by a number of distinctive elements, which may include
melody, rhythm, harmony, counterpoint, texture, dissonance level, pitch
collection, or any other parameters of style”; second, that particular segment
“embodies or resembles a type of music that listeners are likely to
recognize—a type of music that is familiar to the intended audience for
the piece”; and third, “we should be able to find evidence for it in a wide
range of his compositions.”55
I would add a fourth criterion: segments
set in a patriotic musical style should have extramusical associations
that can be gleaned from them. Many such borrowings naturally occur
in pieces about America or related topics (e.g., famous figures, American
wars), and American undertones can also be detected even in those
works that do not have clear patriotic content.
For Ives, devotion to country was a very serious subject—Broyles
even asserts that “Democracy and patriotism were at the core of [Ives’s]
work”—and as someone who was arguably prone to a patriotism that—
in Broyles’s words—was “naïve, sentimental, and nostalgic” at times,
Ives selected and borrowed patriotic tunes to evoke a certain feeling or
image that reflected his beliefs.56
Moreover, the frequency with which he
borrowed these songs strongly suggests that any analysis of his music
must account for the musical characteristics and features found in works
that contain them. If one merely identifies musical segments as represen-
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 77
tatives of the “patriotic” or “modernist” or any other topic, this results in
labeling without a consideration of how that music functions or affects
the overall musical structure of a piece. Thus my analyses highlight sections
that contain this style (in this case, excerpts using “Columbia”) and
consider their place within the context of what comes before and after
them.57
Apatriotic topic or style would complement the numerous other styles
found in Ives’s music. The levels to which he borrowed “Columbia” as
well as how he used it compositionally through the three strategies identified
in this article illustrate how a particular genre of song was used
for musical and extramusical purposes. A patriotic style can thus be a
useful way to categorize certain musical characteristics and extramusical
expressions. By quoting association-rich tunes such as “Columbia, the
Gem of the Ocean” in varied, inventive, and even democratic ways, Ives
evokes the “mystic chords of memory” that bring together Americans
of all backgrounds into, as Ives would say, “a people’s world nation.”
NOTES
1. “He Is There!” served the same function for World War I. The three takes are captured
on the album Ives Plays Ives: The Complete Recordings of Charles Ives at the Piano, 1933–1943,
New World Records, 2006.
2. “Patriotism” is defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “love for or devotion to
one’s country.”
3. In “He Is There!” the music is paired with the text “That boy has sailed o’er the ocean,”
clearly related to the title of “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean.”
4. Ives also wrote an essay called “A People’s World Nation” in which he proclaims the
need for majoritarian rule by the “people” and a noninterventionist foreign policy, among
other things. Ives had an unusual faith in the wisdom of the people. See Charles Ives, “A
People’s World Nation” in Essays Before a Sonata, The Majority, and Other Writings by Charles
Ives, ed. Howard Boatwright (New York: W. W. Norton, 1962), 225–31.
5. Larry Starr, A Union of Diversities: Style in the Music of Charles Ives (New York: Schirmer
Books, 1992), 3. My view of stylistic analysis is influenced by Starr, who coined the term
“stylistic heterogeneity” and defines “style” as “the range of expectation that operates within
the musical language of a piece” (8; emphasis in original). For another perspective on “stylistic
heterogeneity” and its implications for analysts and listeners, see Lloyd Whitesell,
“Reckless Form, Uncertain Audiences: American Music 12 (1994): 304–19. A more recent
related article on the subject is J. Peter Burkholder, “Stylistic Heterogeneity and Topics in
the Music of Charles Ives,” Journal of Musicological Research 31 (2012): 166–99.
6. Clayton W. Henderson, The Charles Ives Tunebook, 2nd ed. (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 2008), 98–99.
7. C. A. Browne, The Story of Our National Ballads (New York: Crowell Company Publishers,
1931), 114–21. Four different editions of “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean” (1843,
1844, 1846, and 1862) are digitized and appear on the Library of Congress website: http://
lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200000004/default.html
8. The Library of Congress website suggests a connection between the song and the
“Columbia Rediviva.” More information can be found at the Massachusetts Historical Site
webpage, http://www.masshist.org/gallery/america-at-sea (accessed January 23, 2014).
78 Thurmaier
Interestingly, another ship called “Columbia” also sailed around the world from 1838 to
1840, right before the song was written; its journey is documented in Fitch Waterman
Taylor, The Flag-Ship, or A Voyage Around the World in the United States Frigate “Columbia”
(New York: Appleton, 1840).
