November

 

  1898 Date on manuscript: song Flag Song
  1903 Date on manuscript: The Light That Is Felt arranged as a song
  1907 Date on manuscript: Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano, mvt. ii, ink copy, "1902, Nov. 1907"
  1911 Date on manuscript: song Requiem—"118 Waverly Place [NYC] ... Nov. 1911"
  1914 Globe Theater orchestra (New York City) reads Washington’s Birthday [mvt. i of "Holidays
Symphony"]
  1920 choral An Election begun
  1925 Ives harmonizes Edith Ives’s song Christmas Carol
  1978 First recording: songs Allegro, Ilmenau, My Native Land [I], Nature’s Way, On the Counter, 
  A Song–For Anything, Songs my mother taught me, Spring Song, To Edith, Waltz, The World’s 
  Highway, and The World’s Wanderers (Walter Carringer [T] and Will Crutchfield [pf]; issued in 1979
by Brewster Records)
Nov 1 1962 First recording: songs The Cage and Soliloquy (Jean Lunn [S] and Lawrence Smith [pf]), at the
Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, Penn.
Nov 2 1929 Birth of conductor (and composer) Harold Farberman at New York City. Farberman conducted for the
first recording of Largo: The Indians (mvt. i of Set No. 2), The Pond (with voice), chamber ens The
  Rainbow, Tone Roads Nos. 1 & 3, Largo cantabile: Hymn (mvt. i of A Set of Three Short Pieces),
and cantata The Celestial Country.
  1942 Premiere: song The Last Reader (Doris Doe [Mezz] and Hellmut Baerwald [pf]), at Town Hall, New
York City
  1969 First recording: songs Canon [I], Down East, and The New River (Helen Boatwright [S] and John
Kirkpatrick [pf]; issued in 1974 by Columbia Records)
Nov 4 1894 Death of George Edward Ives (father), age 49, at Danbury, Conn. Biographers Henry and Sidney Cowell
said that Charles Ives, in essence, wrote his father’s music. Thus all of Ives’s music memorializes his
father, but particularly so Decoration Day [mvt. ii of "Holidays Symphony"] and song Remembrance
Immediately after his father’s death, Ives found solice in the writings of Thoreau and wrote two pieces 
about that author ("Thoreau", mvt. iv of Sonata No. 2 for Piano: Concord, Mass. and song Thoreau).
Nov 5 1912 Date on manuscript: song Vote for Names! Names! Names! ("Election Day")
  1966 First recording: song The Circus Band (Lois White [Mez] and Linda Jaffarian [pf]), at Sprague Memorial
Hall, New Haven, Conn.
  1967 First recording: Symphony No. 1 (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, cond. by Morton Gould; issued in 
1966 by RCA Victor)
Nov 6 1854 Birth of John Philip Sousa at Washington, DC. Ives borrowed material from three Sousa marches: 
Liberty Bell March (Three Places in New England/ii) 
Semper Fideles March (Three Places in New England/ii; "Country Band" March)
Washington Post March (Symphony No. 4/ii; Central Park in the Dark)
Nov 8 1896 Date on manuscript: ink copy of song Frühlingslied
  1991 Death of pianist and Ives cataloguer and editor John Kirkpatrick at Ithaca, NY. After his premiering in
1938 of Sonata No. 2 for Piano: Concord, Mass. Kirkpatrick became the leading figure in Ives
scholarship during the 20th century.
Nov 10 1879 Birth of poet Vachel Lindsay at Springfield, Mass. Ives used a Linday poem for song General Booth 
  Enters into Heaven.
  1953 First publication: Ten Songs, New York: Peer International
Nov 11 1909 Ives hears Max Fiedler conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Reger, Brahms, and R. Strauss, at 
Carnegie Hall, New York City
    Veteran’s Day (annual): songs Tom Sails Away, In Flanders Fields, He Is There!, They Are There!
Nov 12 1946 Premiere: song Feldeinsamkeit/In Summer Fields (Maralin Dice [S] and Pauline Wenger [pf]), at 
University of California, Los Angeles, Calif.
Nov 13 1850 Birth of British poet Robert Louis Stevenson at Edinburgh, Scotland. Ives used a Stevenson poem for 
song Requiem.
  1854 Birth of composer and teacher George Chadwick at Lowell, Mass. Chadwick visited one of Ives’s music 
classes at Yale (taught by Horatio Parker, 30 Mar 1898) and admired Ives’s song Feldeinsamkeit 
above all other performed that day.
  1907 Harmony Twichell to Ives: "our Spring Song is a good one" (for which she wrote the lyrics).
  1933 Premiere: song Grantchester (Mary Bell [S] and Mabel Schneider [pf]), at New School, New York 
City
Nov 14 1900 Birth of pianist and critic (and composer) Aaron Copland at Brooklyn, NY. Copland accompanied the 
premiere of seven songs (1 May 1932) selected by him and subsequently published together: Charlie 
  Rutlage, Evening, The Indians, Maple Leaves, The See’r, Serenity, and Walking, and an additional 
song in a later performance (1 Oct 1933) Where the eagle cannot see.
  1905 Premiere: lost Ragtime Dance tried at Globe Theatre; the piece became part of Sonata No. 3 for Violin 
  and Piano, mvt. ii.
