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Charles E. Ives: Symphony No. 4

Charles Ives is arguably America’s greatest composer, and the Symphony No. 4 is considered by many to be his greatest work. Conceived and drafted in the 1910s, it was completed early in the next decade. Two movements were played in 1927, but the work was not heard in its entirely until 1965. The edition for that 1965 performance was done hastily and published as photocopies of the editors’ manuscript; despite their diligent work, the score has been notoriously unreadable and is littered with errors.

The new edition, commissioned and approved by the Charles Ives Society, is both a scholarly study (with nearly 200 pages of notes and commentary) and a practical performing score. Additional materials will be provided on the Ives Society website. The first performances of this critical edition were given in 2012; it will be used for decades to come.

My work on this edition spans nearly four decades. In the publication I am credited with editing the first movement, but my contributions to the others have been equally important, ranging from published articles on the first and fourth movements to an errata list compiled for the massive second movement. The extent of my involvement in the entirety of the project is acknowledged in the first paragraph of the “Acknowledgements,” p. vii.