The calendar information incorporated here is edited and simplified from that in the official A Descriptive Catalogue of the Music of Charles Ives by James B. Sinclair (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999). Some uncertain information has been resolved to the best guess solution.
Some anniversary information is not assignable to a day.
Click below to jump to those particular year-entries:
| 1822 | 1895 | 1896 | 1897 | 1903 | 1915 | 1916 |
| 1927 | 1929 | 1933 | 1938 | 1940 | 1948 | 1949 |
| 1952 | 1953 | 1960 | 1963 | 1975 | 1976 |
Some anniversary information is assignable only to a seasonal period and is given here:
Non-date specific anniversary information:
Thematic programming ideas: Holidays
| Martin Luther King Day (3rd Mon. in Jan or Jan 15) |
The St. Gaudens in Boston Common ("Three Places in New England"), piano Study No. 9: The Anti-Abolitionist Riots, song/choral Lincoln, the Great Commoner |
| National Freedom Day (Feb 1) |
Ives pieces that quote George F. Root’s Civil War song ‘The Battle Cry of Freedom’ include: Decoration Day, Fourth of July, Three Places in New England/i&ii, "Country Band" March, Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano/ii, Three Quarter-Tone Pieces/ii, and songs In Flanders Fields, They Are There!, and The Things Our Fathers Loved |
| President’s Day (3rd Mon. in Feb) |
Washington’s Birthday ("Holidays Symphony"); choral/song Lincoln, the Great Commoner |
| Valentine’s Day (Feb 14) |
songs Because of You, Because Thou Art, Canon, Dreams, Friendship, In My Beloved’s Eyes, My Lou Jennine, An Old Flame, Weil’ auf mir/Eyes so dark |
| St. Patrick’s Day (Mar 17) |
March No. 2, with "Son of a Gambolier"; song A Son of a Gambolier |
| Easter (1st Sun. after 1st full moon after the Spring equinox): |
choral Easter Carol |
| Mother’s Day (2nd Sun. in May) |
songs Du alte Mutter, The Old Mother, Songs my mother taught me |
| Memorial Day (last Mon. in May) |
Decoration Day ("Holidays Symphony"), Holiday Quickstep; organ Variations on "America" (or orchestra arr.) |
| Flag Day (June 14) |
Symphony No. 2; Variations on "America" (organ or orchestra arr.); song Flag Song |
| Father’s Day (3rd Sun. in June) |
songs The Greatest Man, Remembrance |
| Independence Day (July 4) |
Fourth of July ("Holidays Symphony"), Symphony No. 2, Putnam’s Camp ("Three Places in New England"), Overture & March "1776"; organ Variations on "America" (or orchestra arr.); choral/songs He Is There!, They Are There! |
| Labor Day (1st Mon. in Sept; "back to school") |
Trio for Violin, Violoncello, and Piano; chamber orch Set No. 1, mvt. ii ("A Lecture"), Yale-Princeton Football Game, A Lecture (mvt. ii of Set No. 1) |
| Columbus Day (2nd Mon. in Oct) |
Symphony No. 2, mvt. v |
| United Nations Day (Oct 24) |
choral The Masses/Majority, song Majority |
| Halloween (Oct 31) |
chamber ens Hallowe’en |
| Election Day (1st Tues. in Nov after the 1st Mon.) |
choral/song An Election; songs Nov. 2, 1920, Vote for Names! Names! Names! |
| Veteran’s Day (Nov 11) |
songs Tom Sails Away, In Flanders Fields, He Is There!, They Are There! |
| Thanksgiving (4th Thurs. in Nov) |
Thanksgiving ("Holidays Symphony"); Psalms (10) |
| Christmas (Dec 25) |
Symphony No. 4, mvt. i; Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano, mvt. iii; "Adeste Fideles" in an Organ Prelude; songs A Christmas Carol, Christmas Carol (Edith Ives’s), Watchman |
Seasonal ideas (music with meaning for a particular season)
| Winter: | orch. Washington's Birthday; violin&piano Washington's Birthday; song/choral December |
| Spring: | orch. Decoration Day; vioin&piano Decoration Day; songs Frühlingslied, Gruss, A Perfect Day, Spring Song, Two Little Flowers |
| Summer: | orch. Central Park in the Dark in the Good Old Summertime, Fourth of July; orch/chamber Gong on the Hook and Ladder; Sonata No. 4 for Violin and Piano; song Feldeinsamkeit (In Summer Fields) |
| Fall: | orch. Yale-Princeton Football Game, Thanksgiving; Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano; Three Harvest Home Chorales; songs Autumn, In Autumn, Maple Leaves, Song for Harvest Season, Walking |
