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From the shabby roadhouses to fabulous estates, from the psychiatric wards of Bellevue to worlds of mysticism and solitude, these are the moving memoirs of the great jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

MINGUS the surprising
First of all, it was really surprising for me to see how much of the book has nothing to do with the music - this is a very personall confession, told in a form of a novel in which, accidentally, some of the characters (besides Mingus) have the names of Charlie Parker, Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and, since the depiction of Red Norvo is not very flattering (and he was very much alive when the book was published), he is "hidden" but instantly recognizible to anyone who has some knowledge of the illustrious carreer of Charles (not Charlie!) Mingus...

The hero of this autobiography/novel, very often presented in third-person narration, is very much concerned with spirituality and sexuality, so the important people from the author's life (family, friends, lovers, prostitutes, pimps, medical professionals) are often not the ones you've heard of before reading the book, while some familiar names (Fats Navarro, Nat Hentoff) are here because they were important for the main topic of the book. And the topic is Charles Mingus, the human being, the man - Afican, White and Asian /but dominantly black/ - musician, lover, son, father...

Naturally, if you DON'T know much about Mingus' remarkable music, you will hardly reach for the book but, if you do, this will be an interesting insight into his rich mind.
Eric Dolphy is mentioned only once, I don't remember the mention of people like Danny Richmond or Jimmy Knepper, but the web of a complex and intricate life is remarkably presented. Compared to the music, this is not the best work of Charles Mingus, but if you like his music you probably won't mind reading this... After all, there's a lot of sex, psychiatry, violence and music inside this book; there's something for everyone's taste.

Great literature?No, but an interesting artifact anyhow...
Those looking for anything like a conventional musical bio should go to "Mingus, a Critical Biography" by Brian Priestley; "Underdog" isn't that at all; it's an artifact of Mingus' peculiar world-view at a particularly hard time in his life.


Mentally ill? Mingus was long noted for fits of depression (in spite of repeated success in the music industry, he nevertheless ended up working for the post office on a number of occasions) and a volcanic temper (he re-counts an on-stage knife-fight with Ellington trombonist Juan Tizol, but leaves out mention of his punching Jimmy Knepper in the mouth hard enough to break teeth).He sometimes channeled it for art: he was probably the first musician ever to release an album ("Black Saint") with liner notes from his psychoanalyst.In "Underdog", he recounts checking himself into Bellvue Hospital, in an ill-considered search for "some rest". That got him, he says, an offer of a lobotomy, but also yielded a song, "Hellview of Bellvue/Lock 'em Up",and he raised the interesting question: if a somewhat successful half-black jazz musician in 1960's America believed that people were out to steal from him and oppress him, was he acutely paranoid, just observant, or both?

Sexually escapist, and scatological? Well, yes, but before feminism, or political correctness, and not without pay-back: the man who bragged of trying to bury his misery in [...] and dope never apparently finds them to be a satisfactory release, and after all the orgies, writes a tune called "Half-Mast Inhibition". . .

So, listen to the music first. See the short b&w documentary. If you want accurate linear bio information or critical analysis, go to the Priestly book. Then put on "Black Saint", "Mingus Am Uh", or "Blues and Roots", and read this.

The Black Saint in a Sinner's Body
If you are a fan of Charles Mingus' music, you will certainly enjoy this wonderfully bombastic character in his autobiography.His story has his life woven in with some fictionalized characters and segments"jazzed" in, which adds quite a peculiar nature to his work. However, you will never guess what segments are true and which aren't.Thework is very peculiar as an autobiography, revealing more the conversationsand the feelings he underwent through his travels as opposed to a straightnarrative from beginning to end.His work goes through a path offlashbacks and such, with a major emphasis on women (esp. his lovers), theroad, and his jazz music. The interesting people he meets in his travelsare well interweaved, and really make the story.My only criticism is whenthis "jazz" story starts to ramble out into peculiar segmentswhich seem to lose your attention.The work tends to well reflect thechaotic nature of this genius.It is also a treat to listen to his musicwhile reading... One of the many pleasures I've undertaken in.Highlyrecommended reading. ... Read more

