Charles Ives was born in 1874 in Danbury, Connecticut, a small New England town dominated by the Ives clan. His father, however, rejected the conventional life to become a musician. After leading reputedly the finest band in the Northern army during the American Civil War, George Ives provided musical nourishment for his townspeople while simultaneously undertaking musical experiments that sowed the seeds of his son’s development. Charles was twenty, enjoying college life, when his fiercely selfdisciplined, adventurous father died. He lost the only person who heard his music sympathetically and perceptively.

Charles had been sent to Yale to learn the basics of composition from the mainstream composer Horatio Parker, who found the young man’s music insufferable. A few years after graduation, Charles understood that earning a living in music required compromising his musical vision. He therefore ente