For Charles Ives’ birthday, here are two Halloween-related pieces. And you can listen to them both in just over three minutes.
First, my favorite recording of “Hallowe’en” (1907), in its original version for string quartet and piano, since it actually includes the bass drum. Ives later orchestrated the work, but it just ain’t the same. The composer wrote, “It’s a take-off of a Halloween party and bonfire – the elfishness of the little boys throwing wood on the fire, etc., etc… it is a joke even Herbert Hoover could get.”
And then this wisp of a song, “Slugging a Vampire” (1902). The music was originally composed to Rudyard Kipling’s poem “Tarrant Moss,” but permission to use Kipling’s text had not been obtained by the time Ives’ “114 Songs” were to go to press. So Ives just included the first few words and left the rest of the voice-part blank.
“114 Songs” went through two editions and was reprinted in 1975, all without Kipling. When the composer later published “Nineteen Songs” in 1935, he decided to reuse the music, but this time he made up his own text. The result is like having consumed tainted Smartees from your trick-or-treat loot before your parents had a chance to check your candy.
This is a guy who really understood Halloween. Happy birthday, Charles Ives!