9. Browne, Story of Our National Ballads, 118. The controversy boils down to this: Shaw,
a noted singer from Philadelphia, wrote some patriotic verses in the hopes of creating a
song that would be a crowd-pleaser for his performances and asked the English-born
musician and actor à Becket to set them to music. À Becket thought Shaw’s lyrics were
“so deficient in measure as to be totally unfit for adaptation to music,” so he wrote three
verses and the melody himself under the condition that Shaw not sell or perform the work,
and publish it under both their names. Shaw ignored à Becket’s request, and published
the work under his own name, with the credits “written, composed, and sung by David
T. Shaw, and arranged by T. à Becket, Esq.” Making matters worse, à Becket was then accused
of plagiarizing the words and tune of “Britannia, the Pride of the Ocean” by British
journalist Stephen Meany; in response, à Becket claimed that the lyrics of “Britannia” were
plagiarized from his own song.
10. James J. Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk, 5th ed.
(New York: Dover Publications, 2000), 176–77.
11. Ace Collins, Songs Sung Red, White, and Blue: The Stories behind America’s Best-Loved
Patriotic Songs (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2003), 73.
12. Ibid., 74. There is a humorous story about “Columbia” related to Abraham Lincoln
that shows the ubiquity of the song: On October 17, 1962, promoter P. T. Barnum brought a
three-foot-tall entertainer named Commodore Nutt (George Washington Morrison Nutt) to
the White House. At the end of the evening, Nutt amused the president, cabinet members,
and assorted guests with a rousing version of “Columbia.” See Margaret Leech, Reveille in
Washington, 1860–1865 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1941), 201.
13. Charles Ives, Memos, ed. John Kirkpatrick (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
1972), 52, 83.
14. Page [f0782] of the sketches for The Fourth of July shows a wealth of experimentation
with quartal and quintal harmonies, and “Columbia” is written in multiple ways on the
same page. The numbering of the sketch pages (e.g., [f0726]) refers to the frame numbers
in the master microfilm, in accordance with the listing in James B. Sinclair’s A Descriptive
Catalogue of the Music of Charles Ives (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999), and
the numbers from the revised edition of John Kirkpatrick’s A Temporary Mimeographed
Catalogue of the Music Manuscripts and Related Materials of Charles Edward Ives 1874–1954
(New Haven, CT: Library of the Yale School of Music, 1960; reprint, 1973). For more, see
David Thurmaier, “Time and Compositional Process in Charles Ives’s Holidays Symphony”
(PhD diss., Indiana University, 2006).
15. Henderson erroneously identifies “Columbia” in the second movement of the Piano
Trio (“TSIAJ”) on p. 99 of The Charles Ives Tunebook—it is actually the tune “Few Days,”
noted on p. 150—but he leaves it off the list of full quotations for the Piano Trio on pp.
284–85. Therefore, I have not included “TSIAJ” in my list.
16. See the preface to Overture and March “1776” by James B. Sinclair (Merion Music,
1976) for complete information.
17. For the most comprehensive history and analysis of these pieces and their interrelations,
see Thomas Brodhead, “Ives’s Celestial Railroad and His Fourth Symphony,”
American Music 12 (1994): 389–424.
18. For example, someone familiar with classical music would recognize the quotations
from Beethoven in Ives’s music, but they may be lost on one without that background.
Similarly, the numerous hymn tunes in his music hold significance to those familiar with
religious music and the particular hymns, but might just sound like “church music” to
others.
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 79
19. As Burkholder states, “A topic is a convention of musical discourse, and as such is
easily perceived by those familiar with the convention, however they might describe it.”
Burkholder, “Stylistic Heterogeneity,” 176 n. 26.
20. The history of this song is quite complicated, but on a sketch page Ives stated that the
voice-and-piano version was derived from the “score for full orchestra.” For more on the
song’s background, see Sinclair, Descriptive Catalogue, 307 and 404, and the notes in H. Wiley
Hitchcock’s edition of the 129 Songs: Charles Ives, 129 Songs, ed. H. Wiley Hitchcock, Music
of the United States of America 12 (Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2004), 160–63.
21. Ives found Markham’s poem in a collection entitled Golden Numbers: A Book of Verse
for Youth, “chosen and classified by” Kate Douglas Wiggin and NoraArchibald Smith (New
York: Doubleday, Page and Company, 1902), 319–20.
22. Burkholder, All Made of Tunes: Charles Ives and the Uses of Musical Borrowing (New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995), 312.
