Essays Before a Sonata

by Charles Ives

Overview

Charles Ives (1874-1954) was probably one of the most psycho - intellectually brilliant, imaginative and flexible Americans to ever "walk the land of free-dom." A graduate of Yale, he became a multi-millio-naire in the American insurance industry, introducing brilliant innovations within that industry. He also, unlike a few composers, found the time and the money (being a shrewd and practical businessman) to get married and have children. His accomplishments for which he is best known, however, are those in the field of music. At the time of its composition, Ives' music was probably the most radically modern in history, and by itself had enough material to serve as the foundation of modern 20th century music. For example, at the turn of the century, this eccentric composer created band works featuring multiple melodies of multiple time signatures opposing and complimenting each other within the same piece. Ives was also a revolutionary atonal composer, who created, essentially without precedent, many atonal works that not only pre-date those of Schoenberg, but are just as sophisticated, and arguably even more so, than those of the 12-tone serialist.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781976243561
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	10/09/2017
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.20(d)

About the Author

Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer who lived from October 20, 1874, to May 19, 1954. He was one of the first American artists to become famous around the world. In the beginning of his career, his music wasn't given much attention, and many of his pieces weren't played for years. He became known as a "American original" after his peers, such as Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison, worked to make people aware of how good his music was. He was also one of the first composers to create experimental music on a regular basis. Some of the methods he used were polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatory elements, and quarter tones. Through his experiments, he paved the way for many musical innovations that became more popular in the 20th century. Because of this, many people think of him as the most important American art music writer of the 20th century. Ives got ideas for his tonal images from hymn tunes and traditional songs. He also used the melodies of Stephen Foster, the town band at the holiday parade, the fiddlers at Saturday night dances, patriotic songs, and sentimental parlor ballads.