the strange Music of Philip Carey

In addition to his work in the visual arts, Philip Carey had a parallel lifelong career as a choral vocalist. Beginning with the then-world famous St. Luke’s Choristers during his Long Beach, CA, childhood, he continued to sing everything from sacred music to opera to a capella jazz through high school and college before landing a position with the Gregg Smith Singers, an internationally noted ensemble specializing in choral music ranging from the renaissance to the 20th century. He remained with the group for several years, recording albums for Columbia Records of music by Charles Ives (which won a Grammy in 1966), Igor Stravinsky (conducted by the composer himself), Gabrieli (recorded in St. Marks, Venice), Schoenberg, and many others, before his recording career was interrupted by a call-up to the U.S. Navy.

He also worked on producing films and other projects related to 20th-century composers including documentaries about Darius Milhaud and Charles Ives (for which he interviewed Aaron Copland in 1966), and produced what would have been the first-ever “Charles Ives Holiday” festival (see below) at California State College Long Beach if not for an ill-timed intervention by Ronald Reagan.

After relocating to upstate New York in the 1970s, he and family sang with their church choir, and he regularly freelanced as a cantor at local temples. (Not to mention a star turn as Captain von Trapp in a local production of The Sound of Music!) In the 1990s and 2000s he performed with several vocal groups in Northern California. You can listen to a playlist of his recordings here:

A Charles Ives Holiday (1970)

In 1966, as a member of the Gregg Smith Singers, Philip Carey sang on the Grammy-winning album Charles Ives: Music for Chorus, which ignited a lifelong love of the then-obscure American composer’s iconoclastic music. In 1969, shortly after returning from a three-year stint with the U.S. Navy, he began plans for a film about Ives, which later turned into organizing a “Charles Ives Holiday” festival (named after Ives’ Holidays Symphony) at California State College, Long Beach, where he was (occasionally) enrolled as a graduate student in the design program.

The festival was scheduled for May 8–10, 1970, and was to feature three days of concerts, lectures, and films, and an exhibit, and would have been (to my knowledge) the first of its kind to celebrate Ives. However, on May 7, one day before the festival’s opening reception, Governor Ronald Reagan ordered the immediate closure of all California State University campuses in response to ongoing student protests against the war in Vietnam, and the event was canceled.

As part of his preparations, Philip mailed letters to 102 notable people “in all areas of cultural involvement” asking for their thoughts on Ives, with plans to display their responses in the festival exhibit. Those contacted ranged from musicians—including those with connections to Ives’ music like Leonard Bernstein and Pierre Boulez, plus those much further afield like Joan Baez and Burt Bacharach—to cultural figures like Andy Warhol and Norman Rockwell, and even politicians like Governors George Wallace, Lester Maddox, and Reagan (who ironically sent well-wishes for the festival that he eventually caused to be canceled).

Philip received over 30 responses, which are collected below. They range from highly detailed thoughts on Ives’ music (from Lou Harrison, Ingolf Dahl, George Rochberg, and Peter Yates), to admissions of ignorance, to apologies for delay. In keeping with Philip’s sense of humor, he especially appreciated the cantankerous (“no particular originality was involved” –Meredith Wilson) and/or confused replies (“sure appreciate inquiry of feelings about the music of Charles Ives Holiday” –Wallace).

The Strange Dreams of Philip Carey:
A Multimedia Series

In 2012, Philip commissioned composers William Vollinger and Linda Ferreira to create a series of nine musical adaptations of his dream drawings. Performances of the songs, with editing and animation by Stephen Paschke, can be seen below.