List of compositions by Charles Ives

The compositions of American composer Charles Ives (1874–1954) are mostly modern classical music. Ives was prolific, revised works multiple times, and left ambiguous fragments with no title or notes. A chronology of works is especially difficult because of missing and sometimes misleading dates;^[1] as Elliott Carter put it in 1939: "[Ives] has rewritten his works so many times, adding dissonances and polyrhythms, that it is impossible to tell just at what date the works assumed the surprising form we know now."^[2]

This list follows James B. Sinclair's A Descriptive Catalogue of the Music of Charles Ives.^[3] It does not include fragments or projected works.

• Symphony No. 1 in D minor (1898–1902)
• Symphony No. 2 (1897–1902, revised 1910)
• Symphony No. 3: The Camp Meeting (1901–1904, rev. 1911)
• Symphony No. 4 (1916)
• A Symphony: New England Holidays (1919)
• Universe Symphony (1928, unfinished)

For orchestra

• Orchestral Set No. 1: Three Places in New England (1912–16, revised 1929)
• Orchestral Set No. 2 (1909–19)
• Orchestral Set No. 3 (fragments only; 1919–26; notes added after 1934)

For chamber orchestra

• Set No. 1 (1912); includes Calcium Light Night
• Set No. 2 (1912); includes Gyp the Blood, or Hearst? Which Is Worst?
• Set No. 3 (At Sea – Luck and Work – Premonitions, 1917)
• Set No. 4, Three Poets and Human Nature – projected only
• Set No. 5, The Other Side of Pioneering, or Side Lights on American Enterprise – projected only
• Set No. 6, From the Side Hill – projected only
• Set No. 7, Water Colors – projected or lost
• Set No. 8, Songs Without Voices – projected only
• Set No. 9 of Three Pieces (The Last Reader – The See'r – The Unanswered Question, 1934)
• Set No. 10 of Three Pieces (Like a Sick Eagle – Luck and Work – The Indians, 1934)
• Set for Theatre Orchestra (1915)

• Alcott Overture (1904, inc., but re-used for the third movement of Piano Sonata No.2)
• Emerson Overture for Piano and Orchestra or Emerson Concerto (1911–12, incomplete, but re-used for the first movement of Piano Sonata No.2)
• Matthew Arnold Overture (1912, inc.)
• Overture and March: 1776 (1904, rev. 1910; re-used in "Putnam's Camp" from Three Places in New England and Holidays Symphony)
• Overture in G Minor (1899, inc.)
• Overture: Nationals (1915, inc. sketches; adapted from Overture and March: 1776; )
• Robert Browning Overture (1914, rev. 1942)

• Holiday Quickstep (1887)
• Country Band March ((Sketched 1903), rev. 1912, inc. – used in "Putnam's Camp")
• March No. 2, with Son of a Gambolier (1895?)
• March No. 3 in F and C (1893?, inc.)
• March No. 3, with My Old Kentucky Home (1895?)
• March No. 4 in F and C (1894?, inc.)
• The Circus Band (1898)

• Hymn: Largo cantabile, from A Set of Three Short Pieces (1904)
• Central Park in the Dark (1906, rev. 1936)
• Chromâtimelôdtune (1923?)
• Quarter-Tone Chorale for Strings (1914, lost)^[4]
• The General Slocum (1910?, inc.)
• The Gong on the Hook and Ladder or Firemen's Parade on Main Street (1911)
• Piece for Small Orchestra and Organ (1905?, mostly lost)
• The Pond (1906, rev. 1913)
• Postlude in F (1899?)
• Three Ragtime Dances (1911, mostly lost)
• Four Ragtime Dances (?)
• Nine Ragtime Pieces (1902?, mostly lost)
• The Rainbow (1914)
• Skit for Danbury Fair (1909, inc.)
• Take-Off No. 7: Mike Donlin–Johnny Evers (1907, inc.)
• Take-Off No. 8: Willy Keeler at Bat (1907, inc.)
• Tone Roads et al. (1915?)
  • Tone Roads No. 1 (1911)
  • Tone Roads No. 2 (1915?, lost)
  • Tone Roads No. 3 (1915)
• The Unanswered Question (1908, rev. 1935)
• Yale–Princeton Football Game (1899, inc.)

