Charles Ives

"The word "beauty" is as easy to use as the word "degenerate." Both come in handy when one does or does not agree with you."

"Music is one of the ways that God has of beating in on man."

"Stand up and take your dissonance like a man."

"There is a great Man living in this country — a composer. He has solved the problem how to preserve one's self and to learn. He responds to negligence by contempt. He is not forced to accept praise or blame. His name is Ives."

"[Ives] was exploring the 1960s during the heyday of Strauss and Debussy. polytonality; atonality; tone clusters; perspectivistic effects; chance; statistical composition; permutation; add-a-part, practical-joke, and improvisatory music: these were ives’ discoveries a half-century ago as he quietly set about devouring the contemporary cake before the rest of us even found a seat at the same table."