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Ever since the early 1970s, sculptor Charles Ray's protean practice has yielded some of the most memorable objects and experiences in contemporary art, causing us to confront, as Peter Schjeldahl has written, "elegant, deadpan fabrications that flip wild switches in our minds." In 1987's "Ink Line," for example, he sent a single stream of ink flowing to the middle of a gallery's floor in a slender column; outside the 1993 Whitney Biennial he parked a massive replica of a toy fire engine. His recent work is just as alluring and unsettling: a steel sculpture of a handheld bird, a poster of an ominous pumpkin, an intricate cast aluminum sculpture of a tractor. Charles Ray surveys the work the artist has made in the past dozen years; an interview by Michael Fried and an essay by John Kelsey complement texts written about each work by Ray himself. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

optical illusions of the self
An interesting and comprehensive survey of Ray's work throughout the 70's, 80's, and into the 90's.The interview with the artist is funny and informative and the reproductions of his work here are beautiful. ... Read more

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"Excerpt from the book..."

It may seem a somewhat Irish method of beginning the story of "Two
Years Ago" by a scene which happened but a month since. And yet, will
not the story be on that very account a better type of many a man's
own experiences!
... Read more

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Twenty-one years ago in this house I heard a voice calling me to ascend the platform, and there to stand and deliver. The voice was the voice of President North; the language was an excellent imitation of that used by Cicero and Julius Caesar. I remember the flattering invitation--it is the classic tag that clings to the graduate long after he has forgotten the gender of the nouns that end in 'um--orator proximus', the grateful voice said, 'ascendat, videlicet,' and so forth. To be proclaimed an orator, and an ascending orator, in such a sonorous tongue, in the face of a world waiting for orators, stirred one's blood like the herald's trumpet when the lists are thrown open. Alas! for most of us, who crowded so eagerly into the arena, it was the last appearance as orators on any stage.

The facility of the world for swallowing up orators, and company after company of educated young men, has been remarked. But it is almost incredible to me now that the class of 1851, with its classic sympathies and its many revolutionary ideas, disappeared in the flood of the world so soon and so silently, causing scarcely a ripple in the smoothly flowing stream. I suppose the phenomenon has been repeated for twenty years. Do the young gentlemen at Hamilton, I wonder, still carry on their ordinary conversation in the Latin tongue, and their familiar vacation correspondence in the language of Aristophanes? I hope so. I hope they are more proficient in such exercises than the young gentlemen of twenty years ago were, for I have still great faith in a culture that is so far from any sordid aspirations as to approach the ideal; although the young graduate is not long in learning that there is an indifference in the public mind with regard to the first aorist that amounts nearly to apathy, and that millions of his fellow-creatures will probably live and die without the consolations of the second aorist. It is a melancholy fact that, after a thousand years of missionary effort, the vast majority of civilized men do not know that gerunds are found only in the singular number.

I confess that this failure of the annual graduating class to make its expected impression on the world has its pathetic side. Youth is credulous--as it always ought to be--and full of hope--else the world were dead already--and the graduate steps out into life with an ingenuous self-confidence in his resources. It is to him an event, this turning- point in the career of what he feels to be an important and immortal being. His entrance is public and with some dignity of display. For a day the world stops to see it; the newspapers spread abroad a report of it, and the modest scholar feels that the eyes of mankind are fixed on him in expectation and desire. Though modest, he is not insensible to the responsibility of his position. He has only packed away in his mind the wisdom of the ages, and he does not intend to be stingy about communicating it to the world which is awaiting his graduation. Fresh from the communion with great thoughts in great literatures, he is in haste to give mankind the benefit of them, and lead it on into new enthusiasm and new conquests.