• Fantasia on Jerusalem the Golden (1888)
• March in F and C, with Omega Lambda Chi (1896)
• March Intercollegiate, with Annie Lisle (1892)
• Runaway Horse on Main Street (1908, inc.)
• Schoolboy March in D and F, Op. 1 (1886, mostly lost)

String quartet

• String Quartet No. 1: From the Salvation Army (1900)
• String Quartet No. 2 (1913)

Violin sonata

• Pre-First Sonata for Violin and Piano (1913)
• Violin Sonata No. 1 (1903-1908)
• Violin Sonata No. 2 (1917?)
• Violin Sonata No. 3 (1905-1914)
• Violin Sonata No. 4: Children's Day at the Camp Meeting (1916)

Other

• Decoration Day (1919)
• From the Steeples and the Mountains (1901)
• Fugue in B-flat (1895?, inc.)
• Fugue in D (1895?, mostly lost)
• Fugue in Four Greek Modes (1897, inc.)
• Fugue in Four Keys on The Shining Shore (1903?, inc.)
• Hymn: Largo cantabile, from A Set of Three Short Pieces (1904)
• Hallowe'en (1914)
• In Re Con Moto et al. (1916), for violin, viola, bass, and piano, world premiere given in February 1966 at Carnegie Hall^[5]
• Largo for Violin and Piano (1901)
• Largo for Violin, Clarinet, and Piano (1934? arrangement of Largo for violin and piano)
• Largo Risoluto No. 1 (1909)
• Largo Risoluto No. 2 (1910)
• An Old Song Deranged (1903)
• Piece in G for String Quartet (1891?)
• Polonaise (1887, inc.)
• Practice for String Quartet in Holding Your Own! (1903)
• Prelude on Eventide (1908)
• Scherzo: All the Way Around and Back (1908)
• Scherzo: Over the Pavements (1910)
• Scherzo for String Quartet (1904)
• A Set of Three Short Pieces (1935?)
• Take-Off No. 3: Rube Trying to Walk 2 to 3!! (1909)
• Trio for Violin, Violoncello, and Piano (1907, rev. 1915)

Sonatas

• Three Page Sonata (1905)
• Piano Sonata No. 1 (1909)
• Piano Sonata No. 2 (Concord) (1915)

Studies

• 27 Studies for piano, 8 lost^[6][7][8]
  • Study No. 1: Allegro (incomplete)
  • Study No. 2: Andante moderato–Allegro molto (Varied Air and Variations)
  • Study No. 3: (lost)
  • Study No. 4: Allegro moderato (incomplete)
  • Study No. 5: Moderato con anima
  • Study No. 6: Andante (1907–1909)
  • Study No. 7: Andante cantabile (1907)
  • Study No. 8: Trio (Allegro moderato–Presto) (1907)
  • Study No. 9: The Anti-Abolitionist Riots in the 1830s and 1840s
  • Study No. 10 (mostly lost)
  • Study No. 11: Andante (incomplete)
  • Study No. 12: (lost)
  • Study No. 13: (lost)
  • Study No. 14: (lost)
  • Study No. 15: Allegro moderato (incomplete) (1907–1909; 1920s)
  • Study No. 16: Andante cantabile (incomplete) (1907–1909; 1920s)
  • Study No. 17: (lost)
  • Study No. 18: Sunrise Cadenza (Adagio) (incomplete)
  • Study No. 19 (incomplete) (1907–1909; 1920s)
  • Study No. 20: March (Slow allegro or Fast andante) (1910, 1920s)
  • Study No. 21: Some Southpaw Pitching (1918–19)
  • Study No. 22: Andante maestoso–Allegro vivace (1909)
  • Study No. 23: Allegro (1912–1914; 1920s)
  • Study No. 24: (lost)
  • Study No. 25: (lost)
  • Study No. 26: (lost)
  • Study No. 27: Chromâtimelôdtune (incomplete)

