Of those "tunes of long ago," Ives sings to us: "I know not what are the words, but they sing in my soul of the things our Fathers loved"

I think there must be a place in the soul
all made of tunes, of tunes of long ago.
I hear the organ on the Main Street corner,
Aunt Sarah humming Gospels; summer evenings,
the village cornet band playing in the square.
The town’s Red, White and Blue,
all Red, White and Blue.
Now! Hear the songs!
I know not what are the words,
but they sing in my soul of the things our Fathers loved.

-- text by the composer

Donald Gramm, bass-baritone; Donald Hassard, piano. From their Town Hall recital of Feb. 24, 1976

Jan DeGaetani, mezzo-soprano; Gilbert Kalish, piano. Nonesuch, released 1976

Gerald Finley, bass-baritone; Julius Drake, piano. Hyperion, recorded in All Saints Church (Durham Road), East Finley, London, Nov. 10-12, 2004

by Ken

The idea this week is to finish up with our Ives detour, and to that end we start out with a song, actually a very special song, "The Things Our Fathers Loved," in three really lovely performances. (I had a not-so-lovely one I was going to throw out, but who needs that kind of tsuris on a hot summer day?)


WE'VE STILL GOT ONE MORE IVES SONG NOW . . .

And still more to come when we continue, like maybe tomorrow? What's more, with tomorrow one of the compositionally celebrated Ives "New England holidays," I thought we might take another shot at getting through the four-holiday Holidays Symphony.

But first, our second song --

IVES: "Memories: A, Very Pleasant; B, Rather Sad" (1897)

A, Very Pleasant (As fast as it will go)
We’re sitting in the opera house, the opera house, the opera house;
we’re waiting for the curtain to arise
with wonders for our eyes;
we’re feeling pretty gay,
and well we may.
“O, Jimmy, look!” I say,
“The band is tuning up
and soon will start to play.”
We whistle and we hum,
beat time with the drum.
[Whistles.]
We whistle and we hum,
beat time with the drum.
[Whistles.]
We’re sitting in the opera house, the opera house, the opera house;
we’re waiting for the curtain to arise
with wonders for our eyes,
a feeling of expectancy,
a certain kind of ecstasy, a certain kind of ecstasy . . .
Sh-s-s-s.
Curtain!
B, Rather Sad (Adagio)
From the street a strain on my ear doth fall,
a tune as threadbare as that “old red shawl.”
It is tattered, it is torn,
it shows signs of being worn,
it’s the tune my Uncle hummed from early morn.
‘Twas a common little thing and kind-a sweet,
but 'twas sad and seemed to slow up both his feet.
I can see him shuffling down
to the barn or to the town, a-hum-[drawn out]-ming.

-- text by the composer

["B" at 0:35] Jan DeGaetani, mezzo-soprano; Gilbert Kalish, piano. Nonesuch, published 1976

["B" at 0:44] Gerald Finley, bass-baritone; Julius Drake, piano. Hyperion, recorded in All Saints Church (Durham Road), East Finley, London, Nov. 10-12, 2004

["B" at 0:48] Jerry Hadley, tenor; Eric Dalheim, piano. Live performance from the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), Nov. 14, 2000

You'll notice we've got three distinctly different performances here. Jan DeGaetani takes the "as fast as it will go" instruction for the "Very Pleasant" song as literally as I can imagine a singer doing it, and even with all the repetitions we might not get the words if we didn't have them conveniently laid out for us. Gerald Finley takes a more moderate approach to the "A" section, and Jerry Hadley, in his live recital performance, really "plays" the "A" section for his audience -- and why not?


TO BE CONTINUED (soon, I hope!)

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