The 2nd movement of Charles Ives’ Violin Sonata No. 4 is one of my favourite pieces from his oeuvre. It evokes a kind of nostalgia and memory of a time long gone, the memory of childhood.
I first came across it while watching the amazing documentary “Charles Ives: The Eternal Maverick”. Since then, Charles Ives has become one of my favourite composers of all time.
What makes him shine is well summarised by American writer, Stephen Budiansky.
Stephen Budiansky
His great artistic innovation was to use music to evoke musical memory itself and the emotional experience of musical memory and its associations in time and place.
Ives does this by making use of tunes from Christian hymns (many of which I was brought up on) and popular American songs and incorporating them into his music. This use of this vernacular material in his music so liberally, sets him apart from most other composers.
The sonata, titled “Children’s Day at Camp Meeting” is meant to depict children at the Christian camp meeting, which were common in America during Ives childhood. This movement of the sonata is a hauntingly beautiful setting of the refrain of the children’s song “Jesus Loves Me”, one of my favourites as a child.
A key motif derived from the melody is highlighted in green.
Largo
The piece begins pianissimo with the piano hinting at the first phrase of the hymn — and with a rather ambiguous tonal centre.
The melody played is in C Major, yet the harmony defies analysis, with a G# in the base and D#, F and G on top. The harmony then moves some quintal chords spanning 5 perfect fifths, followed by a beautiful arpeggiated Dm⁹ chord (one of Ravel’s favourite chords), which creates a very impressionistic sound. Furthermore, notice that the music has no written no key signature and no barlines, which further contributes to the dreamy feeling. The level of dissonance used is also just right, it never feels out of place or too harsh. As Robert Carl, one of the composers featured in the documentary said,
Robert Carl
[Ives] had a great genius for finding the sweet spot between things that are traditionally tonal and things that are highly chromatic. And where it doesn’t feel like it’s just cobbled together or pastiche.
After playing a variation of the first bar of the hymn, a motif is introduced over a diatonic tone cluster spanning an octave from F4 to F5, and is subsequently imitated a tritone lower. This motif (highlighted in green, along with its imitation) appears to be derived from the end of the hymn’s 1st phrase. We call this the stone motif, as that is what the motif will go onto represent later on in the piece.
Following the piano opening, the violin then enters, playing some gorgeous double stops (though they don’t sound that way in the MIDI ☹️).
Subsequently, the opening notes of the melody (highlighted in red), now in E major, form the basis of a new theme, played in the violin, accompanied by some very odd arpeggios. Some other motifs that are used later are highlighted as well.
After this, a variation of the original hymn returns in the violin in D major. Ives uses the same pitches but places them in different octaves, creating a very different melodic contour, spanning almost 2 octaves.
Ives also once again, harmonises the hymn in a very unconventional way, alternating between Gmin11/C and the subdominant, G major.
After another interlude, we enter the final section of the Largo. The music is finally given a time signature and the violin plays a new melody cantabile (in a singing style), which will later be counter-pointed to the full hymn.
This melody begins with the same few notes as piece’s opening, highlighted in red above and other thematic material (highlighted in blue and orange) that were introduced earlier. There’s also a strong focus on the subdominant, with the harmony alternating between the tonic (E major) and the subdominant (A major). I have seen this highlighted as a key characteristic of American folk music though I’m not sure what is the source of that claim.
The piano accompaniment also makes heavy use of polyrhythms, perhaps representing the rustling of leaves in trees, the ripples in the water — which in real life never follow the rhythm of the music.
This section closes with a return of quintal harmony being played in the piano, with the same notes as the open strings of the violin but transposed an octave lower.
Allegro (conslugarocko)
Now, we enter a turbulent section built mainly from the stone motif (highlighted in green). It has an unusual tempo marking, defined by Ives below.
Charles Ives
But as usual, even in the quiet services, some of the deacon enthusiasts would get up to sing, roar, pray and shout, which would give the boys a chance to run out and throw stones down on the rocks in the brook! (Allegro conslugarocko!)
All small segment of this piano-only movement is shown below.
Andante con spirito
As the storm and stress of the previous section ends, we are presented with a variation of the melody mentioned previously in D major. Ives takes advantage of the open strings of the violin, playing them pizzicato at the end of each phrase.
Less obvious however, is a slight variation of the full hymn being played on the piano, perhaps obscured by the extended harmonies being played. We also see the return of the same quintal chords built on the subdominant from the introduction (highlighted in purple). Interestingly, they consist of the same notes that form the open strings of the violin (which are played pizzicato).
In the left hand, a constant descending sequence of notes are played (unfortunately played far too loud in the MIDI), which after playing the green motif which previously featured so prominently, alternates between Ds and Gs — further emphasising the role of the subdominant in this piece. The left hand also maintains a subdominant pedal in the bass, with the low G at the end of each descending sequence.
Adagio cantabile
As we enter the next section of the piece, full hymn is finally stated by the piano in A major.
It is accompanied by the previously mentioned counter-melody in the violin and rippling pianissimo arpeggios on the left hand, with the harmony alternating between the tonic and subdominant. With the full hymn being played by the piano (and in the upper-register!), it almost feels as if the mist has cleared over a shimmering lake, allowing the sun to shine through.
This is also an example of something that scholars have called “cumulative form” in Ives’ music, where fragments, little bits and pieces of the theme, are first presented. These fragments slowly come together, eventually culminating in the full theme near the end of the piece.
Largo cantabile
Now, the counter-melody and melody switch places. The violin plays the hymn while the piano plays a similar counter-melody. There’s also a sudden modulation to E major with adds to the freshness of the restatement.
The counterpoint between the melodies here is also stunning, especially the 2 high notes played by the piano at the end of the 2nd bar. They almost feel like an echo, before they beautifully merge into the descending sequence of notes in the counter-melody.
The piece then closes with a quiet plagal cadence in the upper register of the piano. As Ives writes in his Memos,
Charles Ives
At the end of the slow movement, sometimes a distant Amen would be heard — the violin holding the last E, and the piano playing the high A and middle C# again pppp, then letting the upper A come down to G# and the lower C# to B. But this Amen is a very much ad libitum matter, and may not be wanted except on a few occasions (or when the spirit moves!) — seldom if ever by the Methodists or the Baptists, (Yes, by the Congregationalists and Episcopalians) — when they were leading the meeting!