Charles Ives’s extraordinarily diverse musical output can seem daunting, but by studying the historical and artistic context surrounding his compositions, listeners can gain an appreciation for and better understanding of Ives’s music. One of the most salient features of Ives’s music is its variety. In his collection 114 Songs, Ives apparently hoped that everyone could find something to like in it, and even sampling just a few of the songs demonstrates its breadth of musical style. During his youth, Ives encountered the four musical traditions that would shape his compositional career: popular music, Protestant church music, European classical music, and experimental music. As Ives studied under Horatio Parker at Yale, he based several compositions (including his First Symphony) on European classical models. Starting with his First String Quartet, Ives began incorporating American tunes into European forms, and in his Second Symphony he completely integrates European and American music. With his Third Symphony and four violin sonatas, Ives developed cumulative form, a new form in which fragments of a borrowed tune (in these pieces, a hymn) are developed before the complete tune is heard at the end of the movement. Around the same time, he began to compose the four movements of A Symphony: New England Holidays, which celebrate American holidays through music associated with them and evoke memory through musical collage. Ives’s two Orchestral Sets use similar procedures to evoke American historical events, and, like the Holidays Symphony, combine elements of popular music, Protestant church music, European classical music, and experimental music. One of Ives’s best-known pieces, his Concord Sonata, conveys his impressions of four American Transcendentalist writers. In his Second String Quartet and his Fourth Symphony, Ives conveys two similar transcendent journeys, both culminating in the hymn tune Bethany (“Nearer, my God, to Thee”). In 1922, Ives self-published 114 Songs, a collection of old and new songs that, along with the Concord Sonata, brought him to the attention of the classical music community. It was not until after Ives stopped composing new music in 1926 that he began to be recognized as a major American composer.

Works: Ives: Down East (20-21), General William Booth Enters into Heaven (21-24), Holiday Quickstep (32-35), Variations on “America” (39-43), Feldeinsamkeit (58-61, 63), Ich grolle nicht (58-60, 61-63), Symphony No. 1 in D Minor (63, 65, 69-71), The Celestial Country (81-82), String Quartet No. 1 (82-89), Yale-Princeton Football Game (93-96), Central Park in the Dark (117-19), Symphony No. 2 (125-44), Symphony No. 3: The Camp Meeting (149-58), Sonata No. 4 for Violin and Piano: Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting (158-63), Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano (158-60, 163-66), Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano (158-60, 166-67), Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano (158-60, 167-68), Washington’s Birthday from A Symphony: New England Holidays (173-81), Decoration Day from A Symphony: New England Holidays (173-76, 181-85), The Fourth of July from A Symphony: New England Holidays (173-76, 185-90), Thanksgiving and Forefathers’ Day from A Symphony: New England Holidays (173-76, 190-93), Orchestral Set No. 1: Three Places in New England (195-209), Orchestral Set No. 2 (210-15), Piano Sonata No. 2: Concord, Mass., 1840-1860 (217-42), String Quartet No. 2 (249-56), Symphony No. 4 (257-68), On the Counter (273), Watchman! (273-74), At the River (273-74), His Exaltation (273-74), The Camp-Meeting (274, 275-76), Slow March (274-75), In Flanders Fields (276), He Is There! (276-77), Tom Sails Away (277), The Greatest Man (278), The White Gulls (278-79), Evening (278), The One Way (282), Three Quarter-Tone Pieces (282-83)