23. The original piano-and-vocal score of “Lincoln” from Ives’s 114 Songs has no measure
numbers; however, H. Wiley Hitchcock’s edition of the 129 Songs and the orchestral
version do have measure numbers and are used in this analysis.
24. Ives omitted the following lines: “Forevermore he burned to do his deed/With the
fine gesture and stroke of a King.”
25. After Lincoln’s assassination, he became a national symbol of unity and it is conceivable
that given the influence of George Ives and living in the generation after the Civil
War, Ives would have viewed him as such. See John Bodnar, Remaking America: Public
Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1992), 210, and Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American
Slavery (New York: W. W. Norton, 2011), 333.
26. As Henry Cowell put it, “Ives . . . uses musical reminiscence as a kind of stream-ofconsciousness
device that brings up old tunes with their burden of nostalgic emotion.”
See Henry and Sidney Cowell, Charles Ives and His Music (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1955), 147.
27. Some writings by musicologists that address Ives and nostalgia include Leon Botstein,
who examines aesthetic connections between Ives and Mahler in “Innovation and
Nostalgia: Ives, Mahler, and the Origins of Modernism” in Charles Ives and His World,
ed. J. Peter Burkholder (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 35–74; Michael
Broyles, who critically assesses Ives’s political beliefs and asserts that Ives constructed a
mythological past in “Charles Ives and the American Democratic Tradition,” in Charles
Ives and His World, ed. Burkholder, 118–60; Stuart Feder, whose controversial biography
Charles Ives: My Father’s Song: A Psychoanalytic Biography (New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press, 1992) frames Ives’s career as fulfilling the desires of his father and working within a
constructed past; James Hepokoski, “Temps Perdu,” The Musical Times 135 (1994): 746–51,
which posits that Ives’s use of quotation attempts to recall a “lost time” of childhood innocence
that cannot be realized; David Metzer, “‘We Boys’: Childhood in the Works of
Charles Ives,” 19th-Century Music 21 (1997): 77–95, which examines Ives’s quotations in
pieces about childhood linked to American traditions. American historians focusing on
Ives’s “innovative nostalgia,” a state of being progressive in music yet backward-looking
in subject matter include Peter Conn, The Divided Mind: Ideology and Imagination in America,
1898–1917 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), and Robert Crunden, Ministers
of Reform: The Progressives’ Achievement in American Civilization (Champaign: University of
Illinois Press, 1984).
28. Broyles, “Charles Ives and the American Democratic Tradition,” 119.
29. Metzer, Quotation and Cultural Meaning in Twentieth-Century Music (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003), 10.
30. For a full definition of the “Learned” style, see Leonard Ratner, Classic Music: Expression,
Form, Style (New York: Schirmer, 1980), 23–24.
80 Thurmaier
31. Found on the manuscript, quoted in Sinclair, Descriptive Catalogue, 143.
32. Burkholder, All Made of Tunes, 348–49.
33. As an example, when this section was played and discussed in a previous conference
paper (Society for American Music, Chicago, 2006), it elicited hearty laughter from
the audience.
34. Notably the original published key of “Columbia.”
35. The allusions to “Columbia” are there, even though Ives did not always present the
full tune in its original state. This is a common occurrence as noted by Alan Houtchens
and Janis P. Stout in their article “‘Scarce Heard Amidst the Guns Below’: Intertextuality
and Meaning in Charles Ives’s War Songs,” Journal of Musicology 15, no. 1 (1997): 75 n. 30.
36. H. Wiley Hitchcock, Ives (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), 62.
37. It is not unusual for Ives to mix tonality and atonality in pieces or even in shorter
sections.
38. Burkholder, All Made of Tunes, 349.
39. For an excellent analysis of this section, see ibid., 102–36.
40. Wayne Shirley details the development of this section from its initial draft (what
he calls “The Second of July”) into The Fourth of July, with particular focus on the “Quickstep.”
See Wayne D. Shirley, “‘The Second of July’: A Charles Ives Draft Considered as an
Independent Work,” in ACelebration of American Music: Words and Music in Honor of H. Wiley
Hitchcock, ed. Richard Crawford, R. Allen Lott, and Carol J. Oja (Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press, 1990), 391–404.
41. Ives describes this patriotic celebration in his accompanying program, which depict
the experience of a “Boy’s Fourth”—the holiday seen from the eyes of a child. In the notes,
which may have been written after the piece itself and went through numerous revisions,
Ives presents a list of what he intended to portray in the piece, as well as some digs at adults
(“country politicians”) who confuse patriotism with jingoism, but concludes cryptically
by writing that “all this is not in the music—not now!”
