Works for string orchestra by Ives and Dvořák performed by A Far Cry on December 8, 2013.Ives: Hymn: Largo Cantabile from A Set of 3 Short PiecesDvořák: Quintet Op. 97 American Arr. by Blaise DejardinOn this podcast, we’ll hear two selections that, to our ears, sound like America.Only the first was actually written by an American, though: a piece called “Hymn: Largo Cantabile” from Charles Ives’s Set of 3 Short Pieces.Ives was the son of a musician, a bandleader for the United States Army, and he studied music as a student at Yale. His music pushed harmonic boundaries far beyond what he would’ve learned at the Yale music department. But it always retained a distinctly American flavor, often incorporating popular music and, as in this piece, traditional hymn tunes. The music is a bit mysterious, and it is unmistakably Ives.Next, we have Dvořák’s “American” Quintet, opus 97, arranged for chamber orchestra. It, like the Ives, was performed at the Gardner Museum by A Far Cry. This arrangement was composed for the group by cellist Blaise Dejardin.The Dvořák, like the Ives, draws on traditional American tunes, incorporating several snippets of American Indian songs. Like Ives, Dvořák took these tunes and embedded them within his own sound world, creating a piece that is certainly rooted in Native American music, but rendered in Dvořák’s own unique voice.