Page Four

THEMICHIGAN DAILY

Sunday, November 9,, 1,975 "

Page Four THE MICHIGAN DAILY ~unday, November 9,. 197~


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Exploring the legend of Charles Ives

By PHIL BALLA
CHARLES IVES & HIS
AMERICA, by Frank Ros- !
siter, Liveright, New York:
$15.
FRANK ROSSITER t a u g h t
history and American studies
at the University of Michigan
for five years, until this year
when, failing to receive tenure
here, he took an associate pro-
fessorship at the University of
Texas. -
Rossiter's new book on Char-
les Ives is a cultural study of
a man, generally held now a
America's greatest composer,
who strayed far from the con-
ventional genteel music of his
time From this straying, from
t h i s appreciation for music
which was not then respectable,
Ives discovered native sources
much as American writers had
begun to do in the 1850's literary
renaissance. Only for Ives the
voices were musical, the ver-
nacular tradition of the town
band, the stage orchestra, the
barn dance, and the outdoor re-
vival meeting. Here it was that
Ives expressed, as Rossiter says,
"an assertion of solidarity with
a more down-to-earth and cul-
turally more democratic past."
The result would be America's
greatest native compositions,
but they were compositions vir-
tually unrecognized until long
after Ives's creativity was past.
They were unrecognized be-
cause Ives didn't trust the mus-
ical establishment to under-
stand his new forms so his com-
posing was onlyta spare time
activity, a private matter.

private. He believed intellecual-
ly in rights for women, for in-
stance, but continued to loathe
all those effeminates who still,
ran and patronized the musical
establishment. He still believed
intellectually in the voice of the
vernacular tradition, but no
longer listened to it as new and
popular expressions arose inI
movies, tabloids, and radio pro-
grams-which were after all, as
Rossiter says, "merely the mod-
ern urban counterparts ... of
the old barn dances, camp meet-
ings, and parades."

known of them because they and error-ridden Ives study by
were replacing one system, Ger- David Wooldridge, , From the
manic and classical, with an- Steeples and Mountains, but less
other, or others: atonal, sym- ingratiating than any number of
bolic, and twelve-tonal. Ives professorial books which delib-
could never brook systems. His erately feed on inbred pedan-
disgust (and pleasure) from tries, self-conscious jargon, and
making his millions was intense r e a m s of statistical evidence
enough that in shutting the door which serve at best as dildoes
on the outside world, on the in the public trough, door stops
system, he was blind to radical for the rest of us.
developments in the 1910's art
world virtually around the cor- , gh
ner from him in Greenwich may be conventional like Ives,
Village, just as he was blind didn't fit in to the system at
even during these years of his Michigan. He spent too much
creative peak to new develop- time helping out students in the

From Charles Ives'
THREE PLACES IN NEW ENGLAND
Steeples and Mountainls
At the point where years ago
Seven lines of bells converged upon Thoreau
One Sunday as he headed south,
Ives heads - and partly sees - through Thoreau's
mouth.
The Berkshire hills haven't changed too much
As Ives hopes for another intersection,
Though now he looks down at the smaller mountain
Of a Mail Pouch barn, newly-painted.
Sundays are susceptible to change as well.
He nears the spot he never reaches when the bells
Of seven churches, some marking time-
At different times - some stuttering different
hymns,
Stop him, as if by a wash of chime.
As if a bucket of paint were thrown against a wall,
Which, if it had any motion befo,e,
It lost in the embarassing wallop,
Ives stops.
But where Thoreau was pleased
In that brazen music, these notes, which seem
To jar at once, dissolve into one common
Harmonic's rising, sliding, sympathetic scream.
Steven Schwartz is a faculty
member in the department of
English.

The trouble is, Ives had in- ments in popular expression
ternalized American culture. He arising around him.
knew that the system was bad,
and respectable music phoney, Ives became thoroughly con-
but he knew, too, being brought ventional in old age. He didn't
up in the system, that there was care any more for the life styles
no really escaping it. He made of those liberals who were dis-
his millions and went home; he covering his music in the 1930's
made his music and kept it to than he did for those conserva-
himself. He distrusted systems tives who couldn't understand it
the whole while, whether the at all a generation before.
federal government which be- Rossiter in his book is thor-
came an e I it i s t protective oughly conventional as well _
agency for corporations, or Muni- t h o u g h Charles Ives & His
versities which taught imported America reads better by far
culture, or music which was than most academic books. Ros-
derivative. European composers siter has written a cultural biog-
of the time who were making raphy that will be a standard
radical changes in music, suchf
as Stravinsky, Scriabin, and for a long time to come, a book
Schoenberg, wouldn't have much that may be more cautious and
appealed to Ives even if he'd deliberate than the visionary

