(western) classical music discussion

[Rev. Rye]

Something (I don't know what, exactly) reminded me of this odd little piece:





It's Charles Ives' take on a bunch of old Civil War songs all cobbled together with a pacifist message, and, of course, the composer himself is performing. He's playing piano and singing. Ives' voice is tattered, and his piano playing is a bit desultory, but there's no denying his enthusiasm, and this is what keeps it listenable, and it's no wonder that the Kronos Quartet decided to keep his voice when they covered the piece on Black Angels. Ives himself stated that it "is not a song for pretty voices -- if the words are yelled out, regardless -- so much the better." It really seems to lose something when it's done for full orchestra and a proper choir. 

This seems to be one of the better takes on it, but it still seems less enthusiastic than the original:






The US Marine Band does a good version, but it's an instrumental version; whether that makes it better because the lyrics don't scan well, or worse because the lyrics are poignant regardless, I have no idea. However, there's this:





You might think it's folly to play classical music like this on just a pair of steel-string guitars, especially given how complicated Ives' music can get, but then again, it seems like he wasn't paying much more attention to his piano for that song than these two boys are to their guitars. The original recording seems almost like a piano-based early version of punk with some dissonant piano, so hearing it transposed to a more authentic punk idiom is intriguing. Remarkably, the general consensus in the comments section says that Ives would probably have enjoyed the performance.