25
The Concord Sonata,* in Ives’s own words, was this:
A group of four pieces, called a Sonata for want of a more exact
name, as the form, perhaps substance, does not justify it … The
whole is an attempt to present (one person’s) impression of the
spirit of transcendentalism that is associated in the minds of many
with Concord, Mass., of over half a century ago. This is
undertaken in impressionistic pictures of Emerson and Thoreau, a
sketch of the Alcotts, and a scherzo* supposed to reflect lighter
quality which is often found in the fantastic side of Hawthorne.
55
Scholars agree that Emerson was the primary inspiration for the Sonata. Ives had not
only studied Emerson at Yale; he also wrote a paper about him.
56
Ives was not
necessarily a transcendentalist; rather, Ives used transcendentalism as a jumping off place
for his own ideas in organizing his pieces. He worked on the “Emerson” section of the
Sonata for the better part of ten years. It is more than a coincidence as well that Ives’s
Essays Before a Sonata was written in the same form, the essay, that Emerson made
famous. To Ives, Emerson was a prophet, a mountain guide, and explorer.
57
Emerson
* A “sonata” is a well-recognized classical form, usually comprised of three sections, including an
exposition of the theme, the development of the theme, and a recapitulation. Sonata could actually refer to
a shorter piece, or be used to describe larger structures, such as a symphony, concerto or string quartet.
Here, Ives acknowledged he was using the term very loosely.
* The scherzo was usually the second or third movement of a sonata or symphony, with usually a
more playful character.
55. Ives, Essays, preface page. Also, on the poster that announced John Kirkpatrick’s groundbreaking
recital of the Concord Sonata on January 20, 1939, it described the four movements as follows, using
quotations from the composer’s Essays: Emerson (“a composite picture or impression”); Hawthorne (an
“extended fragment reflecting some of his wilder, fantastical adventures into the half-childlike, half-fairy
like phantasmal realms”); the Alcotts (“a sketch”) and Thoreau (“an autumn day of Indian summer at
Walden”). Magee, Ives Reconsidered, 167.
56. Botstein, “Innovation and Nostalgia,” 57.
57. Charles Ives, Essays, 1920, 11-12.