Ives - Variations on ‘America’

‘The President’s Own’ United States Marine Band, Colonel Timothy W. Foley (director)

Variations on "America"; Overture & March "1776"; They Are There; Old Home Days; March Intercollegiate; Fugue in C; Omega Lambda Chi; Variations on "Jerusalem the Golden"; A Son of a Gambolier; Postlude in F; Country Band March; Decoration Day; Charlie Rutlage; The Circus Band; Runaway Horse on Main Street; March Nr. 6 with "Here's to Good Old Yale"; The Alcotts

Charles Ives, like his elder contemporary John Philip Sousa, was born and raised amid military quicksteps and medleys of patriotic songs. Both became skilled professional musicians in their early teens, yet while Sousa held steadfastly to the regularity of America's military pulse, Ives began to blaze the trail toward a uniquely American music. Beginning with the remarkable Variations on 'America', described by Ives as "but a boy's work, partly serious and partly in fun", all of the works heard on this disc are to a greater or lesser degree transcriptions or adaptations for the modern American concert band."