Charles Ives Remembered

An Oral History
Author: Vivian Perlis
Foreword by J. Peter Burkholder
The award-winning portrait of composer Charles Ives
Paper – $22
978-0-252-07078-5
Publication Date
Paperback: 01/01/2002
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About the Book

Interweaving photographs, concert programs, scores, and drawings with the texts of more than fifty interviews with family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues, Charles Ives Remembered is a vivid memory portrait of the enigmatic American composer, told in the voices of the people who knew him best.

Charles Ives (1874-1954) was publicly an insurance executive but privately a composer whose eccentric works and paradoxical life would intrigue, perplex, and inspire generations to come after him. Moving from Ives's childhood and years at Yale to his business and musical careers, the memories and reflections assembled in this Kinkeldey Award-winning volume provide a multifaceted and humanizing view of an American musical icon.

About the Author

Vivian Perlis (1928-2019) was the founder and former director of the Oral History of American Music at Yale University and the writer-producer of documentaries of Eubie Blake, Aaron Copland, and John Cage.

Reviews

"A marvelously orchestrated portrait of this utterly singular American."--New York Times

"Charles Ives Remembered found a wide and enthusiastic audience when it appeared in 1974, and was awarded the Kinkeldey Prize of the American Musicological Society. Thanks to the University of Illinois Press, it is now back in print and accessible to a new generation of readers as well as its original fans. Over the intervening years, the book has become recognized as a classic of its kind."--Chamber Music