Download What Is Your Culture To Me Now! ... Read more

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"Excerpt from the book..."
The middle of August is come at last; and with it the solemn day on
which Frederick Viscount Scoutbush may be expected to revisit the home
of his ancestors
... Read more

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Deafened by an illness, fourteen-year-old Margaret refuses to accept her condition and runs away in fear that her mother's remarriage may mean she'll be sent to a boarding school for the deaf. ... Read more

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Catalog from an exhibition presented by the New Braunfels Museum of Art & Music, July 26, 2003. Contains b/w photos & descriptions of Texas dance halls. ... Read more

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This monumental catalogue of the music of Charles Ives contains 728 entries that cover all of the prolific composer`s works. With new information produced by recent Ives scholarship and generous commentary on each of Ives`s compositions, this all-inclusive book is not only an important source for music writers and performers but also an essential volume for scholars of American music. ... Read more

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Although Charles Ives has long been viewed as the quintessential American composer, he was also closely linked to the European classical tradition, say the Ives scholars in this book. Contributors explore the influences on Ives of his musical predecessors and the parallels between Ives and his European contemporaries, revealing him as culturally unique and yet reliant on the classical tradition for aesthetic philosophy and musical techniques. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Charles Ives: The Great Anticipator.
Igor Stravinsky, late in life, and in an unusually rare moment of candor for him, conceded that Charles Ives had been "The Great Anticipator." Unfortunately for Ives, this bout of candor came eight years after he died. And, upon Arnold Schoenberg's death In 1953 (six months before Ives did), his widowcame upon a remarkable statement by her husband, written nearly a decade earlier: [quote]

There is a great Man living in this Country - a composer.
He has solved the problem of how to preserve one's self-esteem.
He responds to negligence by contempt.
He is not forced to accept praise or blame.
His name is Ives. [unquote]

That these two composers, contemporaries of Ives, took so long to pay proper tribute is as much a result of Ives having chosen to be a "private" composer over the two important decades of his composing life (1902 - 1922) as it was their own agendas and efforts. Before 1922, nothing of significance that Ives had written saw public performance subsequent to his 1902 cantata, "The Celestial Country." And nothing of significance came from his pen after those two decades; he spent the balance of his life editing his works and supporting the efforts of other American composers.

However, beginning in the 1930s, Ives's works slowly began to see public performance, and the pace of performance did pick up in the years remaining to him. And what concert-goers, and fellow composers, began to hear was a bewildering variety of musics, at least some of which reminded them of works not only by Schoenberg and Stravinsky but by Debussy, Bartók, Scriabin, Copland and a host of other "moderns." And on his death in 1954, at which time Harmony Ives placed his works in public trust, with John Kirkpatrick as the executor, the floodgates began to open on what it was that Ives had accomplished, not least of which was to anticipate virtually every significant stylistic movement in 20th-century music.

With the 50th anniversary of Ives's death just days away (May 19, 2004) as I write this, we now have a much better picture of "Ives the anticipator." And, as well, "Ives the protean American extender of the classical tradition." And this book, edited by two of the most knowledgeable Ives scholars, is as fine an effort as I've seen at putting Ives in proper historical perspective. It is the benchmark for the comparative study of Ives's compositional aesthetic, and I don't expect that it will be soon surpassed in this respect.

The book is in two unequal parts (following an introduction by J. Peter Burkholder). The first third of the book, entitled "Predecessors," describes Ives's early musical education, by both his father and Horatio Parker. The three essays in this section cover his background in, and familiarity with, the music of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Franck, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and Reger, as well as those who, like Parker, made up the preceding "New England School": George Chadwick, Frederick Shepherd Converse, Daniel Gregory Mason and John Knowles Paine. Sandwiched between the European and New England School essays is a superb one by Geoffrey Block (co-editor along with Burkholder) entitled "The 'Sounds That Beethoven Didn't Have'," showing how Ives both borrowed from and built upon Beethoven in writing his culminating keyboard masterpiece, the "Concord" Sonata. This essay cannot but help those who are befuddled by this thorny work.

The balance of the book is given over to comparisons of Ives with his European contemporaries. The first is a reprint of Robert P. Morgan's groundbreaking 1978 essay, "Ives and Mahler: Mutual Responses at the End of an Era." While this essay is available on the internet in Adobe pdf form, its inclusion here is most welcome and appropriate. There is so much commonality in the compositional aesthetics of these two (incorporation of "vernacular" music, use of polyrhythms, providing for "near" and "far" sound fields) that it is surprising that matters took as long as they did to reach this stage (although Elliott Carter, some years earlier, had pointed the way, seemingly the first to do so).

