{"id":1339,"date":"2019-04-03T17:15:14","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T21:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=1339"},"modified":"2019-04-03T17:15:21","modified_gmt":"2019-04-03T21:15:21","slug":"mark-twain-charles-ives-and-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2019\/04\/mark-twain-charles-ives-and-race.html","title":{"rendered":"Mark Twain, Charles Ives, and Race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the current issue the quarterly review Raritan<\/em>, I write that Mark Twain\u2019s Adventures of<\/em> Huckleberry Finn<\/em> and Charles Ives\u2019s Symphony No. 2 \u201care twin\nAmerican cultural landmarks, comparable in method and achievement.\u201d  They both transform a hallowed Old World genre\n\u2013 the novel, the symphony — through recourse to New World vernacular speech. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To read the whole piece, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It bears mentioning that Ives and Mark Twain knew one\nanother via the Reverend Joseph Twitchell. Twitchell was for forty years Samuel\nClemens\u2019s closest friend. His daughter Harmony married Charlie Ives in 1908. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crucially, both Twain\u2019s novel and Ives\u2019s symphony deal with the inescapable American self-affliction: slavery. At the heart of Huck\u2019s story is his moral epiphany on the raft with Jim: Huck’s precocious early manhood is confirmed by a dawning realization that laws of the heart trump human laws such as those dictating that black men may be enslaved, and that slaves who escape be returned to their \u201cmasters.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Ives: we know from a 1943 letter to the conductor Artur\nRodzinski that he linked his symphony with the \u201cfret and storm and stress of liberty\u201d\nof the Civil War. Its movement two sonata form adapts for its main theme an\nAbolitionist song: \u201cWake Nicodemus.\u201d Where the marches and dances of the finale\nabate for a plaintive horn tune citing Stephen Foster\u2019s \u201cOld Black Joe,\u201d Ives (as\nhe told Rodzinski) finds inspiration in Foster\u2019s \u201csadness for the slaves.\u201d The\npassage in question is the symphony\u2019s lyric pinnacle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Mark Twain\u2019s America, Ives\u2019s America embraced the tragedy and turmoil of slavery and race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the current issue the quarterly review Raritan, I write that Mark Twain\u2019s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Charles Ives\u2019s Symphony No. 2 \u201care twin American cultural landmarks, comparable in method and achievement.\u201d  They both transform a hallowed Old World genre \u2013 the novel, the symphony — through recourse to New World vernacular speech. To […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-lB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1339"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1346,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339\/revisions\/1346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}