Most of Ives' foreign-language songs were written while he was a student at Yale (1894-1989) and studying with the musically conservative professor Horatio Parker. Although the two young men (Parker was only ten years older than Ives) did have some disagreements when Ives turned in assignments the showed his radical proclivities, Ives quickly learned to keep this side of his musical character to himself in his class-work.

Allowing for the fact that Ives is known to have misdated several of the songs in his volume of 114 Songs, it still appears that 1901 is a correct date for this song to a text by Gallet. The song is still quite accessible—Ives does not appear to have given up some hopes of making a living at composition along with holding down a church or academic musical job until 1902. Still, it has its unconventional aspects.

One of these is the heavy reliance it makes on the interval of the open fifth. Throughout much of the song the interval F-C drones in a constant pulse in the left hand at the bottom of the bass clef. It is not unconventional, but highly characteristic, that the piano's right hand and the voice part are frequently in canon. Ivesian also is the way the song rises to an emotional high point during which Ives threatens to crack tonality apart, including some use of a mild form of polytonality. At this point, also, the voice and the two hands take different rhythms: 4 versus 3 versus 10.

Afrer the emotional height of this song of mourning the music softens, subsides to a low register, and fades out on the relentless F/C drone.

Emotionally, the song is a rarity in Ives' output: He rarely dealt with tragedy or grief in his music. The song is only partly characteristic of Ives, but is successful in doing what it sets out to do.



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