I'm ecstatic to invite you to enjoy a new master class on the life and piano music of Charles Ives. This unique in-depth class includes an intro to Ives and his work, a mini-clinic on the use of dissonance in modern composition/improvisation, plus listening and discussions of 5 of Ives' solo piano works:

http://youtu.be/1aXeEYhLsvA

Blessings and keep swingin

Dave Frank

Dave,

As you know, I have been waiting for this to appear. I am much more familiar with Ives’ orchestral pieces, and these were an eye-opening change.

I was also waiting for the “second band” in your own piano demonstration, to take up a completely different tempo and meter. We have seen and heard you display that sort of complete Left-to-Right independence before.

Lastly, I just recently heard in live performance an excellent “warm up” to Ives’ Quarter-Tone Piece No. 1. It was scored for strings, and performed by my granddaughter’s school’s elementary orchestra. They, too, quoted a couple of songs I recognized.

A sincere THANKS to you for bringing into current public light the genius of a New Englander who was way (WAY) ahead of his time, and who contributed so boldly to the body of twentieth-century American music. Great job, Dave!

Ed

hi Ed buddy

Well done, as always, Dave. I have always liked the piano music of Ives ever since I heard his first piano sonata about forty-five years ago. It is still my favourite of all his works, and the one I am most likely to repeatedly listen to. I like the way you discuss music enough to convert the files and study them all at leisure on the television. I almost certainly wouldn't have got on with Ives the man or his philosophy. Likewise for Bach for that matter, but that is the wonderful thing about music. We can love the music while ignoring the men completely. It is totally abstract sound and the receiving brain is at liberty to impose its own associations on it and ignore all external commonality. Your presentation reinforced this important notion for me, as there is plenty in Ives's music to love and reflect upon.

What a genius, must be something to do with the name Charlie.
I liked Quarter Tone the best.
There was a time not too long ago when I thought the intro to ATTYA, and the altered scale, sounded dissonant hehe !