Films

Joe Horowitz's “Charles Ives' America” is very likely the most important film ever made about American music” Horowitz moves Ives from the fringes squarely to his position as the seminal composer of our country. The genius of Ives is astonishing, and his creativity without equal. The presentation of his life and world is visually beautiful and deeply moving, but at the center of this film experience is his music. We are amazed by its uncompromising originality, its honesty, its poetic impulse, its clear-eyed humor, and, in the end, its absolute beauty. I fell in love with Ives all over again.

— JoAnn Falletta, Music Director, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

 

As a group, these videos sweep together a vast canvas of Americana . . . All are interestingly told. The video documentaries eschew the Ken Burns style of rapid montage and instead go into deep focus. Talking heads speak at length rather than in sound bites. The music on the soundtracks, performed by the Washington, D.C.-based PostClassical Ensemble (of which Horowitz is executive director) and conducted by Angel Gil-Ordóñez, is not interrupted by hyperkinetic visual montages or multiple voiceovers. It's the documentary equivalent of 'slow food'; there is room to absorb and think and remember. . . . The videos are fascinating and should be widely purchased and used by educators and institutions throughout the country to proselytize the unconverted. If classical music is going to survive and thrive, we need zealous advocates like Joseph Horowitz to continue beating the drum.

— Mark N. Grant, The American Scholar

 

Horowitz's six beautiful films reveal a compelling, inclusive tradition in American classical music. Open to influences from popular, Black, Native American, and world music, this music is deeply interwoven with American culture, as much at home on the radio and in the movies as on the concert stage.

— J. Peter Burkholder, author of “A History of Western Music” and “Listening to Charles Ives”

 

The “Dvorak's Prophecy” film series makes an essential contribution to our understanding of the history of music in America, and of the role that music has played, and must continue to play, in American culture as a whole. The films are both enlightening and entertaining. I can readily envision their use in classrooms, in both introductory and advanced-research contexts. Non-specialists will also enjoy them thoroughly. Because Horowitz does not shy away from political, racial, and gender issues of intense contemporary relevance, these films are especially important right now.

— Larry Starr, Emeritus Professor of Music, University of Washington