Download Charles Ives

Charles Ives
Born: October 20, 1874, Danbury, Connecticut
Died: May 19, 1954, New York
In his own words....
"Beauty in music is too often confused with something that lets the ear lie back in an easy
chair. Many sounds that we are used to do not bother us, and for that reason we are
inclined to call them beautiful. Frequently—possibly almost invariably—analytical and
impersonal test will show that when a new or unfamiliar work is accepted as beautiful on
its first hearing, its fundamental quality is one that tends to put the mind to sleep."
American composer. Ives's music was little appreciated in his lifetime, but has since been
recognized for its quality and innovative characteristics.
According to Charles Ives, his interests in experimenting with sound came from his father,
a town band director. Ives tells stories of his father having the band divided into two halves
and marching toward each other playing different pieces; or of tuning two pianos a quartertone off from each other and playing them together. This kind of daring approach marks
most of Charles Ives's music and explains its slow acceptance in the musical world.
Apart from what he learned from his father, Ives's musical training was rather traditional.
He studied at Yale with Horatio Parker and produced a somewhat unsurprising work, his
First Symphony (1898). But even at this time he seemed to chafe at the idea of writing
conventional music (he had already written pieces using polytonality). After graduating, he
reached the conclusion that the music he wanted to write would not be successful, nor
would it allow him to support a family. Instead, he turned toward the world of business.
He did not abandon his composition, however; he merely limited it to an avocation.
Remarkably, even as he was building a highly successful career in insurance, he maintained
a highly productive composing schedule. The music he produced during this period was
unconventional, and he had little success in having it performed. Rather than trying to
write in a more "acceptable" style, however, he doggedly continued his work, setting his
finished scores aside (sometimes not completed) and embarking on new projects.
Ives's music is marked by a number of individual features. He was fearless in his use of
unconventional approaches to rhythm and harmony, and he took great offense at what he
saw as lazy, conventional music (especially the salon styles of the late nineteenth century)
dependent on European models. Instead, he wanted a music that reflected his view of
America: rugged, individualistic, un-afraid to experiment. In his music we find an
incredible mix of hard-edged dissonance and nostalgic quotations of favorite hymn tunes;
of the elevated language of the concert-music tradition and the vernacular of popular songs
and ragtime. He saw music as a reflection of the transcendental philosophies of Thoreau
and Emerson, and he tried to realize this in pieces such as his unfinished "Universe
Symphony"—a work that was to be performed by multiple orchestras spread out on
different hilltops.
Most of Ives's compositional career ended in 1918, when health problems forced him to
halt much of his activity. But over that span of time, he managed to create a body of work
that was unique and often ahead of its time. In 1920, he arranged for the publication of
one of his works, the Concord Sonata, with a long preface
(Essays Before a Sonata) that set out his aesthetic ideals. He also published his 114 Songs.
Neither received much notice (the sonata, for example, was not performed until 1939). It
was only late in his life (and beginning with the performance of the sonata) that his music
began to be taken seriously. In 1947, he received the Pulitzer Prize for his Third
Symphony. Since then, his music has become a standard part of the classical repertoire and
Ives has been recognized as the fine composer he was.