Charles Edward IVES

20 October 1874 - 19 May 1954(age 79)

Portrait by Paul Helm

One of the first American composers of international importance. His work was mostly unknown during his lifetime.
With time however he has come to be considered one of the most important influences on musuical composition in the 20th century.
As a day job he founded and ran one of the most successful insurance companies in the States.

- Family

- Quotes

- Works

- Links

Family

Born: 20 October 1874, Danbury, Conn., U.S.
Father: George Ives former Union Army bandmaster
Mother: "Mollie" Elizabeth Parmalee
Siblings: 1 brother Joseph Moss Ives
Wife: Harmony (great name for the wife of a composer) Twitchell
Children: adopted daughter Edith (Osborne)
Died: 19 May 1954 in New York
Cause of death: stroke
Grave: Wooster Cemetery, Danbury, Connecticut USA
see findagrave.com

Temperament

Selected Works

• Orchestral music
  4 symphonies
  Three Places in New England
  The Fourth of July
  Chamber music
  The Unanswered Question
  Central Park in the Dark
  2 string quartetts
  4 violin sonatas
  Piano music
  Three-Page Sonata
  Sonata no.1
  Sonata no.2 ‘Concord’
  Vocal music
  over 185 songs
  and psalms
• Writings
• Life Insurance with Relation to Inheritance Tax
  
  Style: American Nationalist, Impressionist, experimentalist
  Influenced by: Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Joplin, American folk music, jazz, popular music
• Influenced: Bernstein, Cage, Copland

Pulitzer Prize 1947

First performed by Lou Harrison and Chamber Orchestra in New York, April, 1946

A Brief Biography

- Childhood: his father nurtured his interest in music teaching him various instruments and unconventional exercises to "stretch his ears". It was his father that put him on the road of musical experimentation.
- Age 14 appointed church organist, an activity he did for over 14 years.
Went to the Hopkins Grammar School where he became the captain of baseball.
- Age 19 Went to Yale where he studied under the Wagnerian Horatio Parker.
His father died which affected him deeply.
Played for the Yale football team and chaired the Ivy Committee.
Wrote his Symphony No1 as his senior thesis.
- Age 25 Employed by the Mutual Insurance company which eventually went out of business after a few years.
- Age 33 Founded his own insurance company, Ives & Co, with his friend Julian Myrick. It soon became Ives & Myrick, one of the most successful in the States. It specialised in estate planning. He worked there until he retired.
- age 44 Suffered a heart attack and his health deteriorated making it increasingly difficult to compose.
- age 53 Finally stopped composing.
- age 56 retired from the insurance business. Continued to revise and refine his earlier works.
- age 79 died from a stroke after a minor operation.

Quotes

- "The possibilities of percussion sounds, I believe, have never been fully realized"

- "In 'thinking up' music I usually have some kind of a brass band with wings on it in back of my mind" 

- "Why tonality as such should be thrown out for good I can't see. Why it should always be present I can't see. It depends, it seems to me. . . on what one is trying to do, and on the state of the mind, the time of day or other accidents of life"

More quotes on Miss Jacobson's Music blog

The Unanswered Question (a cosmic landscape)

News

Treasures on eBay

Links - where to go for more information

The Charles Ives Society

A Charles Ives Website

Answers.com a collection of reference sites including Wikipedia

An article by Peter Gutmann

and of course Wikipedia

Harmony and Charles Ives at West Redding, 1948
9 in. x 12 in.
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