In Ives and Gershwin’s pieces, there seems to a common theme of music corresponding to the expression of a culture, and a common contrast to that culture based on the composers’ personal styles.

Ives “The Things Our Fathers Loved” is comprised of a soloist and a piano accompaniment. The text of the song discusses everyday aspects of colloquial life in Ives life, as well as a strong nationalist expression. After reading about the piece, I found out that different parts of the piece reflected various contemporary songs. Ives is expressing the American culture he experienced in his piece by these expressions and the lyrics. However, the traditional music is contrasted by Ives take on music, and seems to incorporate dissonance and discord, much like the march we listened to earlier in the semester. The pieces Ives references reflect his style, which results in a contrast between his style and the full expression of American culture. Ultimately, Ives seeks to capture the zeitgeist of his society in a nostalgic, dissonant tone.

Gershwin follows a similar theme to Ives in “Summertime”. The song is an aria sung multiple times throughout the Opera Porgy & Bess, and is a lullaby sung to a baby at the beginning. The opera also hired African American singers to maintain a sense of cultural accuracy in the opera. Gershwin seems to try and capture the culture in African American society, using pentatonic scales (which I found out are scales where the octave is composed of five notes”. The pentatonic is incorporated from the very beginning, with the ascending line of the horns and the descending line of the clarinet. The scale evokes a folky, bluesy feel seeking to reflect the culture as Ives does. However, there is a strong contrast between the lyrics, which are bright and comforting, and the music, which is very much gloomy. At 3:10, the song takes a very up tempo turn, which I think reflects the game of craps that is being played right after the soloist is done singing. Overall, Gershwin follows this theme of capturing a culture, and including contrasts that reflect the composers’ respective style.