"Ives, Schoenberg, and the Musical Ideal" sets out not only the similarities between Ives's usage of the terms "manner and substance" and Schoenberg's of "style and idea" (and their commonality in philosophical thought traceable back to Kant), but also their shared admiration of Brahms. That Ives wrote atonally and experimented with tone rows in advance of Schoenberg is an interesting aside, but the "substance" (or "idea"), if you will, is that both developed new aesthetics of some similarity in expression and much commonality in background.

"Ives and Stravinsky: Two Angles on 'the German Stem'" is, for me, the most fascinating essay in the book. Ives wrote in bitonality some years before "Petroushka" and had been accused of "borrowing" ideas from "The Rite of Spring" well before the true facts emerged. But ultimately more interesting are the parallels between the two in terms of their musical educations and usage of source materials, and their inveterate editing of existing works. Of course, their motivations for doing so differed: While Ives was editing largely to achieve performance, Stravinsky was forever "scrubbing his works clean" of earlier influences.

When study began on Ives's manuscripts (now complete, thanks to James Sinclair's "A Descriptive Catalog of the Music of Charles Ives"), a treasure trove of "anticipations" - atonality, tone rows, bitonality, polyrhythms, collage, impressionism, minimalism, aleatorism and virtually every other "ism" - was found. While this book does not cover everything, the essays on Ives and Schoenberg and Ives and Stravinsky are worth the price of admission. But I do wish that the editors had included contributions on Ives and Debussy and Ives and Bartók (despite Burkholder's apology for not having done so in the Introduction). A very minor cavil for an otherwise remarkable collection of essays.

Bob Zeidler ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A BBC CLASSIC ... not just for the UK but for all the world and all the ages!
It has been my opinion for many years, ever since I started listening to dramatizations of classic literature, that the BBC make the finest adaptations of classic literature in the world, not just for television but for radio, where imagination is needed just as much as voice-acting to bring a work of literature to life ... and the skill of the BBC is the best in the world!

In the matter of Charles Dickens' A TALE OF TWO CITIES, I have to confess that I heard this BBC Radio Production (on an American-licensed audio cassette copy) before I ever read the novel, and it was primarily on account of my having seen Charles Dance (who plays "Sydney Carton" in this production) in a made-for-television version of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and admired his work.While his stage and screen work are first-rate in my opinion, his audio work is absolutely amazing!As "Carton", he strikes just the right balance between harsh sarcasm, self-pity and noble pathos, and no where in the production is this more evident than in the one-on-one scenes he shares with other characters in the story (particularly with Mr. Lorry [excellently played by Richard Pasco] in Paris).Indeed, every single performer in this production is fitted to his or her role, such as the late great Maurice Denham as "Dr. Manette" and John Hollis as "Jerry Cruncher".The harsh and almost masculine voice of Margaret Robertson who plays "Madame Defarge" did strike me as unusual at first but, as the production played out, highlighted her cruel intelligence and viciousness.I must also signal out Charlotte Attenborough who played "Lucie Manette" for special praise; she grows with her character as the story progresses from an unsure soft-spoken young lady at the neginning to a mature and warm-hearted woman who has an instinctive understanding of the heart and its various mysteries.Also to be highly praised is Barbara Leigh-Hunt as "Miss Pross"; her vocal acting is a delight to listen to! (Also keep an ear wide open for Nicholas Courtney of DOCTOR WHO fame in the roles of "Jacques #3" and "The Woodcutter".)

I must give Nick McCarty, who adapted the novel for radio, major credit.While "slimming down" the amount of dialogue taken from the book, more than enough is retained and written in such way that while the speaking style of the eighteenth century is retained, what the listener hears can be understood as clearly as though a twentieth century person spoke them without modernizing the text.The emotional power of Dickens' novel is alive and living in this production, and I can never hear Carton's scenes with Lucie, with the Seamstress and with Mr. Lorry or his last speech without getting a lump in my throat.I must also praise Ian Cotterell's direction; he moves the story along at just the right pace, without skipping or rushing.

