American modernist composer, born on October 20th, 1874 in Danbury, Connecticut, died on May 19th, 1954 in New York City. He is widely regarded as one of the first American composers of international significance. Ives 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, thus foreshadowing virtually every major musical innovation of the 20th century. Ives's music was largely ignored during his lifetime as an active composer, but since then his reputation has greatly increased.