The American Composer Charles Ives was a daring explorer of new territories in the sonic imagination. Coming of age at the transition to the 20th Century, his fresh uses of harmony and structure anticipated the atonal approaches of later composers. At the same time, Ives answered the call for original American art music by embracing the vernacular traditions of his folk upbringing: church hymns, fiddle tunes, patriotic songs, military marches and ragtime. His disdain for “emasculated” programming in the arts, the dull flattery of familiar tastes, and the narrow sensibilities of those holding symphony purse-strings, drove Ives away from the world of professional music and into business, where he became a successful innovator in the industry of life insurance. Politically, his deep convictions about “the universal vision behind the American Dream” were expressed in advocacy for a People’s World Union, limits on private wealth, and a 20th Constitutional Amendment for direct democracy.
Joseph Miller is a local writer, musician and business owner. He has previously presented at the IWC on the topics of Plato’s Gorgias, the writer P.L. Travers, the history and mythology of light, choral music, Bach’s Cello Suites and the writings of Henry David Thoreau. In 2006 he was awarded a Santa Barbara Indy for his play Walt Whitman: Radical Patriot.
