Hallowe'en (Ives)

Background#

Ives’s inspiration to conceive Hallowe’en comes from his memories of childhood. As the composer himself explained, Hallowe’en is “but a take-off of a Halloween party and bonfire – the elfishness of the little boys throwing wood on the fire, etc.” It was probably composed on April 1, 1906, or 1907 and revised in 1911, although the manuscript does not show dates other than “1st of April”. The piece would not have a formal first performance until April 22, 1934, where an unidentified chamber orchestra performed it at the Alvin Theater in New York City, with conductor Albert Stoessel. This performance took place in a concert of music and dance organized by Martha Graham and her group and sponsored by the Pan American Association of Composers. The Ives works performed on this occasion also included The Pond and The Gong on the Hook and Ladder, all being premiered as an instrumental interlude. Hallowe’en was only published in 1949 by Bomart Music Publications, initially intended to be the first movement of a short suite for orchestra entitled Three Outdoor Scenes, the other pieces being The Pond and Central Park in the Dark. However, the other pieces were published after a long time and Bomart failed to identify the set of pieces with a collective title.

Structure#

This is a short piece, with a duration of 2 to 3 minutes and 18 bars without repetitions. It is scored for a first and a second violin, a viola, a cello, and a piano, with the possibility of adding a drum or a bass drum ad libitum. The composition is intended to be played several times with a different tempo each time, returning from the mark D. C. and playing the coda the last time, as customary. Whenever the repetition is not followed by the coda, all string players are asked to play the last two bars in each repetition. The drum or bass drum part is not present in the score. However, Ives proposed that a drum or a bass drum be used in the fourth repetition and coda. Ives specified that the percussion part would be “impromptu or otherwise”. After that, the piece becomes also canonic in accents, phrases, durations, and spaces. The piano plays chords, which become faster and faster as the piece develops.

Workmanship#

Ives was particularly fond of this composition, and he often described it as “one of the most carefully worked out compositions (technically speaking), and one of the best pieces (from the standpoint of workmanship) that I’ve ever done”. In fact, he used the term workmanship with positive connotations to refer to Hallowe’en, which he described as music that is both organized and original. He also added that “I happened to get exactly the effect I had in mind, which is the only (at least an important) function of good workmanship”, in a way conveying the idea that good music has progressive workmanship and that that is part of what makes Hallowe’en one of his “best pieces”.

Recordings#

• The piece was first recorded together with a handful of other Ives’s compositions in 1951. This recording was made by the Polymusic Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Will Lorin under the pseudonym Vladimir Cherniavsky. It was issued in 1951 under the Polymusic label.
• The New York String Quartet, which consisted of violinists Paul Zukofsky and Romuald Tecco, violist Jean Dupouy, and cellist Robert Sylvester, recorded the piece with pianist Gilbert Kalish under the Columbia Masterworks label. The piece was performed between Largo Risoluto No. 1 and No.2 and was recorded as a single track. It was released in 1970 on LP.
• Violinists John Celentano and Millard Taylor, violist Francis Tursi, cellist Alan Harris, and pianist Frank Glazer also recorded the piece in February 1974. The piece was released on a three-vinyl box set under the VoxBox label in 1976.
• Leonard Bernstein recorded the piece with the New York Philharmonic in November 1988, at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. The recording was released by Deutsche Grammophon on compact disc in 1990, with subsequent re-releases in 2013 and 2018.
• Kent Nagano also recorded the piece with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra at the Maison symphonique in Montreal, Canada on October 29 and 30, 2015. It was released under Decca on compact disc in 2016.