Cat Chow Coupons December 09

"The Unanswered Question" by Charles Ives (inquiring with the orchestra)

Unanswered Question by Charles Ives.

One of my favorite pieces in American classical music is The Unanswered Question of Charles Ives. Sometimes referred to as a "cosmic drama" or "cosmic landscape", the piece is divided into three levels. These, in turn, represent three different voices that form a short but profound philosophical dialogue. As a first layer, Ives design a calm melody for strings, with no major disturbances or abrupt musical. They represent a constant and stable platform, also not affected by the other two voices. The meditative state of the strings is the silence of the Druids (who do not know, neither see nor hear anything.) The second narrative or interrogative force is represented by a trumpet (though not necessarily, Ives notes that could be used to turn an English horn, an oboe or clarinet). The trumpet that involved seven times and each one raises the perennial question of existence, the eternal quest for enlightenment (the very essence of existence). The third voice is played by the winds, who for six interventions are rushing to answer the complex question of the trumpet. The winds, which are struggling to respond, they represent our human responses, and the futility of finding a rational answer to this philosophical and mysterious question. In their interventions, increasingly dissonant and hurry, the wind trying enconcontrar an answer but fails to achieve a sentence, passage, or a satisfactory range.

Seven times he asks and answers six times, leaving the last question unanswered thus creating a kind of silence and impotence (in frustration) when answering the eternal question of existence . In the end, the winds are silent and desist to articulate any alternative. The strings continue unchanged his pretty little tonal progression and so the question is left unanswered whatsoever.

There is a text with collage composed by Ives himself, who according to David Jaffe goes well with the piece,

Yearning for the impossible

Credo quia impossibile.

Pure ... sorrow is as impossible as pure ... joy.

The replacement of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie is impossible without violent revolution.

I am the Prophet of the totally absurd,

the Visible Impossible and Vain.

still bent to build a port without knowing where,

still erect into a false impossible shore.

How many times have I told

that when you have eliminated the impossible,

whatever remains, however improbable enough,

be the truth?