Charles Ives : a life with music / Jan Swafford.
| Author/creator | Swafford, Jan |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | 1st edition. |
| Publication Info | New York : W.W. Norton, ©1996. |
| Description | xv, 525 pages : illustrations, music ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | At home -- The music of war -- A place in the soul -- An apprenticeship -- Farewell -- A college -- Dasher at Yale -- Renunciations and apprenticeships -- La Vita Nuova -- Measuring the prospect -- Entelechy -- That beautiful shore -- Tom sails away -- A fall and a credo -- Overtures -- The work of our hands -- Advances and retreats -- Distant bells -- Postlude. |
| Abstract | This penetrating study illuminates the life and works of the enigmatic composer/insurance executive Charles Ives, whose experimental works profoundly influenced the course of American classical music in the twentieth century. In his rich and colorful biography, Jan Swafford, himself an established composer, looks at this towering, paradoxical figure and finds the consistencies lying beneath the protean surface. Using what he calls an "Ivesian" approach, Swafford sees the music and the life as forming a single story; one that is firmly rooted in Ives's Yankee background. Thus the book unfolds with a brief history of Ives's Connecticut hometown of Danbury, then describes Civil War band music, and finally draws a fascinating portrait of George Ives, Charles's remarkable father and musical mentor. We follow Ives to Yale and then to his early years in New York, as he becomes at once a composer of conventional church anthems, an unprecedented innovator in musical technique, and a rising insurance executive. After skillfully evoking the sights and sounds that influenced the composer and his music, Swafford weaves together Ives the businessman and Ives the musical explorer, always keeping the discussion of the works at a nontechnical level. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 508-512) and index. |
| LCCN | 95022549 |
| ISBN | 0393038939 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Music Stacks | ML410.I94 S93 1996 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |