SITUATING CHARLES IVES MUSIC-HISTORICALLY: a transatlantic reconsideration of Ives’s aesthetics and music within the debate on absolute music

This study aims to redefine the music-historical positioning of the American composer Charles Ives

as a key figure in the fin de siècle. Ives has been regarded as an extension of the European

Romantic tradition, but has embodied a peculiar stance among contemporaries that seemed

difficult to declare. By exploring his aesthetics, I discovered that Ives took a distinct position in the

debate on absolute music. His choice not to disconnect absolute music from program music, as it

was done so in Europe since ca. 1850, set him apart from his contemporaries, and made him fit

better in pre-1850 aesthetic tendencies. In this way, Ives resonated with American tendencies that

grew out of the same aesthetic premises as European musical currents but developed in their own

way (e.g. Transcendentalism). My approach on Ives’ aesthetics combines his European legacy and

American background from within a completely new perspective (absolute music) and will

encounter questions on his music-historical positioning that caused a current impasse in Ives

research. After a thorough investigation of Ives’ aesthetics through an interpretational framework

within broader 19th century aesthetics, Ives’ music will be studied by focusing on the aesthetic

aims that were decisive for his compositional choices. Special attention will be drawn on the

transatlantic interaction of music and aesthetics, which will make it fit within a broader crosscultural

rethinking of American music in recent years.