Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)

We see him- standing on a summit at the door of the infinite, where many men do not care to climb, peering into the mysteries of life, contemplating the eternities, hurling back whatever he discovers there. ³

Ralph Waldo Emerson was known as “the Sage of Concord.” A writer, preacher, poet, and philosopher, he was the central figure of Transcendentalism. Charles Ives saw Emerson as the great thinker and seer, a prophet he wished to emulate. In his Essays Before a Sonata he describes Emerson as, “America’s deepest explorer of the spiritual immensities- a seer painting his discoveries in masses and with any color that may lie at hand- cosmic, religious, human, even sensuous.” ³ Indeed, this may be an apt description of Ives’ approach to music. In the “Emerson” movement of the Concord Ives seems to be emulating Emerson’s oratorical style with its “discursive and episodic,” ² construction and poetic interludes. As in all of the movements, the theme from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is present. For Ives, Beethoven was the musical hero, and Emerson the literary one:

There is an “oracle” at the beginning of the Fifth Symphony; in these four notes lies one of Beethoven’s greatest messages. We would place its translation above the relentlessness of fate knocking at the door, above the greater human message of destiny, and strive to bring it towards the spiritual message of Emerson’s revelations, even to the “common heart” of Concord- the soul of humanity knocking at the door of the divine mysteries, radiant in the faith that it will be opened- and the human become divine! ³