author
Charles Ives
1874–1954
A pioneer of American modernism, this composer built a bold musical language out of hymns, marches, folk tunes, and the noisy energy of everyday life. His work was often overlooked at first, but it later came to be seen as some of the most original music of the 20th century.
1 Audiobook
Essays Before a Sonata
by Charles Ives
About the author
Born in Danbury, Connecticut, in 1874, Charles Ives grew up with music all around him. His father, a bandleader and music teacher, encouraged unusual musical experiments from an early age, and that spirit of curiosity stayed with him for life.
Ives studied at Yale, but he chose not to depend on music for his income. He built a successful career in insurance while composing on his own terms, which gave him the freedom to write adventurous music that mixed church hymns, marching bands, folk melodies, and layered sounds in striking new ways.
Much of his music went unrecognized for years, but his reputation grew later in life and especially after his death in 1954. Today he is widely remembered as one of the first American composers to have a major international impact, admired for the independence, imagination, and distinctly American character of his work.