So Charles Ives walks into a bar ...

Synopsis

In New York City on today's date in 1932, the Pan American Chamber Orchestra gave the somewhat belated premiere of three pieces by the American composer Charles Ives. We say "somewhat belated" because Ives composed these pieces decades earlier between 1899 and 1906.

Collectively, Ives dubbed them a "Set for Theatre Orchestra"—a reference to the kind of pit-band ensemble that used to be found in both vaudeville and "legitimate" American theaters and in cinemas before the advent of sound films. Ives admired these ensembles, and often grumbled they included more open-minded and technically adept musicians than those found in the New York Philharmonic.

The three pieces of the "Set" are titled "In the Cage," In the Inn," and "In the Night." For each, Ives provided detailed commentary. Here's a sample, in which Ives recalls an old bar in New Haven, Connecticut, and a bar room pianist he admired while a student at Yale:

"['In the Inn'] is one of several ragtime dances… Some of them [I started writing] as far back as George Felsberg's reign in Poli's [saloon]. George could read a newspaper and play the piano better than some pianists could play without any newspaper at all. When I was in college, I used to go down there and spell him a little if he wanted to go out for five minutes and get a glass of beer—or a dozen glasses…"

Music Played in Today's Program

Charles Ives Theater Set

On This Day

Births

• 1709 - English composer and writer on music Charles Avison, in Newcastle upon Tyne;

• 1878 - Finnish composer Selim Palmgren, in Björneborg (now Pori);

• 1907 - American composer Alec Wilder (Alexander Lafayette Chew), in Rochester, N.Y.;

• 1938 - American composer John Corigliano, in New York;

Deaths

• 1829 - Belgian-born French composer François Joseph Gossec, age 95, in Paris;

• 1868 - Canadian composer Healey Willian, age 87, in Toronto;

• 1963 - Hungarian composer Laszlo Lajtha, age 70, in Budapest;

• 1987 - Soviet composer Dmitri Kabalevsky, age 82, in Moscow;

Premieres

• 1737 - Handel: opera “Giustino,” in London at the Covent Garden Theater (Gregorian date: Feb. 27);

• 1884 - Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suite No. 2, in Moscow (Julian date: Feb. 4);

• 1892 - Massenet: opera, "Werther," in Vienna at the Court Opera;

• 1893 - Sibelius: tone-poem "En Saga," in Helsinki;

• 1929 - Copland: "Vitebsky" Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello, at New York's Town Hall at a League of Composers concert featuring two members of the Pro Arte Quartet (violinist Alphonse Onnou and cellist Robert Mass) and the German pianist Walter Gieseking;

• 1936 - Varèse: "Density 21.5" for solo flute, in New York, by flutist Georges Barrère;

• 1956 - Leon Kirchner: "Toccata" for strings, winds and percussion, in San Francisco.