Cooney 1996 A Sense of Place Charles Ives and Putnams Camp

A Sense of Place: Charles Ives and "Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut"
Author(s): Denise Von Glahn Cooney

Source: American Music, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Autumn, 1996), pp. 276-312
Published by: University of Illinois Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3052601
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DENISE VON GLAHN COONEY
A Sense of Place: Charles Ives and
"Putnam's Camp, Redding,

Connecticut"
Browsing through Charles Ives's autobiographical Memos, a reader

becomes increasingly aware of Ives's use of place to record early per-
formances, to date compositions, and to reconstruct events. Dozen
of references to specific churches, home addresses, and summer re-
treats, along with poetic descriptions of natural scenery, reveal a cre
ative artist keenly aware of his physical surroundings. Evidence of
Ives's sensitivity to the environment is not confined to his prose ac-
counts, however. This susceptibility to place found its way into Ives's
music as well, into works that I call his "place pieces." Whether the
composer "sonified"' a crowded street in lower Manhattan or a river
wending through the Berkshire Mountains,2 Ives used the musical
memorializations of places to get at ideas that were especially impor-
tant to him.
In Why in the World: Adventures in Geography George J. Demko de-
scribes the forces unleashed by naming a location. In the most gen-
eral way, a place reference "can give wing to the imagination: to
sights, sounds, smells, recollections, and unspoken adventures that
can be powerfully moving."3 In the more elusive sound world of
music, a place reference can focus a listener's perceptions in the
broadest way. (Even a title whose sense of place is as vague as that
of Debussy's La Mer begins to focus a listener's expectations.) But Ives
endeavored to go beyond Demko's general associations of place in
his music. He sought to convey specific meanings captured in spe-
cific locations.
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.
American Music Fall 1996

@ 1996 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
A Sense of Place 277
For the modern listener Ives's

into a long-gone era and the e
composer and his contempora
paths leading toward the ideas
of one such work will underscor
nificance of Ives's places; it will
volvement in his culture.
Among Ives's most famous pieces is his First Orchestral Set, A New
England Symphony: Three Places in New England. As the first Ives work
to be "taken abroad," performed under the aegis of Nicolas Slonim-
sky and the Pan-American Composers Concert Series in 1931, Three
Places in New England has long been in the public eye as an exemplar
of music by an American composer. To its first audiences in Paris and
Havana, however, Three Places in New England was not just a piece
by an American; its title informed them it was a piece about Ameri-
ca-specific places in a specific region in America. Unknown to these
overseas audiences was the fact that the locations were important to
the composer for reasons beyond personal import, physical beauty,
or inspirational potential; for two of the three movements, national
historical significance played an important role as well. In compos-
ing these place pieces and dispatching them to the world at large, Ives
called attention to American issues, ideals, experiences, and perspec-
tives. He clarified his engagement with his culture.
In the first movement of Three Places in New England, "The 'Saint-
Gaudens' in Boston Common (Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and His
Colored Regiment)," Ives's quiet contemplation at historic Boston
Common gradually stimulates the mental and musical reconstruction
of events associated with the Civil War. The second movement, "Put-
nam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut,"4 begins with an episode that
initially appears to be unrelated to a celebration of the location, a
memorial park; ultimately this same episode proves to be the impe-
tus for a reverie on the history of the physical place.5 In "The 'Saint-
Gaudens"' the soft, restrained sounds of the common surround and
embrace the monument and the heroic men it honors; in "Putnam's
Camp" the memorialized soldiers' encampment quietly emerges from
within the uproarious sounds of a Fourth of July picnic. Listeners dis-
cover relationships between present and past that exist at Putnam's
Camp: festivities that open the piece are momentarily forgotten as lis-
teners close in on a historical event; before the piece is over, music
and listeners ultimately return to the present.
In both pieces "place" is intimately interwoven with significant
events. Places become monuments to the nation's history. To varying
degrees in both pieces Ives commingles aspects of the past and present
and creates an atmosphere in which the two tenses are more synony-
278 Cooney
mous than continuous. I

tions; then and there is he
Although a similar roote
tant differences distingu
in New England. Essential
within the places thems
monument to Robert Go
about the essence of Am
noblest ideals and presen
story.6 The memorial park
had a more concentrated
Boston Common. For the
regional reference, would
century Connecticut resid
New England states in the
ploits of a favorite local h
took place at the camp ha
Whereas the transcendent music of "The 'Saint-Gaudens"' was intend-
ed to transport and elevate all who listened, the music of "Putnam's
Camp," even with all its raucous good humor, was designed to sol-
emnize the familiar. Ives invited auditors to go beyond the sounds
of his music to the sources of his ideas. Because the relative ambit of
this second piece was contracted, it is shorter and on a smaller scale
than the first movement.7
One Place-Israel Putnam and the Memorial Camp Ground

The camp ground8 memorialized in Ives's second movement was es-
tablished by the Connecticut legislature in 1887 and named for Amer-
ican Revolutionary War general Israel Putnam (1718-90), who over-
saw the training camp located at Redding in 1778-79. The site was
regularly referred to as "Connecticut's Valley Forge," purportedly
because of the similar physical hardships suffered by soldiers at both
winter encampments. But a fuller assessment of such a comparison
would have to acknowledge the allure of any site, structure, or per-
son that could claim an association, however tangential, with Gener-
al George Washington.9
Don C. Seitz recounts a number of legends that grew up around
the successful private citizen-farmer Israel Putnam in Uncommon
Americans: Pencil Portraits of Men and Women Who Have Broken the
Rules: "He tamed a vicious bull by donning spurs and riding the beast
around a field until the animal bellowed 'enough.' Called to aid in
whipping a refractory negro (this was in the days of colonial slave-
holding) he lassoed master and man together, swung them to a beam
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.
Israel Putnam and American History

The Israel Putnam of myth bears important similarities to Cincinna-
tus, the farmer-patriot of ancient Rome who, on hearing his repub-
lic's call, left his plow in the field to lead military campaigns. Accord-
ing to the story, after each of two successful engagements, Cincinnatus
willingly resigned his position as leader of the army and returned to
the cultivation of his four-acre farm. The ancient Cincinnatus myth
was transformed in the early nineteenth century by historians of the
newly formed United States, who used it to show the similarly strong
character of its finest citizens and to establish the nation in the larger
world-historical context.14
Perhaps the most famous "American Cincinnatus" is George Wash-
ington. Garry Wills points to Mason Locke Weems, an early biogra-
pher of Washington, who along with others adapted the ancient myth
of Cincinnatus for American audiences.'5 According to Wills, Weems
marketed the first president as a dutiful man of the soil who left his
land to serve his country and humbly asked that he be allowed to
280 Cooney
return to the plow when

is in fact doubtful that W
documents his argument
the early nineteenth centu
Washington-as-Cincinnatu
Because local heroes cou
could from a comparison
surprise to find that biog
tain references to the ma
the national struggle.'6 O
extension, America were
since the New Englander
farm operation (more tha
turned his back on a mode
and quality of the Putnam
the geographical plenty
tional character could be
the corresponding actions
acter of the local people o
historical and ideological
the efforts of Israel Putn
humble, heroic public se
as in Rome; the Connectic
There is no need for co
dissemination of the leg
ers in the early twentieth
story's vitality and curren
appeared in the Danbury N
portance to the conceptio
special interest to a discu
line reference to the plow
and humility. The casual
end of the second paragra
miliarity with that heroic
PLOW "OLD PUT" LEFT.
Lieutenant Brooks Will Swap It for 25
Flint Lock Muskets.
The Putnam Phalanx at its annual meeting Monday received a

