Charles Ives

by Mary K. Scanlan Highly original American composer of orchestral, chamber, and solo vocal and piano music who used and anticipated polytonality, atonality, and polymeter/polytone clusters. A unique quality of his music is the combination of well-known hymns and popular tunes with a complex dissonant accompaniment. Notable works include Three Places in New England (1914) and the Sonata for Piano no. 2, "Concord, Mass" (1920).