Matthew Crawford navigates the turbulent confluence of music and politics in 20th century America.
American flags Photo: Public Domain
In this first programme - Sousa waves the flag, Charles Ives remembers the civil war, William Grant Still imagines an Afro-American Symphony and organised labour takes to Broadway.
Programme two brings a national anthem at last, music for war, Strange Fruit in the South, Frank Sinatra pleads for tolerance and Leonard Bernstein takes aim at the forces of McCarthyism.
Bob Dylan declares that the times are a-changin' - but to what? George Crumb's images from a dark land or the social causes of Lou Harrison and Paul Robeson? And: opera gets topical with John Adams, in programme three.
