Ives, Charles E., 1874-1954

The poem by Edwin Markham. Composed 1912. Arranged for voice and piano, 1921 and published as no. 11 of 114 songs. Quotations: The Battle Hymn of the Republic; Hail Columbia; The Red, White, and Blue; The Star-Spangled Banner; America; The Battle Cry of Freedom. Dedicated to Dr. David Cushman Twichell.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

Composer.

Composed 1907.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

See Appendix 4: Chronology of Significant Events in Ives's Life .

Text for 1) The harvest dawn is near, by Rev. George Burgess, 2) Lord of the harvest, Thee we hail, by John Hampton [i.e. Hampden] Gurney, 3) Come, ye thankful people, come, by Rev. Henry Alford. No. 1 composed 1898; nos. 2 and 3 before 1902. First performance Central Presbyterian Church, New York, ca. 1900, when Ives was organist there. Second performance New York, 1948, Collegiate Chorale, Robert Shaw conductor.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

This arrangement differs from Ives' version in Symphony no. 4 by deleting the organ and adding oboe, bassoon and trumpet. Original symphony version composed 1909-11. Used, in different version, in String Quartet no. 1, 1st movement (1896). First performance of this arrangement at New School for Social Research, New York, 27 May 1933, New Chamber Orchestra, Bernard Herrmann conductor. Quotations: Missionary Hymn; Coronation.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

Words by Charles Ives. Alternative title: The Ruined River. Originally composed for chorus, 1911.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

American composer and insurance executive.

Composed 1911. First performance San Francisco, 28 May 1933, New Music Society.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

Composed 1906. This work was first paired with another work and entitled: I.A Contemplation of a Serious Matter or The Unanswered Perennial Question, II. A Contemplation of Nothing Serious or Central Park in the Dark in 'The Good Old Summer Time.' Quotation: Violets.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

American composer.

Charles Edward Ives was born in Danbury, Connecticut on October 20, 1874, the first-born son of Mary Parmelee and George Edward Ives. The influences on him as a young musician were many and varied--European concert music, American nineteenth-century parlor music, ragtime, other vernacular and functional musics, sacred music, and his father's unusual interests in sounds. George Ives, being the town bandmaster and a well-trained musician, was the strongest influence on young Charlie; the father's favorite composers, among them Bach and Stephen Foster, became the son's inheritance. As a teenager, Ives was the youngest organist in the state and an excellent athlete. Charles was a freshman at Yale College when George Ives died in 1894. The Ives family, although an early and prominent one in New England, was unusual in its Emersonian interests and actions; ideas of transcendentalism and self-reliance were part of Ives's background. At Yale, Ives was not a good scholar, but he held the position of organist at Center Church in New Haven for four years, and he was already composing extraordinarily experimental music that he learned to keep away from his professor, Horatio Parker.

Realizing that he would not be able to support himself and a family with the kind of music he wanted to compose, Ives determined to make his living in business. He joined an insurance firm in New York City, met his future partner and lifelong friend, Julian Myrick, and soon applied his inventive mind to improvements and innovations in the business that eventually made him financially secure and had long-range benefits for his company, Mutual of New York, and for the insurance business as a whole. In 1908 Ives married Harmony Twichell, a nurse and daughter of a prominent minister, the Reverend Joseph Twichell, of Hartford. They devoted themselves thereafter to a life that encompassed two careers for Ives--the successful businessman and the iconoclast composer. Unable to have children of their own, the Iveses adopted a daughter, Edith, and the family lived comfortably in New York City and in a country home in West Redding, Connecticut. Along with his father's musical talents, Ives seemed to have inherited George Ives's weak heart, for in 1918 he suffered a serious attack that left him a semi-invalid and sapped his energies; his composing days were virtually over by 1920, and business activities were curtailed, ending with retirement in 1930. He died in New York on May 19, 1954.

Ives was a thinker and an inventor of ideas. He thought about music, about life, about music and life together, about the common man, about religion, about politics--and he invented new ways of expressing his thoughts in his music. Ives also was a writer, not as gifted in his literary efforts as in music, but with a bravura style and spirit that simulated his music writing. Ives's literary endeavors were also concerned with music and society, the dangers of war, the ugliness of politics, and the insurance business. During his healthy and creative years, Ives wrote and composed with passion and conviction. Considering that he worked only on weekends and evenings, Ives produced a substantial body of music and literature. His music is often termed "inclusive," in that he saw no reason to exclude any style so long as it served to express his ideas. The songs alone number over 200 and include a wide range--from traditional parlor songs to the most outrageously innovative experiments. The music manuscripts are in themselves unusual visual artifacts, often extremely complicated and at times indecipherable, a situation that has added to existing editorial and publication problems complicated by Ivesian traits such as multiple choices for performers, unusual instrumentation, multilayering, quarter-tones, etc. The availability of Ives's music today is due largely to the efforts of several younger musicians who "discovered" Ives in the twenties and thirties, among them Henry Cowell, Elliott Carter, Bernard Herrmann, Lehman Engel, Lou Harrison, Jerome Moross, and E. Robert Schmitz. Recognition of Ives came about gradually. Foremost among Ives enthusiasts was pianist John Kirkpatrick, who began to play the "Concord" Sonata in the late twenties, finally giving the first full public hearing of "Concord" in 1939, following ten years of study and practice. This occasion proved to be a turning point in Ives's career. Kirkpatrick's continuing dedication to Ives's music as performer and editor assured further recognition and publication. More recently, the Charles Ives Society has been responsible for guiding and assigning editions and re-editions of the music.

Epithet: composer