The compositions of American composer Charles Ives (1874–1954) are mostly modern classical music. Ives was prolific, revised works multiple times, and left ambiguous fragments with no title or notes. A chronology of works is especially difficult because of missing and sometimes misleading dates;Maynard Solomon goes so far as to suggest Ives purposely misdated work in: "Charles Ives: Some Questions of Veracity", Journal of the American Musicological Society, XL/iii (1987), 443–470, goes so far as to suggest Ives did so purposely. Some responses are Carol Baron, "Dating Charles Ives's Music: Facts and Fictions", Perspectives of New Music, XXVIII (1990), 20–56; Gayle Sherwood, "Questions and Veracities: Reassessing the Chronology of Ives's Choral Works", The Musical Quarterly, LXXVIII/iii (1994), 429–447 as Elliott Carter put it in 1939: "[Ives] has rewritten his works so many times, adding dissonances and polyrhythms, that it is impossible to tell just at what date the works assumed the surprising form we know now."Carter, Elliott, "The Case of Mr. Ives", Modern Music (March–April 1939): 172–176.
This list follows James B. Sinclair's A Descriptive Catalogue of the Music of Charles Ives. It does not include fragments or projected works.
Orchestra
Symphonies Symphony No. 1 in D minor (1898–1902) Symphony No. 2 (1897–1902, revised 1910) Symphony No. 3: The Camp Meeting (1901–1904, rev. 1911) Symphony No. 4 (1916) A Symphony: New England Holidays (1919) Universe Symphony (1928, unfinished)
Sets For orchestra Orchestral Set No. 1: Three Places in New England (1912–16, revised 1929) Orchestral Set No. 2 (1909–1919) Orchestral Set No. 3 (fragments only; 1919–26; notes added after 1934) For chamber orchestra Set No. 1 (1912); includes Calcium Light Night Set No. 2 (1912); includes Gyp the Blood, or Hearst? Which Is Worst? Set No. 3 (At Sea – Luck and Work – Premonitions, 1917) Set No. 4, Three Poets and Human Nature – projected only Set No. 5, The Other Side of Pioneering, or Side Lights on American Enterprise – projected only Set No. 6, From the Side Hill – projected only Set No. 7, Water Colors – projected or lost Set No. 8, Songs Without Voices – projected only Set No. 9 of Three Pieces (The Last Reader – The See'r – The Unanswered Question, 1934) Set No. 10 of Three Pieces (Like a Sick Eagle – Luck and Work – The Indians, 1934) Set for Theatre Orchestra (1915)
Overtures Alcott Overture (1904, inc., but re-used for the third movement of Piano Sonata No.2) Emerson Overture for Piano and Orchestra or Emerson Concerto (1911–12, incomplete, but re-used for the first movement of Piano Sonata No.2) Matthew Arnold Overture (1912, inc.) Overture and March: 1776 (1904, rev. 1910; re-used in "Putnam's Camp" from Three Places in New England and Holidays Symphony) Overture in G Minor (1899, inc.) Overture: Nationals (1915, inc. sketches; adapted from Overture and March: 1776; ) Robert Browning Overture (1914, rev. 1942)
Marches Holiday Quickstep (1887) Country Band March ((Sketched 1903), rev. 1912, inc. – used in "Putnam's Camp") March No. 2, with Son of a Gambolier (1895?) March No. 3 in F and C (1893?, inc.) March No. 3, with My Old Kentucky Home (1895?) March No. 4 in F and C (1894?, inc.) The Circus Band (1898)
Others Hymn: Largo cantabile, from A Set of Three Short Pieces (1904) Central Park in the Dark (1906, rev. 1936) Chromâtimelôdtune (1913-1919) Quarter-Tone Chorale for Strings (1914, lost)Gardner Read: 20th-Century Microtonal Notation (New York, Greenwood Press, 1990) p. 76 The General Slocum (1910?, inc.) The Gong on the Hook and Ladder or Firemen's Parade on Main Street (1911) Piece for Small Orchestra and Organ (1905?, mostly lost) The Pond (1906, rev. 1913) Postlude in F (1899?) Three Ragtime Dances (1911, mostly lost) Four Ragtime Dances (?) Nine Ragtime Pieces (1902?, mostly lost) The Rainbow (1914) Skit for Danbury Fair (1909, inc.) Take-Off No. 7: Mike Donlin–Johnny Evers (1907, inc.) Take-Off No. 8: Willy Keeler at Bat (1907, inc.) Tone Roads et al. (1915?) Tone Roads No. 1 (1911) Tone Roads No. 2 (1915?, lost) Tone Roads No. 3 (1915) The Unanswered Question (1908, rev. 1935) Yale–Princeton Football Game (1899, inc.)
