Ives, Charles Edward

US composer. He experimented with atonality, quarter tones, and clashing time signatures, decades before the avant-garde movement. Most of his music uses (simultaneous) quotations from popular tunes, military marches, patriotic songs, and hymns of the time. He wrote four symphonies, including the Dvorakian Symphony No. 1 (1895–98); chamber music, including the Concord Sonata (piano sonata no. 2, 1909–15); and the orchestral works Three Places in New England (1903–14), New England Holidays (1904–13), and The Unanswered Question (1908).

Much of Ives's music is in a polytonal style, and occasionally employs microtones (intervals smaller than a semitone). In addition, he experimented with conflicting rhythms, dissonant harmony and counterpoint, chord clusters, and the spatial presentation of music. He also made frequent use of hymn and folk tunes. He composed alone, without much thought for the ease of performer or publisher, earning his living very successfully from his own insurance company. He stopped composing around 1920, but it was only after his death that his music was widely played and appreciated. He was a child prodigy on the piano and organ, and worked as an organist well into his adult life.