Charles Ives
The Unanswered Question

Charles Ives (1874-1954), American citizen, profession: insurer, "Hobby": Music. The story of Charles Ives' music is quite unique, in that his merits were recognized only in his later years, after he had already finished his "creative season". Understanding why his music was underestimated until at least the '40s (he wrote his music between the early 1900s and 1925, the year of his last composition) is not difficult: Charles Ives was terribly ahead of his time.

And the document, the striking evidence that attests his precocity in the history of music is precisely this "unanswered question," a composition of about seven minutes, initially composed in 1906 for string quartet, trumpet, and four flutes, then rewritten with few changes for a larger orchestra in the mid-'30s. The fact that such a conceptually experimental composition, bold in its unresolved structure, expansive, harmonically "imperfect" and dissonant, was made in 1906 would already be enough to place Charles Ives in the pantheon of the greatest experimenters alongside people like John Cage and Stockhausen. But what is the explosive and thrilling conceptuality of this piece? In the words of the author: "the strings—still, pianissimo—represent the silence of the Druids, who know nothing, see nothing, and hear nothing, the trumpet that intones the eternal question of Existence, the woodwinds that try, like all men, to give conflicting answers. The instruments, in fact, build onomatopoeic sounds that manage to be both music and a spoken concept. The trumpet poses a question with phrasing that truly seems like a person's voice (yet the notes are not disconnected but possess an almost "sacred harmony" within them).

I call it philosophical music: it is about the eternal question of the reason for existence that Charles Ives wanted to brilliantly transpose into music, succeeding perfectly. At the time he wrote it, the challenges were many, especially because no one wanted to play his scores, considered bizarre and truly ugly. Certainly, the American composer could never have imagined receiving widespread acclaim much later, when he was already living in his old age, including the prestigious recognition of the Pulitzer Prize, won in 1947. Listening to "the unanswered question" in light of its philosophy evokes truly unique sensations, one perceives the atmosphere of the eternal waiting of the strings, the emotional tension of the quest for truth becomes unsettling, as it too does not resolve into a finale but always remains suspended among the bizarre responses of the woodwinds, with extremes yet brief but incisive polyphonies. I feel compelled to say that it is the first truly avant-garde work (and especially explicitly) in the modern sense of the term, and a precursor of all that 20th-century trend that would depart from the tonal tradition of central European music (but I think the strongest detachment concerns not only the harmonies but also the structures of the pieces).

Within the eternal unanswered question are the seeds of minimalism, Ligeti's polyrhythmic flows, Stravinsky's breaking of rhythm. I may be overly enthusiastic, but I see the beginning of it all here. And I felt the need to say it because, unlike other experimenters of the 20th century like Schoenberg, Webern, Glass, Cage... who are at least known by name, the fame of Charles Ives is often left in the shadows.