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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
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Charles Ives AmericanComposer
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 • He wrote music on the weekends, at night and on vacation • He continually tried to get conductors and musicians to play his music but they would say it was unperformable • His music was very different from other pieces being written in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s • 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 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 Later life
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 in music in 1947 for his third symphony titled The Camp Meeting • He had composed it 36 years earlier Pulitzer Prize Awarded to Charles Ives 1947 For his Symphony The Camp Meeting
In 1951 the New 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 Recognition…… The New York Philharmonic orchestra
Ives piece “Variations on America” is based on the song, “America” (“My Country, tis of thee”) Variations on America
a standard form consisting of a simple melody presented first in its original form then repeated several or many times with varied instruments, rhythms and notes. Theme and Variations
