The Unanswered Question | Charles Ives
Dr. Rafael Antonio Rodriguez conducts the University of Memphis Symphony Orchestra.
From Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem "The Sphinx" (1841):
"Thou art the unanswered question;
Couldst see they proper eye,
Alway it asketh, asketh;
And each answer is a lie.
So take thy quest through nature,
It through thousand natures ply;
Ask on, thou clothed eternity;
Time is the false reply."
The strings represent “The Silences of the Druids – Who Know, See, and Hear Nothing.” The trumpet intones “The Perennial Question of Existence”, and states it in the same tone of voice each time. But the hunt for “The Invisible Answer” undertaken by the flutes and other human beings, becomes gradually more active, faster, and louder through the piece. “The Fighting Answerers,” as the time foes on, and after a “secret conference,” seem to realize a futiliy, and begin to mock “The Question” – the strife is over for the moment. After they disappear, “The Question” is asked for the last time, and “The Silences” are heard beyond in “Undisturbed Solitude.”