Ives's "114 [+ 15] Songs" and What He Thought of Them

Abstract

This essay reflects work toward a critical edition of 129 Ives songs (all those in whose publication he was directly involved)-mainly 114 Songs (1922) and the New Music issues of Thirty-Four Songs (1933) and Nineteen Songs (1935). It explores his value judgments of them, and also of 50 Songs (1923), containing unaltered reprints from 114. 114 Songs is eclectic and inclusive, a retrospective exhibition of various song types, including ones drastically foreign to conventional notions of a song. In 50 Songs, Ives responded to adverse reactions to 114 Songs and sought to reprint songs of "more general interest." For the New Music collections, he revised many songs, especially those initially arranged from pre-114 chamber-ensemble works. To the latter he typically restored material from the "parent pieces," increasing the songs' dissonance (not, however, to falsify their modernity). He also reprinted conservative songs, as well as adding nine previously unpublished ones, and in both collections chose the songs' order carefully.