Despite the late date of this song, it showed that even though Ives had been writing some of the world's most radical music for over a decade, he still found occasion to compose music within (or at least close to) the standard tonal system, in straightforward rhythms (one at a time!). The text for this relatively long song is from John A. Lomax's Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads. It tells the story of a cowboy who has just died. In fact, it could be an elegy or remembrance of the cowboy Charlie Rutlage, spoken by one of his range-riding friends.

The song begins in a loping cow or horse gait "in moderate time," as the speaker wishes he could find "a resting place within the golden gate." He recalls other cowpunchers who died before Charlie. The tempo picks up and the rhythms begin to go off kilter. Chords begin to acquire extra, dissonant notes and scramble restlessly among keys. The speaker shifts from song to speech, rhythmically notated but without note heads. The piano begins to obsess on the old folk song "Whoopie Ti Yi Yo" in four-beat patterns, but the bass line has turned chromatic and has shifted to a three-beat pattern.

As the music gets "faster and faster—louder and louder," the piano breaks into wild cascades as the narrator tells how the herd turned and caused Charlie's horse to fall, crushing him. Crash chords are played at this point, with both fists striking clusters of keys. The music resumes the cowboy rhythm, but evens out to quiet chords that lead to a radiant ending in pure B flat major. The narrator says his final prayer for Rutlage: "I hope he'll meet his parents, will meet them face to face, and that they'll grasp him by the right hand at the shining throne of grace."

It is important to note that Ives set the direct and naïve cowboy language in the song without the slightest hint of condescension. The final revival-camp imagery of the poem (which is reflected in Ives' harmonies) comes through as an utterly sincere wish in Ives' music, as well as in the presumed thoughts of the original cowboy author of the poem. Therefore, it is imperative for the singer to resist the temptation to try out a dialect accent on this song.

This song is a wonderful introduction to Ives. Its capturing of an authentic American folk voice, its easy command of complex rhythms, its fine melodic qualities, and its sudden introduction of harshly modern sounds at just an appropriate point give a nice picture of what Ives is about. It was actually performed twice, in the winter of 1924 and in 1932, when Hubert Lipscot sang it to Aaron Copland's piano accompaniment as part of a well-chosen set of Ives songs. It brought down the house and had to be repeated.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.