February | Charles Ives Society

	1897	First publication: A Song of Mory’s, in Yale Courant (Feb, Fourth Week)
	1968	First recording: Aedeste Fideles in an Organ Prelude (Richard Ellsasser; issued in 1968 by Nonesuch)
	1991	First recording: song Premonitions (Nicholas Isherwood [B] and Eric Watson [pf]; issued in 1991 by Accord)
Feb 1	1942	Premiere: song A Christmas Carol (Fern Sayre [S] and Clare Bruns [pf], with Elise Moennig [fl]), at Los Angeles, Calif.
	1952	First publication: choral Turn Ye, Turn Ye, New York: Mercury Music
		National Freedom Day (annual): Ives pieces that quote George F. Root’s Civil War song ‘The Battle Cry of Freedom’ include: Decoration Day, Fourth of July, Three Places in New England/i&ii, "Country Band" March, Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano/ii, Three Quarter-Tone Pieces/ii, and songs In Flanders Fields,They Are There!, and The Things Our Fathers Loved.
Feb 5	1876	Birth of brother Joseph Moss Ives II, at Danbury, Conn.
	1919	Diary: "C[harlie] finishes Thoreau [chapter of Essays Before a Sonata]" (the literary preface to Sonata No. 2 for Piano: Concord, Mass.)
	1965	First recording: song Cradle Song (Margaret Speaks [S] and Collins Smith [pf]; at the Alma Gluck Concert Hall [244 East 52nd Street], New York City, sponsored by the Turtle Bay Music School
	1972	Premiere: band Fantasia (Variations) on "Jerusalem the Golden" (James Caldwell High School Band, cond. by Keith Brion), in the arr. by Keith Brion, at West Caldwell, New Jersey
Feb 6	1933	Premiere: songs Afterglow, Ann Street, Like a Sick Eagle (Judith Litante [S] and Henry Brant [pf]), in a concert at Steinway Hall, New York City
Feb 7	1965	Premiere: songs Luck and Work, Duty (Wesley Flinn [Bar] and Jo Boatright [pf]), at Temple Emmanu-El, Dallas, Texas
Feb 8	1889	Premiere: song At Parting (N. A. Seely, vocalist), at Brewster, NY
	1925	Premiere: 2-piano "Chorale" from Three Quarter-Tone Pieces (Hans Barth and Sigmund Klein [pf]; E. Robert Schmitz, lecturer), at Chickering Hall, New York City
	1965	Premiere: A Set of Three Short Pieces [mvts: Largo cantabile: Hymn, Scherzo: Holding Your Own, Adagio cantabile: The Innate] (student chamber ensemble) and piano Waltz-Rondo (Jerrold Cox), in Crouse Auditorium, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Feb 10	1921	Ives hears Stravinsky’s Firebird suite at Carnegie Hall, New York City
	1950	Premiere: song A Night Song (Paul Ukena [Bar] and Jack Cox [pf]), at the Juilliard School of Music, New York City
Feb 11	1967	Premiere: Orchestral Set No. 2 (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, cond. by Morton Gould), in a "Popular Concert" in Orchestra Hall, Chicago, Illinois
	1970	Premiere: chamber ens In Re Con Moto et al. (by members of the Performers’ Committee for Twentieth-Century Music [Cheryl Seltzer, Peter Perrin, and Joel Sachs directors]), at McMillin Theatre, Columbia University, New York City
Feb 12	1809	Birth of Abraham Lincoln on a farm in Kentucky. Ives memorialized Lincoln in the choral or song Lincoln, the Great Commoner.
	1903	Date on manuscript: Practice for String Quartet in Holding Your Own! "dedicated to [violinist/violist] Gustave Bach"
Feb 14	1838	Birth of composer David Wallis Reeves at Owego, NY. Ives used Reeves’s ‘Second Regiment Connecticut National Guard March’ in his orchestra or violin & piano Decoration Day and in Holiday Quickstep.
	1925	Premiere: 2-piano "Largo" and "Allegro" from Three Quarter-Tone Pieces (Hans Barth and Sigmund Klein [pf]), at Aeolian Hall, New York City
	1942	First recording: Sonata No. 4 for Violin and Piano (Joseph Szigeti [vn] and Andor Foldes [pf]; issued in 1942 by New Music Recordings)
	1948	Premiere: Orchestral Set No. 1 [1935 version] (Boston Symphony Orchestra, cond. by Richard Burgin), at Symphony Hall, Boston, Mass.