VIVE LE BBC!This production is truly "the best of times" for any listener! ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Dance Magazine, published by Dance Magazine, Inc. on December 1, 2008. The length of the article is 614 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Pacific Northwest Ballet.(All Tharp)(Dance review)
Author: Wendy Perron
Publication: Dance Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2008
Publisher: Dance Magazine, Inc.
Volume: 82Issue: 12Page: 110(2)

Article Type: Dance review

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

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Charles-Marie Widor contributed significantly to French music as an organist, composer, conductor, teacher, and writer, yet he was unjustly overshadowed by contemporaries Saint-Saëns, Franck, and Debussy. This comprehensive biography describes his life amid the intellectual and political ferment of the Third Republic and his relations with a variety of musicians, authors, artists, politicians, Popes, and Kings. Coming at a time of increased interest in Widor's pioneering "symphonic" organ music, the book will also prove fascinating reading for all those interested in the social and political history of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century France. ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

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Wine merchant Tony Beach is present at the annual party celebrating the success of the racing season when a runaway horsebox ploughs into the marquee. Witness to the terrible death and destruction Tony believes it is a terrible accident until he becomes involved in the investigation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

A very satisfying mystery that doesn't get old
The opening chapter introduces the widowed wine merchant Tony Beach and may seem a bit mauldling but keep on reading. This is peopled with people you would love to hang with and people you would hate to meet. It is exciting and as usual, the author plays fair by introducing information in a timely manner. A very satisfying mystery, it gets better with every page.

Proof, a good book
I enjoyed reading Proof.I found it hard to put it down before I finished it as is usually the case with any Dick Francis book.I am trying to buy any old ones I don't have since he won't be writing any more.i will miss reading them.

Proof proves how much we love Dick Francis
"Proof is facinating. I found it to be the best I have read yet even if there was not as much tract time as usual. You never knew where Dick Francis was going to lead us. This time he told a story about a crime in involving wine & malt liquor. Does it ever cease to amaze how Francis always was took an air of authority about is subjects? I found this story highly entertaining because it is plausible & some of the tragedies in this book are my tragedies.

Once again I whole heartedly complain about spoil book reviews. Chatting about the plot is fine, giving away the end of the book is unforgivable.

G-d bless Dick Francis. We will always love him & the wonderful stories he wrote."

Proof proves how much we love Dick Francis
Proof is facinating. I found it to be the best I have read yet even if there was not as much tract time as usual. You never knew where Dick Francis was going to lead us. This time he told a story about a crime in involving wine & malt liquor. Does it ever cease to amaze how Francis always was took an air of authority about is subjects? I found this story highly entertaining because it is plausible & some of the tragedies in this book are my tragedies.

Once again I whole heartedly complain about spoil book reviews. Chatting about the plot is fine, giving away the end of the book is unforgivable.

G-d bless Dick Francis. We will always love him & the wonderful stories he wrote.

Tasting wine & courage
Most Dick Francis heroes are models of cool-headed courage. Although Tony Beach comes from a family of daredevil military men and a mother who rides to hounds, Tony has no interest in fighting or hunting or any other display of bravery. He studies the wine business in France and becomes a wine merchant.

His young wife has died recently, and the reader can see that he's handling that with some courage, but in the world of macho attitudes and endeavors, courage is a sore point with Tony. Circumstances are about to give him a different picture of himself.

Tony's carefully cultivated ability to tell one wine from another and identify various brands of scotch lures him into helping with an investigation. Tankers of raw scotch and wine are being stolen, and purveyors of fine food and wine are serving not-so-fine wine under fake labels.

