Composed by Charles Ives in 1906, The Pond is a shimmering, atmospheric fragment, or, in the words of the composer, “a song without voice.” Evocative of a rippling pond on a lazy afternoon, the work is so brief that it unfolds as a fleeting dream.
The Pond was the composer’s nostalgic elegy for his father, George Ives (1845–1894), a cornet player and bandmaster in the Union Army during the Civil War. In Ives’ musical fragment, the solo cornet’s plaintive melody floats over the gently undulating lines of the chamber orchestra.
Remembrance (A Sound of a Distant Horn)
In another iteration, Ives’ fragment can be heard as the song Remembrance, included in the collection 114 Songs, which was published in 1922. Here, the melody unfolds as a serene canon between the singer and piano. The score bears an epigram from Wordsworth: “The music in my heart I bore, Long after it was heard no more.”
The text is by Charles Ives:
A sound of a distant horn,
O’er shadowed lake is borne,
my father’s song.
This performance features baritone Sanford Sylvan, accompanied by pianist Alan Feinberg:
Recordings
- Ives: The Pond, Ingo Metzmacher, Ensemble Modern Amazon
- Ives: Remembrance (A Sound of a Distant Horn), Sanford Sylvan, Alan Feinberg Amazon
Featured Image: Thoreau’s Cove at Walden Pond, Concord, Massachusetts (c. 1908)