Memos

by Charles Ives, John Kirkpatrick (Editor)

A primary source book on Charles E. Ives, this volume presents most of the previously unpublished writings of the American composer. These "memos", as Ives called them, dealt with his music, composition, criticism, autobiography, biography and other topics. During his lifetime Ives rearranged them, lent them out, mislaid and tucked them away in books so that, in the late 1940s, only about three-fifths of them were available to his biographer. After his death in 1954, Ives's papers were gradually put in order and here have been arranged into three sections, edited and annotated by John Kirkpatrick. Part One, "Pretext", sets forth Ives's aims, his views on music, critics and criticism. In part Two, "Scrapbook", Ives discusses his music. Part Three, "Memories", is devoted to biographical and autobiographical remembrances.

355 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1973

About the author

Charles Edward Ives (October 20, 1874 – May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, one of the first American composers of international renown. His music was largely ignored during his early life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Later in life, the quality of his music was publicly recognized, and he came to be regarded as an "American original". He was also among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with musical techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatory elements, and quarter tones. His experimentation foreshadowed many musical innovations that were later more widely adopted during the 20th century. Hence, he is often regarded as the leading American composer of art music of the 20th century.