harles began composing at around the age of thirteen, he was writing the type of pieces that he heard around Danbury all of his life such as marches, church songs, and fiddle tunes (The Man His Life, Swafford 2). By the age of fourteen, Charlie had become the youngest salaried church organist in Connecticut. With this musically opportune job, Ives wrote a lot of choral and organ music George was hopeful that someday he might even make a living as a concert pianist, but Charles had other plans. Although he enjoyed his music, he resented its consumption of his life, so he started rebelling like all other teens do and started playing sports as an escape (The Man His Life, Swafford 1). However, by his late teens he returned to his first love and was broadening his schedule to: composing for church, composing for his fathers bands, and writing studies in polychords and polytonality (Stanley 1). By the time Charles was leaving to prepare for college, he was a professional composer and had some works being published (The Man His Life, Swafford 2). He barely passed the Yale entrance exam but still ended up studying with one of the finest composer teachers in the United States (Stanley 1). His name was professor Horatio Parker, and he helped Ives all four years of Yale. Parker was an American who was trained in the German classical style that was very popular at that time (such as Bach, Beethoven, and Hyden) and did not always agree with Charles liberal views of music. In fact, he is known for asking Ives not to bring in any more such manifestations (A Life With Music, Swafford 6). Resentfully, Charles obeyed and later began combining his small-town musical background and the rigor of Parkers instruction into a new technique. With his uniqueness, Ives unified the American people with the European classical forms and traditions, which up until now had never been successful (The Man His Life, Swafford 1). Right after he started college, ...