If you read this story with attention, you'll learn a tremendous amount about the booze business. Dick Francis delights in educating his readers. Or you can let the alcoholic content wash over you pleasantly and mainly enjoy the adventure - and the psychological insights into the workings of courage. ... Read more

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With this innovative analysis of the music of Charles Ives, Philip Lambert fills a significant gap in the literature on one of America`s most important composers. Lambert portrays Ives as a composer of great diversity and complexity who nevertheless held to a single artistic vision. ... Read more

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Issue #14Fall 1992Volume Four, Issue 4 Cover art by Charles LangInterior art by Allen Koszowski, Alfred Klosterman, Alan Jude Summa, Keith Minnion112 pages Fiction"Chattery Teeth" by Stephen King"Johnny Halloween" by Norman Partridge"Shell" by Adam Corbin Fusco"Pieces" by Ray Garton"Hitchin' Through the Wall" by Augustine Funnell"The Washingtonians" by Bentley Little DepartmentsWords From the Editor by Richard T. ChizmarRamblings From the Dark by Charles L. GrantGormania by Ed GormanProfiles in Terror (Featuring Rick Hautala) by T. Liam McDonaldSpotlight On Publishing (Featuring Charnel House) by Bob MorrishNightmare Alley by Matthew J. CostelloTrash Theatre by Joe R. Lansdale & David WebbNeedful Kings & Other Things by Tyson BlueRough Cuts by Paul SammonAnthology Attic by Kathy PtacekMothers and Fathers Italian Association by Thomas F. MonteleoneA Horror Without Limits by Douglas E. WinterBook Reviews by Edward BryantCD Reviews by Various Reviewers ... Read more

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"Interweaving photographs, concert programs, scores, and drawings with the texts of more than fifty interviews with family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues, Charles Ives Remembered is a vivid memory portrait of an enigmatic American composer, told in the voices of the people who knew him best. Charles Ives (1874-1954) was publicly an insurance executive but privately a composer whose eccentric works and paradoxical life would intrigue, perplex, and inspire generations to come after him. Moving from Ives's childhood and years at Yale to his business and musical careers, the memories and reflections assembled in this Kinkeldey Award-winning volume provide a multifaceted and humanizing view of an American musical icon." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

AMAZING COLLECTION OF INTERVIEWS (REGARDING AN AMERICAN GENIUS)
This is a wonderful collection of interviews from people that were close to and new Charles Ives well. These interviews are well constructed and organized with a firm commitment from a brilliant author who knows her subject and is very enthused with a strong conviction regarding her craft and her subject. There is a wealth of information in this great book on one of (if not the) greatest American composer's and original talents ever. Mr. Ives Americanism shines through without question or denial at all. He was also an amazing business man, husband and father. Quite the original American character to say the very least. Ive's was composing atonal, multi-layered, multi-subject and chromatic music long before it became the new kid on the block and the in thing to do. He used many different meters (time signatures) combined at the same time as well. His vocal works are a masterpiece and should be enjoyed by music enthusiast's the world over. He was many years ahead of his time and a true pioneering trail blazer for American music as a true art form. This is a must read for all fans of great music, Charles Ives and just pure fantastic and classic literature. Highly recommended.

I can't overestimate the value of this priceless collection.
I have my days when I feel as if I've known Charlie Ives all my life. Of course, this is physically impossible: when Charlie died, in 1954, I was only fifteen, and I didn't hear any of his music at least until a few years later, in college. And even then, there wasn't all that much of it available on LP. But, over a period now approaching a half-century, my knowledge of, and admiration for, the man and his music grew steadily, if at first slowly.

With this steady accumulation of knowledge now at the point where I feel at ease ("comfortable in my skin," one might say) with providing some informed commentary, I suggest to readers interested in learning about Charlie, and his life and music, two recommendations. The first recommendation is that they read Jan Swafford's "Charles Ives: A Life with Music," one of the most superb books of its kind, totally sympathetic to the man but at the same time not close-minded to his "warts" and their possible causes.

The second is of course this book by Vivian Perlis, one of the most remarkable of its kind. It is one of the most frequently quoted resources by Ives scholars and writers, and obviously so.

The reason for its very existence is almost as fascinating as its contents. Perlis, in 1968, had been working with the Ives Collection, and, to quote her (in the Preface), "I became aware that there were [...] people still living who had known and worked with [Ives], and that an effort [...] be made to [...] preserve their memories of him."