communication from Lieutenant A. E. Brooks, of the command
in which he agreed to transfer to the Phalanx in exchange for 25
old flint lock muskets the plow which General Israel Putnam left
in the field when he went to war; General Putnam's saddle and
a copy of the sermon delivered at his funeral.
To this committee also was r

received for the sale of an oil p
The story continues with a shor

of wooden nutmegs purportedly
ton elm," the tree in Cambridge
legend, Washington stood when
nental Army in 1775.21 A final
rations being made for the Bun
associated with Israel Putnam in the minds and hearts of Connecti-
cut Yankees. Evidence that the Putnam legends were familiar to a late
generation can be found in Charles Burr Todd's Illustrated Guide to
Putnam Memorial Camp, Redding, Connecticut (1927): "With the histo
ry and exploits of General Putnam every schoolboy is familiar. The
quaint old colonial house at Danvers, Mass., where he was born,
still standing. The incidents of the wolf den, of the powder magazin
at Fort Edward, his gallantry at Bunker Hill and on many revolutio
ary fields are twice-told tales and need not be recounted here."22
Sentiments stirred by events of the Revolutionary War continued
to run deep in early twentieth-century New England culture. Mo
than a hundred years after the conclusion of that conflict, the peop
of Connecticut still fought the battle. Ives's composition celebrating
Putnam proclaimed regional and national values as well as indivi
ual ones.23 The composer was an insider, speaking of and for his mi
lieu by contributing a personal view of the history of that cultu
through his music. Although Ives's medium may have separated h
commemorative efforts from other more traditional tributes and tes-
timonies, his attention to things historical was typical of many old-
family New Englanders and their concerns at the time. In Presence of
the Past Charles B. Hosmer profiles New England's efforts to preserve
the region's history at the turn of the century:
The heavy emphasis on local history in New England towns,

combined with the more or less urban character of much of the
region's population, gave preservationism a bedrock of support
that it did not get elsewhere. People in New England wanted
their ancient monuments to be an educative force-in the hands
of private organizations whose objectives coincided with the old-
er New Englander's desire to glorify his forebears. It was a case
of keeping alive an understanding of the sufferings of the hardy
pioneers who had first settled the rocky coasts or the determined
men who refused to bow to the British.24
In memorializing significant regional sites, Ives championed local

history as national and universal history.25 The composer's ideas on
282 Cooney
the fusion of the two can

fore a Sonata: "if local colo
of the universal color, it
art-not of manner."26 Iv
tions of universally reson
place did not isolate or lim
it had quite the opposite e
provided a particular venu
es put a face on a concep
Lyman Brewster and

Engagement with larger c
of Iveses. Family involvem
associations with importa
cited participation in the
tellectual curiosity and civ
of the extended clan to p
uncle Lyman Brewster, an
Amelia. Information avail
State Library suggests th
in Ives's involvement wi
piece of the same name ar
Like the hero for whom
has an intriguing histor
"'Country Band' March"
sources date back to 190
minates both a particular
park and a general sense o
and responsible citizenshi
of the piece:
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-
member working on this whe

on Pine Mountain, Danbury,
at the suggestion of Uncle Ly
ary play called Benedict Arnol
ing it into an opera. This mus
for Uncle Lyman died in the s
Lyman Denison Brewster (1832

of Danbury, and a lawyer of N
cant role in Charles Ives's life
young composer of a person w
cessful career outside the arts w
ment to the arts.30 When not
duties, Uncle Lyman exercised
this area had been formally re
was named 1855 class poet. Al
ster's literary efforts were dev
was inspired by events of the A
work was the play Major John
nold. John Kirkpatrick offere
terest for Ives scholars:
Quite apart from its relative [literary] merits, it commands inter-

est by Ives's thinking of making it into an opera, and by its hav-
ing thus been the pretext for his overture, "1776"-possibly also
the Country Band March-and having thereby sparked one of his
major works, Putnam's Camp, into which the two earlier pieces
were dovetailed. ... But more important is its voicing of what the
events in the play meant to the Ives family and their circle of in-
laws and friends. Danbury having been burned by the British in
1777, was still, well over a century later, acutely aware of the
Revolution and everything it had meant, including patriotism
and treason.33
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
284 Cooney
of America's first leaders

challenged tradition. Give
the-century musical cultu
ly muses of Europe," one
bracing Uncle Lyman's
individualism.
Brewster went beyond an artistic effort to memorialize a Revolu-
tionary War incident, however. Like many men of his class and posi-
tion, he also participated in a practical, ongoing community project
to keep that history alive. Whereas George Ives was for his son
Charles a reminder of the Civil War, Uncle Lyman Brewster made cer-
tain that an even earlier conflict was not forgotten. Brewster's active
role as a commissioner of Putnam Memorial Park strengthened th
family tradition of involvement in worthy causes and provided Ives
a tangible, personal association with a place of historic significance.
Brewster's activities reflected national trends.
Given the combined impact of improved transportation on living and
working patterns, significant increases in the numbers of immigrants
entering the United States, and a general perception of large-scale
change in important aspects of life at the turn of the century, many es-
tablished New England families felt great urgency about preserving
historical sites that would link their own personal histories to local and
state history and to the larger history of the colonies. (Such efforts were,
no doubt, stimulated by a mixture of patriotic and personal impulses,
but included among them was a desire, on the parts of those who felt
most threatened by the rapid changes, to claim America as belonging
especially to Anglo-Saxon Protestants.) The widespread preservation
movement saw its mission as the identification, conservation, and
guardianship of historic sites. The Putnam Camp Commission's inter-
est in preserving its local Revolutionary War campsite reflected the
greater national preservation movement that was afoot. And citizens
of Connecticut had reason to champion the site. This particular camp
ground at Redding was described in the 1905 Report of the Commission-
ers as "the best preserved camp of the Revolutionary war, partly be-
cause the ground was of little use for any purpose, and partly because
the road which runs by the camp was discontinued shortly after the
camp broke up, and was not reopened until the old camp came into
possession of the State sixteen years ago."36
At the time of his death on February 14, 1904, Lyman D. Brewster
was the vice president of a seven-person commission for Putnam
Memorial Camp whose members had been appointed by the gover-
nor for a two-year term beginning July 1, 1901. (Brewster was reap-
pointed to a second two-year term, commencing July 1, 1903, but he
died seven months into that term

during his tenure as a commission
ate a topographical map that accura
A portion of the survey was finish
and the remainder was completed
ticipating in the topographical ma
served as head of a committee tha
spective report presented to Gov
1903;38 it chronicled all aspects of
activities of the various commissio
ry.39 This report was ambitious an
tory paragraph demonstrates:
We have collected into an appendi

