Though not his most famous work (that would probably be the Concord Sonata), Charles Ives’s String Quartet No. 1 offers a great deal to think about. The opening movement sounds almost un-Ivesian, almost too consonant to be accredited to the modernist composer whose work is known for its inventive use of polytonality and atonal dissonance. But listen closely and you can pick out tunes that are distinctly Ives, folksy and straight off the streets of Norman Rockwell America.
This performance by the Emerson Quartet.
