Charles Ives was born in Danbury, Connecticut, on October 20, 1874, and died in New York City on May 19, 1954. The first performance of The Unanswered Question took place on May 11, 1946, at Columbia University, in New York City. The Unanswered Question is scored for four flutes, trumpet, and strings. Approximate performance times is six minutes.

In 1906, Charles Ives composed two brief orchestral works he entitled:

1. “A Contemplation of a Serious Matter” or “The Unanswered Question” and
2. “A Contemplation of Nothing Serious” or “Central Park in the Dark in ‘The Good Old Summer Time’.”

Although Ives originally conceived of these two experimental works as companion pieces, “The Unanswered Question” and “Central Park in the Dark” ultimately emerged as independent compositions.

It was not until 1941 (and several revisions by the composer) that The Unanswered Question received its initial publication. Five years later, The Unanswered Question received its premiere at Columbia University in New York. The May 11, 1946 performance was part of an all-Ives concert during the Second Annual Festival of Contemporary Music.

The Unanswered Question is scored for a chamber ensemble of trumpet, flute quartet, and (muted) strings, although Ives allows for changes of instrumentation, if necessary. The composer also provided the following description of this mysterious, atmospheric work:

The strings play ppp throughout with no change in tempo (Annotator’s note: Ives directs that they be positioned either “‘off-stage,’ or away from the trumpet and flutes”). They are to 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 an animando to a con fuoco… “The Fighting Answerers,” as the time goes on, and after a “secret conference,” seem to realize a futility, 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.”

Program notes by Ken Meltzer