An Ives Celebration

Book excerpt: After years of neglect, composer Charles Ives (1874-1954) has been proclaimed as "the father of nearly everything American in American music." The lack of recognition that Ives suffered in his own lifetime - for example, he never heard most of his major pieces played - has been obliterated by all-Ives concerts, radio broadcast series, documentary films, books, and the establishment of Ives societies here and abroad. All these things attest to Ives's increasing stature since the fifties and give certain evidence that he has finally "arrived." Public acclaim for Ives's talents reached its zenith in the Charles Ives Centennial Festival-Conference, the first international congress ever dedicated to an American composer. This book is the record of the non-performance part of the festival-conference. It contains essays on Ives and American culture, chapters on conducting, performing, and editing Ives, comments from foreign scholars and composers, and a long section on Ives and present day musical thought. The papers and panels examine minute details of Ives's music and life in an attempt to explain the current "Ives phenomenon." The contributors are among the most important names in their respective fields.