The "Emerson" Piano Concerto (also titled the "Emerson" Overture for Piano and Orchestra) was the first draft of

Charles Ives Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, one of the first American composers of international renown. His music was largely ignored during his early career, and many of his works went unperformed f ...

's "Emerson"

movement Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

of the Second Piano Sonata ("Concord, Mass. 1840–60"). The first version of the Sonata movement, completed around 1919 (although Ives stated in his "Memos" that it was actually "finished" in 1913), had many simplified passages, and omitted several passages that had been some of the "Centrifugal

Cadenza In music, a cadenza (from it, cadenza, link=no , meaning cadence; plural, ''cadenze'' ) is, generically, an improvisation, improvised or written-out ornament (music), ornamental passage (music), passage played or sung by a solo (music), sol ...

s" of the Concerto (this version was published in 1921). These cadenza passages became "Studies" for piano. The passages that were retained in the Sonata movement that had been simplified were restored to their original state in the "Four Transcriptions from 'Emerson'" that were assembled between 1915 and ca. 1923. When Ives recorded the Transcriptions in the 1930s, he restored most of these cadenza passages to the Transcriptions, and one

photostat The Photostat machine, or Photostat, was an early projection photocopier created in the decade of the 1900s by the Commercial Camera Company, which became the Photostat Corporation. The "Photostat" name, which was originally a trademark of the c ...

copy of the Transcriptions ("Copy C") shows how they were to be reinstated in writing (cf. the CD '' Ives Plays Ives'' for his recordings). Most of the more complex original text passages of the Sonata movement were restored to the Sonata in its second edition, in the 1940s. The Concerto was edited from all the extant sources: the existing Concerto sketches, the Sonata movement, the Studies, the Transcriptions, and verbal memoranda regarding the evolution of the music that Ives wrote as program notes to the Sonata movement. The manuscript sources for each have many verbal memoranda that refer back to the original idea of the Concerto, identifying materials for piano cadenzas, and for specific orchestral instruments. The "viola part" to the Sonata movement is not to be played by a

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

. It is simply "the viola part" from the last page of the original Concerto sketch (where it is doubled by

bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...

, and the downbeats to each

triplet A triplet is a set of three items, which may be in a specific order, or unordered. It may refer to: Science * A series of three nucleotide bases forming an element of the Genetic code * J-coupling as part of Nuclear magnetic resonance spectrosc ...

figure are doubled by

tubular bell Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillon, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within a ...

s). When Ives added the line back to the Sonata movement (in the copy of the Transcriptions made by copyist Reiss), in both pencil sketch and ink patch, he simply called it "viola part". Ives never intended it to be played by a viola. This is not the same as the optional

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

part in the "Thoreau" movement, where a flute player is explicitly called for.

Further reading