MUSICAL DESCRIPTION OF "CENTRAL PARK IN THE DARK" OF CHARLES IVES

Charles Ives's Central Park in the Dark (which is a teeny bit of an homage to one of his works that uses smooth strings that often clash with pointillistic winds--The Unanswered Question) uses the string section to create the main base of the piece. At the start of the music, the string section focuses on long chordal notes and drones. Long bass notes in the cellos and basses (in octaves, which are the drones themselves) sustain slightly-faster-moving notes in the violas, 1st and 2nd violins. The main pedal point in the drones seems to be on the note A, which almost imperceptibly fluctuates, and the approximate key center seems to be the dominant of D major, but the guess of possibly making a definite V7 chord in D is enigmatic....the often-unresolved harmonic changes keep the usual musical listener guessing on how these harmonies will resolve. Eventually, the woodwinds join in this semi-chaotic yet smooth fray, with the clarinet entering first, and then the oboe, and then there is an contrapuntal interplay between the oboe and clarinet. Then, the woodwinds drop out......as the strings continue their pattern of quasi-atonal chords, mainly in seconds and sevenths, often punctuated by quartals and quintals. There seems to be a looped pattern in several repeats, probably lasting about 40-50 seconds each. The woodwinds then come in as the strings continue this pattern....and drop out again. Then, the piano enters with a contrapuntal theme matching the string activity as the strings continue their chordal and pedal-point patterns. Then.....the piano drops out. The strings continue and then the woodwinds start up again, and then, the piano re-appears---now this time, it suddenly explodes into a violent outburst of ragtime and Dixieland music. The woodwind activity then builds up to a violent outburst with ragtime music elements of its own, and then the brass comes in to punctuate an ever increasing crescendo.....and soon all of the orchestra joins in its ragtime-twinged violence and liveliness with a crescendo. As the crescendo is about to burst into a climax....the climax gets unresolved...suddenly disappearing back into quasi-repose as the strings repeat the loop as you hear in the beginning on that pedal point A as before. The English horn then wails out a slow-moving lament as the string chords continue looping and the pedal point gradually moves to Eb...and gradually back to A. The English horn then drops out. The strings are left to finish one final loop of the pattern that permeated 95 percent of the piece.....gradually decreasing in tone and intensity and then after a 3 second silence...the last chord, a A-C#-D#-F-C#, brings the piece to its restful conclusion.