“October turned my maple’s leaves to gold…” ICAMus remembers Charles Ives on his birthday and recalls the highlights of the Center’s Ivesian events over the years.
Maple Leaves. Poem by Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907); publ. 1882. Music by Charles Ives (1874-1954); comp. 1920. No. 23 of Charles Ives, 114 Songs (1922).
The beautiful autumnal feeling of a song, as we remember great American composer Charles Ives on his birthday (October 20, 1874). His music and his philosophy are endlessly innovative.
October turned my maple’s leaves to gold;
The most are gone now; here and there one lingers:
Soon these will slip from out the twigs' weak hold,
Like coins between a dying miser's fingers.
Photo of golden maple leaves taken by ICAMus Director, Aloma Bardi on the eve of Ives’ birthday, October 2019, just outside The ICAMus Studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Explore the highlights of Ives content and events over the years, from the ICAMus Archive:
Journée d’étude sur Charles Ives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris 2005.
Solitudini Creative - 2: Itinerario creativo della "Concord" Sonata, Florence 2004.
Pagine di musica americana - 3: La musica organistica di Charles E. Ives, Florence 2005.
In the photo above: Charles Ives Birthplace, 5 Mountainville Ave., Danbury, Connecticut, USA; originally on Main Street, later moved to the current address; period postcard (late 1960s design?) from the Danbury Historical Museum, Danbury, CT; watercolor by Leo Stoutsenberger (1920-1998). The ICAMus Archive, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
