The New Criterion

In honor of Independence Day, Jay does an all American program: ending with “Plenty Good Room,” the spiritual. He begins with some ballet, cowboy style: “Hoe Down” (Copland). Along the way, we have songs, piano pieces, an aria, some bluegrass—Happy Fourth, to all. Copland, “Hoe-Down,” from “Rodeo” MacDowell, “By a Meadow Brook,” from “Woodland Sketches” Beach, “Ah, Love, but a Day” Wheeler, Scott, “Isolation Rag” Hoiby, “Lady of the Harbor” Meyer, Edgar, et al. (?), “Death by Triple Fiddle” Floyd, “Ain’t It a Pretty Night?” from “Susannah” Gershwin-Heifetz, Prelude in C-sharp Minor Trad., “Plenty Good Room”