Ex. 6-13: Songs My Mother Taught Me

Written by Charles Ives in 1895, set to a poem by the Czech poet Adolf Heyduk (1835–1923). The same poem had been set by Antonín Dvořák about fifteen years earlier, as No. 4 of his Gypsy Melodies (Op. 55, 1880) — one of the most widely known art songs in the repertoire. (Ex. 11-5: Songs My Mother Taught Me by Antonín Dvořák)

Ives' setting shares some similarities with Dvořák's, but reflects the young American composer's own voice. The poem recalls a mother singing songs, now bringing tears when the composer sings them to his own children.

Ives wrote it as a student at Yale, and dedicated it to his own mother. His composition teacher there, Horatio Parker, was a strict, European-trained musician who disliked Ives's experiments, so Ives saved his boldest ideas for himself and handed in gentler pieces like this one.

Years later, around 1903, Ives rewrote the song for a small group of instruments and gave it a joking new title, "An Old Song Deranged" — a play on the word "arranged."

From the album Songs for New Life and Love by Ruby Hughes and Joseph Middleton (2021)
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