Ives died in 1954, in his eighthieth year. At the time of the start of Perlis's project, then, those of his contemporaries still alive who knew him were already well in their nineties. Mrs. Ives (Harmony Twichel Ives) was still alive, but too ill to be interviewed. (She died on Good Friday, April 4, 1969.) Ives's business partner, Julian Myrick, was able to be interviewed, but he passed on in the course of the project. Charlie's piano tuner died on the day he was to be scheduled to be intereviewed. There were only three Yale classmates who survived long enough to be interviewd. Facts such as these explain the need on Perlis's part to "work against time" in her plan to capture as many direct recollections as possible in putting together this oral history.

Perlis's subjects included, of course, family members, as well as friends and neighbors, most of them from succeeding generations. (Charlie's brother, Moss Ives, had six children [five nephews of Charlie and Harmony, and one niece]; three of the nephews provide some of the best recollections. Sadly, Charlie's niece, Sarane [Sally], as well as his own daughter, Edith [Edie], died in 1956, only two years after him.) Perlis even interviewed Charlie's personal secretary, his barber, and the architect who was responsible for remodeling his West Redding, CT home. Each provides his or her glimpse of the man. That these glimpses are often reminiscent of blind men describing an elephant speaks to the complexities of an outwardly simple-appearing man.

A large portion of the book covers recollections of musicians who knew and worked with Charlie. While all were of the succeeding younger generation, they can lay claim to being the closest to Charles Ives the composer and musician. The list reads like a "Who's Who" of mid-20th century American music: Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, Lehman Engel, Lou Harrison, Bernard Herrmann, John Kirkpatrick, Goddard Lieberson, Carl Ruggles and Nicolas Slonimsky among others.

Each of these musical friends achieved fame for his own contributions to the art. Each remembered Charlie in the greatest of detail and anecdote, often in terms that bordered on "reverential" and with individual insights which added substantially to a better understanding of his musical psyche.

With one exception: Elliott Carter. Carter, still alive and kicking (and composing) at age 94, was one of the very earliest beneficiaries of Charlie's intellectual and personal largesse. As a teen-age high schooler, he was often invited to Charlie's W. 74th Street townhouse, a comfortably short distance from Carnegie Hall, where they would take in concerts and then talk about what they heard. Given that these were Carter's "formative years," one might think (and some do) that Carter was the logical successor to Charlie. In my judgement, he wasn't; there are simply too many differences between the two, in terms of compositional aesthetic, for the relationship to be valid. And, of all the musical associates interviewed, only Carter, in what I feel to be mean-spirited commentary, was negative about Charlie's contributions to American music. (It is more than a little interesting that Perlis, in her Preface, found it necessary to state that of all the interviews, only Carter's, as published, differed substantially from the raw interview material. One can only wonder at just what was expurgated!)

I am indebted to J Scott Morrison, fellow music lover and Amazon.com reviewer, for bringing to my attention that, in addition to Elliott Carter, there is one other survivor to this day who can claim direct contact with Charlie. That other person is Paul Moor, who interviewed Charlie for the September 1948 edition of Harper's. Moor (now in his late 70s) was in Europe between about 1953 and 1979, and therefore "out of reach" (and likely off the radar screen) of Perlis. It is too bad that this understandable omission is nonetheless an omisson. Perhaps Moor's judgement would offset Carter's; perhaps not.

In searching for a comparable book about another composer, the closest I can come to Perlis's unquestioned masterpiece is Elizabeth Wilson's "Shostakovich: A Life Remembered." But, whereas reading first-hand accounts about Shostakovich's life can often be an exercise in pain, given the circumstances of that life, reading about Charlie's life only seems to bring me joy. I hope it does for you as well.

Bob Zeidler

The Place To Start
This is the first book I read about Charles Ives, and I'm happy that it's still in print.If you are new to Charles Ives, I would suggest that you start here.If you have the funds, I also recommend you pick up Jan Swafford's excellant biography.
Why is this book the best place to start?The book is a compilation of thoughtful and revealing rememberances from Mr.Ives's close friends and his family, all personally interviewed by the author.We even get to hear what Mr.Ives's barber had to say about him!Perhaps most moving is the interview with Brewster, Mr.Ives's nephew.
This book is also chock full of photos and pictures of Mr.Ives's original manuscripts. ... Read more