Camp Ground not before publis
tive action; the different committees and commissioners with
their reports; the amounts appropriated from the beginning of the
work to the present time and the purposes for which they were
expended; also we have included the only report printed by the
Commission (1893) not only because the report itself is very
scarce but the matters stated therein are needed in the discussion
regarding the future of the Camp Grounds, besides it brings to-
gether into one report the records from the inception of the work
to date. There have also been added eighteen illustrations from
photographs.40
Brewster's activities with the commission, and especially its cumu-

lative report for 1903, might have inspired him to return to his play,
Major John Andre, which he had written years earlier. Commission
work would have been fresh in his mind at the time that he and Ives
were contemplating an opera based on Revolutionary War events,
around Christmas 1903.
In planning an opera on a Revolutionary War theme with Uncle
Lyman, and by composing "Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut,"
the composer connected with a growing national concern in a most
personal and idiosyncratic way. Ives joined forces with his extended
family, whose forebears were among the earliest European settlers in
the nation, as he participated in a historically stimulated movement
at work in his state and his country. By composing "Putnam's Camp"
in 1912, Ives offered musical evidence of a deeply felt continuing kin-
ship with family interests, hometown celebrations, and national ac-
tivities. "Putnam's Camp" ultimately became Ives's particular musi-
cal version of a preservationist's efforts-a unique perspective on a
collective vision.
286 Cooney
The Year 1912
Lyman Brewster's association with the Israel Putnam Memorial Camp

might illuminate Ives's work on a Revolutionary War theme opera in
1903, and Brewster's death can explain Ives's dropping the project in
the summer of 1904, but what prompted the composer to return to the
sources and write "Putnam's Camp" eight years later?41 Although dat-
ing Ives's works has become a complicated and controversial issue,
perhaps never to be resolved with the exactitude that scholars desire,
there are a number of plausible explanations for the 1912 date, the first
of which involves Ives's simultaneous work on a second composition.
At the same time that Ives wrote "Putnam's Camp," he also composed
"The Fourth of July," the third movement of his Holidays Symphony.
Both pieces sonify a child's remembrance of July 4, a child's perspec-
tive on that patriotic day, albeit with different stories and different
sounds.42 Ives's work during 1912 on one piece that celebrated Inde-
pendence Day explicitly may have prompted him to reconsider an ear-
lier project that made a more oblique reference to the same holiday. For
loyal Connecticut Yankees, Israel Putnam was an integral part of In-
dependence Day festivities; local citizens perceived the general's role
as being pivotal in turning the tide of the Revolution, and they con-
sidered him essential to the notion of independence.
A second, related explanation involves the common source piece,
"Overture and March '1776,"' which appears in both pieces; the sketch
for this work is dated, significantly, "Pine Mountain cabin, July 4,
1904."43 Although quotations from "Overture and March '1776'" are
easily outnumbered by those from "'Country Band' March" in "Put-
nam's Camp," "Overture and March '1776"' is the essential resource
for the trio section of "The Fourth of July" (mm. 99-115).44 Interpolat-
ing the "Overture and March '1776"' in "The Fourth of July" might have
inspired Ives to seek additional uses for these particular musical ideas;
"Putnam's Camp" would have provided another forum.
Third, handling materials that had such specific associations with
Brewster and his play on the Revolutionary War in "The Fourth of
July" could have rekindled Ives's interest in his uncle's work on be-
half of the Putnam Camp grounds. This would therefore make 1912
a logical date for the creation of "Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connect-
icut," a piece that blends a dream-state narrative of Revolutionary War
events with Independence Day celebrations. As the dating of the
source piece "Overture and March '1776'" suggests, Ives's associations
of Independence Day with his uncle survived Brewster's death.
In addition 1912 might be a logical date for Ives's return to earlier
ideas because that year saw a major change in the Iveses' living ar-
rangements. In August 1912 Charles and Harmony Ives purchased
fourteen and three-fourths acr

they began to build a house just
and Ives's ancestral home in D
would soon be able to leave New
pendent children returning to t
who had established their own household and their own claim on the
history-rich soil. Although "Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut,"
uses a child as narrator, it is an adult's view of a child's actions at a
particular place-an accurate reflection of the adult view that Charles
and Harmony Ives brought to their new home. The couple's proxim-
ity to the memorial park could have renewed Charles's interest in
earlier music associated with the place and helped metamorphose
those works into a project that would now benefit from a new adult
perspective.
Another motivation for Ives's return to the long-shelved Revolu-
tionary War project source pieces can be found in activities that took
place in the Danbury-Redding area during August 1912. Newspaper
accounts tell of thousands of soldiers who came from neighboring
states to participate in training maneuvers and mock battles. The
towns of Danbury, Redding, and Bethel became festive encampments.
According to the local press, every aspect of the region's life was af-
fected by the influx of troops, and patriotic spirits ran high; the rail-
road station, post office, telegraph office, and every retail establish-
ment enjoyed record-breaking business. One paper reported, "there
was a bread famine in Bethel last night, and not a loaf could be pro-
cured for love or money."45 Although the exercises were intended to
provide military training, a celebratory atmosphere prevailed. As a
result of the many soldiers in the area, Putnam's Camp appeared nu-
merous times in news stories. Ives would have had to exert enormous
effort not to think of the activities that took place 134 years earlier at
the memorial park and of his uncle's involvement in preservation ef-
forts on behalf of the camp ground.
One final explanation for Ives's return to Revolutionary War themes
is suggested in Charles Burr Todd's Illustrated Guide to Putnam Me-
morial Camp. This 1927 publication contains a section entitled "A Tour
of the Grounds" that, like other sections of the book, reflects multi-
ple earlier sources. Readers learn that at least a part of this section
came from an earlier source written in fall 1912: "Just beyond the bar-
racks we enter the old Revolutionary orchard-one of the most in-
teresting features of the camp. The apple trees here were set out in
the deserted fireplaces the summer the Army left, and are, therefore
(November, 1912), one hundred and thirty-three years old."46 Whether
Ives was familiar with the 1912 source is difficult to ascertain, but it
is obvious that while Ives was composing "Putnam's Camp" and pur-
288 Cooney
chasing land in the area, a

circulation that publicized
about how best to tour the
high that year. When view
ities and opportunities, Ive
to be a natural outgrowth o
pations at the time.
"Putnam's Camp, Redd

The narrative accompanyi
cut," provides an entree int
paragraph explains the sign
history, for while every lo
story, a larger national aud
information. The initial tex
movement of Three Places
than that of the first: "Ne
preserved as a Revolutionar
nam's soldiers had their wi
stone camp fire-places still
hardships which the soldier
heads to break camp and m
is part of Redding history."
Having established a ration
lar place, Ives proceeds to c
day, July 4, and to connect
Putnam. Ives's opening lin
bedtime stories:
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-
ter,-the soldiers turn back and che

hears the children's songs and runs
"listen to the band" and join in the
It should be noted that Ives's fictio

Putnam Memorial Park to enjoy an a
Independence Day had real-life cou
cized in the local paper in 1912. Ive
scene or draw from his own memo
folding of his program. The Danbur
carried the story of just such an ev
"Adventist Picnic: Large Attendan
Competitive athletic events were a m
included within the story were the
dren's games. Additional stories in
nam's Camp was a regular site for ch
ings.50 Ives's addition of the "Villag
his programmatic picnic was most li
patriotic flavor of the tunes quote
patriotic characterization was not
connect the park site with more mi
Park; Eighth Co., C.A.C. Sets Forth on
tures the tone of the event: "Forty
forth at two o'clock this afternoon f
nual frolic and sham battle. The m
evening when Keeper Delany, of the
he is hearing the crack of doom."52
The broad narrative scaffolding o
antecedents in contemporary Danbur
erings occurred regularly and freque
that dotted the region, including Pu
for the setting was plentiful, but th
for a more specific moment capture
particular reference for this dates b
the source pieces in 1903 and his thi
Uncle Lyman. Ives's reference to the
at a crucial moment in history at Pu
cant model that would have been k
least 2,000 of his Redding neighbors
The goddess's character was named
nam's Camp on Bunker Hill Day, Jun
as "the largest gathering of people t
was occupied by General Putnam a
berlain and his staff, the Putnam Ph
290 Cooney
bers of the Putnam Memo

