When John Kirkpatrick, the pianist whose performance of the Concord Piano Sonata in 1938 was important in putting Charles Ives on the American musical map, compiled his catalog of Ives works, he generally dealt with cases where there were to close versions of songs (either a change of words or a degree of reworking) by designating what he though was the earlier as the "a" version and the later as the "b."

This might be a case where Kirkpatrick got the order wrong. (Ives, who tried to save on music paper by crowding different works into any available blank areas, is notoriously difficult to date.)

At any rate, Canon, Kz 15a, "Not Only in my Lady's Eyes," seems to date to 1903, and this version to 1894.

The song is pleasant, and its effect is not as abstract as the formal title would indicate. The tune of the song flows naturally, and the text (by Moore) is a gentle reflection on "Love's young dream."

Even so, the song is an exact canon at the unison between the voice part and the left hand of the piano. For the first part of the song the left hand plays only the melody line (displaced by a measure of 3/4) while the right hand plays a recurrent high "B" (the dominant of the song's main key, E Major) and a gentle off-the-beat pulse.

A little over half-way through the harmonization becomes stronger and thicker, while the canonic left=land line turns into octaves and, in the end, strong chords and a line supporting the voice by doubling it.

It shows Ives' penchant for sudden modulations, but only in a restrained way. It is not a highly individual work, but does have impressive control over the timing of Ives use of increased pianistic resources to build the song to a dramatic points, as well as a naturally occurring pause in the constant eighth-note motion of the accompaniment to let the key words, "love's young dream," emerge easily.



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