http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trkFgIMC-Ks

 

Originally titled “A contemplation of a serious matter,” The Unanswered
Question was written by Charles Ives in 1906. It is scored for solo
trumpet, a woodwind quartet, and an offstage string quartet. It was first
performed by orchestra in 1946 at the Juilliard School (He wrote the orchestral
version in the early 1930s). It was originally written to accompany another
piece, Central park in the dark. Together, the two pieces were called Two
Contemplations. Today, however, the pieces are commonly known as individual
works. However, Central park in the dark was also performed at the 1946 performance.

The distinction of the score comes in its layered composition: three layers to be
exact. There is a conflict of tonalities. Each section has its own repetitive
motive. Layered over each other, they grow to create near cacophony. The solo
trumpet can be identified as the question asker. The strings slow repeat
diatonic triads. As the only solo instrument, one could compare him to a single
human asking one of any number of questions that humans ask throughout their
lives. The flutes try to provide the answer, but each repeat of it grows more
clouded and obscure. Eventually their melodies become discernible.

The diatonicism in the string quartet represents the trickling of time. Their
pacing is steady and never falters—as time is steady and never falters. The
trumpet’s question never really changes. It is the answer from the string
quartet that provides the dissonance and harshness associated with the piece.
It is obvious that the question is never answered. The attempt at an answer
only grows more frantic as the notion that an answer cannot be provided becomes
more and more clear. Like many of the questions humans ask about their life,
the more they search for an answer, the more unclear that answer can become.
The raucous melodies ending in the woodwinds even end with an upward flourish—like
a question mark.

This
ending can, without a doubt, leave a listener unsatisfied and somewhat
disturbed (as if their question was not answered, perhaps..). Ives, himself,
spoke of his belief that music is not meant to satisfy as much as it is meant
to relay a quality beyond what man can grasp. He said, “…maybe music was not
intended to satisfy the curious definiteness of man. Maybe it is better to hope
that music may always be a transcendental language in the most extravagant
sense. Possibly the power of literally distinguishing these ‘shades of
abstraction’—these attributes paralleled by ‘artistic intuition’…is ever to be
denied man for the same reason that the beginning and end of a circle are to be
denied.”[1]

Perhaps
it is in this belief that music cannot provide an answer that one can take
comfort in the idea that music transcends all questions, and thus does not need
to provide answers.