Ives: Concord Sonata
Piano Sonata No. 2

Geoffrey Block's wide-ranging account of Charles Ives's Concord Sonata was first published in 1996.

Geoffrey Block (Author)

9780521498210, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 November 1996

128 pages, 1 table 31 music examples
21.6 x 13.7 x 0.9 cm, 0.164 kg

Charles Ives's massive Concord Sonata, his second sonata for piano, named after the town of Concord in Massachusetts, is central to his output and clearly reflects his aesthetic perspective. Geoffrey Block's wide-ranging 1996 account of the work thus provides an ideal introduction to this fascinating composer. As well as a discussion of the Sonata's reception history from 1920 to the time of publication, and a chapter on its compositional genesis, this handbook includes a detailed narrative of the motivic content as well as a historical and analytical survey of the work's borrowings, both certifiable and newly proposed. The programmatic element of the Sonata is explored in the context of Ives's personal vision of four literary subjects associated with the town of Concord between 1840 and 1860: Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and the Alcotts.

1. Introduction
2. Reception
3. Genesis
4. Form and design
5. Borrowing
6. The programme.

Subject Areas: Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH]