Biography of Ives, Charles. Charles Edward Ives: biography Charles Ives works

Initial musical education received under the guidance of his father, a military bandmaster. In 1894-98 he studied at Yale University, where he studied composition with H. Parker and organ playing with D. Buck. Since 1899, church organist in New York and other cities.

The patriarchal environment of his childhood and childhood played an important role in shaping Ives's creativity. teenage years; in the provinces he constantly heard folk music, was a participant in rural musical holidays. The roots of his work are in folk songs and religious hymns, in wind music performed by village musicians ( early writings Ives written for brass band, in which he played percussion instruments).

Ives developed his own musical style, combining elements of traditional everyday music with unusual, sharp harmonies and original instrumentation. Ives's work is characterized by lyricism and humor, a penchant for philosophical content along with the rationalism of musical language.

In a number of works, Ives sought to reflect the life of his homeland. Thus, in the episodes from the 2nd sonata for violin and piano, sharp collisions of different intonation and rhythmic elements reproduce pictures of noisy village festivities.

Ives began writing music in the 90s. 19th century, but until the end of the 30s. His works were not known in the 20th century. (It was only in 1947 that he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the 3rd Symphony, written in 1911.) Ives received real recognition posthumously when American musicians discovered in his artistic heritage the features of an original creative individuality of a strongly national character and proclaimed Ives the founder of a new American school.

Ives's most famous works - the 2nd piano sonata (Concord, 1909-15), the 3rd and 4th symphonies, overture No. 2 - are replete with sharp techniques of dissonant atonal and polytonal writing. Techniques of sound imaging are characteristic of the style of the 4th sonata for violin and piano “Children's day at the camp meeting”, 1915).

In some compositions, Ives used the unique serial writing technique he discovered, as well as the means of the quarter-tone system (“Three quartertone piano pieces” for two pianos, 1903-24). Ives owns essays and articles on quarter-tone music (“Some quartertone impressions”, 1925, etc.).

Works: cantata Celestial country (1899); for orc. - 5 symphonies (1898-98, 1897-1902, 1901-04, 1910-16, 5th, Holidays- Holidays, 1904-13), Universe (Universe symphony - fragments of a symphony, 1911-16), Central park in darkness (Central park in the dark, 1898-1907), Three villages in New England (Three places in New England, 1903-14) and other program plays, overtures (1901-12), pieces for a large symphony. and chamber orc., Ragtime dances (Ragtime dances, 1900-11) for theater. orc.; strings quartet (1896) and other chamber instruments. ensembles; 2 fp. sonatas; 5 sc. sonatas; Op. for organ; plays for various instr.; Op. for choir, song cycles based on Amer. poems. poets (114 songs, 1884-1921).

Literature: Rakhmanova M., Charles Ives, "SM", 1971, No. 6, p. 97-108; Copland A., The Ives case in our new music, N. Y., 1941; Сowell H. and S., Charles Ives and his music, N. Y., 1955; Letters from Ch. Ives to N. Slonimsky, in the book: Slonimsky N., Music since 1900, N. Y., 1971, p. 1318-48.

G. M. Schneerson

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Style

Ives's work was greatly influenced by folk music, which he listened to in his rural provincial childhood - folk songs, spiritual and religious hymns. Ives's unique musical style combines elements of folklore, traditional everyday music with complex, sharp, dissonant atonal and polytonal harmony, and sound imaging techniques. He developed original equipment serial writing, used the quarter-tone system.

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Literature about the composer

Ivashkin A. Charles Ives and the music of the twentieth century. Moscow: Soviet Composer, 1991.
Shneerson G. M. Ives Charles Edward // Musical encyclopedia in 6 volumes, TSB, M., 1973-1982, Vol. 1, p. 74-75.
Akopyan L. O. Music of the 20th century: an encyclopedic dictionary / Scientific editor Dvoskina E. M. - M.: “Praktika”, 2010. - P. 21-23. - 855 s. - 2500 copies. - ISBN 978-5-89816-092-0.
Rakhmanova M. Charles Ives, SM, 1971, no. 6, p. 97-108.
Cowell H. Cowell S. R. Charles Ives and His Music. New York: Oxford UP, 1955.
Rossiter F.R. Charles Ives and his America. New York: Liveright, 1975.
Block G. Charles Ives: a bio-bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988.
Burkholder J.P. All Made of Tunes: Charles Ives and the Uses of Musical Borrowing. New Haven: Yale UP, 1995.
Charles Ives and his world, ed. by J. Peter Burkholder. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press, 1996 (collection of articles).
Swafford J. Charles Ives: A Life with Music. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Sherwood G. Charles Ives: a guide to research. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Copland A. The Ives case in our new music, N.Y., 1941.
Letters from Ch. Ives to N. Slonimsky, in the book: Slonimsky N., Music since 1900, N. Y., 1971, p. 1318-48.

