Charles Ives

Life and career

Ives was born in Danbury, Connecticut, on October 20, 1874, to George Ives, a US Army bandleader in the Civil War, and Mary Elizabeth Ives. The Ives family, descended from Connecticut colonists, were prominent in business and civic improvement and active in progressive movements like abolition. George Ives directed bands, choirs, and orchestras, teaching music theory and instruments. Charles absorbed influences by sitting in Danbury town square, hearing his father's marching band and other bands simultaneously.

His father taught him and his brother Moss Ives harmony and counterpoint, encouraging bitonal and polytonal experimentation, and introduced him to Stephen Foster's music. At 14, Ives became a church organist, writing hymns and songs including Variations on "America" for a Fourth of July concert in Brewster, New York. He moved to New Haven in 1893, attending Hopkins School and captaining the baseball team. In September 1894, he entered Yale University, studying under Horatio Parker, composing church music and an 1896 campaign song for William McKinley.

His father died on November 4, 1894, a crushing blow, but Ives continued his musical experimentation. His brother Moss later became a lawyer.

Musical career

Ives began playing drums in his father's band at a young age. He published a large collection of songs with piano parts, composed two string quartets and other chamber music, but is best known for his orchestral works. As an organist, he wrote Variations on "America" in 1891, premiering it at a Fourth of July recital. He composed four numbered symphonies and works with 'Symphony' in their titles, including The Unanswered Question (1908) for trumpet, four flutes, and string quartet, influenced by New England writers Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

Around 1910, he began his most accomplished works, such as the Holiday Symphony and Three Places in New England. The Piano Sonata No. 2: Concord, Mass., 1840-60 (Concord Sonata), started in 1911 and mostly completed by 1915, was published in 1920, with a revised version released in 1947. Its second movement instructs the pianist to use a 14+3/4 inch piece of wood for a massive cluster chord, and it quotes Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in each movement.

His Symphony No. 4, worked on from 1910 to 1916 with revisions in the 1920s, is noted for its complexity and vast orchestra; a complete performance was not given until 1965. Ives left behind material for an unfinished Universe Symphony, unable to complete it due to health problems and shifting ideas.

Reception

Ives's music was largely ignored during his life, especially while he actively composed, and many published works went unperformed even after his death in 1954. His reputation has greatly increased in recent years; the Juilliard School commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of his death with six days of performances in 2004. His increasing use of dissonance was not well received by contemporaries, and the rhythmic complexities of his major orchestral works made them daunting challenges for decades.

Early supporters included Henry Cowell, Elliott Carter, and Aaron Copland. Cowell's periodical New Music published many of Ives's scores. For nearly 40 years, Ives had few performances he did not personally arrange or finance, often using Nicolas Slonimsky as conductor. After seeing Ives's self-published 114 Songs in the 1930s, Copland published a praising newspaper article.

Ives gained some public recognition in the 1930s with performances of Three Places in New England in the US and Europe by Slonimsky. The Concord Sonata premiered at New York's Town Hall in 1939 with pianist John Kirkpatrick, receiving favorable commentary. In the 1940s, Lou Harrison edited and promoted Ives's music, conducting the premiere of Symphony No. 3 in 1946, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music the next year; Ives gave the prize money away, half to Harrison.

Ives secretly financed other composers' works, telling beneficiaries his wife wanted him to; Slonimsky said in 1971, "He financed my entire career."

Compositions

His works include Variations on "America" for organ (1892), The Circus Band, Psalm settings (14, 42, 54, 67, 90, 135, 150) from the 1890s, String Quartet No. 1, From the Salvation Army (1897–1900), Symphony No. 1 in D minor (1898–1901), and Symphony No. 2 (Ives gave dates of 1899–1902; analysis suggests 1907–1909). Other compositions are Symphony No. 3, The Camp Meeting (1908–10), Central Park in the Dark (1906, 1909), The Unanswered Question (1908; rev. 1934), Piano Sonata No. 1 (1909–16), Emerson Concerto (1913–19), and Tone Roads for orchestra No. 1.

1–4, A Symphony: New England Holidays (1904–13), "Robert Browning" Overture (1911–14), Symphony No. 4 (1912–18; rev. 1924–26), String Quartet No. 2 (1913–15), Three Places in New England (1910–14; rev. 1929), Orchestral Set No. 2 (1915–19), Piano Sonata No. 2, Concord, Mass., 1840–60 (1916–19), Universe Symphony (incomplete, 1915–28, worked on until his death), 114 Songs (1887–1921, published 1922), Three Quarter Tone Piano Pieces (1923–24), and Orchestral Set No. 3 (incomplete, 1919–26, notes added after 1934).

Did You Know?

• In 1954, several months after Ives's death, the New York City Ballet premiered Ivesiana, a ballet by George Balanchine set to Ives's compositions including The Unanswered Question and Central Park in the Dark.
• Charles Ives and his wife Harmony were the subjects of the opera Harmony (2021) by Robert Carl and Russell Banks, premiered by the Seagle Festival in August 2021.