Timeline of Ives's Life

1874      Born on October 20 in Danbury, Connecticut, to Mary Parmalee Ives and George Edward Ives.

1876      Ives’s only sibling Joseph Moss Ives II, known as Moss, born on February 5.

1881      Begins school at the New Street School in Danbury.

1887      Plays a tarantella for piano by Stephen Heller on a joint student recital on May 11.

1888      First public performance of an Ives composition, Holiday Quickstep, on January 16.

1889      First position as church organist begins on February 10 at Danbury’s Second Congregational Church. Moves to Baptist Church in October on his fifteenth birthday. Organ lessons with J. R. Hall begin on May 21 and with Alexander Gibson begin on October 22.

1891      Begins school at the Danbury Academy in September.

1892      Plays premiere of Variations on “America” in organ recital at Brewster, New York, on February 17.

1893      Enrolls at Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven in April. Becomes organist at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New Haven on May 7. Travels with his uncle Lyman Brewster to the Chicago World’s Fair in August.

1894      Begins college at Yale and becomes organist at Center Church in New Haven in September. Father dies on November 4 from a stroke.

1895      Joins Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

1896      First publications: Part song For You and Me!; March “Intercollegiate”; William Will, a campaign song for William McKinley; and A Scotch Lullaby in the Yale Courant. Studies counterpoint and instrumentation with Horatio Parker at Yale.

1897      March “Intercollegiate” performed in McKinley’s inauguration festivities. Tapped for Wolf’s Head, third most prestigious secret society at Yale. Studies strict and free composition with Parker.

1898      Graduates from Yale, moves to New York, and begins work at Mutual Life Insurance Company and as organist and choirmaster at Bloomfield (New Jersey) Presbyterian Church.

1899      Moves to Charles H. Raymond & Co. in New York and meets Julian Myrick.

1900      Becomes organist and choirmaster at Central Presbyterian Church in New York.

1902      Directs premiere of his cantata The Celestial Country on April 18. Resigns from last position as church organist.

1907      On January 1 founds his own insurance agency, Ives & Co., in partnership with Julian Myrick. On October 22 proposes to Harmony Twichell, and she accepts.

1908      Marries Harmony on June 9 with her father Joseph Twichell officiating.

1909      Co-founds Ives & Myrick agency on January 1. In April Harmony miscarries, followed by hysterectomy. Completes Symphony No. 2 and has it copied.

1910      Walter Damrosch conducts private reading of Ives’s Symphony No. 1 on March 19.

1911      Completes Symphony No. 3 and has it copied.

1912      Charles and Harmony Ives buy property in West Redding, Connecticut, and begin building summer house.

1913      Iveses’ first summer in West Redding house.

1914      Composes General William Booth Enters Into Heaven and Violin Sonata No. 3.

1916      Charles and Harmony Ives adopt their daughter Edith on October 18.

1917      United States enters Great War on April 6. Private performances that month of In Flanders Fields at luncheon for Mutual Life Insurance and of Violin Sonata No. 3 at Carnegie Recital Hall.

1918      Diagnosed with diabetes in August. Medical crisis in October. Takes extended leave from business.

1919      Revises and copies Piano Sonata No. 2: Concord, Mass, 1840-60, and writes Essays Before a Sonata, an extended companion to the Concord Sonata.

1920      Essays Before a Sonata printed and mailed out.

1921      Concord Sonata mailed out and reviewed. Most reviews are mocking, some positive.

1922      114 Songs printed, mailed out, and reviewed.

1924      Violin Sonata No. 2 is premiered on March 18.

1925      Three Quarter-tone Pieces for two pianos premiered.

1926      Last new composition, Sunrise.

1927      First two movements of Symphony No. 4 are premiered at Town Hall in New York on January 29, played by members of the New York Philharmonic conducted by Eugene Goossens. First major article on Ives appears, by Henry Bellamann.

1928      Movements from the Second Piano Sonata (Concord) are first Ives pieces played in Europe: “Emerson” (first movement) by Katherine Heyman in March on Paris radio, and “The Alcotts” (third movement) by Oscar Ziegler in July at Salzburg. In November, The Celestial Railroad and Violin Sonata No. 1 premiered.

1929      Second movement of Symphony No. 4 published in Henry Cowell’s New Music Quarterly. Mother dies on January 25.

1930      Ives retires from Ives & Myrick on January 1.

1931      Three Places in New England premiered in New York on January 10 and played again in Boston, Havana, and Paris, conducted by Nicolas Slonimsky. Ives hears the work in New York and Boston in January, then consults diabetes specialist and is put on insulin. Washington’s Birthday premiered in San Francisco on September 3 and Decoration Day in Havana on December 27.

1932      The Fourth of July premiered in Paris on February 21 by Orchestre Symphonique de Paris, conducted by Nicolas Slonimsky. Aaron Copland accompanies seven Ives songs (including five premieres) on May 1. That month Ives and his family travel to Europe for fifteen months.

1933      General William Booth Enters Into Heaven premiered in San Francisco on September 26. Thirty-Four Songs published.

1935      Nineteen Songs published.

1937      Psalm 67 premiered. Washington’s Birthday published.

1938      John Kirkpatrick premieres Concord Sonata at Cos Cob, Connecticut, on November 28.

1939      John Kirkpatrick plays Concord Sonata in New York on January 20 and February 24 to glowing reviews (“the greatest music composed by an American”). Brother Moss Ives dies on April 7 from a stroke. Daughter Edith marries George Tyler on July 29 at West Redding house.

1940      Violin Sonata No. 4 premiered in New York on January 14.

1942      Public premiere of Violin Sonata No. 3 in Los Angeles on March 16.

1945      Elected to National Institute of Arts and Letters.

1946      Symphony No. 3 premiered by the New York Little Symphony under Lou Harrison at Carnegie Chamber Music Hall on April 5. Played again on May 11 in an all-Ives concert at Columbia University that also includes premieres of Central Park in the Dark, The Unanswered Question, and String Quartet No. 2. Iveses’ only grandchild Charles Ives Tyler born June 29.

1947      Symphony No. 3 published. Wins Pulitzer Prize in Music for Symphony No. 3, and gives the prize money away. Second edition of Concord Sonata published.

1948      Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano premiered. Recording of Concord Sonata by John Kirkpatrick released.

1949      Piano Sonata No. 1 premiered on February 17.

1951      Symphony No. 2 premiered at Carnegie Hall by New York Philharmonic on February 22, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, and published later in the year.

1953      Premiere of Symphony No. 1 in Washington, D.C., on April 26, conducted by Richard Bales.

1954      First performance of Thanksgiving and of complete Holidays Symphony by Minneapolis Symphony, conducted by Antal Dorati, on April 9. Dies on May 19 in New York from a stroke after a hernia operation.