Ives photograph taken circa 1947. Charles Edward Ives (October 20, 1874 - May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though his music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American original". He combined the American popular and church-music traditions of his youth with European art music, and was among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with musical techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatoric elements, and quarter tones, foreshadowing many musical innovations of the 20th century. He died of a stroke in 1954 at the age of 79. His widow bequeathed the royalties from his music to the American Academy of Arts and Letters for the Charles Ives Prize.