Wilton Reads — Gil Harel Reprise: Charles Ives and the American Music Identity (Zoom)

Please join Wilton Library for an encore broadcast of Dr. Gil Harel‘s presentation on Danbury-born composer Charles Ives. He will discuss Ives as a founder of a distinctly American music idiom. We will follow his presentation with a live Q&A with Harel.

Charles Ives may very well be considered one of the most important American composers of the modern period. As an artist, he had two distinct advantages in his career: an unconventional education with something of a maverick pedagogue (his father, George Ives); and a vocation that provided him with security and, later on, considerable wealth. This latter point is often emphasized by historians who cite it as a factor that allowed the composer to write abstract and complex works without having to worry about concert ticket sales. During the latter part of his life, Ives’ genius began to bring him recognition. Now, he is regarded as a seminal American composer whose pioneering work with polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatory elements and more has cemented his place in the canon.

Harel is a musicologist and music theorist whose interests include styles ranging from the western classical repertoire to jazz. Currently, he teaches music history and theory at Naugatuck Valley Community College. Online registration is required in order to receive the Zoom invitation link. To register, visit the Wilton Library website.