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For those of you keeping score at home, if I had to choose my favorite composer of the 20th century, Danbury, Connecticut's Charles Ives definitely comes out on top. 

If you're so inclined you can go see his study, on display at the American Academy of Arts and Letters and marvel at his pencil shavings and stash of booze, though it does look like a nice place to sit and think.

For those not familiar, this is "The Unanswered Question"

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This next one is one of my personal favorites; "Three Places in New England (Orchestral Set No. 1)" is a composition of three parts. Each, as the name suggests, is inspired by a place in New England.  The first place is Augustus St. Gauden's memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and his 54th Massachusetts Regiment in the Boston Commons across from the State House. This is what that looks like. 

One of these days I'll get around to the other two, General Israel Putnam's camp in Redding, Connecticut.  I'll probably get to that one sooner than the third, which is the Housatonic River in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  I've been over the Housatonic plenty of times on I-84 near Southbury, Connecticut, but I think that Redding is more easily accessible to me.

More importantly,  this is what all those places sound like as imagined by Ives in his study.

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(Play 'em loud if you want. Mgt.) \000/