Born on October 20, 1874 in Danbury, Connecticut, Charles Ives’ childhood was greatly influenced by his father, George Ives, who was the leader of the local band. With the help of his father, he learnt how to play musical organs. His love for experimenting with acoustics, dissonance and happenstance could explain the combination of new and old, of common and extreme, so obvious in the son’s compositions (Maggie 10).
In 1894, Ives went on to study music at Yale. It is while there that he learnt the basics in his subject of study and then went on to create the interesting and conventional Symphony No. 1 which was his thesis for graduation in the year 1898. After leaving college, he moved in with a couple of his friends in Ney York City where they rented an apartment. Being a member of the Presbyterian Church, he composed numerous songs that reflected the American spirit and they are widely known as Symphony No. 2.
The graduation from Yale put the young Ives in a difficult position. Because earning a living out of music would have meant giving up his principles and composing music in tone with the tendencies of the time, he preferred to keep music as a hobby and work as an insurance executive in an insurance company, Mutual Life Insurance which he cofounded with Julian Myrick who was at the time an insurance agent (Maggie 3). It is while at it that he became a very successful and wealthy insurance executive.
He worked his way up in the business world and could have retired with a fortune, but he chose to live humbly and strive to answer the life insurance needs of the working class. Few would have believed that, beyond the fame he earned as an innovator in sales training and estate planning, he was a passionate composer. He composed his music on commuter trains..
The evenings and weekends he dedicated to music and therefore gave life to an impressive portfolio of compositions striking with atonality, linear structures and complex rhythms and anticipating devices currently considered as the 20th century music’s leading edge. He never concerned himself with what the outside world thought about him and his music but rather wrote the kind of music he so pleased. He could always hire theatre orchestras where he could rehearse his music.
He never sought fame or recognition for his music, his explanation being: "I felt I could work better and liked to work better if I kept to my own music and let other people keep to theirs". In his opinion, good music could only come from people who would not make a living out of it and performances were undesirable, as "the more a composer accepts from his patron, the less he will accept from himself".
He insisted that his music should be available to anyone and not subject to copyright, scaring off publishers with requests that free copies be made available upon request. He issued two works at his own expense, a songs collection and the "Concord" Piano Sonata, giving the copies away. This was unlike other musicians who had copyrighted music and owned rights to it and its publication.
Perhaps Ives' most accessible composition is Symphony # 2, a fluent blend of elements borrowed from Brahms and Wagner, performed for the first time almost half a century later, in 1951, by the New York Philharmonic led by Leonard Bernstein. It was recorded in 1958 and followed by the 1965 recorded performance of the Symphony # 3.
Symphony #4 had its premiere in 1965, with the majestic performance of the American Symphony Orchestra led by Leopold Stokowski. The spirit of the young Ives was captured in Holidays, recollecting Washington's Birthday, the Fourth of July the Decoration Day and Thanksgiving and bursting with moody impressionism, parades, barn dances and fireworks.
Three Places in New England, on the other hand, mingles Ives’ personal reflections with his Yankee pride with deeply personal reflection. The Unanswered Question never got the recognition it deserved, being often CD filler material, but it could be the composer’s masterpiece. In it, he managed to deeply and elegantly analyze the human condition in only 5 1/2 minutes.
The Quartets and the Sonatas for Violin and Piano are the composer’s thoughtful contribution to chamber music, his creative impulses culminating with the revised version of the "Concord" Piano Sonata.
Charles Ives supported his works with writings as well: the informative scraps collected in Memos and Essays Before a Sonata.
In 1930, together with Myrick, they decided to retire from their busy duties at the insurance company. From that year onwards, Ives concerned himself with working on already existing works and revised them. He edited the music to become what is listened to today. He went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Symphony No. 3.
He had a stroke and died on 19th May, 1954, the royalties from his music being bequeathed by his widow to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, for the founding of the Charles Ives Prize.
Work Cited
Maggie, Sherwood, Gayle. Charles Ives Reconsidered. Champaign: University of Illinois. 2008