ministers, and local digni
gathered not only to comm
ker Hill on that day in 177
battle of the Revolution
more acres that now com
been given by local and p
this Camp to coming gene
heroic labors and sufferin
temple of liberty."54
After speeches of welcom
a historical report was pr
mented, "I know you will
Judge Brewster, a membe
fitted to speak to you, is
lengthy address that follo
rity of the near-desertion
Ives would later memorialize in his music. He chided those who had
for years suppressed the story because they feared that it expose
Connecticut troops to the dishonor associated with such behavior. He
stated, "It is not he who never falls who has the greatest honor, but
he who rises every time he falls; and the northern army came back
better and stronger."56
To conclude his lengthy historical remarks, Parker turned to an al
legorical figure for perspective on the events that had transpired at
the camp in 1778. Using an oratorical strategy sure to stir the emo-
tions of those gathered, he summoned the character of the same God-
dess of Liberty who, years later, appeared in Ives's program. In the
closing minutes of the speech, Commissioner Parker "observed" the
goddess at Putnam's Camp as she "heard an unusual stir on the pl
teau above, and would have seen marching around the cliff acros
the soldiers' bridge and past the knoll, the entire encampment, for
the men had deserted in a body and were marching out and away to
care for their homes and to demand redress of the legislature then
sitting at Hartford." Parker understood that "The Goddess of Liber-
ty must have known that this act ended the war in defeat.... Th
Goddess of Liberty would have known all this and her head woul
have fallen in shame and defeat." But the speaker could also hear
along with the goddess, the "sound that greets her ear.., .the sound
of a galloping horse.... Well may the Goddess raise her head and clap
her hands for joy, for Israel Putnam, grand, glorious 'Old Put,' is on
their trail and making the ride of his life."57
Although this text appeared in the 1905 Report of the Commission-
ers, the entire proceedings of that day's events had been recorded pre
viously in the Hartford Times of

Courant of June 18, 1903.58 The
would have had access to this
creation-and, given the collabo
that point, that Ives was also f
grammatic Goddess of Liberty
part of local history. Ives's drea
hugely popular and moving to
by at least two newspapers at th
ument that became a tribute to
1903 celebration may have faded
were recorded for posterity.60
"Putnam's Camp, Redding

In Ives's program an adult reca
boy child whose experiences o
"tunes of the band," the "songs
nam's Camp, Redding, Connect
might be so. Driving and exuber
tissimo cascade of chromatic an
containment within a single me
sicians being portrayed will n
4/4 time and 9/8 time jostle fo
touchingly accurate reproduction
A gutsy march congeals at m. 6,
the music settles into B-flat m
metric tensions that Ives expose
far from bursting through and
It takes only three measures fo
m. 8) and have to find its way b
"'Country Band' March," that
an amateur band," with its ca
tunes, and military music, to se
1).61
Any religious aspects of Ives's picnic, "held under the auspices of the
First Church and the Village Cornet Band" (emphasis added), have
been completely overpowered by the unbridled energy of the brass
band playing its patriotic fare. In "Putnam's Camp" the "'Country
Band' March" is synonymous with present-day, conscious activity,
both at the beginning of the piece, at mm. 1-49, and again at mm.
114-154, when the piece's harmonically altered reprise signals the end
of the dream sequence and the boy's return to the festivities.62
The ternary form of the program is reflected in the large-scale ter-
292 Cooney
nary form of the music.

new key, the return func
tails are preserved. The st
sures into the march pro
Example 1. Charles Ives, "Pu
Allegro (Quick Step Time, about 126 =
1 AStrings
f Tutti (- Tuba, Cb.) ,
Sn. Dr., B.D. + Cym.
.,, r r r J r ir- ir- r

Timp. (high F) P
4 r 61 L 0 r I A A
4 V., Via.
47 . 1.! F: F ;H'-'f' ' ' - op-.-

R7 ofr..
Cl Vc. div.
A A V V
4
Hrn., Tuba
_: + Fg. V . , ,
Vi. Vla
Tbn + Fg Cb. (+ pizz. 8va

I L I IL_
+s
Fg. i[Cb
? 1935 Mercury Music Corporation. Used by permission of the publisher, Theodore

Presser Company.
The lively march tune sounds twi

6 and 27 and mm. 126 and 144). Ives's loose ABA' structure stabilizes
a piece whose measure-by-measure activity often borders on the diz-
zyingly complicated and confused. Ives participates in composition-
al conventions at the same time that he challenges them to transform.
The transformation of musical materials is a fitting manifestation of
the transformation experienced by the youth of the story.
Indeed, the B section of "Putnam's Camp" (beginning at m. 64 and
continuing through m. 113) contains one of Ives's most challenging
and complicated rhythmic events, the realization of two bands per-
forming "out-of-sync." At m. 68 the orchestra divides into two ensem-
bles playing marches in different tempi at a ratio of 4:3.64
Inspiration for the rhythmic melange in the middle section of "Put-
nam's Camp" is traceable to the second source piece, "Overture and
March '1776,"' where mm. 63-71 contain a bitempo march that show-
cases triplets against half notes at a ratio of 3:2. Music from this source
is used sparingly in "Putnam's Camp," confining itself to the B sec-
tion at mm. 80-113 (overlapping the tail end of the newly composed
bitempo material) and a brief return in the last four bars of the piece
(mm. 159-63).65 Because of the more limited use of "Overture and
March '1776,"' a smaller number of the quoted tunes present in "Put-
nam's Camp" come from that piece exclusively.66
Rather than compromise the original pieces by demanding that they
assume extramusical meanings for the sake of the new piece, Ives uses
"'Country Band' March" and "Overture and March '1776'" as music
that the fictional child hears. As such, this music ignites the auditor's
imagination, but it remains, on the whole, outside the newly created
narrative of the child's historical reverie. According to Sinclair's an-
notated edition of Ives's program, most of the action in the story line
takes place in the measures of new music that connect the source piec-
es. Figure 1 shows the general placement of each of the source pieces
within "Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut." Included is Sinclair's
correlation of story line to score.
How then does Ives join this patchwork of pieces into a coherent,
convincing composition? How does he accomplish the shift from ac-
tivities of the present to an encounter with the past? In the story that
accompanies "Putnam's Camp," the composer refers to place, both lit-
erally and allegorically, to represent movement through time; a differ-
ent place signifies a different time, a different set of concerns. "Putnam's
Camp" asks that listeners consider place not simply as a geographical
location but also as a chronological location. The history of the site gives
the place its value. The program comes to life as the child moves from
one place at the park, the playground, to another, the woods-from
consciousness to a dreamlike state. "Wandering away from the rest of
"Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticu
[ Measures 1-63 7 Measures 64-113 7 Measures 114 (
Newly Composed New
mm. 50-79 mm
" 'Country Band' March" " '1776' Overture" " 'Country B

(Bb) mm. 1-49 mm. 80-113 (Ab) mm. 120
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 13
m. 64 m. 113 m.
VIRTUAL CLIMAX STRU
SILENCE < DOWNBE
mm. 53-63 m. 114

* Linearity breaks down .P
* Meter weakens
* Sounds fade
* Circular patterns in
Cellos and Basses appear
TIME CHANGES TIME CHANGE