Sources: Lowell Mason: Bethany (20-21, 184-85, 249, 254-56, 258, 259-61, 266-68, 279), Missionary Hymn (84-85, 257, 265-66), Work Song (168), Watchman (168, 257, 260-61, 273-74); James A. Bland: Golden Slippers (23); Anonymous, Lowell Mason (arranger): Fountain (23-24, 154-55); David Wallis Reeves: Second Regiment Connecticut National Guard March (34, 95, 183-85); Attributed to John Bull (composer), Samuel Francis Smith (lyricist): America (39-43, 276, 283); Brahms: Feldeinsamkeit (59-61), Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68 (132, 134, 136, 138), Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90 (133), Vier ernste Gesänge (136), Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73 (254); Robert Schumann: Ich grolle nicht from Dichterliebe (61-63); Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, From the New World (63, 65, 69-70); Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Pathétique (63, 70, 254); Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 (63, 65, 70, 254), Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 (223-28, 230, 232-34, 236, 241), Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 106, Hammerklavier (224-28, 241); Schubert: Symphony No. 8, D. 759, Unfinished (63, 70); George F. Root: Shining Shore (70-71, 86-87, 89, 167-68, 191-93), The Battle Cry of Freedom (166-67, 168, 184, 188, 201-2, 205, 276-77, 283), Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (168, 188, 262-63, 276-77); John R. Sweney: Beulah Land (70-71, 86-87, 89, 134-35, 163-64, 262-64); Anonymous (bugle calls): Taps (71, 183-85), Reveille (138, 188, 276); David T. Shaw (or Thomas A’Becket): Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean (71, 132, 136, 138, 144, 186-89, 237, 253, 254, 263, 276-77); Horatio Parker: Hora novissima (81-82); J. S. Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (“Dorian”) BWV 538 (85), Prelude in B Minor BWV 869 from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 (131), Three-Part Invention in F Minor BWV 795 (132, 136), Fugue in E Minor BWV 855 from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1 (137-38); Oliver Holden: Coronation (85, 87-88, 89); Asahel Nettleton or John Wyeth: Nettleton (87, 135, 167, 210, 254, 262-63); George J. Webb: Webb (88); Karl Langlotz (composer), Harlan Page Peck (lyricist): Old Nassau (94-95); Anonymous: Hy-Can Nuck a No (94-95); Anonymous: Harvard Has Blue Stocking Girls (94-95); Carl Wilhelm (composer), Anonymous (lyricist): Bright College Years (Dear Old Yale) (95); Philip Bliss (composer), Anonymous (lyricist): Hold the Fort, McClung Is Coming (95); Nelson Kneass: Ben Bolt (118); Ellen Wright: Violets (118-19); Joseph E. Howard: Hello! Ma Baby (118); Anonymous: The Campbells Are Coming (118-19, 178-79); John Philip Sousa: Washington Post March (119), Semper Fidelis (204-5), Liberty Bell March (204-5); Stephen Foster: Massa’s in de Cold Ground (131-32, 135, 137-38, 141-43, 178-79, 201-2, 205, 210, 214, 240-41, 254), De Camptown Races (136-37, 178, 263, 264), Old Black Joe (137-38, 142-43, 201-2, 210), Old Folks at Home (177-78, 180); Anonymous: Pig Town Fling (131-32, 137-38, 179); Henry Clay Work: Wake Nicodemus (132-34, 142), Marching Through Georgia (184, 187-89, 201-2, 205-6, 253, 254, 262, 264, 276-77); George A. Minor: Bringing in the Sheaves (133-34, 168, 210); David Walker (composer), Anonymous (lyricist): Where, O Where Are the Verdant Freshmen? (133-34); Gregorian chant, Lowell Mason (arranger): Hamburg (133-34); Johann G. Naegeli, Lowell Mason (arranger): Naomi (133-34, 154-55); Samuel A. Ward: Materna (134-35); Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (135), Lohengrin (227); Charles Zeuner: Missionary Chant (135, 224-28, 266-67); George Washington Dixon or Bob Farrell: Turkey in the Straw (137-38, 166-67, 178-79, 253, 264); Carl Gotthelf Glaser, Lowell Mason (arranger): Azmon (153-54, 156-57, 267); Charles Converse: Erie (153-54); William B. Bradbury: Woodworth (154, 156-57, 274, 275-76), Jesus Loves Me (161-62, 210); Andrew Young, Lowell Mason (arranger): There Is a Happy Land (155); William H. Doane: Old, Old Story (161); Robert Lowry: The Beautiful River (162, 164-65, 273-74), Need (163-66); Ira Sankey: There’ll Be No Dark Valley (164-65); François-Hippolyte Barthélémon: Autumn (166, 273-74); Anonymous: College Hornpipe (Sailor’s Hornpipe) (166-67, 178, 188); Anonymous: Money Musk (166-67, 178-79); Anonymous: The White Cockade (166-67, 178, 188); George Kiallmark: The Old Oaken Bucket (168, 277); Henry R. Bishop: Home! Sweet Home! (177-78, 180); Anonymous: For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow (178); Anonymous: Fisher’s Hornpipe (178-79, 188); Anonymous: Irish Washerwoman (178-79, 188); Anonymous: Garryowen (178-79, 188); Anonymous: Saint Patrick’s Day (178-79, 188); Edwin P. Christy: Goodnight, Ladies (179, 180); John Francis Wade: Adeste fideles (183-85); Walter Kittredge: Tenting on the Old Camp Ground (184, 276-77); William Steffe (composer), Julia Ward Howe (lyricist): Battle Hymn of the Republic (184-85, 187-89); Philip Phile (composer), Joseph Hopkinson (lyricist): Hail! Columbia (188, 205, 253, 254, 263); Anonymous: The Girl I Left Behind Me (188); Anonymous: London Bridge (188); John Hatton: Duke Street (191-93); Henry K. Oliver: Federal Street (191-93); Anonymous: The British Grenadiers (203-6); Ives: Overture and March “1776” (203-4), Country Band March (203-4, 236, 264, 276), Ragtime Dances (210, 283), Emerson Overture (218, 228-29), Orchestral Set No. 1: Three Places in New England (236, 264, 276), Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano (257, 273-74), The Celestial Railroad (257, 258), Piano Sonata No. 2: Concord, Mass., 1840-1860 (257, 258, 263), String Quartet No. 1 (257, 265-66), String Quartet No. 2 (257, 267), A Song—for Anything (273), Sonata No. 4 for Violin and Piano (273-74), Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano (273-74), Symphony No. 3: The Camp Meeting (274, 275-76); Anonymous: Arkansas Traveler (205); Anonymous: Yankee Doodle (205, 264); John Stafford Smith (composer), Francis Scott Key (lyricist): The Star-Spangled Banner (206, 276); Isaac B. Woodbury: Dorrnance (207-9, 266-67); Edward S. Ufford: Throw Out the Life-Line (210, 262, 263); Anonymous: Happy Day (210); Lewis Hartsough: Welcome Voice (210, 266); James P. Webster: In the Sweet By-and-By (211-14, 260, 262-63); Simeon B. Marsh: Martyn (224, 236-7, 262, 263-64, 267); Anonymous: Loch Lomond (227); A. F. Winnemore: Stop That Knocking at My Door (227); Dan Emmet: Dixie (253, 276-77); William Crotch: Westminster Chimes (255-56, 260, 266-67); William G. Tomer: God Be With You (262); Handel, Lowell Mason (arranger): Antioch (Joy to the World) (266); Handel: Saul (274-75); Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle: La Marseillaise (276, 283); Anonymous (composer), James Ryder Randall (lyricist): Maryland, My Maryland (276-77); George M. Cohan: Over There (277); Oley Speaks: On the Road to Mandalay (282)

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Matthew Van Vleet