Charles Ives American Composer His life and family

Charles Ives American Composer

His life and family Born: October 20, 1874 Hometown: Danbury, Connecticut Father: George Ives, Mother: Edith Ives Life as a Youth Musician Athlete Church Organist

The Young Adult Attended Yale college Played Football Majored in Music Wrote music for Glee Club (Choir) Member and president of many organizations and committees Wrote two symphonies while in college

A New Career Ives graduated from Yale with a music degree He decided against a career in music He opened his own insurance company in New York City with a friend Continued to write music as a hobby

Career Started Ives and Myrick Insurance Agency It became a very successful insurance company This is where Ives made his living so he could compose music “on the side” Wrote lots of modern music His own compositions Campaign Songs Fight Songs Continued as a Church Organist

The Music u He wrote music on the weekends, at night and on vacation u He continually tried to get conductors and musicians to play his music but they would say it was unperformable u His music was very different from other pieces being written in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s u He often included clashing chords and unconventional mixture of instruments

The Music continued… He used Polyrhythms – two different time signatures at the same time that created very complicated rhythmic passages He used Polytonality – two different key signatures at the same time that created clashing, jarring sounds Friends advised him to write in a more conventional, popular style but he would say that he just couldn’t. This was the way HE felt music, this was HIS OWN style. He eventually gave up trying to have his music performed

In 1918 at the age of 44 he Later life suffered a heart attack The stress of writing music and running his company became too much for him He wrote almost no music at all for the next 40 years of his life He did publish a book of 114 songs with his own money and gave copies away to musicians, libraries and singers

New Found Fame In the 1930’s some young musicians began discovering his music. In 1939, a concert pianist first performed his Concord Sonata at a recital in New York City. It was the first public performance of a work by Charles Ives He was 65 years old

He won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize Pulitzer prize in music in 1947 for his third symphony titled The Camp Meeting He had composed it 36 years earlier Awarded to Charles Ives 1947 For his Symphony The Camp Meeting

In 1951 the New Recognition…… The New York Philharmonic orchestra York Philharmonic premiered his Second Symphony. 50 years after it was composed. Ives was able to listen to the performance on the radio His fourth symphony was not performed until 1965, nine years after his death

Variations on America Ives piece “Variations on America” is based on the song, “America” (“My Country, tis of thee”)

o f a s i mp l e me l o d y p r e s e n t e d fi r s t i n i t s o r i g i n a l fo r m t h e n r e p e a t e d s e v e r a l o r ma n y t i m e s wi t h v a r i e d i n s t r u me n t s , r h y t h ms a n d n o te s. T h e me a n d V a r i a t i o n s a s t a n d a r d fo r m c o n s i s t i n g

Charles Ives died In New York City on May 19, 1954