They bridge it in such a perfect way. I can’t easily find their equivalents in european music.
I’ve always thought that it’s very unfortunate that “serious” american composing in the 19thc-early20thc took a while to root, become accepted and popular. You can count those guys on one hand (almost).
Because only a few people wrote, they were more open minded to other musical influences, they didn’t carry the chip on their shoulders that europeans did at the time, so they fully accepted bridge composers and styles.
I love the American Spirit.
Accepting, pioneering, open to changes.
Which is why I dislike it when americans refuse to assimilate this music.
It’s the ONLY musical history you have!!
Great call.
I would like to direct the interested unitiated towards Ives’ works on the superb Naxos label, non-elitist, educational, and inexpensive. My latest purchase was ‘Three Orchestral Sets’, with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Ives scholar James Sinclair. It has the bonus of featuring the world première of a reconstructed version of the Third (and unfinished) Set. Sound quality and performance are fantastic, it is like rural marching bands are making their way through your listening room...
And it sells at € 7.00, that would mean around $ 8.00 or so. Investigate, and if you don’t like it then give it as a present to your fellow man!
BTW: I am Dutch. It’s been a great joy, but also a not-so-easy task to collect Ives over the years. His music doesn’t tend to stay in print for long overseas. But I am happy with what I have.
PS: a great, albeit somewhat pricier introduction to Ives is the disc by Bernstein and the NYPO on Deutsche Gramophone. It has his Third Symphony and is filled to the brim with various pieces, e.g. ‘The Unanswered Question’, which is breathtaking in its... ahem... unansweredness (in a religious/metaphysical way, I mean). It was recorded at NY’s Avery Fisher Hall and sounds marvelous.