The Life of Charles Ives

A biography of the great American composer, Charles Ives (1874–1955).

Stuart Feder (Author)

9780521599313, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 9 September 1999

214 pages, 20 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 1.2 cm, 0.28 kg

'Feder charts the course of Ive's life and work with obvious empathy … listeners new to Ives will come away with a real sense of the composer drawing on his idealised past to create music of a utopian future.' Gramophone

Charles Ives grew up in the nineteenth century and composed chiefly in the twentieth. His nostalgia for a simpler life in the New England country town of his youth is revealed in his frequent musical quotation of songs of that earlier time: parlor and patriot songs, hymns and gospel music. He had learned these songs early in his life through his father, a village bandmaster, who remained the most important influence in his life and music. Ives absorbed these influences within an innovative and modern musical style of composition. Stuart Feder's account of Ives's life clarifies the complexities of the man and his music, while his straightforward discussion of this uniquely autobiographical music in turn illuminates the narrative.

1. White city, green hills
2. American arcady
3. Memory and the greatest war
4. Born in America
5. The gilded age was the golden age
6. Bright college years and dismal
7. Manhood at Yale and beyond
8. Giving up music - taking up business
9. Ives in love
10. The creative decade
11. Trilogy
12. World and cosmos
13. Shadow and sunrise.

Subject Areas: Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH]