Charles Ives

For our many site links to detail and documentation, see below.

Click here to bounce down the page to a short Ives introduction

The Stereo Society is delighted to release the American music landmark recording of Charles Ives' Universe Symphony, in the historically groundbreaking new performing version written after painstaking and thorough research by Johnny Reinhard.

download a bundle of four five-minute excerpts
from the Universe Symphony (18Mb): mp3 | m4a

The CD package features a 32-page full-color booklet, all in English, and cardboard jewel-case sleeve. Notes in German, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Spanish are available here (see below).

stream or download four extracts from the Universe Symphony
more details of the extracts on the CD page

click here for notes about playing and downloading music on this site

1	mp3	m4a
2	mp3	m4a
3	mp3	m4a
4	mp3	m4a

Übersetzungen	Traduzione	Traducciones

Deutsch	Italiano	Castellano

Ives Downloads and Resources
A collection of hi-resolution, print-quality
photographs and illustrations cleared for publication

Three Short Primers Introducing
Ives and His Background:
Ives Primer 1: His Life
Ives Primer 2: His Significance
Ives Primer 3: His Universe Symphony

from CD baby

To new reviews of the Universe Symphony CD

A longer biography of Ives, by Johnny Reinhard

Two extensive articles by Johnny Reinhard included in the
32-page booklet of our forthcoming (July 4)
Universe Symphony CD:
Symphonic Tradition And The Universe Symphony
Of Pitch And Time: Delivering The Universe Symphony

Reviews, previews and analysis written around the time of the Lincoln Center premiere of Johnny Reinhard's new realization of the Universe Symphony,
June 6 1996.
New York Times June 2 1996 (Richard Taruskin)
New York Times June 8 1996 Alex Ross
Village Voice April 5 1995 (Kyle Gann)<.
Village Voice June 4 1996 (Kyle Gann)
Village Voice June 25 1996 (Kyle Gann)

Two articles on the five-year recording and development of the first recording of Johnny Reinhard's realization of the Universe Symphony:

A long exposition by producer Mike Thorne about the radical studio production

A short reminiscence by recording engineer James Rosenthal

Details of the Universe Symphony recording musicians

About Johnny Reinhard:
Johnny Reinhard: A Short Biography 2005
To Johnny Reinhard's home at the Stereo Society
A new interview (2005) with Johnny Reinhard, discussing the Universe Symphony

Charles Ives in his garden 1950

1950, outside his summer home in West Redding, CT
courtesy Yale Music Library

back to the top of the page

Charles Ives was an extraordinary musical innovator. He turned away from the European classical music tradition that had obsessed and intimidated early composers in the United States, and became the first US composer to focus on the cultural values of his own nation.

Between the demands of running a successful insurance company by day and composing by night, he compromised his health badly. For the last 25 years of his life was musically quiet.

The Universe Symphony was composed in parallel with his last numbered symphony (the fourth) and remained unfinished at his death. He asked several composer friends for help, to no avail.

New findings and research by Johnny Reinhard enabled him to construct a fresh performing version of 64 minutes for 74 musicians, introduced at Lincoln Center, New York on June 6 1996 with the full approval of the Charles Ives Society.