Excerpt characterizing Ives, Charles

I tried to calm down, took a deep breath and tried again. Only this time I didn’t try to touch anything, but decided to just think about what I wanted - for example, for the cup to be in my hand. Of course, this did not happen, she again just simply moved sharply. But I was jubilant!!! My whole insides simply squealed with delight, because I already realized that sharply or not, this was only happening at the request of my thought! And it was absolutely amazing! Of course, I immediately wanted to try the “new product” on all the living and inanimate “objects” around me...
The first one I came across was my grandmother, who at that moment was calmly preparing her next culinary “work” in the kitchen. It was very quiet, the grandmother was humming something to herself, when suddenly a heavy cast-iron frying pan jumped up like a bird on the stove and crashed onto the floor with a terrible noise... The grandmother jumped up in surprise no worse than the same frying pan... But, we must give her her due, right away pulled herself together and said:
- Stop doing that!
I felt a little offended, because no matter what happened, out of habit, they always blamed me for everything (although this moment this, of course, was absolutely true).
- Why do you think it’s me? – I asked pouting.
“Well, it seems like we don’t have ghosts yet,” the grandmother said calmly.
I loved her very much for her equanimity and unshakable calm. It seemed that nothing in this world could truly “unsettle” her. Although, naturally, there were things that upset her, surprised her, or made her sad, she perceived all this with amazing calm. And that’s why I always felt very comfortable and protected with her. Somehow, I suddenly felt that my last “prank” interested my grandmother... I literally “felt in my gut” that she was watching me and waiting for something else. Well, naturally, I didn’t keep myself waiting long... A few seconds later, all the “spoons and ladle” hanging over the stove flew down with a noisy roar behind the same frying pan...
“Well, well... Breaking is not building, I would do something useful,” the grandmother said calmly.
I was already choked with indignation! Well, please tell me, how can she treat this “incredible event” so calmly?! After all, this is... SUCH!!! I couldn’t even explain what it was, but I certainly knew that I couldn’t take what was happening so calmly. Unfortunately, my indignation did not make the slightest impression on my grandmother and she again calmly said:
“You shouldn’t spend so much effort on something you can do with your hands.” Better go read it.
My outrage knew no bounds! I couldn’t understand why what seemed so amazing to me didn’t cause any delight in her?! Unfortunately, I was still too young a child to understand that all these impressive “external effects” really do not give anything other than the same “external effects”... And the essence of all this is just intoxication with the “mysticism of the inexplicable” gullible and impressionable people, which my grandmother, naturally, was not... But since I had not yet matured to such an understanding, at that moment I was only incredibly interested in what else I could move. Therefore, without regret, I left my grandmother, who “did not understand” me, and moved on in search of a new object of my “experiments”...
At that time, my father’s favorite, a beautiful gray cat, Grishka, lived with us. I found him sleeping soundly on warm stove and decided that this was a very good moment to try my new “art” on him. I thought it would be better if he sat on the window. Nothing happened. Then I concentrated and thought harder... Poor Grishka flew off the stove with a wild cry and crashed his head on the windowsill... I felt so sorry for him and so ashamed that I, all around guilty, rushed to pick him up. But for some reason all the fur of the unfortunate cat suddenly stood on end and he, meowing loudly, rushed away from me, as if scalded by boiling water.
It was a shock for me. I didn’t understand what happened and why Grishka suddenly disliked me, although before that we were very good friends. I chased him almost all day, but, unfortunately, I was never able to beg for forgiveness... His strange behavior lasted for four days, and then our adventure was most likely forgotten and everything was fine again. But it made me think, because I realized that, without wanting it, with the same unusual “abilities” I can sometimes cause harm to someone.
After this incident, I began to take much more seriously everything that unexpectedly manifested itself in me and “experimented” much more carefully. All the following days, naturally, I simply fell ill with the mania of “movement.” I mentally tried to move everything that caught my eye... and in some cases, again, I got very disastrous results...
So, for example, I watched in horror as shelves of neatly folded, very expensive, dad’s books fell “organized” onto the floor and with shaking hands I tried to put everything back in place as quickly as possible, since books were a “sacred” object in our house and Before you took them, you had to earn them. But, fortunately for me, my dad wasn’t at home at that moment and, as they say, this time it “blown away”...
Another very funny and at the same time sad incident happened with my dad’s aquarium. My father, as far as I remember him, was always very fond of fish and dreamed of one day building a large aquarium at home (which he later realized). But at that moment, for lack of anything better, we simply had a small round aquarium that could only hold a few colorful fish. And since even such a small “living corner” brought dad spiritual joy, then everyone in the house looked after him with pleasure, including me.

