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Cooney 1996 A Sense of Place Charles Ives and Putnams Camp
Cooney 1996 A Sense of Place Charles Ives and Putnams Camp
Cooney 1996 A Sense of Place Charles Ives and Putnams Camp
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DENISE VON GLAHN COONEY
Denise Von Glahn Cooney received her Ph.D. in music history from the Uni-
versity of Washington in 1995. She has taught courses in music history there
and at the University of Puget Sound.
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A Sense of Place 277
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278 Cooney
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A Sense of Place 279
in the barn and left them there until the owner's wrath was trans-
ferred from the slave to the joker."10 Perhaps the most vivid of the
early tales surrounding Israel Putnam relates his determination to rid
his farm of a particularly fierce and deadly she-wolf that killed sev-
enty of the family's sheep in one night. Putnam succeeded, but only
after the most heroic of efforts. Twice he crawled dozens of feet into
the animal's den; ultimately he shot the wolf at point-blank range and
was dragged back out to safety by his grateful neighbors with his
prize in tow.1
Putnam's military career was accompanied by equally daring
deeds: a narrow escape from being burned at the stake in 1758 dur-
ing the French and Indian Wars; survival of a shipwreck in 1762; and
a truly Hollywood-worthy flight from a British soldier in 1779 that
included leaping through a window, springing onto his horse, and
evading a spray of gunfire by leading his mount down a long flight
of stone steps to safety.12 The incident to which Ives refers in the pro-
gram that accompanies "Putnam's Camp," where Putnam succeed-
ed in turning back some near-deserters from the training camp at
Redding, seems to pale by comparison with other of the general's re-
puted escapades.13 One can easily imagine Ives's attraction to such a
rugged, exuberant character, an individual who exhibited physical
prowess as well as a flexible and resourceful mind, an individual who
possessed a strong sense of patriotism and personal duty, an individ-
ual who demonstrated a willingness to do what was necessary to ac-
complish the desired results.
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280 Cooney
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A Sense of Place 281
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282 Cooney
The First Orchestral Set, called Three Places in New England (though
before it had the nice name of New England Symphony), was com-
pletely scored for a large orchestra in 1914-but it has a varied
history, or a life with a past. Some of the things in the second
movement, The Children's Holiday at Putnam's Camp, were from,
and suggested by, an overture and march for theatre orchestra
or small brass band in 1902-03 (see old scores and sketches, some
pages of which are [in] photostat copies, as the lead-pencil notes
and paper were getting faint and worn and hard to make out).
Some of these chords and rhythms came about, to a certain ex-
tent, from the habit of the piano-drum-playing referred to above.
These pieces were called March and Overture, 1776 .... I first re-
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A Sense of Place 283
The second half of this quotation holds particular promise for un-
derstanding Ives's involvement in his culture through his music.
