‘Music is Life’ – The influence of transcendentalist philosophy on Ives’s Concord Sonata

Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa

 
 
Field Value
 
Title ‘Music is Life’ – The influence of transcendentalist philosophy on Ives’s Concord Sonata
 
Creator Weyer, Waldo Spies, Bertha
 
Subject — Charles Ives, knowledge and cognition, transcendentalism, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, ‘Music is life’.
Description Although the Concord Sonata is traditionally regarded as a sonata, it is atypical of the genre and is often considered as enigmatic. To understand this composition, a transdisciplinary approach is essential by, more specifically, incorporating knowledge of the philosophies of Transcendentalist authors Emerson, Hawthorne, the Alcotts andThoreau. Charles Ives set out the Transcendentalist ideas which influenced his conception of this piano sonata in his Essays before a sonata. His view of musical structure is based on the motto ‘Music is Life’, which he derived from their philosophy. The analysis of the first and last movements of this sonata also facilitates access to the ideas of Emerson and Thoreau. By linking the results of a musical analysis to extra-musical knowledge from literary art, this article demonstrates how abstract ideas of the Transcendental writers can be expressed through music. Interpretations arrived at in this manner help to promote a better understanding of the work as a whole. This essay shows how mediating between two different fields of knowledge and between knowledge and understanding as complementary concepts can enhance understanding and therefore appreciation of the music.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2007-04-11
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/td.v3i2.328
 
Source The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa; Vol 3, No 2 (2007); 40 pages 2415-2005 1817-4434
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://td-sa.net/index.php/td/article/view/328/139
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2007 Waldo Weyer, Bertha Spies https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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