Matthew Masiello

12/05/16
Music History IV
Writing Assignment IV

In 1908 Charles Ives (1874 - 1954) composed Two

Contemplations. This work contained two pieces, Central Park in the

Dark, and The Unanswered Question. The latter piece, The

Unanswered Question, did not premier until 1946. It remained one of

Ives most obscure pieces up until the later half of his life.

Ives composition was composed as homage to the ultimate

question: What is the meaning of life and everything? When hearing

the piece I am reminded of the painting Where Do We Come From?

What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897) by Paul Gauguin. These

existential questions have been infused in all human history. Beliefs

like Deism, Idealism, Christianity, and Hinduism look to a divine world

that transcends ours. Other beliefs are more rooted in what is

objectively measurable. Some of these, Atheism, Materialism, and

Realism, look toward an empirical world that removes any faith from

their belief.

In his pieces Ives attempts to represent this question and the

human attempt to answer it. He himself does not provide an answer,

but asks the question nonetheless.

Ives represents three concepts within The Unanswered Question.

The concept of the question itself is represented by a trumpet or in

some versions the English horn. The question is depicted with the

following notes: Bb, C#, E, Eb, C. This phrase is played a total of seven

times throughout the whole work. The melody has no tonic center and

creates for the listener a sense of familiarity and even dread. Ives uses

this melody to show the utter absurdity of the question.

The next concept Ives attempts to musically elaborate are the

answers to the question. Ives writes that a small wind choir of four

flutes is assigned the role of the answerers. Two of the Flute parts may

be exchanged with clarinet, and/or oboe. Six out of seven times the

question is asked the wind choir responds with each of their answers in

unison. The melodies in the wind choir clash and create very stark

dissonances. Ives does this to not just represent idea of clashing notes,

but to also demonstrate how different philosophies have clashed and

become discordant in seeking the answer. One example would be

science and religion. It is thought that these two concepts are mutually

exclusive from each other and are always in conflict as if they

contradict each other. Ives uses dissonance to represent this conflict of

ideas.

Each time the wind choir tries to answer the question they are

then greeted again by the question. Meaning, they did not give a

satisfactory answer. Eventually they become agitated and mock the

question itself. This occurs the second to last time Ives asks the

question. The tempo marked here is molto agitando and the wind choir
plays diminution of the question at a much faster speed to represent

the agitation in hopeless attempts at answering. This is also the final

time they give an answer at all.

The last concept Ives represents is the silence of the druids. A

druid is a priest or a soothsayer. The silence is not represented by

literal silence but by the strings that start and end the piece. Ives

achieves his desired silence through marking the part triple Piano and

has the string con sordino. Perhaps muting the strings not only

represents silence but also the idea of quiet contemplation. Ives also

separates the druids from the question and answers by having the

strings play at a different tempo than the rest of the ensemble. In the

beginning the strings are marked Largo molto sempre, meaning always

very slow. The rest of the ensemble play at varies tempos throughout.

In the score this has the visual of effect of the measure not lining up.

This is symbolic of the druids disinterest in answering the question.

Finally, after six attempts at answering the trumpet asks the

question a final time, representing the idea that the question is still

unanswered and maybe even unanswerable. Ives finishes the piece

with the strings representing the unending silence of the druids, who

stay silent into eternity. This composition is representative in a shift in

the composers role from only a composer. Ives begins asking much

larger questions and even takes the role of the philosopher.