Motion from present to past Return to present f
SPACE CHANGES SPACE CHANG
Traversing distance from picnic Return to picnic
grounds to campgrounds from campgroun
PROGRAM mm. 53-63 m. 64 m. 67 m. 68 m. 89 mm. 114-119 m
(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."
Figure 1. Correlation of source pieces and story line to "P
the children past the camp groun

hillside of laurel and hickories... when.., over the trees on the crest
of the hill he sees a tall woman standing.... She is pleading with the
soldiers.... But they march out of camp.... Suddenly... Putnam is
coming over the hills from the center."67 Ives's program is rich with
stage directions and topographical details. Placing the drama is essen-
tial to its believability; placing the story gives Redding its reason to be
proud. To achieve convincing closure in the story, however, the child
must return to the present; the child must return to the starting place.
Ives accomplishes this easily: "The little boy awakes, he hears the chil-
dren's songs and runs down past the monument to 'listen to the band'
and join in the games and dances." The child rejoins the present.
Like the story, Ives's piece contains a similar change in venue. At
mm. 50-63 the "tunes of the bands and the songs of the children grow
fainter and fainter"; the child exits the present. The driving rhythms
that characterized the march fade from our hearing; an eighth-note-
eighth-rest pattern broadens into quarter notes, then into triplets tied
over bar lines, and finally into whole notes (ex. 2, bass line, mm. 48-
64). Any sensation of key disappears in a complex of repeated har-
Example 2. Charles Ives, "Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut," mm. 48-64.
46 FI
Vlns.
Hrns
Cb., Fg. + Cb. (loco)

decresc. e rit.
3O3 Gradually slowe
49 Pf. Fl 3 -- 3-- 3 3
Cl.
--~----
+ Ob.
+ I
II,- S.
W~
"/
Dr. "/
296 Cooney
Example 2, cont.
r-Vln., Cl.
A - - .. ..-
52 fA, , - , A,
I I
3 3 V3 VC. 1
+ f.[Vc. 2 pizz.; Cb. arco, ? pizz.
-3 333 3 3I -
Sn. Dr., B.D. + Cym. - Cym
[about 88-84 = ]
-3 -[about 88-84 , --
S- ----- 3 3 C rallen.
5 5 .F-- - l- -. ra lle n --!- . - - - -. -,. -

Vc LVla. only
58~~~~-~ -- 3 m---3 r-3 --

PP
I w I rAMPI
-3 -3
BW.Dop
- 3 -L --- 3 3 Cb. ~2~2)dO
Example 2, cont.
F + Pf.
F- Pf. L.H.
Strings con sord. 7 .
61 Quasi largo O A
All Vc. i/ I -P 3ten.
8ba ------------------- ---------

tutti arco one or two only
B.D.
@ 1935 Mercury Music Corporation. Used by permission of the publisher, Theodore

Presser Company.
monies and whole-tone fragments. Instrumental melody lines become

circular patterns of pitches (ex. 2, first cello, mm. 53-57). The num-
ber of forces dwindles to an increasingly indistinguishable low-voiced
murmur. Starting at m. 52 all sense of forward momentum and lin-
earity evaporates. Sound fades into soundlessness. As stillness takes
over, time is unmeasurable and place is unknown. Without the invit-
ing tune of "'Country Band' March" to carry listeners along, we are
left to drift in musical space. The only certainty is that we are no long-
er where we were (ex. 2, mm. 50-64).
On the other side of silence, a high-register arpeggio marked ppp,
begun in the strings and completed by the piano, gently lifts the cur-
tain on a new scene.68 The auditor enters into a new place, the past.
Here-and-now has become there-and-then. Using a variety of com-
positional techniques, Ives reveals a particular distant place;69 start-
ing at m. 65, and for a brief period of time thereafter, sounds of Put-
nam's Camp during winter 1778-79 waft in the air. A faint solo flute
recalls the memory of a bugle call and announces the scene change,
dynamics are soft, the tempo is slow and deliberate, and the harmonic
rhythm is sluggish and reluctant, suggesting only minimal energy.
Ives has conjured up the past. (ex. 3, mm. 65-73).
In 1778, however, this place is significant not for the hallowedness
of the site, which is wrapped in a thick blanket of snow, but for the
drama that unfolds on the grounds. (One hundred and thirty years later
Putnam's Camp, the place, was a reminder of local and regional events.)
After transporting the listener from the public part of the camp ground
to the woods, Ives quickly sets about telling the tale of Putnam's hero-
ic intervention. This event distinguishes the place. Ives's emphasis on
action in this piece accounts for the limited time spent in exclusively
contemplative sonification of place as compared to other movements
in the orchestral set, where meditative sounds of the environment are
298 Cooney
equal to events, or at time

nam's Camp" there is an i
ated with the fact that th
lation only partly holds i
the most dramatic events
dreds of miles away from
Example 3. Charles Ives, "Pu

Andante animato (about 96 = ) Poco meno mosso
p . (about 92-88 = )
65 Fl1.1 Ob. 1 f
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.
Pf., Sn. Dr. 7.
Strings
~~f~ y ) ~L # ?l~r?TI
Ob. Fl. Iftj)
Tpt.
Vla. iI
Pf., Sn. Dr. cresc. poco a poco
Fg.
Strings
0! i
? 1935 Mercury Music Corporation

Presser Company.
Regiment becomes one of a n

sider when walking through
thoughtful reflection for ma
Camp," a piece whose title os
place is audible only in the fe
stage is cleared of actors and
Because the sole reason to commemorate this site lies in the associated
and ultimately inspirational events that transpired here, Ives spends
little time establishing place. At m. 67 he launches into a re-creation of
the historical drama.
The confrontation between weary soldiers prepared to desert the
colonial cause and Israel Putnam, who convinces them to reverse their
course, is at the core of Ives's program and the famous rhythmic
conflict referred to earlier in this article. Opposing groups of instru-
ments symbolize the discord in the ranks. The trudging march ca-
dence that is firmly entrenched in the strings (starting at m. 65) ap-
pears to be unaware of the softly agitated warning voiced by the
syncopated oboe solo (starting at m. 67)-the Goddess of Liberty
"pleading with the disaffected soldiers not to forget their 'cause.'"
Halfway through m. 68 the mutineers (bassoon, horn, trumpet, trom-
300 Cooney
bone, snare drum, piano,

Hartford to the sounds of
by the trumpet, commenc
Ives's selection of this pa
cant, given the drama bei
ular tune, originally assoc
they march out of camp
day"), is appropriated by
ica." At m. 89, midway t
Putnam heroically arrives
turn-of-the-century local
course of history. Polyrh
are eliminated as Putnam
announce that "suddenly
sures later the flute pip
from the source piece "Ov
mainder of the section.
in "The British Grenadier
use as an accompaniment
half of the national cause (ex. 4).72
The revolt having been defused and the conflict resolved, there is
no programmatic or musical reason to remain in this historical place.
(The general himself did not remain in the camp after May 27, 1779.)
The crashing climax of "Overture and March '1776"' that ends the B
section of "Putnam's Camp" at m. 113 overflows into a transitional
passage (beginning at m. 114) that itself leads into the reintroduction
of "'Country Band' March" at m. 120 and the familiar 4/4 tune at m.
126. Where entry programmatically and musically into the past re-
quired disengagement with activity followed by a transitional silence,
the movement out of the past segues effortlessly into the present. Past-
to-present appears to be the more natural progression of time, even
though Ives chooses to disregard that ordering on numerous occa-
sions. The silence that introduced the step back in time is unneces-
sary; rejoining what is already in progress requires no discontinuity.
Out of the still-growing crescendo that ends m. 113, the simple tune
that had first been heard at m. 37 reemerges to connect past with
present. Our relocation in place and time is secured by the music; the
rhythm pulses squarely in four, and the harmony is transparently ton-
al and appropriate to a children's song. As the boy returns to the pic-
nic activities, he brings with him his new vision of the place, a vi-
sion that is altered by his having witnessed historical events that "took
place" at the place. The boy's new perspective is essential to Ives's
belief that experience changes perception in the most fundamental
ways.73 In the case of "Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut," the
Example 4. Charles Ives, "Putnam's

Allegro moderato (about 108-
(in a moderate march time)
89 Tpt. 1, Hrn. 1, Tbn. 1
tf arco Ao A
Cb. (8va bassa) + Sn. Dr.
Yan - kee Doo - die...

