Alcotts, The

Charles Ives

General Info

Year: 1920 / 1947
Duration: c. 5:45
Difficulty: V see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Orchestra
Publisher: Schirmer Associated Music Publishers
Cost: Rental

Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
English Horn
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
E-flat Alto Clarinet
B-flat Bass Clarinet I-II
E-flat Contra-alto Clarinet
B-flat Contrabass Clarinet
E-fkat Alto Saxophone (doubling soprano sax)
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
Bass Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II
B-flat Cornet I-II
Fleugelhorn I-II
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III-IV
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Celesta
Timpani
Percussion(3), including:

Bass Drum
Chimes
Crash Cymbals (3 pairs)
Glockenspiel
Marimba, bass
Snare Drum
Suspended Cymbal
Tam-Tam
Vibraphone

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

The Alcotts is the subject of one of Ives’s Essays Before a Sonata, which he published concurrently with the Concord Sonata in 1920. In the essay, Ives takes us inside the elm-shaped Orchard House where “sits the old spinet piano Sophia Thoreau gave to the Alcott children, on which Beth played the old Scotch airs, and played at Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.” Warming as always to such a scene of home music-making, he continues: “ All around you, under the Concord sky there still floats ... that human faith melody reflecting an innate hope, a common interest in common men, a tune that the Concord bards are ever playing when they pound away at the immensities with a Beethoven-like sublimity, and with vengeance and perseverance.”

Transcribed for the U.S. Marine Band by Jonathan Elkus from Ives’s 1946-47 revision of the Concord Sonata.

- Program notes by Jonathan Elkus

The Piano Sonata No. 2, "Concord, Mass., 1840-1860," commonly known as the "Concord Sonata" was composed between 1909 and 1915 and consists of four movements, each bearing the name of a famous mid-19th century resident of Concord. To some degree, each movement is a musical impression of the personality and philosophical attitudes of its subject. The Alcotts is a section of simple and serene beauty and monumental character - a touching and lovingly etched remembrance of the Alcotts' Orchard House "under the elms" and the spirit of "that human faith melody" which, for Ives, was the root of that time and place.

– Program Note by Richard E. Thurston

Media

Audio: United States Marine Band (Timothy W. Foley, conductor)
Audio CD: United States Marine Band (Timothy W. Foley, conductor)

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

University of Miami (Coral Gables) Frost Symphonic Winds (Jay Rees, conductor) – 16 February 2020
University of Cincinnati (Ohio) College-Conservatory of Music Wind Symphony (Kevin Michael Holzman, conductor) – 28 November 2018
University of California (Berkeley) Wind Ensemble (Matthew Sadowski, conductor) - 28 October 2018
Arizona State University (Tempe) Wind Orchestra (Gary W. Hill, conductor) – 25 September 2018
Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Wind Ensemble (Lancaster, Penn.) (Michael Fansler, conductor) – 21 April 2018
Kennesaw (Ga.) State University Wind Symphony (Debra Traficante, conductor) – 17 April 2018
University of Illinois (Champaign) Wind Symphony (Stephen G. Peterson, conductor) – 3 May 2017
Truman State University (Kirksville, Mo.) Wind Symphony (Curran Pendergast, conductor) – 22 April 2016
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) Concert Band (Courtney Snyder, conductor) – 18 March 2016
University of South Florida (Tampa) Wind Ensemble (John Carmichael, conductor) – 19 February 2016 (CBDNA 2016 Southern Division Conference, Charleston, S.C.)
Eastman Wind Ensemble (Mark Davis Scatterday, conductor) - 20 February 2015
Sutherland Wind Band Festival Orchestra (Lawrence R. Sutherland, conductor) - 23 March 2014 (2014 Sutherland Wind Festival, Fresno, Calif.)
San Jose State University Wind Ensemble (Edward C. Harris, conductor) - CBDNA Western/Northwestern Division Convention (Reno, Nev.) 14 March 2014
University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) Wind Ensemble (Lawrence R. Sutherland, conductor) - 7 November 2012
Oregon Wind Ensemble (David Vickerman, conductor) - November 2009

Works for Winds by This Composer

The Alcotts (tr. Elkus) (1920/1947)
The Alcotts (tr. Thurston) (1920/1972)
Charlie Rutlage (tr. Sinclair)
A Christmas Carol (tr. Paxton) (1922/2016)
The Circus Band (tr. Elkus)
A Concord Symphony (tr. Patterson) (1920/2010)
"Country Band" March (tr. Sinclair) (1903/1974)
Decoration Day (tr. Elkus)
Fantasia on "Jerusalem the Golden" (1888)
Finale from "Symphony No. 2" (tr. Elkus) (1907/1974)
Four Eccentric Songs (tr. Paxton) (1922/2016)
Fugue in C (arr. Sinclair) (1900/1992)
Here's to Good Ol' Yale: See: March 6: Here's to Good Ol' Yale
In the Mornin' (arr. Singleton) (1929)
Lento Maestoso and Finale from "Symphony No. 2" (tr. Elkus) (1907/1974/2001)
March 6: Here's to Good Ol' Yale (tr. Elkus) (1897/2003)
March Intercollegiate (ed. Brion) (1892(?)/1973)
Memories, Very Pleasant and and Rather Sad (arr. Elkus) (1922/2011?)
Old Fashioned Hymns (tr. Paxton) (1922/2016)
Old Home Days (arr. Elkus) (1954)
Omega Lambda Chi (ed. Brion) (1896/1974)
Overture and March "1776" (tr. Sinclair) (1904/1910)
Postlude in F (tr. Singleton) (1890-92/1991)
Ragtime Dance No. 4 (trans. Sinclair) (?/1990)
Runaway Horse on Main Street (1908)
A Son of a Gambolier (arr. Elkus) (1892/1962)
Symphony No. 2. See: Lento Maestoso and Finale from "Symphony No. 2" and Finale from "Symphony No. 2"
They are There! (arr. Sinclair)
The Unanswered Question (1908/1935/1989)
Variations on "America" (orch. Schuman, tr. Rhoads) (1891/1968)
Variations on "Jerusalem the Golden" (tr. Brion) (1900/1974)

Resources

Battisti, Frank. The NEW Winds of Change. Meredith Music Publications, 2018, pp. 181.
Williams, Nicholas Enrico. "The Alcotts." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 10, Compiled and edited by Richard Miles, 819-825. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2015.