The song is a short piece. The music is set to a poem that Charles Ives wrote. The music seems to evoke memories of the past, and not just memories but musical memories of the past and the musicians of the past. A direct quotation is kind of like text painting, and it will let the listeners know what is going on. He wants the audience to know what is going on in the lyrics and the music, which is why he provides “quotations” for each song. A musical quotation is the exercise of directly quoting another work in a new composition. The quotation can either be from the composer’s work or another composer’s work. Within the piece there are few dissonances and they are only when the music changes from each quotation.  The piece is also polytonal which means that there is the use of one or more keys simultaneously. Ives uses polytonality well because he wants add dissonance in the piece.

The music is nostalgic because the lyrics say “I hear the organ…/Aunt Sarah humming Gospels; Summer evenings” (lines 3-4). This quote shows musical moments of the past or reminds of somebody going to church or taking a walk in the summer.

From what I was reading Ives uses some direct quotations, which are ways of showing the listeners where the music actually came from. So instead of the lyrics doing all the talking the music is contributing to some of the understanding of the piece. The music behind the lyrics does some of the talking as well. Although the music behind the lyrics is soft it still plays an important role.

When Ives talks about “Aunt Sarah humming Gospels…” the music is changed from quiet to more gospel music, which the listener can associate the words with a gospel song, or the gospel music. As the piece continues on there are lyrics that say “The town’s Red, White and Blue…” and the music changes to more of a patriotic tune. The song that these lyrics are related to is “Battle Cry of Freedom” which was a popular song of the American North during the Civil War. The tune starts to stray away from the “Battle Cry of Freedom” because Ives wants to introduce another direct quotation, and this quotation is “In the Sweet By and By”. “In the Sweet By and By” is a spiritual song.