Composed by Charles Ives in 1906, The Pond is a shimmering, atmospheric fragment, or, within the phrases of the composer, “a tune with out voice.” Evocative of a rippling pond on a lazy afternoon, the work is so transient that it unfolds as a fleeting dream.
The Pond was the composer’s nostalgic elegy for his father, George Ives (1845–1894), a cornet participant and bandmaster within the Union Military in the course of the Civil Warfare. In Ives’ musical fragment, the solo cornet’s plaintive melody floats over the gently undulating traces of the chamber orchestra.
Remembrance (A Sound of a Distant Horn)
In one other iteration, Ives’ fragment may be heard because the tune Remembrance, included within the assortment 114 Songs, which was printed in 1922. Right here, the melody unfolds as a serene canon between the singer and piano. The rating bears an epigram from Wordsworth: “The music in my coronary heart I bore, Lengthy after it was heard no extra.”
The textual content is by Charles Ives:
A sound of a distant horn,
O’er shadowed lake is borne,
my father’s tune.
This efficiency options baritone Sanford Sylvan, accompanied by pianist Alan Feinberg:
Recordings
- Ives: The Pond, Ingo Metzmacher, Ensemble Trendy Amazon
- Ives: Remembrance (A Sound of a Distant Horn), Sanford Sylvan, Alan Feinberg Amazon
Featured Picture: Thoreau’s Cove at Walden Pond, Harmony, Massachusetts (c. 1908)
