Cosmic Dreamscapes

Charles Ives continues to puzzle musical analysis. None of the common images of him really fit, neither that of the American rebel against European formal conventions nor that of the dilettante experimenter. Not unlike the European tradition, he pursued the highest compositional ideals; like them, he placed music alongside religion. But unlike his European contemporaries, he took composing beyond its boundaries, treating music as a medium of visions that transcend final form. His work was thus to become the voice of a utopian, all-round creative America.

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