Despite the complex personal and professional relationship between Elliott Carter and Charles Ives—especially Carter’s frequent disparaging of his mentor’s use of musical borrowing—Carter borrows from Ives’s music on several occasions. Carter stylistically borrows from Ives in works such as the song View of the Capitol from the Library of Congress, which shares textural and programmatic similarities with Ives’s Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut. In other pieces (including his First String Quartet), Carter borrows motivic material from Ives’s music. When discussing this borrowing, Carter distances himself from Ives in describing the purpose of the borrowing as “homage,” distinct from the conspicuous borrowing of Ives. Upon analysis, however, Carter’s borrowing technique in the quartet is far more structural and sophisticated than he admits. In Figment No. 2, which is dedicated to Ives, Carter pays tribute to the life and music of Ives through both stylistic and motivic borrowing of Ives’s Concord Sonata and Hallowe’en. Figment contains many Ivesian stylistic elements, including a hymn section and general humorous tone. A more direct reference to Ives comes in the final section of Figment, where Carter quotes what he calls the “walking theme” ostinato from the Thoreau movement of the Concord Sonata. Although Carter asserts a preference for originality in his writings, his use of borrowing reveals a deep familiarity with Ives’s compositional technique and an indebtedness to the music of the past that complicates his musical aesthetic.

Works: Elliott Carter: View of the Capitol from the Library of Congress from A Mirror on Which to Dwell (103-5), String Quartet No. 1 (105-10), Statement—Remembering Aaron (111), Figment No. 2 (111-20)

Sources: Charles Ives: Putnam’s Camp, Redding, Connecticut from Three Places in New England (103-5), Violin Sonata No. 1 (105-10), Piano Sonata No. 2: Concord Mass., 1840-1860 (111-14, 117-20), Hallowe’en (111-17); Conlon Nancarrow: Rhythm Study No. 1 (105); Aaron Copland: Ukulele Serenade (111), Statement (111)

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Matthew Van Vleet