Band Fantasia on Jerusalem the Golden (1888) March in F and C, with Omega Lambda Chi (1896) March Intercollegiate, with Annie Lisle (1892) Runaway Horse on Main Street (1908, inc.) Schoolboy March in D and F, Op. 1 (1886, mostly lost)
Chamber/Instrumental String quartet String Quartet No. 1: From the Salvation Army (1900) String Quartet No. 2 (1913) Violin sonata Pre-First Sonata for Violin and Piano (1913) Violin Sonata No. 1 (1903-1908) Violin Sonata No. 2 (1917?) Violin Sonata No. 3 (1905-1914) Violin Sonata No. 4: Children's Day at the Camp Meeting (1916) Other Decoration Day (1919) From the Steeples and the Mountains (1901) Fugue in B-flat (1895?, inc.) Fugue in D (1895?, mostly lost) Fugue in Four Greek Modes (1897, inc.) Fugue in Four Keys on The Shining Shore (1903?, inc.) Hymn: Largo cantabile, from A Set of Three Short Pieces (1904) Hallowe'en (1914) In Re Con Moto et al. (1916), for violin, viola, bass, and piano, world premiere given in February 1966 at Carnegie Hall Largo for Violin and Piano (1901) Largo for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano (1934? arrangement of Largo for violin and piano) Largo Risoluto No. 1 (1909) Largo Risoluto No. 2 (1910) An Old Song Deranged (1903) Piece in G for String Quartet (1891?) Polonaise (1887, inc.) Practice for String Quartet in Holding Your Own! (1903) Prelude on Eventide (1908) Scherzo: All the Way Around and Back (1908) Scherzo: Over the Pavements (1910) Scherzo for String Quartet (1904) A Set of Three Short Pieces (1935?) Take-Off No. 3: Rube Trying to Walk 2 to 3!! (1909) Trio for Violin, Violoncello, and Piano (1907, rev. 1915)
Keyboard Works for piano Sonatas Three Page Sonata (1905) Piano Sonata No. 1 (1909) Piano Sonata No. 2 (Concord) (1915)
Studies 27 Studies for piano, 8 lostHenderson, Clayton W. (2008). The Charles Ives Tunebook. Indiana University Press. . Study No. 1: Allegro (incomplete) Study No. 2: Andante moderato–Allegro molto (Varied Air and Variations) Study No. 3: (lost) Study No. 4: Allegro moderato (incomplete) Study No. 5: Moderato con anima Study No. 6: Andante (1907–1909) Study No. 7: Andante cantabile (1907) Study No. 8: Trio (Allegro moderato–Presto) (1907) Study No. 9: The Anti-Abolitionist Riots in the 1830s and 1840s Study No. 10 (mostly lost) Study No. 11: Andante (incomplete) Study No. 12: (lost) Study No. 13: (lost) Study No. 14: (lost) Study No. 15: Allegro moderato (incomplete) (1907–1909; 1920s) Study No. 16: Andante cantabile (incomplete) (1907–1909; 1920s) Study No. 17: (lost) Study No. 18: Sunrise Cadenza (Adagio) (incomplete) Study No. 19 (incomplete) (1907–1909; 1920s) Study No. 20: March (Slow allegro or Fast andante) (1910, 1920s) Study No. 21: Some Southpaw Pitching (1918–19) Study No. 22: Andante maestoso–Allegro vivace (1909) Study No. 23: Allegro (1912–1914; 1920s) Study No. 24: (lost) Study No. 25: (lost) Study No. 26: (lost) Study No. 27: Chromâtimelôdtune (incomplete)
Marches March No. 1 for Piano, with "Year of Jubilee" (c. 1894–95) March No. 2 for Piano, with "Son of a Gambolier" [inc.] (1895) March No. 3 for Piano, with "Omega Lambda Chi" (c. 1895–96) March No. 5 for Piano, with "Annie Lisle" (c. 1895) March No. 6 for Piano, with "Here's to Good Old Yale" (c. 1895–96) March in G and C for Piano, with "See the Conquering Hero Comes" (1896–7) March for Piano: The Circus Band (c. 1898–99)
Other works The Celestial Railroad (c. 1922–25) Three Improvisations (1938) Invention in D (c. 1898) Minuetto, Op. 4 (1886) New Year's Dance (1887) Piece in G Minor Set of Five Take-Offs (c. 1909) Four Transcriptions from "Emerson" (c. 1923–27) Varied Air and Variations (1920–22) Waltz–Rondo (1911)
Two pianos Burlesque Storm Drum Corps or Scuffle [mostly lost] Three Quarter-Tone Pieces Ragtime Dances for Two Pianos
Works for organ Adagio in F "Adeste Fideles" in an Organ Prelude (c. 1903) Burlesque Postlude in B Burlesque Postlude in C Canzonetta in F (c. 1893–94) Fugue in C Minor (c. 1898) Fugue in E (c. 1898) Interludes for Hymns (1898–1901) Melody in E Postlude for Thanksgiving Service [mostly lost] Variations on "America", for organ (1891) (arranged for orchestra by William Schuman and also arranged for piano solo by Lowell Liebermann) Voluntary in C Minor Voluntary in F
Vocal
Songs