Ives – 114 Songs

This is one of a series of posts about books used as source material for Art Song Central.

Book Title: 114 Songs
Composer: Charles Ives (1874-1954)
Published: 1922

Please see the notes at the bottom of this post for additional information.

This volume is available at IMSLP, and at Harvard.

Contents:

  1. Majority
  2. Evening
  3. The Last Reader
  4. At Sea
  5. Immortality
  6. The New River
  7. Discosure
  8. The Rainbow
  9. (a) Duty (b) Vita
  10. Charlie Rutlage
  11. Lincoln The Great Commoner
  12. Remembrance
  13. Resolution
  14. The Indians
  15. The Housatonic at Stockbridge
  16. Religion
  17. Grantchester
  18. Incantation
  19. The Greatest Man
  20. Hymn
  21. Luck and Work
  22. “Nov. 2, 1920”
  23. Maple Leaves
  24. Premonitions
  25. Ann Street
  26. Like a Sick Eagle
  27. The Swimmers
  28. On the Counter
  29. The See’r
  30. From “Paracelsus,”
  31. Walt Whitman
  32. The Side-Show
  33. Cradle-Song
  34. La Fede
  35. August
  36. September
  37. December
  38. The Collection
  39. Afterglow
  40. The Innate
  41. “123,”
  42. Serenity
  43. The Things Our Fathers Loved
  44. Watchman
  45. At The River
  46. His Exaltation
  47. The Camp-Meeting
  48. Thoreau
  49. In Flanders Fields
  50. He is There!
  51. Tom Sails Away
  52. Old Home Day
  53. In the Alley
  54. A Song of a Gambolier
  55. Down East
  56. The Circus Band
  57. Mists
  58. Evidence
  59. Tolerance
  60. Autumn
  61. Nature’s Way
  62. The Waiting Soul
  63. Those Evening Bells
  64. The Cage
  65. Spring Song
  66. The Light that is Felt
  67. Walking
  68. Ilmenau (Over All the Treetops)
  69. Rough Wind
  70. Mirage
  71. There is a Lane
  72. Tarrant Moss
  73. Harpalus
  74. The Children’s Hour
  75. I Travelled Among Unknown Men
  76. Qu’il M’irait bien
  77. Elegie
  78. Chanson de Florian
  79. Rosamunde
  80. Weil’ auf mir
  81. The Old Mother [Die alte Mutter]
  82. In Summerfields [Feldeinsamkeit]
  83. Ich Grolle Nicht
  84. Night of Frost in May (From)
  85. Dreams
  86. Omens and Oracles
  87. An Old Flame
  88. A Night Song
  89. A Song — For Anything
  90. The World’s Highway
  91. Karen
  92. Marie
  93. Berceuse
  94. Where the Eagle
  95. Allegro
  96. Romanzo (di Central Park)
  97. The South Wind
  98. Naught that Country
  99. Forward into the Light
  100. A Christmas Carol
  101. My Native Land
  102. Memories: (a) Very Pleasant (b) Rather Sad
  103. The White Gulls (From the Russian)
  104. Two Little Flowers
  105. West London (A Sonnet)
  106. Amphion
  107. A Night Thought
  108. Songs My Mother Taught Me
  109. Waltz
  110. The World’s Wanderers
  111. Canon
  112. To Edith
  113. When Stars Are in the Quit Skies
  114. Slow March

Notes:
This volume was originally self published by Ives in 1922. He made 500 copies, and when they ran out, he printed 1000 more, distributing them to friends and musicians. In the years since, it has been republished with copyright notices affixed to all of the songs, though a reasonable inspection of the scores suggest that there were no changes made. As recently as a few years ago, however, I don’t believe anyone had yet tried to assert the fact that these songs were in the public domain in the US.

Harvard, operating conservatively, simply asserts fair use in their hosting of these songs, and IMSLP operates under Canadian law.

The US law seems to be clear that these are in the public domain. Not only were they published before 1923, but they were also published without a copyright notice, which before 1976 appears to have been grounds for forfeiture of copyright.

However, I presume it would be possible that the current publishers, who charge a hefty sum for this volume, might try to assert that the songs weren’t actually “published” in 1922. At the time, there was no standard definition of the word “published”. The 1976 copyright law defines it thusly: “Publication is the distribution of copies or phonorecords of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending. The offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of persons for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display constitutes publication.” Indeed, Ives went to great pains to suggest that he didn’t make these “publicly” available, but only distributed them to 1500 of his closest friends…

It seems unlikely to me that a convincing case could be made, but I’m going to hold off hosting any of these songs until there is more clarity on the issue.