91 Fl.A
(Brass) Strings
W., LI
V . V
Cb. (8va bassa) + Sn. Dr.
? 1935 Mercury Music Corporation. Used by permission of the publisher, Theodore

Presser Company.
recapitulation of "'Country Band' March" in a new key sonifies that

essential idea.
As with Ives's movement celebrating the Saint-Gaudens monument
in Boston Common, written at a time when national attentions were
focused on Civil War golden anniversaries, the musics of "Putnam
302 Cooney
Camp" appeared at times w

an even earlier conflict. That Ives wrote "The 'Saint-Gaudens' in Bos-
ton Common" and "Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut," when
he did is not the result of whimsy, coincidence, or purely personal
motives. In these first two movements of Three Places in New England,
Ives offered timely reflections on issues receiving widespread public
discussion. These works are Ives's individual responses to national
concerns, local customs, and family causes. Ives's place pieces are
evidence of his participation in American culture on multiple levels.
Knowing the significance of his chosen places enables us to under-
stand more fully the composer and his musical memorials.
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.
69 We, too, have our great names. How shall we set

These jewels in Columbia's coronet?
Where shall we place our heroes,-we who owe
More to our dead than they of long ago?
81 Through them we teach the world what freedom means;

It is our heritage, but others' dreams;
It has no center here, the soil is free;
There is no cloistered shrine for liberty.
85 For Greene, for Putnam, or for Washington
We need no Abbey and no Pantheon.
They fought not to exalt a conquering race
But for mankind; their pedestal and place
Is underneath the over-arching sky,
90 Our dome of state is God's own canopy.
Erect in Nature's presence let them stand,
The free-born heroes of our Yankee land!
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.
109 Like Abraham Lincoln's and John Brown's, his name

Old English half, half from the Bible came;
His rugged Saxon nature held, like theirs,
Two kindred elements; the one which dares
To act; the other, higher one, which hears
The murmur of a people's voice, and fears
115 Not to respond with action, though slow years
May come and go and never realize
God's high commission to the centuries.
136 In Putnam's youth, each frontier settlement

Was like the vanguard of an army, sent
To hold the outposts. In that rugged school
Tempered and trained, he proved a man to rule
140 The rude frontiersman, for he "dared to lead
Where any dared to follow." In their need
Men looked to him. In God's appointed hour
Our war for freemen's rights against the power
Imposed on Englishmen in their old home,-
145 Which still by impotence avoids its doom,-
Our war for civic independence came.
A tower of strength was Israel Putnam's name,
A rally-word for patriot acclaim;-
It meant resolve, and hope, and bravery,
150 And steady cheerfulness, and constancy.
161 God sends our kings, Lincoln and Washington;

Putnam is not of these. They stand alone,
And solitary on their heights remain;
He with his fellows on a lower plane.
165 But on that plane of broad humanity,
What stronger man or nobler soul than he-
A nature on broad lines and simple plan,
Type of the primitive American!
We will not smile as did the "gilded youth,"
170 Nor make a sun-myth of his "old she-wolf,"
Like some poor pedants of these later years,
Who, lacking insight, claiming to be seers,
Hungry for slander as their daily food,
Moth-eat the fame of all our "great and good";-
175 (When such men die they'll find 'twill be as well
To avoid the ghost of Uncle Israel-)
We know the man too well to laugh, unless
In love-he is too big. Perhaps in dress
Or speech he was uncouth; perhaps his pen
180 Ran to phonetic forms of words. What then!
304 Cooney
Give him a horse and swo

The enemy advance, "Old
232 And, if in years to co

That only freedom makes
If in the turmoil of this m
235 Where hopes and fait
Obscure the visage of our
And make us recreant to
If men grow less as wealt
Till gold becomes the life
240 If swarms of Europea
To poison freedom in her
The socialists, who know n
The communists, foes to the common cause;-
If all our country seems degenerate,
245 Our great republic, heir to common fate,
Till some give up the duties of a man,
Forfeit their birthright as American;
Should all these heavy ills weigh down our heart,
We'll turn to him who acted well his part
250 In those old days, draw lessons from his fame,
And hope and courage from his honored name.
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,
enlisting black troops for combat duty wa

saw such participation as an opportunity
and the integrity of their character. The
his regiment at Fort Wagner in South C
tant element in the war." For a fuller acc
his regiment, see George M. Fredrickson, T
the Crisis of the Union (New York: Harpe
sell Duncan, ed., Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune
Gould (Athens: University of Georgia Pre
7. The third movement of Three Places
bridge," is shorter still, the concentrated
three movements gradually focus a liste
personal concerns (for an extended discuss
onciliations").
8. Although current usage is to spell campground as one word, historical documents
quoted in this essay regularly use two words. For the sake of consistency, I use two
words.
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.
306 Cooney
13. According to Seitz, "Cam

were poorly provided with fo
tion to march on Hartford and
speedily brought the men to th
mor that won Washington's w
ly played out is difficult to asc
nam's aide-de-camp, Colonel Dav
site and delivering an eloquent
able to take dictation while on
uttered the exact words attribu
tion to romanticize other of Pu
of his chronicle of this particula
David Humphreys' Essay on the
lays out and corrects the "num
achievements of Major-Genera
(see p. 29). That there was som
and even a discussion of a mar
Putnam's role in dissuading th
counter remain shrouded in my
14. Charles Ives took a Latin co
ed the history of the Roman R
Cincinnatus and the myth (for
180).
15. Garry Wills, Cincinnatus: Geo
in Early America (Garden City,
16. The 1905 Report of the Com
makes reference to "Old Put" le
17. See Frederick A. Ober, "Old
13, for an assessment of the fe
estate transactions undertaken
18. I am grateful to Maureen K
Sound, who located a poem wr
lege, Hartford, Conn., in 1888, t
"The men of Rome, who framed
ry of that ancient republic, cit
turning its attentions to Amer
farmer-soldier of Connecticut."
of an article appearing in the H
Bunker Hill Day celebrations at
of this particular June 17, and
come increasingly clear to reade
in A History of the Equestrian St
General Assembly, 1889 (Hartf
Co., 1888), 25-32, are included i
19. Ives's library at Redding co
ry, including Charles Burr Tod
en by Aunt Amelia to Charles a
bury, Connecticut, from Notes an
Burr Printing House, 1896), g
Odell Shepard's Connecticut, Pa
in this article, Ives most likely
nam than even the average we
20. The Danbury News, Feb. 24
21. Christopher Ward, The War of the R

