The Things our Fathers Loved starts out sounding like a few other short piano and vocal pieces or even a recitative. The voice sings lyrics and the piano seems to echo or at least mimic or enhance the mood of the vocals. At times, the duet even creates a monophonic feel. This is perhaps the introduction as the protagonist sings of a place ‘in the soul.’ This place happens to be long ago: probably a generation ago as his they were ‘the things our fathers loved.’

At about 52 seconds into the piece, the mood changes dramatically. This is due to the timbre of the singers voice, the tempo, and the shortness of the notes as opposed to long dragged out and mellow notes. The singer then sings about people singing and a band playing and it makes the listener think of a happy and better time. He sings mostly about song and music that was enjoyed during this period in his or maybe his father’s life. It sounds uplifting and joyful but then becomes a bit minor and tension starts to build up as he is singing ‘red white and blue.’ At this point, there also seems to be a lot going on with the piano. Much like in Ives’ other piece, Putnam’s Camp, it sounds like there could be multiple melodies being played at the same time creating some sort of dissonance with consonant melodies.

At 1’32 into the song, the tension is released and the mood goes back to that of the beginning. It sounds more sad and the interpretation could be that the singer realizes that the happy memories are of the past and only exist in his soul now.

This composition as a whole, although short, takes us through a brief story of a nostalgic musician who reminisces of a better time with music and singing, only to end on the same low note the piece started with.