Variations on 'America' (God Save The King)

Charles Ives was a very angry young man (18) when he wrote these "variations to end all variations". He was mad that he had to play the organ to support himself, and eventually became an insurance salesman!

Before you dismiss this piece as being trivial and ugly, he deliberately chose the most commonplace theme he could imagine, and then proceeded to write a set of variations that were so ludicrous and insidious that he hoped would put an end to this type of composition.

Please note: Variation #5 is usually a type of Rhumba; instead of performing this variation as written, I improvised the fifth variation in 5/4 time, as my own parody of Paul Desmond's 'Take Five' written some 70 years after Ives composed these variations.

Enjoy,
Joe