Charles Ives is
recognised as a father to just about every category of modern
American music, but you wouldn’t guess it from his String
Quartet No.1. The work’s original subtitle, ‘From the
Salvation Army’ sums up the musical source for much of the
material in the piece. Composed in Ives’ sophomore year at Yale,
the composer used revival and gospel hymns such as Beulah
Land and ‘Stand up, stand up for Jesus’, paraphrasing
them in order to break up their four-square melodic structures.
While it is easy to dismiss this as a youthful folly, analysis
shows highly technical treatment of this superficially negligible
material, introducing it (among other things) to cyclic form
– the using and trans-formatting of similar material throughout
the piece to create thematic unity. The fugue which forms the
first movement had its origins as an organ fugue composed at
Yale, and it crops up yet again in the third movement of the
Fourth Symphony – recycling a go-go!
The programme on
this CD has a brief intermezzo in the shape of Ives’ Scherzo,
which also quotes from hymns such as ‘Bringing in the Sheaves’
and ‘Massa’s in de Cold, Cold Ground.’
Another piece of wild whimsy, there are Ivesean fingerprints
such as canonic treatment of themes and the occasional musical
joke, and ending in a ‘raucous’ dissonant final chord.
String Quartet
No.2 brings us into far more complex realms, many of the
quotations being clipped and condensed, rendering them as good
as unrecognisable. Theme-spotters can have fun seeking out moments
from Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky, as well as the occasional
folksy tune, but the inner intensity of the work renders the
eclectic nature of Ives’ ear secondary to the fascinating sense
of flow and exploration which is in constant flux. The final
movement, ‘The Call of the Mountains’ opens with searching
and atmospheric, atonal chords and passages, and ends with a
jaw-dropping section with block-like, almost aleatoric notes
over a descending ostinato scale in the cello.
It has been pointed
out that Ives’ music lives very much on the edge, constantly
running the risk of sounding amateurish and just plain awful
unless the commitment of the players is absolute. This is particularly
true of the 1st Quartet, and if Ives had not gone
on to create the work he did this would be one oddity no doubt
long forgotten. One thing I can guarantee you about this recording
is that there is no question as to the passion and genuine feel
the Blair Quartet put into this music. They are entirely convincing
and very well recorded, making this a valuable addition to the
catalogue. The only alternative I could find is the Lydian Quartet
on the Centaur label, the Emerson Quartet on DG apparently having
been dropped from the listings. With the timing at only just
over 50 minutes we might have hoped for another wee filler,
but in any case we have the inevitable bargain bonus of Naxos
pricing, so collectors really need look no further.
Dominy Clements
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for reviews of other releases in this series, see
the American
Classics page
Blair String Quartet