Brewster's play was more than a romantic story about the cost and
character of patriotism.34 In focusing on a single incident from the
nation's history, the author elevated the importance of individual ef-
forts and personal choices in affecting all American history. By citing
a specific event, he offered a glimpse of a larger truth, in much the
same way that Ives's sonifications of local places provided views on
the universal condition. In his sympathetic acknowledgment of the
complexity of individuals and their motives and emotions, Brewster
gave a glimpse of himself and his values.35 By extolling the wisdom
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284 Cooney
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A Sense of Place 285
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286 Cooney
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A Sense of Place 287
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288 Cooney
Once upon a "4th of July," some time ago, so the story goes, a
child went there on a picnic, held under the auspices of the First
Church and the Village Cornet Band. Wandering away from the
rest of the children past the camp ground into the woods, he
hopes to catch a glimpse of some of the old soldiers. As he rests
on the hillside of laurel and hickories, the tunes of the band and
the songs of the children grow fainter and fainter;-when-
"mirabile dictu"-over the trees on the crest of the hill he sees a
tall woman standing. She reminds him of a picture he has of the
Goddess of Liberty,-but the face is sorrowful-she is pleading
with the soldiers not to forget their "cause" and the great sac-
rifices they have made for it. But they march out of camp with
fife and drum to a popular tune of the day. Suddenly a new na-
tional note is heard. Putnam is coming over the hills from the cen-
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A Sense of Place 289
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290 Cooney
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A Sense of Place 291
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292 Cooney
1 AStrings
4 r 61 L 0 r I A A
4 V., Via.
A A V V
4
Hrn., Tuba
_: + Fg. V . , ,
Vi. Vla
+s
Fg. i[Cb
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A Sense of Place 293
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"Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticu
[ Measures 1-63 7 Measures 64-113 7 Measures 114 (
Newly Composed New
mm. 50-79 mm
m. 64 m. 113 m.
VIRTUAL CLIMAX STRU
(Based upon James B. Sinclair's "tunes of "mirabile (oboe) (tpt. & dr.) "Suddenly "The little b
1976 Mercury Edition) band and dictu" "Goddess "but they a new national awakes and d
songs of pleads with march out of note is heard" hears the the
children grow soldiers not camp to a children's to
fainter and to forget popular tune songs" the
fainter" their cause..." of the day."
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A Sense of Place 295
Vlns.
Hrns
49 Pf. Fl 3 -- 3-- 3 3
Cl.
--~----
+ Ob.
+ I
II,- S.
W~
"/
Dr. "/
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296 Cooney
Example 2, cont.
r-Vln., Cl.
A - - .. ..-
52 fA, , - , A,
I I
3 3 V3 VC. 1
-3 333 3 3I -
[about 88-84 = ]
-3 -[about 88-84 , --
S- ----- 3 3 C rallen.
I w I rAMPI
-3 -3
BW.Dop
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A Sense of Place 297
Example 2, cont.
F + Pf.
F- Pf. L.H.
Strings con sord. 7 .
61 Quasi largo O A
B.D.
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298 Cooney
r- L.H.
Ob 2~ 7 _ . T . C1. ?
Pf"
Strings
Strings, A A A A A
68 Ob . "
Cl.
Tpt.I 4 ,
Vla. II pizz.
Strings
~~f~ y ) ~L # ?l~r?TI
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A Sense of Place 299
Tpt.
Vla. iI
Pf., Sn. Dr. cresc. poco a poco
Fg.
Strings
0! i
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300 Cooney
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A Sense of Place 301
tf arco Ao A
(Brass) Strings
W., LI
V . V
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302 Cooney
Appendix
Selected lines from "Poem," by Professor Charles Frederick Johnson (Trinity
College, Hartford, 1888)74
1 The men of Rome, who framed the first free state,
When Rome in men and not in wealth was great,
Placed in their homes, as in an honored shrine,
Rude portrait busts, cut with no art divine,
5 But roughly chipped from rock or wrought in brass
By craftsmen of the town, so might time pass,
And still the worthy sire perpetuate
Brave thoughts, brave deeds, in men of later date.
And these they called their household gods, and knew
10 Them worthy worship, and from them they drew
The consciousness that men had lived and died
In days agone; these dull and heavy-eyed
Stone faces mutely testified that life
Is grounded in the past, that toil and strife
15 Are not for self, nor borne for self alone,
That children reap where worthy sires have sown.
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A Sense of Place 303
Strong-limbed, great-hearted m
There is no marble white enough
95 Of fineness fit to build their monument;
No roof is needed but the heavens bent
Above their heads,-the air, wide-spread and free,
Shall symbolize a people's liberty.
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304 Cooney
NOTES
1. I have invented the word sonification and its verb form to sonify to describe a
manifestations of otherwise nonsounding phenomena-objects and places-that o
in Ives's music. One can think of sonification as meaning "a sonic representatio
equivalent."
2. See Ives's "Ann Street," song no. 25 of 114 Song (Redding, Conn.: the author, 1922),
and "The Housatonic at Stockbridge," from Three Places in New England, ed. James B.
