Ives, Charles. (1874–1954)
Signed Check to New Music Edition
Rare signed document from the important American composer, a personal check payable to New Music Edition for $50 and dated July 1, 1946, the document completed in another hand, likely that of his wife Harmony Ives, and signed by the composer himself "Chas. E. Ives" in his late, shaky hand. In fine condition, 8.5 x 3 inches (21.6 x 7.6 cm.).Ives's music was largely ignored during his life, particularly during the years in which he actively composed. Many of his published works went unperformed even many years after his death in 1954. But early supporters of Ives's music included Henry Cowell, Elliott Carter, and Aaron Copland and Cowell's periodical New Music published a substantial number of Ives's scores (with his approval) and was, in turn, largely supported by Ives. "There could scarcely have been a more felicitous development in twentieth-century American music than the collaboration of Henry Cowell and Charles Ives in the publication of New Music. Cowell's writing to Ives in 1927, asking him to subscribe to his new quarterly, was the start of a relationship which was to assure a long life for the publication, a wide exposure for Ives's music, and a stimulating source for American's young avant-garde. When he founded New Music, the thirty-year old Cowell was at the beginning of a new career as a promoter of "ultra-modern" music; Ives, approaching his fifty-third birthday , was at the end of a solitary career of composing works too modern and too complex to be performed or published." (Rita H. Mead, "Cowell, Ives, and New Music," The Musical Quarterly Vol. 66, No. 4 (Oct., 1980), pp. 538) (18833)
Signed Document/Item Classical Music