Charles Ives, like his elder contemporary John Philip Sousa, was born and raised amid military quicksteps and medleys of patriotic songs. Both became skilled professional musicians in their early teens, yet while Sousa held steadfastly to the regularity of America’s military pulse, Ives began to blaze the trail toward a uniquely American music. Beginning with the remarkable Variations on ‘America’, described by Ives as “but a boy’s work, partly serious and partly in fun”, all of the works heard on this disc are to a greater or lesser degree transcriptions or adaptations for the modern American concert band.