Tonight the Excalibur Brass will open tonight’s 7:30p concert with a quick set of Four Songs of Charles Ives. The first two songs in the set, On the Counter and The Side Show were written in 1920, and 1921 respectively, while the final two of the set were written earlier in life. Slow March, was written when Ives was perhaps 13 or 14 years old in 1888 and recounts the story of the passing of what appears to be a pet. The final tune, Tarrant Moss after a poem by Kipling, does not actually include the full text to the song as Kipling’s agents apparently pulled the rights at the last second. Interestingly, Ives returned to this song later and composed a new set of lyrics for the song, and changing it to a more aggressive nature, titled Slugging of a Vampire.
Enjoy! As usual, you can stream it at the following link: