Ives Charles Ives

Charles Edward Ives (/aɪvz/; October 20, 1874 – May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though his music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, he came to be regarded as an "American original". He combined the American popular and church-music traditions of his youth with European art music, and was among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with musical techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatory elements, and quarter tones, foreshadowing many musical innovations of the 20th century.

Sources of Ives' tonal imagery are hymn tunes and traditional songs, the town band at holiday parade, the fiddlers at Saturday night dances, patriotic songs, sentimental parlor ballads, and the melodies of Stephen Foster.

Compositions

Main article: List of compositions by Charles Ives

Note: Because Ives often made several different versions of the same piece, and because his work was generally ignored during his life, it is often difficult to put exact dates on his compositions. The dates given here are sometimes best guesses. There have also been controversial speculations that he purposely misdated his own pieces earlier or later than actually written.

• Variations on "America" for organ (1892)
• The Circus Band (a march describing the Circus coming to town)
• Psalm settings (14, 42, 54, 67, 90, 135, 150) (1890s)
• String Quartet No. 1, From the Salvation Army (1897–1900)
• Symphony No. 1 in D minor (1898–1901)
• Symphony No. 2 (Ives gave dates of 1899–1902; analysis of handwriting and manuscript paper suggests 1907–1909)
• Symphony No. 3, The Camp Meeting (1908–10)
• Central Park in the Dark for chamber orchestra (1906, 1909)
• The Unanswered Question for chamber group (1906; rev. 1934)
• Piano Sonata No. 1 (1909–16)
• Emerson Concerto (1913–19)
• The Gong on the Hook & Ladder (Firemen's Parade on Main Street) for orchestra, Kv 28
• Tone Roads for orchestra No. 1, 'All Roads Lead To the Center' KkV38
• A set of 3 Short Pieces, A, Kk W15, No 1 'Largo Cantabile – Hymn' for string quartet & double-bass
• Halloween for string quartet, piano, & bass drum, Kw11
• Piano Trio (c. 1909–10, rev. c. 1914–15)
• Violin Sonata No. 1 (1910–14; rev. c. 1924)
• Violin Sonata No. 4, Children's Day at the Camp Meeting (1911–16)
• 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)
• Pieces for chamber ensemble grouped as "Sets," some called Cartoons or Take-Offs or Songs Without Voices (1906–18); includes Calcium Light Night
• Three Places in New England (Orchestral Set No. 1) (1910–14; rev. 1929)
• Violin Sonata No. 2 (1914–17)
• Violin Sonata No. 3 (1914–17)
• Orchestral Set No. 2 (1915–19)
• Piano Sonata No. 2, Concord, Mass., 1840–60 (1916–19) (revised many times by Ives)
• Universe Symphony (incomplete, 1915–28, worked on symphony until his death in 1954)
• 114 Songs (composed various years 1887–1921, published 1922.)
• Three Quarter Tone Piano Pieces (1923–24)
• Orchestral Set No. 3 (incomplete, 1919–26, notes added after 1934)