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Born: 1874, Danbury, Connecticut
Died: 1954, New York, New York
"The future of music may not lie entirely with itself, but rather in the way it encourages and extends… the aspirations and ideas of the people, in the way it makes itself a part with the finer things that humanity does and dreams of."
Although trained as an organist and composer, Ives sold insurance for 30 years, amassing the means to begin self-publishing his own pioneering music in the 1920s. Ives combined elements of the European classical tradition, American folk songs and hymns, and his own innovations in harmony, rhythm, and form to create an utterly personal, yet distinctively American, idiom.
For further listening:
Jan DeGaetani, Gilbert Kalish
Quartets (1896; 1913)
Emerson String Quartet (DG)
Symphonies No. 2 and No. 3,
"The Camp Meeting" (1902; 1904)
Michael Tilson Thomas, Concertgebouw
Orchestra (Sony Classical)