3. As one of four major generals chosen
ington at the time he took command.
22. Todd, Illustrated Guide, 13.
23. In Charles B. Hosmer Jr.'s Presence of t
ment in the United States before Williams
presents a compelling study of the numer
als and societies to preserve aspects of the
is lavished on the fifty-year period from 1
ment in its earliest manifestation was iden
structures that had associative and inspira
gional groups to save the past resonated
lic's interest in all things historical. Evide
morial Camp Ground preservation effort
commissioners. Members represented a b
1903 Report of the Commissioners, 36). Fin
and improve the site also testifies to Conn
the state of Connecticut allotted $20,608.
equivalent to approximately $415,000 in 1
24. Hosmer, Presence of the Past, 122.
25. In an essay entitled "Local History a
traces the concept of the local as universal
ing a Sense of Place [New York: Heart of th
26. Charles Ives, "Essays before a Sonata
Howard Boatwright (New York: Norton,
27. Much has been written about Georg
various family members' associations with
ments. But little has ever been said about
torical interests. Two articles that appeared
provide a sense of the range of his concer
turing World," is a historical study that t
try in Danbury; the second, "A Connectic
tells the story of Danbury in 1777 as it wa
necticut Magazine 7, no. 5 [1902-3]: 421-5
opera with a Revolutionary War theme du
brothers shared a similar historical preocc
28. Ives, Memos, 83. Lyman Denison Bre
tional thoughts on dating these early wor
Three Places in New England (Bryn Mawr,
29. These lines are taken from the openin
ster Is Dead," New York Times, Feb. 15, 190
30. In 1893, when Ives was nineteen ye
American Bar Association national confer
retary. The two men visited Brewster rela
certs at the Chicago World's Fair. Ives's lib
Bigelow Ives) contain a number of volum
(see J. Peter Burkholder, Charles Ives: The
Yale University Press, 1985], 126, n. 5, and
31. Lyman Denison Brewster served as a
ture in 1870, 1878, and 1879, and in the st
dia of American Biography [1896], s.v. "Bre
32. See Kirkpatrick's comments on the
Memos, 281-82. If Charles Ives's historic
308 Cooney
enough to expose him to the ear

senior year at Yale, "The Ameri
essary background to appreciat
33. Ibid., 281.
34. Based loosely on historical e
dict Arnold and John Andre's tr
the resulting execution of Major
as a source of inspiration for I
Israel Putnam was present to wi
122). For a hybridized version o
ed., Memos, 282-317.
35. One can glean a sense of the
ster from the numerous stories
death. Quite aside from various
sistently referred to his human
know that many an individual w
extended was not flaunted befo
hand should know what his righ
36. The 1905 Report of the Comm
37. Danbury Evening News, Ma
enlarged the original 12-acre sit
As with the Saint-Gaudens monument, whose relevance continued to increase and
change over its decades of history, Putnam's Camp also experienced a growing repu-
tation for a number of years. In 1921, when a museum was opened on the site, the
park came under state management; in 1954 its supervision was transferred to the Park
and Forest Commission; and in 1970 the park was designated a Historical Landmark.
Unfortunately, as a result of the recent lengthy recession in New England, the memo-
rial park has suffered neglect.
38. Brewster's role in preparing this document is recounted in the 1905 Report of
the Commissioners, which carried a two-page tribute to him: "His last active work for
the Park was in the preparation of the report of the Commission in 1903, he being Chair-
man of the Committee having it in charge. He came to Hartford only a few days be-
fore being stricken with illness, and carefully edited the manuscript" (p. 6). See also
James Sinclair's remarks in the preface to Ives's "Overture and March '1776,'" which
help to establish the chronology of events regarding the composition of one of the Ives
source pieces for "Putnam's Camp": "During Christmastime 1903 at Danbury, Brew-
ster suggested to Ives that this play [Major John Andre] might have operatic potential.
Ives was enthused enough to immediately start sketching an overture based on the
revolutionary theme" (Charles E. Ives, "Overture and March '1776,"' ed. James B. Sin-
clair [Bryn Mawr, Pa.: Merion Music, 1976], 3.
39. The commissioners of Putnam Camp filed reports with the state between 1889
and 1915. These reports are housed at the Connecticut State Library in Hartford. I am
extremely grateful to the state archivist, Mark Jones, for assisting me in locating these
materials, for making them available to me, and for providing suggestions about oth-
er resources.
40. Report of the Commissioners (1903), 5. Given Ives's alm

this document, the presence of eighteen photographs is most
allowed Ives to recollect and contemplate images of the camp
without the necessity of being there; they captured various
he would later refer in his program.
41. Based on the evidence presented in this essay, it appea
on the score sketch "Whitman's House, Hartsdale N.Y., Oct.
the date of composition. I let the materials speak for themse
42. Late twentieth-century audiences

tention paid to the Fourth of July by
Englanders. A cursory look at advertis
vide a sense of the holiday's importan
from ready-to-eat provisions to fresh
tions to remedy celebration accidents l
picnics, lawn parties, and outings. See
1912, pp. 9-11; June 29, 1912, p. 10; J
July 4, 1912, turned out to be unusual
newspaper accounts the following day
patriotism that were visible all over to
43. In the summer of 1903 Ives and
Pine Mountain in Ridgefield, Connecti
Camp. Ives refers to the necessity of t
knowledge: "We finally succeeded in
in Ridgefield but did it unbeknowed
makes a good young camp" (Ives, Me
wife. This comment shows that Ives
Brewster family. Although the precise
there is conjecture that the land on w
Aunt Amelia. Photographs exist showi
people seated in front of it. Aunt Am
either Ives worried unnecessarily, or i
grateful to Lucye Boland, past direc
among other things, sharing the mu
helping me to identify persons in th
March '1776"' "Pine Mountain Cabin, J
Brewster and his family and to Indep
44. See Charles Ives, The Fourth of J
ed Music, 1988), iv, and Charles E. Ives
clair, 3, for comments on the uses of t
45. The celebratory atmosphere is ca
as part of a full column article: "Hund
bury and Bethel this morning, bound
ing the scene of actual conflict betwee
Aug. 16, 1912, p. 8). For comments o
Evening News, Aug. 17, 1912, p. 9.
46. Todd, Illustrated Guide, 32.
47. The extended program note to "P
in Ives, Memos, 84, and in both the 193
England, 20. James Sinclair provides fo
measures of music illuminating Ives's
48. This tale of Putnam's success in re
striking resemblance to one of the mos
once again strengthens comparisons be
words to his deserting troops, see Todd
of Washington's 1782 encounter with
ner's Washington: The Indispensable Ma
49. Danbury Evening News, July 5, 19
50. "St. James' Picnic: Athletic Spor
bury Evening News, June 29, 1912, p. 8.
contains multiple references to Sunday
grounds (see especially pp. 12 and 20
310 Cooney
51. Danbury Evening News, Au