Trying to explain something new and incomprehensible, we often resort to the technique of laying out this incomprehensible on familiar, simple and clear shelves. There are no such shelves for the Charles Ives phenomenon. But for all its crazy innovation, it is deeply traditional. Here is such a paradox, and, I note, a purely American one: a certain parallel with the titanic figure of William Faulkner suggests itself.

Great American composer Charles Ives was born on October 20, 1874 in the provincial town of Danbury (Connecticut), in the family of the bandmaster of the city brass band, George Edward Ives. Ives's father was multi-talented, an original person, had the inquisitive mind of a researcher with a constant desire for something new. He experimented a lot in music, being carried away by experiments with crushing the intervals of the temperament scale into quarters and even smaller fractions of tones, and devoted all his free time to musical experiments. One day he forced two orchestras, each playing their own music, to march towards each other, which produced a strong impression on little Charlie (its immediate echo was embodied much later in Ives’s Fourth Symphony).

Ives had quite a lot of such unusual sound impressions in his childhood. From the age of five, the father began teaching the boy harmony, polyphony, music history, and introduced him to the works of Bach and other great classics. Of course, such an unusual teacher could not limit himself to formal classical education. He initiated his son into the element of sound experimentation.

From childhood, the composer followed in his father’s footsteps: from the age of 12 he played drums in the city orchestra (and then began writing his first pieces for a brass band), and from the age of 14 he began working as a church organist. In 1898 he graduated from Yale University in composition and organ and received a position as organist in main church New Haven. But in the same year he quits the music service and becomes an agent for an insurance company. Free time he devoted himself to creating amazing, unique music, treating it as a hobby and not particularly striving for performance and publication.

The presentation of the facts would seem to paint an image of an unfortunate unrecognized genius. Don't believe it! Ives was passionate about insurance, organized his own company, made a number of innovations in the field of real estate insurance, became a successful businessman and prominent specialist, wrote several popular books and articles. The company he organized, Ives and Myrick, quickly took one of the first places among US insurance companies.

Such unbridled love for all manifestations of life affected my health. In 1907, symptoms of heart disease appeared, and over the years, diabetes and visual impairment were added to this. In 1918, a severe heart attack weakened him so much that he stopped active music studies. In the early 20s. Ives only completed some of the unfinished work, and in 1928 he quit his service. Despite his poor health, Ives lived long life, just shy of 80 years old, of which the last 20 practically cut off all ties with the outside world.

Ives was a bright, extraordinary, even strange personality and at the same time a typical American: a lover of life and a realist. He had no illusions, no particular hope that his music would ever be performed. True, in 1922, drawing the line musical path, Ives published several small works at his own expense.

Te Unanswered Question

But there was one thing that Ives wrote throughout his life, never finishing. This is a utopian “Ecumenical Symphony”, in which the composer dreamed of embodying the music of nature itself: the vibration of the earth, the noise of the forest, the harmony of the celestial spheres. Ives wrote several notes into the score of this grandiose composition, which remained in the drafts, literally on the eve of his death.

Although Ives led a secluded life, he was still known to some extent - but only as an odious musical eccentric. In the early 40s, when Ives was approaching his seventieth birthday, pianist J. Kirkpatrick took the risk of performing his grandiose Concord Sonata in New York. At this time, a stream of emigrants fleeing fascism poured into America. Among them were such major musicians as Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky. Schoenberg was shocked by such unusual music, met the author, and became interested in his work. Not without the influence of Schoenberg in 1947, his Third Symphony, written in 1911, was awarded Pulitzer Prize. In 1951, the premiere of Ives's Second Symphony (1907-1909) was conducted by the famous Leonard Bernstein.

