In 1917, Charles Ives composed a series of songs in response to the entrance of the United States, that year, into the First World War.
The final song, Tom Sails Away, involves a dreamy childhood memory, experienced as a vivid hallucination. The text, written by Ives, begins with images of a springtime sunset over a New England mill town. The hustle and bustle of the day has faded. The final haunting moments reveal that Tom, perhaps the narrator’s brother, has enlisted and “sailed away for over there,” probably never to return. Hazy Impressionistic sonorities blend with melancholy echoes of Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean, and George M. Cohan’s Over There.
This recording features American baritone William Sharp, accompanied by pianist Steven Blier:
text by Charles Ives:
Scenes from my childhood are with me,
I’m in the lot behind our house upon the hill,
A spring day’s sun is setting,
mother with Tom in her arms
is coming towards the garden;
the lettuce rows are showing green.
Thinner grows the smoke o’er the town,
stronger comes the breeze from the ridge,
‘Tis after six, the whistles have blown,
the milk train’s gone down the valley
Daddy is coming up the hill from the mill,
We run down the lane to meet him
But today! In freedom’s cause Tom sailed away
for over there, over there!
Scenes from my childhood
are floating before my eyes.
Recordings
- Ives: Tom Sails Away, William Sharp, Steven Blier Amazon
Featured Image: “Visitors at Arlington National Cemetery decorate the graves of service members who died during World War I, May 30, 1929,” Library of Congress