Nov 16 1953 First publication: orchestral The Gong on the Hook and Ladder, in New Music
Nov 17 1916 Birth of soprano Helen Boatwright at Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Boatwright sang for the first recording of 
songs Abide with me, Autumn, Berceuse, Canon, Disclosure, Down East, Feldeinsamkeit, He Is 
  There!, In Flanders Fields, The "Incantation", Luck and Work, Maple Leaves, The New River
  No More (premiere also), Old Home Day, On Judges’ Walk (premiere also), The One Way, Peaks
  Pictures (premiere also), A Sea Dirge (premiere also), The Sea of Sleep, The See’r, Slow March
  Swimmers, Tarrant Moss, There is a certain garden (premiere also), Tom Sails Away, Walking
  Where the eagle cannot see, The White Gulls, Widmung, and Yellow Leaves (premiere also), and 
the premiere (only) of songs Kären, The Light That Is Felt, Sunrise, and Wiegenlied.
  1936 Premiere: song At Sea (John Baumgartner [B-Bar] and John Kirkpatrick [pf]), at Steinway Concert Hall, 
New York City
Nov 18 1969 First recording: songs The "Incantation", Luck and Work, No More, Old Home Day, On Judges’ 
  Walk, The One Way, Peaks, Pictures, A Sea Dirge, The Sea of Sleep, Slow March, There is a 
  certain garden, and Widmung (Helen Boatwright [S] and John Kirkpatrick [pf]; issued in 1974 by 
Columbia Records)
  1977 Premiere: band Runaway Horse on Main Street (Yale University Band, cond. by Keith Brion), in the 
realization by James B. Sinclair, at Woolsey Hall, New Haven, Conn.
Nov 20 1889 Birth of astronomer Edwin Hubble at Mansfield, Missouri. In 1922–24, Hubble proved that a vast array 
of galaxies exist beyond our own and, in 1929, proved that the universe was expanding rapidly. Ives’s 
  Universe Symphony contemplates the universe as Newton understood it and goes on to contemplate 
the universe as described by Hubble.
  1897 Yale defeats Princeton football team 6–0 at Yale Field (New Haven, Conn.) inspiring Yale-Princeton 
  Football Game
Nov 21 1961 First recording: Decoration Day [mvt. ii of "Holidays Symphony"] (The Louisville Orchestra, cond. by 
Robert Whitney; issued in 1962 by The Louisville Orchestra)
  1966 Premiere: piano Study No. 8 ( Bruce H. Eberle), Sprague Memorial Hall, Yale University, New Haven, 
Conn.
Nov 22 1925 Birth of conductor and Ives arranger Gunther Schuller at New York City. Schuller has edited or 
arranged Sets No. 1–3, Chromâtimelôdtune, The General Slocum, and Yale-Princeton Football 
  Game, and conducted for the first recording of Chromâtimelôdtune, The General Slocum
  Yale-Princeton Football Game, and Scherzo: All the Way Around and Back. His performing 
version of Symphony No. 4 is widely used.
Nov 23 1950 Birth of Ives' webmaster (unofficial entry - just checking to see if you're paying attention)
Nov 24 1897 Date on manuscript: organ Prelude for Thanksgiving Service and Postlude for Thanksgiving Service 
at Center Church; both developed into Thanksgiving (mvt. iv of "Holidays Symphony").
  1908 Date on manuscript: chamber ens Adagio cantabile: The Innate [mvt. iii of A Set of Three Short 
  Pieces], "Saranac Lake, N.Y."
Nov 27 1902 John C. Griggs sings song Autumn at "Poverty Flat" (New York City)
  1928 Premiere: Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano (Dorothy Minty [vn] and Marjorie Gear [pf]), at the 
Rudolph Schaeffer Studios, San Francisco, Calif.
Nov 28 1909 Date on manuscript: Orchestral Set No. 2, mvt. i, score (date on p. 1)
  1914 Date on manuscript: The Alcotts [mvt. iii of Sonata No. 2 for Piano: Concord, Mass.] "ended . . . from 
some themes for an Orchard House Overture, Aug. 1904—but for a page!"
  1922 Premiere: songs A Night Thought and "The Old Mother" [Du alte Mutter/My dear old mother
(George F. Madden [Bar] and Maurice Lafarge [pf]), at Town Hall, New York City
  1938 Premiere: Sonata No. 2 for Piano: Concord, Mass. (John Kirkpatrick [pf]), at The Old House, Cos 
Cob, Conn. (Paul Rosenfeld’s review in Modern Music: "the most intense musical experience by an 
American"); two months later Kirkpatrick gave the first New York performance (20 Jan 1939) at 
Town Hall.
Nov 29 1799 Birth of writer and philosopher Bronson Alcott at Wolcott, Conn. Ives memorialized the Alcott family in 
"The Alcotts" (mvt. iii of Sonata No. 2 for Piano: Concord, Mass.).
  1882 Danbury Evening News reports that a concert at the Methodist Church fills the hall—everybody cited 
approvingly—George Ives’s cornet solo encored—his ladies’ band played—all girls, but with "Master 
Charlie Ives, bass drum." Ives later scored memorably for the bass drum in Hallowe’en and 
  Chromâtimelôdtune.
  1970 Premiere: The General Slocum and Yale-Princeton Football Game [Schuller realizations] (American 
Symphony Orchestra, cond. by Gunther Schuller), at Carnegie Hall, New York City
Nov 30 1905 Date on manuscript: "Poverty Flat" (New York City) residents criticize the "Country Band" March