Cadman was one of the earliest American composers not schooled in the European tradition. His music reflects an independence of thought influenced strictly by Native American sources. His Piano Trio, Op. 56 was written in a brilliant late-romantic style. Its final movement includes one of the first attempts to incorporate elements of ragtime into an American chamber work. The romantic Violin Sonata was described by Cadman as being ‘American in spirit with a bit of the Pacific Coast and desert country in it.’ Though broadly lyrical, the Piano Quintet of 1937 utilises Cadman’s new-found advanced compositional techniques. The Legend of the Canyon and From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water, for violin and piano, date from the third and first decades of the twentieth century respectively. Both works were very popular and were recorded by Kreisler.