10/20/2026
On October 20, 1874, from the large bedroom over the south parlor rose the keening wail of newborn Charles Edward Ives, who would register the myriad sounds of home as few people have.
“IN THE OLD IVES HOUSE in the middle of Danbury, Connecticut, these sounds were familiar: the intimate patter of rain, the measureless pealing of thunder; the jingle of sleighs in winter, the chirr of spring peepers from streams and ponds; the clatter and clop of buggies down dusty Main Street, and the deeper rolling rumble of wagons on their way to shops and factories; from the Congregational church next door, the muffled sounds of choir and organ and the great bronze booming of the bell, and all day Sunday the sound of distant bells like intimations of a presence beyond the horizon of this moment, of this life; at holidays the brass bands marching past, the rattle and crump of fireworks, the clang of the firebell; in summer the cries of icemen and boys selling newspapers; inside the house the groaning of old floors, the antiphonal voices of a big family’s comings and goings; and every day the bright rising and falling of music, cornet or piano or violin or bands or little orchestras, playing in the parlor or outside in the shed or in the barn, playing quicksteps and hymns and Beethoven and Stephen Foster.”
“Word went out around Danbury. Joe Ives announced in his Main Street housewares store that brother George had a son. Spring Street clerk Sam Parmelee rejoiced that sister Mollie had delivered safely.
Word spread through the parlors and factories of the Whites and Merritts and Hoyts and Tweedys. ‘The Danbury News Man,’ who kept the town apprised of the notable, made his wry commendation of the event in the town paper: ‘Ives’s Brass Band has included among its soloists an infantile performer on the vox humana.’”
Music is life. Ives biographer Jan Swafford also notes, “Ives also teaches us that in its essence music is not abstract but spiritual and humanistic: music is something people do for the benefit of people.”
Happy Birthday, Charlie and many, many thanks Larry Deming Jerome Burns and Danbury Music Centre for the sublime musical accompaniment.
