Johnny Reinhard & AFMM Orchestra Universe Symphony

Charles Ives' Universe Symphony has become the stuff of legend. Composed in parallel with the fourth, the last of his numbered symphonies, it languished in the composer's original fragments (aside from one version created after his death) until the premiere of Johnny Reinhard's remarkable new realization in 1996 with the American Festival of Microtonal Music Orchestra. For the last decades of his life, health badly compromised through overwork, Ives begged others to finish the symphony from his comprehensive sketches. None would. Over ten years ago, having been fascinated for years by stories of this mythical music, Johnny Reinhard decided to dig. He found surprisingly clear clues and directions from the great man which convinced him that the symphony's final form could be defined. He even received the approval of the Ives Society, who are dedicated to making sure that his legacy is not compromised, for his first performance of his realization of this huge work, at Lincoln Center on June 6, 1996. The Universe Symphony can now be seen clearly as Ives' largest and grandest conception. As the last work of this inveterate musical iconoclast, it is only fitting that it's instrumentation be strikingly different and more ambitious than any other. Characteristically far-reaching, the composer described the symphony enigmatically, more in terms of the 'painting of Creation' and 'not music as such.' During his lifetime, it's completion would remain out of his grasp, to his intense frustration. New findings and research by Johnny Reinhard enabled him to construct a fresh performing version lasting 64 minutes and requiring 74 musicians including, extraordinarily, nine flutes, five bassoons and fourteen percussionists. He conducted it's premiere, at Lincoln Center, New York, on June 6 1996 with the full approval of the Charles Ives Society. For the last five years, the Stereo Society has been carefully preparing a commercial recording directed by Reinhard of this new version which benefits from many of New York's top musicians. Unsurprisingly, this recording also needed to utilize some novel techniques. The names of it's movements are evocative: ƒ_-Earth Alone, Pulse Of The Cosmos, Birth Of The Oceans, Earth Is Of The Heavens and more. Dramatically, most of the first half hour is scored for percussion alone, building from a solitary low bell to a unique sonic mix with all players sounding different patterns, until winding down again. This remarkable pattern cycles through and underpins the whole work, and when solo anticipates later all-percussion pieces such as Varse's Ionisation and Cage's Constructions In Metal. The second half layers the huge, unique orchestra over the ceaseless percussion, until concluding the tenth cycle with the solitary bookend, the low bell. The symphony's realization differs from convention in almost every imaginable way, yet Reinhard remarks that he did not add any notes to the composer's original manuscripts. He sees his role not as a creator, but rather a curator, and has argued his editorial decisions coherently and decisively in a book of nearly 200 pages. The new, authoritative recording documents, finally, the crowning achievement of America's musical father figure. At last, Mr Ives might have been satisfied. Charles Edward Ives (1874-1954) Only 1% of all Americans would recognize the name Charles Ives. And out of that 1 percent, half will recognize him only as a great life-insurance businessman. Ives was a self-made millionaire thanks to his introduction of door-to-door life insurance sales. The remaining half-percent know of the musical accomplishments of this extraordinary genius. Influenced by his father, the youngest band leader serving in the Civil War, Charles would first become a professional organist, working for different churches. Some of his Church experiences remind of the young Johann Sebastian Bach; both composer/organists would add extra dissonances and melisma to standard organ responses. As a result of his shyness, Ives would eventually wean himself from keyboard performing. He reso