Please allow me to start this “Musical Borrowing series” with a personal favorite of mine. The story of these simple four notes is quite fascinating. Here is the motif: The first time I came accross this theme was not the first
Mozart’s Four Notes
Charles Ives
Charles Ives’s First Symphony was written in partial fulfillment of his degree requirements for graduation from Yale College in 1898. In tackling his first large-scale orchestral project he turned out what from today’s perspective is a fine, often very
Ives’ 2nd: American melody in an accomplished European vessel
In 1900, Charles Ives, the dean of American maverick composers, set out to compose his second symphony some ten years after he had finished his first, a work he wrote strictly in a traditional European style as demanded by his