“Ives’s music told me more than the novelists describing the American West... I discovered a new understanding of America in him,” said I. F. Stravinsky.

Without seeking popularity, Ives did not isolate himself from the public. When recognition came to him at the end of his life, he was very happy about it.

Today Ives is recognized as one of the most significant, and perhaps the most significant, composer in the United States.

Charles Edward Ives

Style

Ives's work was heavily influenced by the folk music he listened to in his rural provincial childhood - folk songs, spiritual and religious hymns. Ives's unique musical style combines elements of folklore, traditional everyday music with complex, sharp, dissonant atonal and polytonal harmony, and sound imaging techniques. He developed an original serial writing technique and used the quarter-tone system.

Essays

Cantata “Celestial country” (Celestial country, 1899).
For orchestra - 5 symphonies (1898-98, 1897-1902, 1901-04, 1910-16, 5th, Holidays, 1904-13), Universe (Universe symphony - fragments of a symphony, 1911-16), " Central park in the dark (1898-1907), Three places in New England (1903-14) and other program plays, overtures (1901-12), pieces for a large symphony and chamber orchestras, Ragtime dances (Ragtime dances, 1900-11) for theater orchestra.
String Quartet (1896) and other chamber instrumental ensembles, including “The Unanswered Question” (1906, later an orchestral version was created)
2 piano sonatas (including the second piano sonata - “Concord”, 1909-15).
5 violin sonatas (including the fourth sonata for violin and piano - “Children’s day at the camp meeting”, 1915).
Works for organ.
Pieces for various instruments (including “Three quartertone piano pieces” for two pianos, 1903-24).
Works for choir, song cycles based on poems by American poets (114 songs, 1884-1921).
Articles on quarter-tone music (including “Some quartertone impressions”, 1925).

Lyrics

Memos/ John Kirkpatrick, ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1972

Memory

Literature about the composer

Ivashkin A. Charles Ives and the music of the twentieth century. Moscow: Soviet Composer, 1991.
Shneerson G. M. Ives Charles Edward // Musical encyclopedia in 6 volumes, TSB, M., 1973-1982, Vol. 1, p. 74-75.
Rakhmanova M. Charles Ives, SM, 1971, no. 6, p. 97-108.
Cowell H. Cowell S. R. Charles Ives and His Music. New York: Oxford UP, 1955.
Rossiter F.R. Charles Ives and his America. New York: Liveright, 1975.
Block G. Charles Ives: a bio-bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988.
Burkholder J.P. All Made of Tunes: Charles Ives and the Uses of Musical Borrowing. New Haven: Yale UP, 1995.
Charles Ives and His World/ J. Peter Burkholder, ed. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1996.
Swafford J. Charles Ives: A Life with Music. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Sherwood G. Charles Ives: a guide to research. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Copland A. The Ives case in our new music, N.Y., 1941.
Letters from Ch. Ives to N. Slonimsky, in the book: Slonimsky N., Music since 1900, N. Y., 1971, p. 1318-48.

Links

Categories:

Personalities in alphabetical order
Musicians in alphabetical order
Born on October 20
Born in 1874
Born in Danbury
Died May 19
Died in 1954
Deaths in New York
Composers by alphabet
US composers
Composers of the 20th century
Yale alumni
Organists of the USA
Academic musicians of the USA
Pulitzer Prize Winners
Grammy Award Winners

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

See what “Ives, Charles” is in other dictionaries:

Ives (1874 1954), American composer. One of the founders of the modern American school of composition. 5 symphonies (1898 1915), chamber instrumental works, songs. * * * IVES Charles IVES (Ives) Charles (1874 1954),… … encyclopedic Dictionary

Ives, Charles- Charles Ives (1874 1954), American composer. He was one of the first to use aleatorics, serial technique, and the quarter-tone system. 5 symphonic, chamber instrumental works, combining a philosophical interpretation of the theme with a subtle... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (20 X 1874, Danbury, Connecticut 19 V 1954, NY) Probably, if the musicians of the early 20th century. and on the eve of the First World War they learned that the composer Charles Ives lived in America and heard his works, they would have treated them as... ... Musical dictionary