Program in American Culture,
and university departments have
a penchant for shunning those
professors who take seriously
unconventional American stu-
dies-just as the musical estab-
lishment in the time of Ives had
no room for indigenous Ameri-
can material. The system lives
on and some will always turn
privately from it. We have as
compensation the great music
of Charles Ives, and as consola-
tion for his absence, an exact-
ing cultural study by Frank
Rossiter.
Phil Balla teaches freshman
composition at the University.

Charles Ives as band director in 1890

I

Suifragists: Memories o a bitter baffle

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TIS REAL LIFE was through-
ly conventional -- and he
prized convention. The Iveses
had come from a long line of
New Englanders in Danbury,
Connecticut and his own mar-
riage, family life, and business
(he was an enormoyrslv success-
ful businessman) all counted for
Ives as expressions of the unper-
middle-class ethic he had inter-
nalized,.lHe didn't like the es-
tablishment's music, effeminate
and sissified in subject matter,
German influenced in method as
it was, but he liked the estab-
_ lishment.
Then again he didn't.
Ives in his old age turned
against New En land aristo-
cratic pretensions in politics as
he had in his youth against pre-
tensions in music. Inthes1920's
he took up the cause of popu-
lism, the cause of ethnics and
The People, but even now it
was a private matter (mostly
letters to New York City news-
papers) as his music had been
UMSchoo

By CHERYL PILATE
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER,
by Midge Mackenzie, Alfred
A. Knopf, Inc., New York:
$15.
WAY BACK IN 1963, a book
by a former suburban
housewife named Betty Friedan
entitled "The Feminine Mys-
tique" launched an era of mili-
tance and enlightenment for1
women -- "liberation" it was1
called. And twelve years ago it;
seemed as though no woman
had ever dreamed of such an
ideal before.
But the world - weariness of
women began long before the
early sixties, although present-a
day feminists seem to wear
blinders when it comes to anyJ
acknowledgement of the suf-
frage movement. Most women,
and I include myself, assume1
that women's enfranchisement
was the result of a polite, blood-
less battle. And nothing could
be further from the truth. 1
The suffrage movement in
I of Music

Britain, which was successful
two years before the American
movement, was marked by hun-
ger strikes, bloody demonstra-
tions, and police brutality to-
ward suffragist demonstrators.
Shoulder to Shoulder, a volu-
minous work edited by Midge
Maskenzie, chronicles the tears
and sweat struggle of the Bri-
tish suffragists. The story is told
through the diaries, speeches,
and memoirs, of the three
Pankhursts and a dozen other
suffragist leaders.
MACKENZIE, WHO ALSO de-
veloped, edited, and co-pro-
duced the B.B.C. and Master-
piece Theatre TV series of the
same title, explained in her
introduction why she spent the
past seven years combing mu-
seums and private collections to
unearth the suffragist story.
"The vast majority of us are
unaware of the great struggles,
achievements, and "writings of
the feminist movement in the
early 20th ,century. Although
still being carried on today in
the 'New Wave' of feminism, as
far as most women are con-
cerned, the contest is taking
place in a historical vacuum."
Mackenzie's documentary
does not pretend to be "objec-
tive." There is no commentary

from anti-suffrage members of regarded women as a servant
parliament criticizing the mili- class in the community, and
tant actions of the movement's that women were going to re-
leaders. She keeps her own nar- main in the servant class un-
ration to a bare minimum and til they lifted themselves out
allows the women to speak for of it."
themselves. And their hope, Shortly thereafter, the Wor-
zeal and frustration come en's Social and Political Union
through vividly - unclouded (WSPU) was born. Supported
by the interpretation of a text- by her two daughters Christa-
book analyst seeking to place bel and Sylvia, Emmeline be-
the movement into a historical gan organizing women to fight
perspective. for the vote. The WSPU's early
THESUFFRAGIST STORY isIactions were peaceable, but
material worthy of a his- persistent' and determined.
torical novelist. English wom- Whenever Cabinet ministers ap-
en had been trying for three peared publicly, they were ques-
generations to secure the vote tioned on the suffrage issue.
for their sex, but it wasn't until Groups of women made fre-
Emneline Pankhurst and her quent visits to 10 Downing St.,
two daughters jumped into the the home of the prime minister
fray that the suffragists began to confront him concerning votes
making headway. Emmeline's for women.
own conversion to the cause Gradually, when it was ap-
came when she was working as parent these tactics would not'
Registrar of Births and Deaths be successful, mass demonstra-
following the demise of her hus- tions and rallies occurred more
band. Working women told her and more frequently.
pathetic tales of poverty and
hardship, in some cases they EOR THEIR CIVIL disobedi-
brought pregnant daughters who ence, the women were
had been raped by their hus- thrown in jail and frequently
bands or other male relatives. subjected to police brutality.
If civilization is to advance, But they were determined. They
Emmeline concluded, women staged hunger strikes in prison
must be freed of their political and as soon as their terms of
shackles. "It was rapidly be- confinement were over, they re-,
coming clear to me that men turned to militant activities.,