Monthly ideas (music with specific meaning to certain months)
| January | |
| February | orch. Washington's Birthday; violin&piano Washington's Birthday |
| March | |
| April: | songs Frühlingslied, In April-tide, Two Little Flowers |
| May: | orch. Decoration Day; violin&piano Decoration Day songs Night of Frost in May, A Night Song, A Song–For Anything (Yale, Farewell!) |
| June | |
| July | orch. The Fourth of July |
| August: | song August |
| September: | song September |
| October: | songs Autumn, Maple Leaves, Walking, Yellow Leaves |
| November: | orch. Thanksgiving; songs An Election, Vote for Names! Names! Names!, Song for Harvest Season |
| December: | chorus&orch December; songs December, The Ending Year |
Thematic grouping ideas
| Children: | Symphony No. 3, mvt. ii, Sonata No. 4 for Violin and Piano: Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting; songs Berceuse, The Children’s Hour, Cradle Song, Two Little Flowers, Songs my mother taught me, To Edith |
| Cowboys: | Charlie Rutlage |
| Ecology: | The New River (The Ruined River) |
| Sentimental songs: | Down East, Dreams, In the Alley, Kären, Marie, A Night Song, An Old Flame, A Song–For Anything, Songs my mother taught me, The World’s Highway |
| Parody/caricature songs: | The Collection, On the Counter, Romanzo (di Central Park), Slugging a Vampire, "1, 2, 3", The Side Show, Vote for Names! Names! Names! |
| Sports: | Scherzo: All the Way Around and Back and Study No. 21: Some Southpaw Pitching (baseball); Yale-Princeton Football Game |
| Marching: | Calcium Light Night (Set No. 1, mvt. v); Overture and March "1776"; "Country Band" March, Holiday Quickstep, The Circus Band, March No. 2, with "Son of a Gambolier", March No. 3, with "My Old Kentucky Home"; March in F and C, with "Omega Lambda Chi", March "Intercollegiate," with "Annie Lisle"; piano Study No. 20: March, March No. 6 for Piano, with "Here’s to Good Old Yale"; choral Processional: Let There Be Light; songs The Circus Band, He Is There!, Old Home Day, A Son of a Gambolier, They Are There! |
| German songs: | Du alte Mutter, Du bist wie eine Blume, Ein Ton, Feldeinsamkeit, Frühlingslied, Gruss, Ich grolle nicht, Ilmenau, Marie, Minnelied, Rosamunde, Rosenzweige, Sehnsucht, The South Wind / Die Lotosblume, Weil’ auf mir, Widmung, Wie Melodien zieht es mir, Wiegenlied |
| French songs: | Chanson de Florian, Élégie, Qu’il m’irait bien, Rosamunde |
| Italian song: | La Fede |
| Religious songs: | At the River, The Camp Meeting, A Christmas Carol, Disclosure, Duty, Forward into Light, His Exaltation, Hymn, Immortality, In the Mornin’, The Innate, The Light That Is Felt, Naught that country needeth, A Night Thought, Paracelsus, The Rainbow (So May It Be!), Religion, Serenity, A Song—For Anything (Hear My Prayer, O Lord), The Waiting Soul, Watchman!, West London, Where the eagle cannot see |
| Water: | Three Places in New England, mvt. iii; The Ruined River (Set No. 1, mvt. iii), At Sea (Set No. 3, mvt. i); Swimmers; The Pond; The General Slocum; The Rainbow; Mists; songs At the River, At Sea, A Farewell to Land, Mists, The New River, The Rainbow, Remembrance, A Sea Dirge, The Sea of Sleep, Swimmers, Tom Sails Away |
| Nature (exclusive of the "Water" entries): | String Quartet No. 2, mvt. iii ("The Call of the Mountains"), From the Steeples and the Mountains, Sonata No. 2 for Piano: Concord, Mass., mvt. iv ("Thoreau"); Three Harvest Home Chorales; songs Afterglow, August, Autumn, Evening, Far in the Wood, Feldeinsamkeit/In Summer Fields, Frühlingslied, Ilmenau/Over all the treetops, Maple Leaves, Nature’s Way, A Night Thought, Peaks, Pictures, Rough Wind, The South Wind/Die Lotosblume, Spring Song, Sunrise, There is a certain garden, Thoreau, Yellow Leaves |
| Love: | see Valentine’s Day |
| Ragtime: | Orchestral Set No. 2, mvt. ii; Set for Theatre Orchestra, mvt. ii; Four Ragtime Dances; Central Park in the Dark; Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano, mvt. ii; Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano, mvt. ii; Three Quarter-Tone Pieces for two pianos, mvt. ii; Three-Page Sonata for piano; Sonata No. 1 for Piano, mvts. ii & iv; song The See’r |