Ed Zubrow wrote:

>Ives' father (George) was US Grant's favorite bandmaster.  When he came
>upon the young boy banging on the piano with his fists he did not "correct"
>him but, rather, encouraged him.  Throughout his youth Ives was encouraged
>to consider things as he heard them, not as they were "meant to be." Also,
>father would play in one key and encourage the kids to sing in another.

Thanks to Ed Zubrow for pointing out George Ives as an original thinker
in music well ahead of his time.  Charles Ives apparently inherited an
independant frame of mind from a very unusual father who tried several
conventional careers including banking from which he withdrew as boring
beyond tolerance.  Jan Swafford's very interesting biography of Charles
Ives documents young Ives withdrawal from the commercial music world upon
the milestone of his marriage to a Connecticut ministers daughter following
a Yale education.  Driven by his fathers artistic example, Ives realized
that his standard of music would never result in enough income to support
a family in any manner other than poverty.  This decision resulted in Ives
entry into the life insurance business which made both he and a partner
very rich by the early '20s.  Poor health drove Ives into early retirement
at which point he donated his share of the business to his employees.  A
business man of remarkable integrity and composer of startling originality,
to me he remains one of the few remaining hero figures of the twentieth
century.

Bernard Gregoire
Hingham, MA