Charles Ives - String Quartet No. 2

Charles Ives (1874 - 1954) - String Quartet No. 2 (1911 - 1913) I. Conversations & Discussions [0:00] II. Arguments [10:14] III. “The Call of the Mountains“ [14:29] Juilliard String Quartet (1967) Charles Ives’ second string quartet was composed in response to what he saw as the “weak, trite, and effeminate“ string quartet music of those times. According to his Memos, after attending a performance by the Kneisel Quartet, he began writing a string quartet, “half mad, half in fun, and half to try out, practise, and have some fun with making those men fiddlers get up and do something like men.“ The result is what Ives considered “one of the best things I have“: his String Quartet No. 2. Unfortunately, this forward-looking work was too difficult for audiences and even musicians of his time. A brief play-through of a portion of a movement “made all the men rather mad,“ and Ives was never able to hear a complete performance of the