Selected Correspondence of Charles Ives

Edited by Tom C. Owens, Selected Correspondence of Charles Ives includes letters to and from the composer, dating from 1881 until after his death in 1954. Ives wrote and received hundreds of letters throughout his lifetime, which are preserved in the Charles Ives Papers in the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library of Yale University. Owens systematically presents these primary source materials, with numerous annotations that give context and offer insights into Ives’s relationships and life experiences.

Owens selected a range of letters that “document the composition and editing of his music, that show his friendships and philanthropy, that illustrate the state of his health, and that reveal his integral role in the new music community from the late 1920s until his death.”¹ Furthermore, letters with musical collaborators such as John Kirkpatrick, Nicolas Slominsky, Aaron Copland, and Radiana Pazmor, to name a few, discuss specific details of Ives’s music with regard to editing processes and preparation for performance. These also include his correspondence with Lou Harrison about the editing of Ives’s Third Symphony, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947.

The book divides the selected letters into eight chapters: “Childhood, Hopkins, and Yale (1881-1903),” “Courtship and Marriage (1907-1908),” “Call and Response (1911-1936),” “Health (1907-1954),” “Collaborators and Champions (1923-1933),” “Travel (1930-1938),” “Editors and Performers (1933-1944),” and “Final Years (1945-1954).”

Following 1930, Ives not only received an increasing amount of mail, but also faced the deterioration of his handwriting due to a hand tremor. In this way, he would sketch drafts of his letters so that his wife or daughter could write the final copy. Owens explains that the letter sketches “show us Ives unfiltered and give a glimpse into the process of his thinking, especially in his multiple revisions and drafts for a single letter.”²

Childhood letters reveal Charles’s admiration for his father, George. In college, his correspondences with family express the development of an independent identity. Letters from his wife, Harmony, during their period of courtship, reveal her passionate personality and ardent love for Charles. Nearly a half century later, Harmony received many letters following Charles’s death from friends around the country, expressing grief and condolences.

Other letters reveal Ives’s sense of humor and generosity, as well as offer details about little-known occurrences in his life. In one letter to Ives, conductor Nicolas Slominsky describes having to beat two rhythms at once to clearly show the orchestra how to play one of his works. Later in the letter, Slominsky describes interpreting a lecture into English for Arnold Schoenberg during his visit Boston. In Ives’s reply to Slominsky, he jokingly asks, “Do you beat 2 rhythms when interpreting a lecture?”³

Another anecdote involves letters between John Cage and Charles Ives following the nervous breakdown of Ives champion Lou Harrison. Here, we see Ives’s generosity in providing Harrison financial support to help cover his hospital bills. An additional correspondence refers to George Gershwin’s admiration for Ives, and Gershwin’s effort to meet Ives in New York City. While this meeting was never actualized, Gershwin’s interest in Ives’s music is fascinating and not well-known.

Owens describes that “one of the primary purposes for this collection of letters is to show the complex personality and character of the man who wrote both the letters and the music.”⁴ Through this portrayal, Selected Correspondence of Charles Ives enables the reader to engage with Ives’s compositions by way of their inspiration, creation, and place in the composer’s life.

¹ p. 4
² p. 2
³ p. 214
⁴ p. 4