Ives charles biography
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Charles Ives
American modernist composer (1874–1954)
For the New Zealand international football (soccer) player, see Charles Ives (footballer). For the American physician, see Charles Linnaeus Ives.
Charles Ives | |
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Portrait of Ives by Clara Sipprell, c. 1947 | |
| Born | (1874-10-20)October 20, 1874 Danbury, Connecticut, US |
| Died | May 19, 1954(1954-05-19) (aged 79) New York City, US |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, actuary, businessman |
| Spouse | Harmony Twichell (m. 1908) |
Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874 – May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, actuary and businessman. Ives was among the earliest renowned American composers to achieve recognition on a global scale.[2] His music was largely ignored during his early career, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Later in life, the quality of his music was publicly recognized through the efforts of contemporaries l
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Charles Ives
BIOGRAPHY
Ives was a truly original American composer. Although he played piano, organ, cornet, violin, and drums, he never made a living as a composer or a musician. In fact, he ran a very successful insurance agency by day (he invented the concept of estate planning), and at night he would hurry home to write music. He also was a huge baseball fan and played many sports such as baseball, football, track, and tennis. He often tried to recreate the everyday sounds he heard both in the city and the country.
In one part of his favorite piece, Holiday Symphony, the sounds of a small-town celebration are heard: competing marching bands, political discussions, fireworks, and even women unloading picnic baskets. Ives loved to borrow material from other people such as old hymns, cowboy songs, Christmas carols, spirituals, and even the theme from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, and use them in new ways. He was famous for composing music for
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Here's a brief biographical sketch of Ives' remarkable life. You can skip directly to a particular section by clicking on one the links below. (Or you can simply read from top to bottom!)
For complete biographies about Ives, check out the "Biographies and Oral History" section on this site's Books link.
Childhood & Youth
Charles Edward Ives was born on October 20, 1874 in Danbury, Connecticut. Ives inherited a gift for music from his father George Ives, who at the age of seventeen had served as the youngest bandmaster in the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war and throughout Charles Ives' childhood, George Ives served as bandmaster and cornet player in several musical organizations in Danbury. By the time Charles Ives was eight y