But maybe music was not intended to satisfy the curious definiteness of man. Maybe it is better to hope that music may always be transcendental language in the most extravagant sense.
Charles IvesRead
All melodious poets shall be hoarse as street ballads, when once the penetrating keynote of nature and spirit is sounded-the earth-beat, sea-beat, heart-beat, which make the tune to which the sun rolls, and the globule of blood and the sap of the trees.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the profound connection between nature, spirit, and art, suggesting that true artistry emerges from a deep understanding of these elements.
Charles Ives expresses the idea that all great poets will eventually lose their melodic qualities, akin to the roughness of street ballads, when they fully grasp the fundamental rhythms of nature and existence. The 'earth-beat, sea-beat, heart-beat' symbolizes the intrinsic music of the world, highlighting that true artistry resonates with the core experiences of life and nature beyond mere lyrical beauty.
Themes
ArtNatureSpiritMusicPoetry
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about the influence of nature on creativity.
More from Charles Ives
All quotes →One thing I am certain of is that, if I have done anything good in music, it was, first, because of my father, and second, because of my wife
Charles IvesRead
A song has a few rights the same as ordinary citizens... if it happens to feel like flying where humans cannot fly... to scale mountains that are not there, who shall stop it?
Charles IvesRead
Beauty in music is too often confused with something that lets the ears lie back in an easy chair. Many sounds that we are used to do not bother us, and for that reason we are inclined to call them beautiful. Frequently, when a new or unfamiliar work is accepted as beautiful on its first hearing, its fundamental quality is one that tends to put the mind to sleep.
Charles IvesRead
In some century to come, when the school children will whistle popular tunes in quarter-tones--when the diatonic scale will be as obsolete as the pentatonic is now--perhaps then these borderland experiences may be both easily expressed and readily recognized. But maybe music was not intended to satisfy the curious definiteness of man. Maybe it is better to hope that music may always be transcendental language in the most extravagant sense
Charles IvesRead
Expression, to a great extent, is a matter of terms, and terms are anyone's. The meaning of 'God' may have a billion interpretations if there be that many souls in the world
Charles IvesRead
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