I took the subway all over, went to a Mozart concert at Lincoln Center, saw young alumni friends, went to visit a friend at West Point for a day, experienced the adventure of parallel parking-multiple times-in Manhattan, and even slept for a few hours. On days I did not make any intentional research visits, I was exploring NYC. It has been rumored that the current owners will raze the house to make room for their dream house, which would come as quite a blow to the Ives Society (which matched the private buyers’ offer when the house was on the market). The grounds were impeccably green, surrounded by a beautiful fence of thick trees with a barn on the right side of the property. This was the last home where he retired, and it was recently sold to private buyers. My final destination on the trip was Ives’s summer home in West Redding, CT. Rows of chimney foundations in Putnam Memorial State Park, Redding, CT

There are other bits of misinformation in these journal entries, but I am excited to keep them as a memento of my early experiences. I do not, however, think that the index could have added to or taken away from the powerful experiences I had.

There are also some factual errors (such as my erroneous understanding of “Poverty Flat”–it was, indeed, three different addresses during Ives’s residency) that would have been avoided. – Several months ago (unfortunately, after my trip took place), I found a detailed index of Ives’s Addresses in James Sinclair’s essential “A Descriptive Catalogue of the Music of Charles Ives.” This list of addresses would have drastically improved the specificity in my approach to the various Ives sites. My feelings for Copland underwent negative correlations in both time spent researching his music and time spent listening to Ives. – The Copland portion of the thesis was eliminated entirely. Scherzo: Over the Pavements, inspired by the bustling streets of NYC circa 1900 “The Alcotts” movement from his Concord Sonata, inspired by the Orchard House, Concord, MAĤ. The Housatonic at Stockbridge (song and orchestral versions), inspired by… you guessed it: The Housatonic River at Stockbridge, MAģ. The Pond / “Remembrance”, inspired by Pine Mountain, Danbury, CTĢ. These sites and their compositions are:ġ. – The current thesis (almost to the editing stage at this point) is an exploration of the musical methods by which Ives represents the substance and manner of four physical sites. At the conclusion of my meeting in August with Ives expert Peter Burkholder, he said something I initially doubted : “You’re going to want to take this trip again, after your paper is written.” WOW, was he right. After rereading this journal, I am amazed by the degree to which my thesis-wrestling has shifted my perspective on this trip. Many weeks of thesis research have passed since my last entry.

Aaron copland at the river pdf