Sinclair (Bryn Mawr, Pa.: Mercury Music, 1976 [1935]).
3. George J. Demko, Why in the World: Adventures in Geography (New York: Anchor,
1992), 226.
4. The alternate title Ives suggested was "The Children's Holiday at Putnam's
Camp" (see Charles E. Ives, Memos, edited and with appendixes by John Kirkpatrick
[New York: Norton, 1972], 83).
5. In my dissertation, "Reconciliations: Time, Space and the American Place in the
Music of Charles Ives" (Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 1995), I suggest a pro-
gram for "The 'Saint-Gaudens' in Boston Common" that progresses from place to event
and back to place. The program of "Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut," that Ives
provided moves from present-day activities to the historical place and back again to
activities. Although obviously these activities occur at Putnam Memorial Park, it is the
events that are sonified in the outer sections of this piece and not the place itself. The
sonification of place must wait for the quiet of the child's dream world. Only at this
point can place permeate the consciousness and be heard. When the sounds of picnic
activities return and intrude on the dream, attention is diverted away from the histor-
ic place and there is a return to the activities of the here and now.
6. Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Regiment played a complex role in the nation-
al drama of the Civil War. According to Civil War historian George M. Fredrickson,
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A Sense of Place 305
9. Genuine comparisons can be made between the two sites. The winter of 1778-79
was one of the most severe in New England and so a good match for the uncompro-
mising Pennsylvania winter that made Washington's encampment famous. In addition
to having similarly extreme environments, the two camps had similar living quarters.
"These barracks, like those at Valley Forge, were built of logs, notched at the corners,
and chinked with mortar, with a capacious stone chimney on one gable end. They were
12 feet wide by 16 long and accommodated twelve privates, or eight officers"; see
Charles Burr Todd, An Illustrated Guide to Putnam Memorial Camp, Redding, Connecticut
(N.p., Conn.: State of Connecticut, 1927), 11. But Putnam's troops did not suffer the
same degree of corporeal deprivations as did the Valley Forge contingent. According
to one report, the Connecticut troops were most distressed not with their own physi-
cal condition but with "the starvation and suffering of their wives and children, and
of those who depended on them at home" (Report of the Commissioners of the Israel Put-
nam Memorial Camp Ground to His Excellency, The Governor, February 1, 1905, for the Two
Years Ending September 30, 1904 [Hartford, Conn.: Hartford Printing, 1905], 31). Addi-
tional comparisons between Putnam Memorial Camp Ground and Valley Forge can
be found in the 1905 report (pp. 26-28) and an earlier report issued in 1903 (Report of
the Commissioners of the Israel Putnam Memorial Camp Ground to His Excellency the Gov-
ernor, January 15, 1903, for the Fifteen Months Ending September 30, 1902 [Hartford, Conn.:
Hartford Printing, 1903], 45). Since Putnam's military record was not without blem-
ish, he especially stood to gain from an association with the lionized commander-in-
chief.
"Old Put's" defeat at the Battle of Long Island (Aug. 27, 1776) and his abandon-
ment of American forts in the Hudson River highlands in May 1777 resulted in a court
of inquiry regarding his actions and his eventual reassignment to recruiting duties.
Nonetheless his agrarian roots, his youthful exploits as a private citizen and as a fron-
tier fighter in the French and Indian Wars, and his truly distinguished service at the
Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775) were enough to make him a genuine folk hero
among New Englanders. Local residents forgave his weaknesses as a military tacti-
cian and concentrated on his legendary reputation for fearlessness, strength, and brav-
ery, which proved him to be a colorful exemplar of Yankee self-reliance and resource-
fulness.
10. Don C. Seitz, Uncommon Americans: Pencil Portraits of Men and Women Who Have
Broken the Rules (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1925), 108.
11. A fuller account of this tale is offered by Seitz in Uncommon Americans, 108-10.
12. Ibid., 122.
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306 Cooney
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A Sense of Place 307
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308 Cooney
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A Sense of Place 309
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310 Cooney
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312 Cooney
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