		Valentine’s Day (annual): songs Because of You, Because Thou Art, Canon, Dreams, Friendship, In My Beloved’s Eyes, My Lou Jennine, An Old Flame, Weil’ auf mir/Eyes so dark
Feb 15	1934	Premiere: song Premonitions (Rudolphine Radil [S] and Dora Blaney [pf]), at the University of California, San Francisco, Calif.
	1935	Premiere: songs At the River, The Children’s Hour, Immortality, and Mists [II] (Jella Braun-Fernwald ["Gesang"; no further identification] and Ernst Bachrich [pf]) at Saal des Wissenschaftlichen Clubs Wien, Vienna, Austria
	1967	First recording: Orchestral Set No. 2 (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Chorus, cond. by Morton Gould; issued in 1967 by RCA Victor)
Feb 16	1902	Premiere: lost choral Anthem: Religion at Central Presbyterian Church, New York City (developed into song Religion)
	1930	Private premiere: Nicolas Slonimsky conducts Three Places in New England (Orchestral Set No. 1) for I.S.C.M. American Committee, New York City
	1932	Premiere: Set for Theatre Orchestra, complete (Pan American Chamber Orchestra, cond. by Adolph Weiss), at New School Auditorium, New York City
	1975	Premiere: March No. 6 for Piano, with "Here’s to Good Old Yale" and piano Invention in D (Alan Mandel), in Carnegie Recital Hall, New York City
Feb 17	1892	Ives plays "Variations on a National Hymn" [Variations on "America"] at Brewster, NY
	1937	First publication: Washington’s Birthday [mvt. i of "Holiday Symphony"] in New Music, Orch. Series
	1949	Premiere: Sonata No. 1 for Piano (William Masselos [pf]), at Kauffman Hall, Y.M.H.A., New York City
	1975	First recording: band March in F and C, with "Omega Lambda Chi" (The Incredible Columbia All-Star Band, cond. by Gunther Schuller; issued in 1975 by Columbia Records)
Feb 20	1919	Diary: "Emerson, Alcotts & Thoreau all finished . . . 3 mvts" (refering to the completion of Sonata No. 2 for Piano: Concord, Mass.
Feb 21	1889	Premiere: choral I Think of Thee, My God, at Brewster, NY
	1932	Premiere: The Fourth of July [mvt. iii of "Holidays Symphony"] (members of Orchestre Symphonique de Paris, cond. by Nicolas Slonimsky), at Salle Pleyel, Paris, France
	1947	Premiere: song Slugging a Vampire (Jane Beard [Mez] and Florence Kunz [pf]), at Times Hall, New York City
	1982	First recording: Orchestral Set No. 3, mvt. i (The Pacific Symphony Orchestra, cond. by Keith Clark; issued in 1983 by Andante Records)
Feb 22	1930	Birth of soprano Marni Nixon at Altadena, Calif. Nixon sang for the first recording of the song Soliloquy (8 July 1967).
	1951	Premiere: Symphony No. 2 (New York Philharmonic, cond. by Leonard Bernstein), at Carnegie Hall, New York City; Anton Rovinsky plays The Celestial Railroad in performance broadcast over station WNYC, New York City.
	1956	Premiere: Calcium Light Night [arr. Cowell; mvt. v of Set No. 1] (by a student instr ens, cond. by Keith Wilson); songs No More, A Sea Dirge, There is a certain garden, and Yellow Leaves (Helen Boatwright [S] and John Kirkpatrick [pf]), in Sprague Memorial Hall, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
Feb 23	1930	Hans Barth (pf) plays mvt. i ("Largo") of the 2-piano Three Quarter-Tone Pieces at Carnegie Hall, New York City
Feb 24	1939	Premiere: songs Autumn, Berceuse, Down East, The Side Show, and Two Little Flowers (Mina Hager (Mez) and John Kirkpatrick [pf]), in an all-Ives program at Town Hall, New York City
Feb 25	1976	Premiere: Four Ragtime Dances, No. 3 (Chamber Orchestra of New England, cond. by James Sinclair), in Sprague Memorial Hall, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
	1990	First recording: Four Ragtime Dances (Orchestra New England, cond. by James Sinclair; issued in 1990 by Koch International)
Feb 26	1975	First recording: The Boys in Blue (The Whiffenpoofs of 1975; issued in 1975 by The Whiffenpoofs)
	1990	First recording: Orchestral Set No. 1: Three Places in New England [1930 version as premiered by Nicolas Slonimsky] (Orchestra New England, cond. by James Sinclair; issued in 1990 by Koch International)
Feb 27	1807	Birth of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at Portland, Maine. Ives used Longfellow texts in the choral Serenade and the song The Children’s Hour.
Feb 28	1924	Premiere: song The Greatest Man (George S. Madden [Bar] and Josef Furginele [pf]), at Town Hall, New York City