42. Ives writes the piece in triple meter, but to my ears it does not particularly sound
like a waltz due to syncopations that deemphasize the initial downbeat, traditionally the
defining rhythmic feature of a waltz.
43. Burkholder calls this piece (or at least the sections with borrowed material) a quodlibet
in All Made of Tunes, 375–76.
44. Lawrence Kramer, Music and Poetry: The Nineteenth Century and After (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1984), 178.
45. This is an example of what Burkholder calls “cumulative form.” For a definition and
examples of cumulative form see chapter 5 of All Made of Tunes.
46. For an excellent description of this section and the temporal issues encountered in
recognizing and hearing “Columbia” in The Fourth of July, see Jennifer Iverson, “Creating
Space: Perception and Structure in Charles Ives’s Collages,” Music Theory Online 17, no.
2 (July 2011), http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.11.17.2/mto.11.17.2.iverson.html, accessed
September 3, 2013.
47. Ibid.
48. Judith Tick, “Charles Ives and the Politics of Direct Democracy,” in Ives Studies, ed. J.
Phillip Lambert (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 133–62. Tick captures this
belief nicely by stating that “He [Ives] fused his Emersonian optimism with the ideology
of direct democracy into what I have come to call ‘transcendental majoritarianism” (135).
49. The interpretation of Ives’s political beliefs is an enormous topic with strong views
on both sides. For example, Frank Rossiter writes that “Ives’s political and social thought
was rather naïve for a man of his discernment. . . . Ives was certainly sincere in his idealistic
liberalism. . . . What makes it difficult to take his views entirely seriously today is
the obvious gap between his professed altruism and the actual system of capitalism and
national power to which he gave practical support by his life as a middle-class business-
Charles Ives and Patriotic Quotation 81
man.” See Rossiter, Charles Ives and His America (New York: Liveright, 1975), particularly
chap. 5, “The Political and Social Thinker” (pp. 126–44). Also see Broyles, “Charles Ives
and the Democratic Tradition,” which paints Ives’s political beliefs as conservative, largely
unrealistic, and hopelessly idealistic. On the other hand, in addition to Tick, scholars such
as Carol Baron and Antony Cooke suggest that Ives’s political views articulate a particular
period in American history: Baron, “Efforts on Behalf of Democracy by Charles Ives and
His Family: Their Religious Contexts,” Musical Quarterly 87 (2004): 6–43; Cooke, Charles
Ives and His Road to the Stars (North Charleston, SC: Estrella Books, 2012). Gayle Sherwood
Magee stakes out a middle ground, by pointing out how in pieces like the Concord Sonata
Ives “conjures his own idealized America, a pre–Civil War history based on the world view
of the rural or small-town, protestant Transcendentalism,” but also notes Ives’s “crucial
engagement with the present. See Gayle Sherwood Magee, Charles Ives Reconsidered (Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 2008), 132–33.
50. Some examples include the essay “A People’s World Nation” cited earlier, “The
Majority” (by which he means “you!—the Majority—the People”); “Stand by the President
and the People,” written during World War I and featuring proclamations like “This is a
war for democracy. It must be fought by democracy. It can only be won by democracy”
and “It is about time the people had something to say about war, about peace, and about
property,” and “Concerning a Twentieth Amendment,” Ives’s proposal for Direct Democracy.
These and other pertinent writings appear in Ives, Essays Before a Sonata.
51. For some interesting thoughts about how World War I affected Ives, see David C.
Mauk, “New England Transcendentalism versus Virulent Nationalism: The Evolution of
Charles Ives’s Patriotic March Music,” American Studies in Scandinavia 31 (1999): 24–33,
and Rossiter, Charles Ives and His America, 127–33.
52. Burkholder, “Stylistic Heterogeneity.”
53. In the late nineteenth century American composers often took patriotic songs as
the basis for a theme and variations or other showpiece. Examples include Louis Moreau
Gottschalk’s The Union, Dudley Buck’s Festival Overture on the Star-Spangled Banner, and
of course Ives’s own Variations on “America,” his first major composition.
54. Ratner, Classic Music, 9.
55. Burkholder, “Stylistic Heterogeneity,” 176.
56. Broyles, “Charles Ives and the American Democratic Tradition,” 118.
57. This approach is summed up in a quote from Kofi Agawu: “It is the dialectical interplay
between manifest surface and structural background that should guide the analysis.”
See V. Kofi Agawu, Playing with Signs: A Semiotic Interpretation of Classic Music (Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991), 25.