motet notes - Ives

Although his heyday was seventy-five years after the high point of New England Transcendentalism, Charles Ives more than any other composer reflects the esthetics and ideals of that movement.  His "Concord" Sonata is not only the greatest American piano work of the twentieth century, but is a profound summation of those ideas. Our song today uses a verse from the Whittier poem more familiar as an old Methodist Hymn. Here the words are sung very very softly to the old hymn tune "There is a green hill far away" on top of a misty and mysterious chordal piano accompaniment.

‍