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Gr 3-6 A prominent 20th-century American composer is brought to life through this biography in picture-book form. Young Charlie always listened to the sounds around him and tried to re-create them as he started writing music, whether it was a cheering crowd or a brass band parading through the town on the Fourth of July. However, his work wasn't taken seriously until late in his life when it was accepted as a new form of music called Art Music. The cleverly drafted ill...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Composer Charles Ives was "born with his ears wide open," not only to melodies played by his music-teacher dad but to every other sound in late-nineteenth-century Danbury, Connecticut: horse-drawn fire engines, Fourth of July fireworks, birds, rain, his baby brother drumming on pots and pans. Like son, like father: both were fascinated by two bands marching "in opposite directions playing different tunes." It's safe to conjecture that all true musicians are born most dedicated to what they hear, as opposed to what their other senses tell them; Ives made especially creative use of ...Log In or Sign Up to Read More