Published by Jnana Hodson
I post from a small seacoast city in northern New England, where I really do have a small barn packed with mementos of my lifetime journey from my native Ohio to the Pacific Northwest and then back east.
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Yes. We drive through Iowa eight times per year traveling from St. Louis to Minneapolis or northern Minnesota.
We lived in Muscatine (what Mark Twain remembered most were the sunsets) from ‘77 to ‘79. We love the visual, peaceful beauty of the heartland. The politics? not so much.
There have been times when the state was politically ahead of the rest of the country. Women had the right to vote, if I recall right, from the 1880s.
That is where Antonin Dvorák settled at the place inspired, I think, his greatest compositions.
*and
You’re right. His Symphony from a New World, by the way, is incredibly Czech — as we heard in a live performance the other night.
Lucky you! I was once performing with a symphony and we played his 8th. Also a very fine piece. I’m also a big fan of his chamber music.
He’s come a long way up in popularity over the past half century. Now if we can only do the same for American Romantic composers — MacDowell, Paine, Chadwick, Amy Beach, whose symphony was paired with Dvorak on that remarkable program.
Yes, I’m writing this reply from Iowa, although I do not live here, I have been here many times.