Orchestral Set No. 2 is the title of a three-movement work by the American composer Charles Ives. A typical performance lasts around seventeen minutes. Composed between 1915 and 1919, it represents musical reminiscences of the composer. Like its predecessor, the First Orchestral Set, ''

Three Places in New England The ''Three Places in New England (Orchestral Set No. 1)'' is a composition for orchestra in three movements by American composer Charles Ives. It was written mainly between 1911 and 1914, but with sketches dating as far back as 1903 and last revisi ...

'', it was not conceived as a single entity but rather assembled from separate compositions.

Structure

The opening movement, named ''An Elegy to Our Forefathers'', is the most esoteric of the recollections. Ives had originally entitled it as an elegy to

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour and minstrel music during the Romantic period. He wrote more than 200 songs, inc ...

, but its fleeting, indistinct nature—it fades in and out of view (like a passing parade) perhaps suggested to Ives something less specific than a named individual. As Ives biographer Jan Swafford puts it, it "is like a memory of Stephen Foster tunes." The second movement is more lively. Entitled ''The Rockstrewn Hills Join in the People’s Outdoor Meeting'', it is instantly recognisable as Ives, recalling the camp-

revival meeting A revival meeting is a series of Christian religious services held to inspire active members of a church body to gain new converts and to call sinners to repent. Nineteenth-century Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon said, "Many blessings may come t ...

s he knew as a boy. This movement contains particularly demanding passages for piano, and Ives himself referred to it as "almost a piano concerto." The final movement ''From Hanover Square North, At the End of a Tragic Day, The Voice of the People Again Arose'', recalls Ives's experience of May 7, 1915, the day that the news broke of the sinking of the '' RMS Lusitania'', preceding the United States' entry into the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Ives's focus, however, as Clayton Henderson notes, is not about the sinking ''per se'', but rather "the reaction of a group of commuters". According to his own memoirs, the crowd waiting on the platform of New York's Hanover Square station spontaneously broke into the gospel hymn '' In the Sweet By and By'' – a tune that was being played on a barrel organ on the street below. He stated:

Some workmen sitting on the side of the tracks began to whistle the tune, and others began to sing or hum the refrain. A workman with a shovel over his shoulder came on to the platform and joined in the chorus, and the next man, a Wall Street banker with white spats and a cane, joined in it, finally it seemed to me that everybody was singing this tune, and they didn't seem to be singing it in fun, but as a natural outlet for what their feelings had been going through all day long.Ives (1973), p. 92–93

The movement begins with an offstage chorus singing an extract from the

Te Deum The "Te Deum" (, ; from its incipit, , ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to AD 387 authorship, but with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin Ch ...

in English ("We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord"). From there the music develops with melodies overlaying one another, including Foster's '' Massa's in the Cold Ground'' and ''

My Old Kentucky Home "My Old Kentucky Home, Good-Night!" is a sentimental ballad written by Stephen Foster, probably composed in 1852. It was published in January 1853 by Firth, Pond, & Co. of New York. Foster was likely inspired by Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-sla ...

''. These fade in and out of view, with ''In the Sweet By and By'' circulating around the music, never explicitly quoted. Only at the climax, when Ives depicts the crowd's impromptu singing, does the orchestra unequivocally state the hymn—or rather a representation of it in the unrehearsed, completely sincere form Ives recollected from that day.

Performances and recordings

The

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenu ...

and Chorus gave the world premiere performance on February 11, 1967, with

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conducting in Orchestra Hall; the same forces made the first recording the following week on February 15 in Chicago's

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for

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

. The second performance of the work was also its European premiere. It was given by the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under the direction of

Leopold Stokowski Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra and his appear ...

on June 18, 1970 in London's Royal Festival Hall and repeated at the Fairfield Hall, Croydon on June 20, 1970. The same forces recorded the work on June 22/23, 1970 in Kingsway Hall, London for Decca/London Records in 'Phase-4 Stereo'. Additional recordings have been made by several ensembles, including the

Concertgebouw Orchestra The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra ( nl, Koninklĳk Concertgebouworkest, ) is a Dutch symphony orchestra, based at the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw (concert hall). Considered one of the world's leading orchestras, Queen Beatrix conferred the "R ...

under

Michael Tilson Thomas Michael Tilson Thomas (born December 21, 1944) is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is Artistic Director Laureate of the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy based in Miami Beach, Florida, Music Director Laureate of ...

, the

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under

Christoph von Dohnányi Christoph von Dohnányi (; born 8 September 1929) is a German conductor. Biography Youth and World War II Dohnányi was born in Berlin, Germany to Hans von Dohnanyi, a German jurist of Hungarian ancestry, and Christine Bonhoeffer. His uncle ...

and more recently as part of a series of critical edition performances by the

Malmö Symphony Orchestra The Malmö Symphony Orchestra ( sv, Malmö Symfoniorkester) is a Swedish orchestra, based in Malmö. Since 2015, it has been resident at the Malmö Live Concert Hall. The orchestra has a complement of 94 musicians. History The orchestra was fo ...

under Ives scholar James Sinclair.

References

{{Charles Ives Compositions by Charles Ives 1919 compositions