American Composer Charles Ives Born On This Day in 1874

American composer Charles Ives was born on this day in 1874 – 150 years ago

American composer Charles Ives was born on this day in 1874 – 150 years ago.

A graduate of Yale University, where he studied composition with Horatio Parker, Ives was one of the first celebrated American composers to gain international recognition.

Although his earlier compositions were not performed at first, later in life, the quality of his music was acknowledged publicly thanks to the efforts of his contemporaries Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison, leading to his recognition as an "American original."

The works of Ives are all about the American experience, especially relating to New England. With the utilization of popular hymns in New England, folk tunes, military marches, and songs that were popular at the time, Ives paved the way for future composers to continue writing music in the American style.

He is remembered as America's first composer of international renown – credited with pioneering a number of experimental techniques such as polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatoric elements & quarter tones.

Ives was a free thinker whose music is thought of as decades ahead of its time. His most adventurous and iconoclastic ideas were influenced by his father, George Ives, a bandleader in Danbury, Connecticut, who encouraged Charles to sing songs in one key while playing the accompaniment in another.

In addition to being a composer, Ives also worked as an accomplished pianist and organist in New York. Not being able to make a living strictly off of music, Ives began work as an insurance clerk and eventually created his own insurance partnership: Ives & Myrick — a highly successful business that developed the concept of estate planning. Ives would continue to compose on nights and weekends.

Ives' most acclaimed works include his Piano Sonata No. 2, Concord Mass., 1840-1860, his orchestral work "The Unanswered Question," and the Third Symphony. The composition of the latter led to Ives receiving the Pulitzer Prize in 1947.

Dying in 1954, Ives was also a very generous financial backer of twentieth-century music, funding compositions by other composers.

VC ARTIST STEFAN JACKIW & JEREMY DENK | CHARLES IVES | VIOLIN SONATA NO. 1 | 2015