Charlie Rutlage

Charles Ives

Charles Ives (trans. James B. Sinclair)

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General Info

Year: 1920
Duration: c. 2:30
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: American folk song
Publisher: Unknown
Cost: Unknown

Instrumentation

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Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

Ives was fond of transforming his own songs for voice and piano into instrumental works or accompaniments -- as he was equally fond of deriving songs from his instrumental works. Hence, the double life of Charlie Rutlage, Ives's intensely dramatic setting of a cowboy ballad collected by John A. Lomax. The ballad begins as a simple eulogy to the cowpuncher Charlie, proceeds with growing fervency to tell of his being crushed by his falling horse on spring roundup, and concludes with the hope that Charlie will meet his loved ones and parents "face to face ... at the shining throne of grace." Ives had intended his vocal-instrumental version of Charlie Rutlage for inclusion in a set to be named The Other Side of Pioneering, or Side Lights on American Enterprise.

-Program Note by Jonathan Elkus

The second half of the concert took a trad-folk turn with Charlie Rutlage, which Ives took from Alan Lomax’s great anthology of old American folk songs. The ONE concert didn’t have vocalists, just instrumental elements, with song texts presented as liner notes in the program. Ives’ ingenious take on Charlie Rutlage starts folky, but soon breaks apart into a maelstrom of squawks and plinks, then falls on a cushion of soft strings, then gets up and finds its melody again. Sinclair seemed positively invigorated after conducting it. “What a great cowboy song!,” he exulted. “It has a real American feel, doesn’t it?”

-Program note by Chris Arnott for New Haven Independent

Media

State Ratings

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Performances

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New England Conservatory (Boston, Mass.) Wind Ensemble (Charles Peltz, conductor) – 10 November 2022
New England Conservatory (Boston, Mass.) Wind Ensemble (Charles Peltz, conductor) – 13 February 2019
University of Florida (Gainesville) Wind Symphony (David Waybright, conductor) – 19 January 2015

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

"Ives Revived." New Haven Independent, 2014. Web Accessed 16 June 2016
"The President's Own" United States Marine Band program notes