ABSTRACT
No line of direct creative influence has yet been drawn to connect Charles Ives and T. S. Eliot. Whether or not a direct line of influence can be drawn between Ives and Eliot, comparative examination reveals much about the concepts, forms, and uses of interdisciplinarity that inform their work and our understanding of it. What Ives sought in literature differs greatly, of course, from what Eliot looked for in music. This chapter provides a closer look at each artist's theories about interdisciplinarity, principally as they are outlined in Essays before a Sonata and "The Music of Poetry." Similar to Ives, although certainly not to the same extent, Eliot believes that the artist must work from the materials at hand to create a work that can transcend locality. Contributing to this process for both artists is their use of interdisciplinarity. In comparison with Eliot's cosmopolitan scope, Ives's dense use of regional New England quotations may be considered parochial.
