Categories
20th Century American

IVES, Charles

Born in Danbury, CT, Oct 20, 1874
Died in New York, NY, May 19, 1954

  • Ives was a professional organist and received a rigorous training in composition. Thus, though he spent 30 years in the insurance industry, the image of Ives as an amateur composer is a misconception.
  • Though Ives’ experimental and avant-garde works are more familiar, he also composed tonal, Romantic works, sometimes combining styles within one piece.
  • Ives’ music began to draw attention when a younger generation of composers (including Henry Cowell, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein) discovered and promoted Ives’ self-published works in the 1920s and 30s.1

Biography from the Charles Ives Society

Sources

  1. J. Peter Burkholder, James B. Sinclair and Gayle Sherwood Magee, “Ives, Charles,” Grove Music Online (October 16, 2013), accessed October 30, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002252967.

Pieces