The Charles Ives Society (est. 1973), in pursuit of the publication of critical editions of Ives' major works and edited final versions of smaller works, has engaged a range of Ives specialists over the years. Leading this effort are Mr. Berman, a great Ives interpreter (Ives: Concord Sonata + The St. Gaudens / Avie AV2678) who is the Society's president/treasurer; conductor James Sinclair, another eminent Ives interpreter (Ives: Orchestral Works / Naxos 8.559954) and executive editor of the Society; and the composer/arranger Peter Stanley Martin, who became managing director of the Society in March 2024.

Charles Ives (1874-1954) famously considered his compositions works in progress. Even after he had finished them. As a consequence, even some of his most famous and well-established published works were the subject of revisions over the course of the composer's lifetime. And there are a significant number of smaller scale works and fragments which were never published at all.

Mr. Berman notes, "Once I became associated with the Ives Society, it became crystal clear that there was a significant body of Ives' work that had never seen the light of day; and for years we have been working to rectify that. Today's announcement is another pivotal step."

This is not a story of an oratorio in manuscript discovered under a mattress at Charles Ives' summer home in West Redding, CT. Rather it is the story of years of detective work, careful curation, painstaking editing and scholarly insight by a stellar group of Ives experts, resulting in a collection of 24 completed short works and dozens of fragments - all in Ives' own hand - lovingly assembled and now made available for the first time ever.

The principal players in the overall effort of editing Ives' works - over 30 years' worth - include past presidents and musicologists Gayle Magee, J. Peter Burkholder and H. Wiley Hitchcock; Donald Berman, General Editor of the piano works; Thomas Brodhead, engraver of Ives' fourth symphony and the long-awaited 2025 publication of the Browning Overture by Peer Classical; James Sinclair, Executive Editor of the Society, who has produced authoritative editions of all of Ives' orchestral sets (which he has recorded with Orchestra New England on nine discs for Naxos), as well as, with Neely Bruce, all 192 songs of Ives; and David Thurmier, general editor of Ives' choral music. 

The existence of unpublished Ives scores has been rumored by insiders for decades. Why the works have never been published has to do partly with the amount of curation known to be necessary in order to prepare them for release, and partly to the outdated practices of legacy music publishers.

Enter Subito Music, a nimble young company with an expansive embrace of genres, representing not only contemporary composers from the classical music world like Pulitzer Prize-winners Paul Moravec and Michael Abels, but also 20th century figures like Lili Boulanger and Barney Childs, to which have been added a significant number of jazz composers, like Chick Corea and Wynton Marsalis. The company's principal business model - print on demand - constitutes a revolutionary solution to the timeworn practice of large print runs and costly, yearslong storage challenges faced by older publishers. As a consequence, even modest print runs for newly prepared works by great and established composers like Charles Ives pose no issues. Subito president Stephen Culbertson says "We are thrilled to add works by the great Charles Ives to our catalog! We believe we are well-equipped to make this music easily available to one and all and are proud to do so."

Another important player in the mix is the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the organization which houses Charles Ives' studio (disassembled from the West Redding house and reassembled at Arts and Letters in Manhattan in 2012). The will of Ives' widow Harmony specified that Arts and Letters would retain the rights to any compositions not already assigned to a publisher upon her death. Says Arts and Letters executive director Cody Upton, "For years we've worked with the Ives Society to determine the best means and context for the release of these precious short works and fragments, and we're delighted that this music will now be played and enjoyed."

List of Compositions

to be Published by Subito Music

Works for full orchestra

Arrangements of piano pieces which were assigned by Horatio Parker, Ives' composition teacher at Yale:

**Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 2, No. 1, Adagio mvt., arr. for string quartet

**Schubert: Impromptu in C Minor, Op. 90, No. 1, arr. for orchestra

**Schubert: Marche Militaire in D Major, Op. 51, No. 1, arr. for orchestra

**Schumann: “Valse Noble” from Carnaval, Op. 9, No. 4, arr. for orchestra

Original works

**Overture in G Minor - original work for orchestra

**Overture in G Minor - same work, arranged for concert band by James Sinclair

 Works for chorus

**Nine Canticles Phrases

**Search Me, O Lord

**Partsong in E-flat

**Communion Service

The works above are the first to be published by Subito Music. The company expects to release Exercises and Fragments in the next year, and roll out subsequent titles if and as they become available. Subito will also develop single volume collections of like works in the future.

In conclusion, with this project the Charles Ives Society has indeed realized the full potential of a scholarly society - bringing to light, in the very most carefully considered way, the work of a revered cultural icon. Says James Sinclair, “This helps round out decades of labor on a complete critical edition. Even a fragment or incomplete work illuminates our understanding of Ives’s genius.”

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The Ives Society works in close cooperation with the Music Library of Yale University, which houses the Charles Ives Papers, and publishing houses Associated Music Publishers, C. F. Peters Corporation, Helicon Music Corporation, MJQ Music, Mobart Music Publications, Peer International Corporation,

Theodore Presser Company, and Subito Music.