Would Ives approve?

This website, theunansweredquestion.com, is named after the composition, The Unanswered Question, by Charles Ives.

A description taken from the larger article on Wikipedia states:

Against a background of slow, quiet strings representing “The Silence of the Druids”, a solo trumpet poses “The Perennial Question of Existence”, to which a woodwind quartet of “Fighting Answerers” tries vainly to provide an answer, growing more frustrated and dissonant until they give up. The three groups of instruments perform in independent tempos and are placed separately on the stage—the strings offstage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unanswered_Question

A recording with a score can be found on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkaOz48cq2g

You may notice a discrepancy in the above recording between what is played and the written final note in the trumpet. This is because Ives changed that note, and various performances end on either of these pitches. In a sense, that pitch is THE unanswered question.

Would Charles Ives approve of this site? Probably not, but, that’s a question we will have to leave unanswered. And, to that end, he would approve.


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