"end of a dream"

the selection of proud tower we discussed in class this past wednesday focused on the state of the us at the turn of the century. although at times i was bored throughout the reading, i did -like scott- feel a sort of sentimental attatchment to the author's depicted trying characters such as Reed and Norton who held on to as long as possible this romantic ideal of America. And though i truly felt for these characters and their purpose, i also understand the movement towards imperialism and or "expansion" was inevitable at this time. it is a sad thing to let go of the dream that had not fulfilled its potential, and consumed so much pride and hard work in its very existence... however, at a time when the name of the game is progression, the us probably would have buckled under other foreign policy and forces if they had not seized the oppurtunity to raise the bar and attempt to take control. unfortunatly, i have a hard time seeing the us pull through any other way...

ives, janacek, and scriabin

this past week (2/6/06) i was introduced to compositions of Ives (u.s) -the three page sonata, Janacek (czech) "from the streets", and Scriabin- i forget the name of the piece... (russia); each composition having surfaced around the same time, but each piece entirely different in sound. personally i was awestruck by the ives piece... not to take anything away from janacek's "from the streets" but i had never heard anything quite like ives before. in class scott queried why it is that some of us seemed more captured by the ives piece then the janacek... i found myself wondering the same thing. on wednesday when we listened to the Scriabin piece i found it almost was as striking as the ives composition, however it was more appealing to the ears- although overall i am still most attracted and dumbfounded by the "three page sonata". this may be because i can explain why i like the scriabin... i like its intensity, its emotion, its openendness that invites the listener/audience to interpret the music as they experience it. through this piece i can see nietzchian influence that scriabin has developed (even if it involves his seperation from Nietzches philosophy and the development of his own scriabin has composed this piece in an attempt to reach a new personal plateau, resemebling somewhat of the idea of Nietzche's ubermench. but back to the ives... it stumps me as to why i like it so much, it seems so raw to the ears that it is hard to dislike its honesty... when i listend to it i thought of it as a progression of exposing, developing, or unfolding an idea that has challenged the artist... if this makes any sense at all... im still working on it.. but really ives really caught me off guard...