It Sounds Like TWO Orchestras Playing at Once

[00:00:00]This sounds like two different orchestras playing at the same time.

[00:00:06]This comes from Charles Ives' Variations on America. Originally an organ [music] piece that he wrote in 1891 when he was just a 17-year-old kid serving as the organist in his home church in Danbury, Connecticut using the patriotic tune America or My Country, 'Tis of Thee, which is [music] an American version of God Save the King or God Save the Queen.

[00:00:27]A teenage Charles Ives gave us a bitonal version of what was at the time the national anthem of the United States because The Star-Spangled Banner wasn't made the official national anthem until 1931. He writes a series of variations that show off his his virtuosity, his his amazing musicality at the age of 17, and his sense of humor. And at the midpoint, well, not really the midpoint, but at an interlude, he gives us this.

[00:00:53]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> This is a bitonal interlude, purely bitonal. He's in two different keys.

[00:01:28]He's in the key of F and he's also in the key of D flat >> [music] >> at the same time. Ives allows both tonalities to coexist, and it's at the same time it's it's funny and it's jarring and it's disturbing all at once.

[00:01:44]This is most likely one of the earliest cases of bitonality in music unless there was something before this that I don't know about. 1891 is pretty early to be doing these kind of bitonal experiments. Question is why is he doing this? I mean, is it is it just a joke?

[00:01:59]Is he trying to make his friends laugh?

[00:02:01]Is he trying to show off what he can do?

[00:02:03]The thing is he heard this kind of thing growing up because his father, George Ives, was a Civil War band leader and he loved musical experiments. He used to put two different marching bands together and have them march toward each other and past each other intentionally playing in two different keys just to see what it would sound like.

[00:02:21]>> [music] >> And a young Charles Ives heard these experiments regularly. There's other stories where [music] uh his father would make make Charles and his siblings sing Happy Birthday or whatever in two or three completely different keys just to see what would happen. And this is what Ives grew up around, so it makes sense that he would he would mess with certain tunes like this. It was in his musical DNA since childhood. So, on the one hand, we're in F. Let me read this here.

[00:02:52]>> [music] [bell] [music] >> And also, we're in D-flat. So, >> [music] >> I'm going to try to play both of them at once and I can guarantee you it's going to go poorly, but I'm going to embarrass myself for your enjoyment right now.

[00:03:23]>> [music] [music] [music] >> That's about all I got.

[00:03:45]I didn't practice this at all. Uh give me another day and I could I could read it down cleanly, but I'm not used to reading in two different keys at the same time in six parts. But But there you go. You should try it on your own.

[00:03:56]If anybody If anybody can just read this down, please send me a recording of it cuz I want to see somebody do this do this in person. So, it's the sound of overlapping musical realities. This kind of confusion you would hear on at a picnic on 4th of July or or something in the town square or or parade or just the cacophony of those days of those celebrations. And these are the kind of things that Charles Ives uh heard growing up. Let's listen to it one more time real quick.

[00:04:32]Not bad for a 17-year-old kid from Connecticut.

[00:04:36]>> Yeah.

[00:04:37]Who this?

[00:04:38]This Yo, who this?

[00:04:40]Yo, who this? Who this?