Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Not much has been published on Ives since the brief flurry around his 1974 centennial, so this is a welcome addition to Ives scholarship. Burkholder considers the hitherto unexplored premise that Ives's Essays Before a Sonata represents the sifted views of a mature man, rather than tenets held since youth. Thus, most of Ives's earlier compositions cannot be intepreted in its light. With this in mind, Burkholder attempts to trace Ives's aesthetic evolution since boyhood, identifying influences. Clear thinking is reflected in lucid, graceful, economical prose, and buttressed by enlightening notes. Whether one agrees with his conclusions or not, the author's reasoning cannot be ignored. Recommended for music libraries, and for appropriate general libraries as additional Ives material. Philippa Kiraly, Cleveland (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

The first of two projected volumes on Ives and his music, this one is devoted to the philosophical/literary background; the second promises to trace the evolution of the music. Burkholder very plausibly explains some of the many puzzlements surrounding our most distinctive composer, beginning with the argument that Ives's thinking as reflected in the Essays Before a Sonata (1961) cannot be applied to all of his music, as it often is. There is clear evidence that Ives drew distinctions between cultivated and vernacular music and, further, that differences can be drawn between his ``literary'' pieces and his experimental music. In the first four chapters, the author lays the groundwork for his thesis by examining the Essays in relation to the composer's philosophical background, including transcendentalism. Ives's musical career is traced in the next four chapters through six periods under the influence, respectively, of his father, of Horatio Parker whose significance is viewed quite positively here, and, Burkholder convinces us, of his wife. In the final two chapters retrospective evidence of transcendentalism and the writings after the Essays are evaluated. Copious endnotes attest to the thorough scholarship; a selective bibliography and index are further appended. Burkholder has not only set a high standard to reach in his second volume but he gives us the beginnings of a biography that could set a new level of attainment in the study of Ives's career. His effort can be highly recommended for all music collections in both public and academic libraries.-R. Stahura, Ripon College

Kirkus Book Review

A musicological analysis of the thoughts and essays of Charles Ives, the quintessential American composer of serious music. Burkholder doesn't disguise his high regard for Ives' compositions. In fact, this is the first of two books he is doing on Ives--a companion volume will explore Ives' musical methods. So what we may be looking at here is Charles Ives' Robert Craft. Heaven knows, Ives needs one. He is not an easy composer to make sense of. To start with, he is the only major composer whose compositions came to light in reverse chronological order. Then, his music has, up until now, been viewed through the lens of his own writings--his Essays Before a Sonata, for instance, which accompanied his famous ""Concord"" Sonata. But Burkholder adds to public understanding here, and will, hopefully, in the future bring even more of Ives' methods and aims to light. This is necessary, as it seems to be the norm that modern composers require more musicological treatment than those of the past. As Thomas Wolfe satirizes modern artists in The Painted Word as dependent upon the explanation more than on the experience, so, too, with the modern composer. Burkholder's biggest coup is in demonstrating that the common perception of Ives as a Transcendental composer is incomplete. The author argues cogently that Ives was never strictly a Transcendentalist, that his most important ideas emanated from outside the Transcendental tradition, and that Ives' passion for Emerson and Thoreau was of late origin. Burkholder's love of Ives is sure to bring us more important expositions in the future, as he leads us through Ives' rare blend of the cultivated and the vernacular. In sum, a good start on that path to musical enlightenment. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.