Ives The Unanswered Question

Charles Ives 2005
Fourth Graders meet Ives

and discover new sounds,
new ways of thinking
about music and how

music impacts other art

Unit Throughlines
• How do we build understanding
about music which is so unfamiliar
to us?
• How can we create meaning, using
sound in unusual ways?
• How might we discover the
meaning and uses of rules and of
breaking them?

George Ives, the father
Charles Ives’
father was a key
figure in the
composer’s life.
The trumpet is
heard in many of
Ives’ pieces, a
kind of homage to
his father. When

you listen to Ives,
notice the
Understanding Goals
• Students will understand the varieties of
purposes and ways to listen to music.
• Students will understand the uses of
rules and rule breaking.
• Students will become aware of meaning
in various forms of music.
• Students will understand how music,
poetry and dance can be used as
partners in creating meaning.
•
What in Ives’ music is unique?
Young Charlie
Charlie displayed
talent at an early
age. The fourth
graders listened
to “Variations on
America” which
he composed in
his teen years.
They liked it.
Some of it

sounded like a
Fourth Graders,
Composers and Critics
The fourth graders became beginner composers
after hearing the story of little Charlie banging
on the piano. As it turns out he was banging
the drum part in perfect rhythm but while
using clusters of notes. Their pieces were
“clusterpieces”.
During the first week each group created the first
part of their music. Two or more lines of music
played, sometimes making dissonant sounds,
sometimes harmonic.
In the second and third week the students added
a second part and also a glockenspiel part.
Some students created songs that were A B A,
they played their first part twice.
“The Pond”
A sound of a distant horn,
O’er shadowed lake is borne,
My father’s song.
After hearing the music that belongs

with this poem, the students
answered these questions:
What did you Notice?What did you
Feel? Did you like it?
Symbol Systems
During this process
some students
figured out a way
to keep track of
their work. They
created “scores”
that were unique
and useful.

More symbols
Some students
even color coded
their symbol
system in order to
show two
different parts.
This piece also
had more than
one section. Some
students created

very complex
Music and Art
Students created
art work to
demonstrate the
feelings in their
music. Through
simple analysis
the students
found how pitch,
rhythm and
harmony or

dissonance create
Students chat about their
piece and share ideas….

Students decide how the
second section will sound.

Humor
Some of the music
the students
created sounded
cheery and bright,
almost humorous.
And in this picture
you can see that
humor, pigs
flying??

Where do ideas come
from?
Some fourth graders
didn’t always know
what their music
meant. An idea
from another
student might give
them an inspiration.
In this picture the
art demonstrates
hurried and
stressful feelings.

Those feelings are
clearly heard in the
Tropical Paradsie Fourth graders
do not yet know
about complex
Laughing nda isnigngplayingalong analysis of
We’rejustkidswedon’t haevplaytimeforlong music. But by
Weshouldstay puandabout paying close
Leaveusaloneto amke attention to
Ourownroute…. what the music

does the
students were
Using sounds in unusual
ways
Festivals of the Tribe
There were many
Deep in the jungle
kinds of sounds there is a tribe
that students dance,Around the
used to make fire they all prance
their music They party all night
colorful and Up until the first light
interesting. In With drums galoreYou
always want more
this poem the
At dawn,
students could The party is gone.

hear a tropical,
jungle kind of
Sounds,Words and Music
Musical Fish sings his Sometimes the
song
unusual sounds
Bubbles floating up
made the
Suddenly when they
reach the top The students see
musical notes arise unusual pictures
Bubbles blowing in their minds.
Blowingbubbles Can you imagine
Bubbles floating the sounds of
Floating bubbles
Bubbles popping
bubbles played on
Popping bubbles a glockenspiel?

Musical Fish sings his Can you imagine
Another response to
student music
Another Day
The day has begun

The birds are singing
The bells are ringing
The clocks are ticking
The flowers were blooming
The birds were cooing
As I looked out the window
I said with a sigh
Another day has gone by

More student poetry
Seasons is to changing as winter is to snow.
Seasons is to changing as spring is to flowers.
Seasons is to changing as summer is to fun.
Seasons is to changing as fall is to leaves.
NATURE HAS CHANGED!!

The Unanswered
Questions
Charles Ives thought deeply about important
questions. He wondered why we are here and
what we are supposed to do with our lives. He
wondered about questions that really have no
answer. The fourth graders came up with
some of their own questions. They wondered if
the universe would go on forever, if the sun
would ever die, if we are the only thinking
creatures in the universe. We listened to
Ives’”The Unanswered Question”. It is
powerful, sad and peaceful music.

The end of our exploring?
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first
time.
T.S. Eliot
Now we have returned from our

journey, our exploration. We are
home. What new adventures in

understanding music

await us? I

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Charles Ives 2005

Fourth Graders meet Ives

After hearing the music that belongs

The day has begun

NATURE HAS CHANGED!!

Now we have returned from our

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