The Things our Fathers Loved (1917), subtitled ‘(and the greatest of these was Liberty)’, is one of Ives’s greatest songs, one of his crucial statements about what his music is about, and typically woven from a veritable tapestry of quotations of tunes, including ‘Dixie’, ‘My Old Kentucky Home’, ‘The Battle Cry of Freedom’ and ‘In the sweet Bye and Bye’. The date of composition is significant: Ives thought it was important to remember the values he felt were enshrined in these melodies, as America entered the Great War.
from notes by Calum MacDonald © 2005
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