St Olaf's Choir and Chamber Ensemble

Recorded at Wooddale Church, Eden Prarie, Minnesota USA
Martha Hart – mezzo-soprano
Dan Dressen – tenor
Michael Jorgenson – baritone
John Ferguson – organ
Mark S. Johnson – piano
Cynthia Stokes – alto-flute

String Quartet: Charles Gray – violin; Lucinda Marvin – Violin; Annalee Wolf – viola; David Carter – ‘cello.

The twentieth century has seen the coming of age of American music. The great names still with us - like Gershwin, Bernstein and Copland or innovators like Cage and Reich - have emerged out of a century filled with the impact of many central European composers relocating to the New World. But before the First World War an entirely different musical landscape predominated. Boston - not New York, Philadelphia, Chicago or Los Angeles - was the most important location with its great orchestra playing the latest music from Europe. It was also the platform for the latest domestic music on interest, such as that of the most well-known composer of late nineteenth century America, Edward MacDowell, who had spent nearly a decade in Europe before returning home. But the composer who almost single-handedly broke the umbilical ties with European composition was Charles Ives.