- (Ives, Charles) CHARLES IVES with his wife. (1874 1954), innovative American composer, the most original figure in the history of American music. Ives passionately loved dissonances and tried out a lot of new ones in his work. expressive means… … Encyclopedia Collier - (18741954), one of the founders of the modern American school of composition. He created an original synthesis of popular and professional composer's music. Five symphonies (18981915), chamber instrumental works, songs... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (Ives) Charles (1874 1954), American composer. He was one of the first to use aleatorics, serial technique, and the quarter-tone system. 5 symphonic, chamber instrumental works, combining a philosophical interpretation of the theme with subtle lyricism... Modern encyclopedia

Charles Edward Ives

Style

Essays

Cantata “Celestial country” (Celestial country, 1899).
For orchestra - 5 symphonies (1898-98, 1897-1902, 1901-04, 1910-16, 5th, Holidays, 1904-13), Universe (Universe symphony - fragments of a symphony, 1911-16), " Central park in the dark (1898-1907), Three places in New England (1903-14) and other program plays, overtures (1901-12), pieces for a large symphony and chamber orchestras, Ragtime dances (Ragtime dances, 1900-11) for theater orchestra.
String Quartet (1896) and other chamber instrumental ensembles, including “The Unanswered Question” (1906, later an orchestral version was created)
2 piano sonatas (including the second piano sonata - “Concord”, 1909-15).
5 violin sonatas (including the fourth sonata for violin and piano - “Children’s day at the camp meeting”, 1915).
Works for organ.
Pieces for various instruments (including “Three quartertone piano pieces” for two pianos, 1903-24).
Works for choir, song cycles based on poems by American poets (114 songs, 1884-1921).
Articles on quarter-tone music (including “Some quartertone impressions”, 1925).

Lyrics

Memos/ John Kirkpatrick, ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 1972

Memory

Literature about the composer

Ivashkin A. Charles Ives and the music of the twentieth century. Moscow: Soviet Composer, 1991.
Shneerson G. M. Ives Charles Edward // Musical encyclopedia in 6 volumes, TSB, M., 1973-1982, Vol. 1, p. 74-75.
Rakhmanova M. Charles Ives, SM, 1971, no. 6, p. 97-108.
Cowell H. Cowell S. R. Charles Ives and His Music. New York: Oxford UP, 1955.
Rossiter F.R. Charles Ives and his America. New York: Liveright, 1975.
Block G. Charles Ives: a bio-bibliography. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988.
Burkholder J.P. All Made of Tunes: Charles Ives and the Uses of Musical Borrowing. New Haven: Yale UP, 1995.
Charles Ives and His World/ J. Peter Burkholder, ed. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1996.
Swafford J. Charles Ives: A Life with Music. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Sherwood G. Charles Ives: a guide to research. New York: Routledge, 2002.
Copland A. The Ives case in our new music, N.Y., 1941.
Letters from Ch. Ives to N. Slonimsky, in the book: Slonimsky N., Music since 1900, N. Y., 1971, p. 1318-48.

Links

Categories:

Personalities in alphabetical order
Musicians in alphabetical order
Born on October 20
Born in 1874
Born in Danbury
Died May 19
Died in 1954
Deaths in New York
Composers by alphabet
US composers
Composers of the 20th century
Yale alumni
Organists of the USA
Academic musicians of the USA
Pulitzer Prize Winners
Grammy Award Winners

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

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See what “Ives, Charles” is in other dictionaries:

Ives Charles- Ives (1874 1954), American composer. One of the founders of the modern American school of composition. 5 symphonies (1898 1915), chamber instrumental works, songs. * * * IVES Charles IVES (Ives) Charles (1874 1954),… … encyclopedic Dictionary

IVES Charles- (20 X 1874, Danbury, Connecticut 19 V 1954, New York) Probably, if the musicians of the early 20th century. and on the eve of the First World War they learned that the composer Charles Ives lived in America and heard his works, they would have treated them as... ... Musical dictionary

IVES Charles- (Ives, Charles) CHARLES IVES with his wife. (1874 1954), innovative American composer, the most original figure in the history of American music. Ives passionately loved dissonance and tried out a lot of new expressive means in his work... ... Encyclopedia Collier - (18741954), one of the founders of the modern American school of composition. He created an original synthesis of popular and professional composer's music. Five symphonies (18981915), chamber instrumental works, songs... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

IVES- (Ives) Charles (1874 1954), American composer. He was one of the first to use aleatorics, serial technique, and the quarter-tone system. 5 symphonic, chamber instrumental works, combining a philosophical interpretation of the theme with subtle lyricism... Modern encyclopedia