Marches

• March No. 1 for Piano, with "Year of Jubilee" (c. 1894–95)
• March No. 2 for Piano, with "Son of a Gambolier" [inc.] (1895)
• March No. 3 for Piano, with "Omega Lambda Chi" (c. 1895–96)
• March No. 5 for Piano, with "Annie Lisle" (c. 1895)
• March No. 6 for Piano, with "Here's to Good Old Yale" (c. 1895–96)
• March in G and C for Piano, with "See the Conquering Hero Comes" (1896–7)
• March for Piano: The Circus Band (c. 1898–99)

Other works

• The Celestial Railroad (c. 1922–25)
• Three Improvisations (1938)
• Invention in D (c. 1898)
• Minuetto, Op. 4 (1886)
• New Year's Dance (1887)
• Piece in G Minor
• Set of Five Take-Offs (c. 1909)
• Four Transcriptions from "Emerson" (c. 1923–27)
• Varied Air and Variations (1920–22)
• Waltz–Rondo (1911)

Two pianos

• Burlesque Storm
• Drum Corps or Scuffle [mostly lost]
• Three Quarter-Tone Pieces
• Ragtime Dances for Two Pianos

• Adagio in F
• "Adeste Fideles" in an Organ Prelude (c. 1903)
• Burlesque Postlude in B
• Burlesque Postlude in C
• Canzonetta in F (c. 1893–94)
• Fugue in C Minor (c. 1898)
• Fugue in E (c. 1898)
• Interludes for Hymns (1898–1901)
• Melody in E
• Postlude for Thanksgiving Service [mostly lost]
• Variations on "America", for organ (1891) (arranged for orchestra by William Schuman and also arranged for piano solo by Lowell Liebermann)
• Voluntary in C Minor
• Voluntary in F

Multi-movement sacred works

• The Celestial Country (1898–1902)
• Communion Service (c. 1894)
• Three Harvest Home Chorales (c. 1902, c. 1912–15)

Psalms

• Psalm 14 (1902, 1912–13)
• Psalm 24 (1901, 1912–13)
• Psalm 25 (1901, 1912–13)
• Psalm 42 (1891–92)
• Psalm 54 (1902)
• Psalm 67 (1898–99)
• Psalm 90 (1923–24)
• Psalm 100 (1902)
• Psalm 135 (1902, 1912–13)
• Psalm 150 (1898–99)

Other sacred works

• All-Forgiving, look on me
• Anthem: With Hearts Rejoicing Ever
• Be Thou, O God, Exalted High
• Benedictus in E
• Benedictus in G
• Bread of the World
• Nine Canticle Phrases
• Chant, Op. 2, No. 2
• Crossing the Bar
• Easter Anthem
• Easter Carol
• Gloria in excelsis
• Hymn, Op. 2, No. 1
• I Come to Thee
• I Think of Thee, My God
• Kyrie
• Life of the World
• The Light That Is Felt
• Lord God, Thy Sea Is Mighty
• O God, My Heart Is Fixed
• Processsional: Let There Be Light
• Serenity [mostly lost]
• Turn Ye, Turn Ye

Secular chorus with instrumental ensemble

• December
• An Election
• General William Booth Enters into Heaven
• He Is There!
• Johnny Poe
• Lincoln, the Great Commoner
• The Masses (Majority)
• The New River
• Sneak Thief
• They Are There! (A War Song March)
• Two Slants (Christian and Pagan)
• Walt Whitman

Partsongs

• Age of Gold
• The Bells of Yale
• The Boys in Blue
• For You and Me!
• My Sweet Jeanette
• O Maiden Fair
• Partsong in A
• Partsong in B
• Partsong in E
• Serenade
• A Song of Mory's
• The Year's at the Spring

• Ives, Songs
• Ivesiana
• The Unanswered Question

• Free scores by List of compositions by Charles Ives at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)