Probably, if the musicians of the beginning of the XX century and the eve of the First World War learned that the composer C. Ives lives in America and heard his works, they would treat them as a kind of experiment, curiosity, or even not at all notice: so peculiar was he himself and the soil on which he grew. But Ives didn’t know at the time – for a very long time he didn’t do anything to promote his music. “Discovery” Ives occurred only in the late 30s, when it turned out that many (and moreover,
more
Probably, if the musicians of the beginning of the XX century and the eve of the First World War learned that the composer C. Ives lives in America and heard his works, they would treat them as a kind of experiment, curiosity, or even not at all notice: so peculiar was he himself and the soil on which he grew. But Ives didn’t know at the time – for a very long time he didn’t do anything to promote his music. “Discovery” Ives occurred only in the late 30s, when it turned out that many (and moreover, a variety of) methods of the newest musical writing were already tested by an original American composer in the era of A. Scriabin, K. Debussy and G. Mahler. By the time Ives became famous, he had not composed music for many years and, seriously ill, cut ties with the outside world. “American tragedy” called the fate of Ives one of his contemporaries. Ives was born into the family of a military conductor. His father was an indefatigable experimenter, a trait that passed to his son (for example, he commissioned two orchestras to play different pieces.) From childhood and adolescence, spent in a patriarchal environment, the Ivesian “hearing” of America, the “openness” of his work, which absorbed, probably, everything that sounded around, begins. In many of his works echoes of Puritan religious hymns, jazz, minstrel theater. As a child, Charles was brought up on the music of two composers - I. S. Bach and S. Foster (a friend of Ives' father, an American "bard", author of popular songs and ballads). With a serious, foreign attitude to music, a sublime system of thoughts and feelings, Ives will later resemble Bach. Ives wrote his first works for a military orchestra (he played percussion instruments in it), at the age of 14 he became a church organist in his hometown. But he also played the piano in the theater, improvising ragtimes and other plays. After graduating from Yale University (1894-1898), where he studied with H. Parker (composition) and D. Buck (organ), Ives works as a church organist in New York. Then for many years he served as a clerk at an insurance company and did so with great passion. Subsequently, in the 20s, moving away from music, Ives became a successful businessman and a prominent specialist (author of popular works) in insurance. Most of the works of Ives belong to the genres of orchestral and chamber music. He is the author of five symphonies, overtures, orchestra program pieces (Three Villages in New England, Central Park in the Dark), two string quartets, five violin sonatas, two for piano, organ plays, choirs and more than 100 songs. Most of his major works Ives wrote long, for several years. In the Second Piano Sonata (1911-15), the composer paid homage to his spiritual predecessors. Each of its parts depicts a portrait of one of the American philosophers: R. Emerson, N. Hawthorne, G. Topo; the whole sonata is called the place where these philosophers lived (Concord, Massachusetts, 1840-1860). Their ideas formed the basis of Ives’ worldview (for example, the idea of merging human life with the life of nature). Ives’ art is characterized by a high ethical attitude, his findings were never purely formal in nature, but were a serious attempt to reveal the hidden possibilities inherent in the very nature of sound. Before other composers, Ives came to many of the modern means of expression. From his father’s experiments with different orchestras, there is a direct path to polytonality (simultaneous sound of several keys), voluminous, “stereoscopic” sound and aleatorics (when the musical text is not rigidly fixed, but from the aggregate of elements arises every time anew, as if by chance). Ives’ last major plan (the unfinished World Symphony) was to place orchestras and choirs in the open air, in the mountains, at different points in space. The two parts of the symphony (Music of the Earth and Music of the Sky) had to be played simultaneously, but twice, so that the listeners could fix their attention on each. In some works Ives before A. Schoenberg almost came close to the serial organization of atonal music. The desire to penetrate the depths of sound matter led Ives to a quartertone system, completely unknown to classical music. He wrote Three Quartertone Pieces for Two Pianos (adaptably tuned) and an article entitled "Quarterteen Impressions." Ives gave composing music over 30 years and only in 1922 at his own expense published a number of works. For the last 20 years of his life, Ives is retiring from all activities, which is facilitated by increasing blindness, diseases of the heart and nervous system. In 1944, in honor of the 70th anniversary of Ives, an anniversary concert was organized in Los Angeles. His music was highly appreciated by the greatest musicians of our century. Stravinsky once said, Ives’ music told me more than the novelists who describe the American West. I discovered a new understanding of America.