In 1917, Charles Ives composed a collection of songs in response to the doorway of the US, that 12 months, into the First World Conflict.
The ultimate track, Tom Sails Away, entails a dreamy childhood reminiscence, skilled as a vivid hallucination. The textual content, written by Ives, begins with photographs of a springtime sundown over a New England mill city. The hustle and bustle of the day has pale. The ultimate haunting moments reveal that Tom, maybe the narrator’s brother, has enlisted and “sailed away for over there,” in all probability by no means to return. Hazy Impressionistic sonorities mix with melancholy echoes of Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean, and George M. Cohan’s Over There.
This recording options American baritone William Sharp, accompanied by pianist Steven Blier:
textual content by Charles Ives:
Scenes from my childhood are with me,
I’m within the lot behind our home upon the hill,
A spring day’s solar is setting,
mom with Tom in her arms
is coming in direction of the backyard;
the lettuce rows are exhibiting inexperienced.
Thinner grows the smoke o’er the city,
stronger comes the breeze from the ridge,
‘Tis after six, the whistles have blown,
the milk prepare’s gone down the valley
Daddy is arising the hill from the mill,
We run down the lane to fulfill him
However at this time! In freedom’s trigger Tom sailed away
for over there, over there!
Scenes from my childhood
are floating earlier than my eyes.
Recordings
- Ives: Tom Sails Away, William Sharp, Steven Blier Amazon
Featured Picture: “Guests at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery beautify the graves of service members who died throughout World Conflict I, Could 30, 1929,” Library of Congress
