Typescript (Photocopy) --- Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of Rochester, 1986.
This study examines the fifth movement of Charles Ives's First Piano Sonata in an attempt to understand its musical value and its significance within the entire Sonata. These issues are addressed through analysis of the movement to determine not only its internal organization but also its thematic, structural, and aesthetic connections to the other four movements of the Sonata. Exhaustive perusal of the manuscripts for the fifth movement resulted in a suggested chronology of its composition, as well as listings of possible early revisions and of Ives's final corrections to the score. Taken together, these manuscript studies provide an intimate look at Ives's compositional process and at his ceaselessly active mind. Finally, the manuscript source for the printed editions contains several variants which are presented as an errata sheet for Peer International Corporation's second edition, published in 1979. The evolution of this printed edition
from the original manuscript source is discussed along with the history of the Sonata's first complete performance and its subsequent first recording. The important roles of Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison, William Masselos, and Paul Echols in this regard have been researched through interviews and correspondence. The result of all of the above is a shattering of misconceptions about the musical strength and aesthetic significance of the fifth movement of the First Piano Sonata and a new appraisal of this Sonata's importance as the first half of Ives's musical autobiography.