American musical pieces and personal preferences

¶ … music of Ives, Copland, Angier, and Reich reflect an American sound? Does one sound more American than another or do you connect with one more than another? Which one, why?

The definition of a quintessentially American sound often is based on the music's inspiration. For example, Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring is often called the archetypical American work of song, blending folk dances and sounds of the American mountain region into a ballet that is both classical and primeval all at once. However, according to Copland when he elaborated on his creative process: "I can't tell you how many times people have said to me after seeing the ballet, 'When I see that ballet I can just see the Appalachians and hear your music and feel spring.' Neither of which I knew anything about when I was writing the score" (Thomas, "Copeland). The recurring motif of the work is both simple and straightforward as an American pastoral, even though the tunes were not of Copland's own, personal tradition or experience in America. His Fanfare for the Common Man is likewise both simple yet haunting in its celebration of the American spirit and accessible to the 'common' listeners it attempted to celebrate. But it should be noted that Copland was clearly inspired by European works like Stravinsky's less tuneful Rite of Spring, which blended Russian folk themes with trends in European music. American music is thus of the land and of the American people yet also willing to incorporate other works of world music into its fold.

Charles Ives likewise combined images of the American popular imagination into his modern orchestral works: "Two works from the second decade of the century can stand for the method and achievement of Ives's maturity. His Decoration Day, the second of the Holidays, pictures an event Ives observed throughout his childhood on the holiday now called Memorial Day" when 'taps' was played (Swafford, "Charles Edward Ives"). Ives elevated this humble scene into a composition that still stayed true to the original image.

The American composer Steve Reich, although of the latter rather than the earlier 20th century, similarly blended snippets of 'real life' into this works, although he took a far more radical approach than any of his predecessors. Of his style, Ives has said: "it's a feeling for documentary material as raw material for music. And it's a very old idea. The glockenspiel is, basically, western composers wanting to have bells at the ready. The other ones are so big, tubular bells, summoning up storm effects and then eventually sirens in Varese and radio in Cage, cash registers in Pink Floyd and on" (Zuckerman, "An Interview with Steve Reich"). Popular music, the spoken word, even the sound of trains all move Reich and are infused in his music. Yet Reich too was inspired by Rite of Spring and many European works, as he notes that Rite of Spring is one of the pieces he would take with him if ever stranded on a desert island with a CD player " (Zuckerman, "An Interview with Steve Reich"). Reich has strained the traditional constraints of high culture and the composer John Angier even more so, as Angier is best known for composing the scores to films and television shows as much as individual songs ("John Angier music composer," International film and TV production resources).