Identifier
etd-11112011-102243
Degree
Master of Music (MM)
Department
Music
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
Throughout his career, Charles Ives composed eight songs on texts that in some manner concern the yearly seasons. Unexamined by scholars to any depth, and never heretofore considered as a group, these pieces have typically been treated in tandem with Ives’s other songs about nature. Studied as a set, however, they reveal the theme of seasonal change to be an artistic topic of significant, enduring appeal to the composer. Although these pieces are stylistically diverse, examining them as a group helps us to better understand Ives’s maturation as a composer, the seasonal topic serving usefully as a constant around which we may evaluate his evolving aesthetic ideals and deepening philosophical convictions. This thesis examines the seasonal songs in chronological order, drawing upon historical, musical, and literary analysis as a means of situating them in Ives’s larger oeuvre while arguing for their value as exemplary early twentieth-century art songs in their own right.
Date
2011
Document Availability at the Time of Submission
Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.
Recommended Citation
Kimball, Warren, "Ives's seasonal songs" (2011). LSU Master's Theses. 2847.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/2847
Committee Chair
Boutwell, Brett
DOI
10.31390/gradschool_theses.2847