Trio

Description

Violin, Viola, Cello — Harmony Ives, Charles’s wife, wrote that “the Trio was, in a general way, a kind of reflection or impression of his college days on the [Yale] Campus. The 1st movement recalled a rather short but serious talk, to those on the Yale fence, by an old professor of Philosophy--the 2nd, the games and antics by the Students on the Campus, on a Holiday afternoon, and some of the tunes and songs of those days were partly suggested in this movement, sometimes in a rough way. The last movement was partly a remembrance of a Sunday service on the campus--Dwight Hall--which ended near the 'Rock of Ages:” The first movement is an experiment in presenting two halves of a texture separately, then together. It seems to relate to the talking professor and fence-sitting students mainly in its general seriousness and verbal pungency. The Scherzo, on which Ives wrote the title TSIAJ (“This Scherzo is a Joke”) might be made entirely of tunes used as fraternity songs, except, said Ives, for “Reeves’s 2nd Reg. Quickstep, always played by Brass Band at Games and reunions.” After this "Fence Medley" it was natural for Ives to recall the most ambitious music he had composed for the Yale Glee Club, “The All-Enduring,” using parts of it in the serious finale, making a canon out of the vocal line in m. 91-125. Hastings' Toplady, "Rock of Ages, cleft for me" is used as a closing hymn-tune. – from John Kirkpatrick’s preface.