52. Keeper Thomas Delany had
ginning, and for twelve years [a
the Commissioners, 19).
53. Report of the Commissioners
54. Ibid., 23.
55. Ibid., 25. Lyman Brewster h
read a paper to the members of
annual meeting in Albany" (Dan
56. Ibid. 28. That Ives should kn
numerous collections of Putnam
that day's address.
57. Ibid., 31-34.
58. The 1905 Report of the Commissioners included Lyman Brewster's portrait as the
frontispiece, as well as a two-page tribute to the deceased commissioner and a dedi-
cation to Brewster's wife, Amelia.
59. Hartford Times, June 17, 1903, and the Hartford Courant, June 18, 1903.
60. In Charles Ives: "My Father's Song" A Psychoanalytic Biography (New Haven, Conn.:
Yale University Press, 1992), Stuart Feder offers a psychohistorian's theory of the mean-
ing of the Goddess of Liberty in Ives's program to "Putnam's Camp" (see pp. 227-28).
Given Commissioner Parker's authorship of the scene that Ives appropriates, one must
question whether or not Feder's analysis might more appropriately be applied to Parker
than to Ives-or not applied at all.
61. Ives, Three Places in New England, ed. Sinclair, iii.
62. For a detailed comparison of "'Country Band' March" and "Putnam's Camp,"
see "Table of Correlative Measures" in Charles Ives's "'Country Band' March," ed.
James B. Sinclair ([Bryn Mawr], Pa.: Merion Music, 1976), iv. It could be argued that a
return to opening materials actually begins with m. 113, which recalls the "cataclys-
mic descent" of mm. 1 and 2 (I am grateful to Wayne Shirley for pointing out the sim-
ilarities of these two musical gestures).
63. For an illuminating discussion of formal-intervallic, harmonic, rhythmic, and
programmatic-unifying elements at work in "Putnam's Camp," see Alan Stein, "The
Musical Language of Charles Ives' Three Places in New England" (D.M.A. diss., Univer-
sity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1975).
64. The 1935 Mercury edition of Three Places in New England shows premier con-
ductor Nicolas Slonimsky's preference for the bitempo notation that he persuaded Ives
to accept. Sinclair's 1976 edition presents Ives's original choice of notation for mm. 68-
83, "showing how the passage can be performed in relation to a single beat pattern."
For a discussion of how beats align, see "Conductor's Note" in Charles Ives, Three Places
in New England, ed. Sinclair, vii, no. 10.
65. Paul C. Echols suggested slightly expanded uses of "Overture and March '1776'"
in "Putnam's Camp" to include the following equivalences: mm. 63-64 of the earlier
work = mm. 144-45 of the later, and mm. 72-76 of the earlier = measures 157-63 of
the later (I am grateful to the late Mr. Echols for having shared pertinent pages of his
Descriptive Catalogue of the Music of Charles Ives with me).
66. Of the numerous tunes present in Ives's source pieces, "'Country Band' March"
and "Overture and March '1776,'" only two tunes appear in both works: "The British
Grenadiers," known in the colonies as "Hail America" (1770), and "Yankee Doodle," a
work Irving Lowens surmises was known in America "at least as early as 1767" (Lo-
wens, Music and Musicians In Early America [New York: Norton, 1964], 91). These piec-
es are among twelve quoted in "Putnam's Camp." Five of the remaining tunes come
from "'Country Band' March": "Arkansas Traveler," "Semper Fideles," "Massa's in de
Cold Ground," "Marching through Georgia," and "The Battle Cry of Freedom." Three
of them come from "Overture and M

lumbia," and "The Star-Spangled Bann
source pieces: "Happy Day" and Libert
Charles Ives Tunebook [Warren, Mich.:
67. In having his child retreat to th
the enactment of fantasies. Authors
cloistered environment for activities
Gretel," "Peter and the Wolf," "Rip V
Wardrobe." More recently Broadway c
director James Lapine created the mus
numerous children's stories that are r
researching their materials, Sondheim
of Enchantment: The Meaning and Impor
the author discusses the symbolism of
68. I am grateful to Larry Starr for c
sual imagery of this particular musical
ing is often enhanced by considering
as well as the vocabulary used in thos
69. Ives combines soft dynamics, a slo
ensemble, with chromatically saturate
sound mass-a representation of sound
have difficulty distinguishing the de
marked "as a distant drum beat." In a
67, the composer explains: "Through
likewise the second rhythm parts (Dr
though the second gradually become
refers are in fact the piano-drum chor
tive" over the course of the next ten
Hanke are housed at Yale University i
son Music Library).
70. Augustus Saint-Gaudens's monum
setts 54th Regiment was placed at Bos
site: the common was already well est
and shared its cache of meaning with
that made up Putnam's Camp and tha
no significance beyond that which the
could be appreciated as a site itself, sep
Putnam Camp Grounds one had to co
significance was derived exclusively fr
71. For a more complete discussion of
'Saint-Gaudens' in Boston Common,"
72. Although Ives would have needed
known tune as "Yankee Doodle" into
Doodle" was played by the drum cor
er's historical address at the Bunker H
formance was noted in both the 1905 Re
story. (Other pieces played at this even
Chief," "Columbia the Gem of the O
Henderson's Charles Ives Tunebook, th
ture and March '1776'" and "'Country
of "Yankee Doodle" by Ives (p. 89). Th
only three Ives works-"Overture an
"Putnam's Camp"-and that all three p
312 Cooney
gests that the composer had ve

those associations were tied to
Charles Ives Tunebook, 70).
73. Ives commented on this ba
piece of music, be it a song or
[with]-I won't say analogous t
foot, its summit-there's the va
He sees the valley, but not exa
the summit is changing with e
rock at the top and looks towar
started in, or in the same mom
74. Putnam Monument Commissi
25-32.

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A Sense of Place: Charles Ives and "Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut"

Author(s): Denise Von Glahn Cooney

A Sense of Place: Charles Ives and

"Putnam's Camp, Redding,

Browsing through Charles Ives's autobiographical Memos, a reader

American Music Fall 1996

For the modern listener Ives's

mous than continuous. I

One Place-Israel Putnam and the Memorial Camp Ground

Israel Putnam and American History

return to the plow when

The Putnam Phalanx at its annual meeting Monday received a

To this committee also was r

The story continues with a shor

The heavy emphasis on local history in New England towns,

In memorializing significant regional sites, Ives championed local

the fusion of the two can

Lyman Brewster and

member working on this whe

Lyman Denison Brewster (1832

Quite apart from its relative [literary] merits, it commands inter-

of America's first leaders

died seven months into that term

We have collected into an appendi

Brewster's activities with the commission, and especially its cumu-

The Year 1912

Lyman Brewster's association with the Israel Putnam Memorial Camp

fourteen and three-fourths acr

chasing land in the area, a

"Putnam's Camp, Redd

ter,-the soldiers turn back and che

It should be noted that Ives's fictio

bers of the Putnam Memo

viously in the Hartford Times of

"Putnam's Camp, Redding

nary form of the music.

Example 1. Charles Ives, "Pu

Allegro (Quick Step Time, about 126 =

f Tutti (- Tuba, Cb.) ,

Sn. Dr., B.D. + Cym.

.,, r r r J r ir- ir- r

47 . 1.! F: F ;H'-'f' ' ' - op-.-

Tbn + Fg Cb. (+ pizz. 8va

? 1935 Mercury Music Corporation. Used by permission of the publisher, Theodore

The lively march tune sounds twi

" 'Country Band' March" " '1776' Overture" " 'Country B

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 13

SILENCE < DOWNBE

mm. 53-63 m. 114

TIME CHANGES TIME CHANGE

PROGRAM mm. 53-63 m. 64 m. 67 m. 68 m. 89 mm. 114-119 m

Figure 1. Correlation of source pieces and story line to "P

the children past the camp groun

Cb., Fg. + Cb. (loco)

3O3 Gradually slowe

+ f.[Vc. 2 pizz.; Cb. arco, ? pizz.

Sn. Dr., B.D. + Cym. - Cym