Coming of age at the dawn of the twentieth century, Charles Ives
saw the halcyon days of his youth fading fast. Not willing to
let them go, he invented a striking new musical language to
enshrine the feelings and ideals of a simpler time. But many,
shocked by passages like the “fireworks” in ‘Fourth of July,’
found his new-fangled methods at odds with the memories he was
trying to preserve. Did Ives go too far? Or did he succeed in
turning his memories into music? The moving second movement is
shown in four annotated interactive excerpts. This “Funeral
March” is a powerful musical evocation of the massive state
funerals of the French Revolution. As we see the procession pass
before us we ask ourselves the question, “who has really died
here?” The drama unfolds: “Convinced that his love is
unappreciated, the artist poisons himself with opium. The dose
of the narcotic, too weak to kill him, plunges him into a sleep
accompanied by the most horrible visions. He dreams that he has
killed his beloved, that he is co