The common assumption that Ives's use of borrowed material is primarily programmatic is not valid. Ives himself differentiated between "mannered" quotation, or the use of "local musical sources merely for surface effect," and the creation of meaning, substance, and compositional structure in a work through various types of quotation, paraphrase, and motivic and structural development related to borrowed material. The juxtaposition of sacred hymns with ragtime in the second and fourth movements of Ives's First Piano Sonata provides an example. Ives used both the formal and melodic organization of three hymns, I Hear Thy Welcome Voice, Bringing in the Sheaves, and Happy Day, as a basis for the ragtime movements. The simultaneous use of both sacred and secular music may be a result of Ives's Transcendentalist philosophy, which prompted him to draw on the entire range of music he knew. But Ives also selected his sources for quotation according to the motivic relationships present in the borrowed material. For example, the hymn tune Missionary Chant plays an important role in the Second Piano Sonata ("Concord") because of its melodic similarity to the opening motive from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. In The Fourth of July, Ives uses the patriotic song The Red, White, and Blue throughout, a procedure that is comparable to the chorale preludes of J. S. Bach.

Works: Ives: Piano Sonata No. 1 (46-53), Orchestral Set No. 2 (46), Piano Sonata No. 2, "Concord, Mass., 1840-60" (54), The Fourth of July (54-56).

Sources: Ives: Set of Four Ragtime Pieces (46); Hartsough: "I Hear Thy Welcome Voice" (46-47, 49-50); Minor: "Bringing in the Sheaves" (46, 48, 50-53); Rimbault: "Happy Day" (46, 49-53); Zeuner: "Missionary Chant" (54); David T. Shaw: "The Red, White and Blue" (55-56); William Steffe?: "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" (55-56).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Will Sadler