1. Charles Ives
American Composer

2. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. Later life 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

10. 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

11. Awarded to Charles Ives
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

12. 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

13. Variations on America
Ives piece “Variations on America” is based on the song, “America” (“My Country, tis of thee”)

14. 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

15. Charles Ives died In New York City on May 19, 1954