A Few Early 78s of Ives and Ruggles

Charles Ives

New on my other blog are remastered versions of six early LP discs of Charles Ives' music, presented to mark the sesquicentennial of his birth. The composer had to wait until late in his life for interest in his work to take root, but by his death in 1954, the record companies had begun to take notice.

I am not sure which record of his music was made first, but it may well be the initial selection under consideration today - a 78 dating back to 1934 issued by the New Music Quarterly.

The conductor was Nicolas Slonimsky, best known these dates as a musicologist and writer. The composer possibly provided subvention for the disc.

Slonimsky conducted the Pan American Orchestra in Ives' "Barn Dance" and "In the Night," No. 3 of the composer's Set of Pieces (aka Set for Theater Orchestra).

Carl Ruggles

On the reverse side, Slonimsky coupled two works by another American iconoclast, Carl Ruggles - "Lilacs" from Men and Mountains, and the only vocal work ever written by the composer, "Toys," with a penetrating solo by Judith Litante.

Nicolas Slonimsky, Werner Janssen

Janssen's disc has been dated to 1949, and is a fill up to a 78 set of Henry F. Gilbert's Dance in the Place Congo (not included here). The conductor presents Ives' "The Housatonic at Stockbridge," one of the Three Places in New England. It was made with the Janssen Symphony, a group that Janssen conducted in Los Angeles in the 1940s.

LINK to early Ives and Ruggles on 78