presents

I

r~ 4r1 }
"We have taken this militant
action," states Emmeline dur-
ing Christabel's court trial af-
ter a rowdy demonstration at
Trafalgar Square, "because as
women we realize that the con-
dition of our sex is so deplor-
able that it is our duty even
to break the law in order to call
attention to the reasons why
we do so."
The government's deaf ear to
the women's demands event-
ually provoked the ultimate ac-
tion from one woman who was
convinced that only the sacri-
fice of a human life could move
the conscience of the country. In
April, 1913, Emily Wilding Da-
vison, an Oxford scholar, wrap-
ped herself in the green, pur-
ple and white WSPU flag and
threw herself under the hooves
of the King's horse and was
killed.
Her voice, like that of the
Pankhursts and the dozen oth-
er women who formed the
heart of the WSPU, communi-
cates her fervor and despair
through the pages of Macken-
zie's documentary. Their per-
sonal thoughts and conflicts,
idiosyncracies, and loyalties,
come through with incredible
clarity.
Full page pictures of all the
major characters and signifi-
cant demonstrations bring the
time period even closer to the
reader - history seems to rise
from the flatness of black and
white pages into a three-dimen-
sional emotional drama.
A ND ALTHOUGH THE story
is a sorrowful one in many
ways, it is ultimately a tale of
triumph which forces any read-
er to marvel at the fortitude
and determination of the En-
glish suffragists.
Cheryl Pilate is the Daily's
( Co-Editor in Chief.




THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC
FACULTY CHAMBER CONCERTS
THIRD PROGRAM
MARILYN MASON, harpsichord ROBERT CLARK, harpsichord
ELIZABETH MOSH ER, soprano EUGENE BOSSART, piano
KEITH BRYAN, flute ARNO MARIOTTI, oboe
JAZZ REPERTORY ENSEMBLE
Leader: JAMES DAPOGNY, piano; CARL ALEXIUS, bass; PETER FERRAN
(guest) reeds;

Associates: ROY
MONFILO, reeds;'
trombone; JOHN
BROWN, drums

MARTIN, LEE FRIEDRICH, PETER FARMER, DERYL
VAN ZIMMERMAN, trumpets; ARTHUR GOTTSCHALK,
LENNON; guitar, RANDY EVENDEN, tuba; THEODORE

CARL ORFF'S
CARMINA BURANA
and WILLIAM ALBRIGHT'S
SEVEN DEADLY SINS
Choreographed and Danced by
University Dancers
with the
University Chamber Choir
and the
University Symphony Orchestra
Featuring
Original Choreography by
Elizabeth Weil Bergmann
and
Gay Delanghe

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16 at 4:00 P.M.

I

RACKHAM AUDITORIUM

Soler, Ravel, Kelsy Jones, "Jelly Roll" Morton Part I1
Admission Complimentary

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HUNTING SEASON EXTENDED
Due to an unexpected, tho welcome,
display of enthusiasm for appts. the
MICHIGANENSIAN has scheduled
an additional week of senior por-
trait shootings. Appts. are being
Sy taken for

t
a'
pP P if
'' ' +


Conductor, Thomas

Hilbish

with
EVA LIKOVA, Soprano
LEONARD JOHNSON, Tenor
LESLIE GUINN, Baritone
and Dance Soloists: VERA EMBREE,
GAY DELANGHE, CHRISTINE DAKIN,
SYLVIE LAMBERT

I

MONDAY, NOV. 10-FRIDAY, NOV. 14

Refreshments
Freestyle
fl .".aftra~nea

MAKE AN APPT. NOW


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