TRANSCENDENTAL CAKEWALK (orch version)

Transcendental Cakewalk is a dance in the spirit of early twentieth-century American popular music. It is a
projected accompaniment to an opera on the meeting of Mark Twain and Charles Ives (an event which
actually happened). In the opera, Twain (who is examining Ives as to his fitness to be the groom of Harmony
Twichell, Twain’s god-daughter) sits down at the piano, begins playing, and Ives joins in fourhand. The
increasingly rambunctious and joyous music which results is an evocation of the generous and adventurous
spirits of both artists.