I have to agree with Balanchine when he said that, “God creates, I do not create. I assemble and I steal everywhere to do it - from what I see, from what the dancers can do, from what others do.” Much of what we study in class is a compilation of the composer’s thoughts and ideas that are not necessarily unique to the composer. Ives collected sounds and textures from the world around him, as did Varese. Unlike their direct predecessors, they chose to embrace the more common worldly sounds, such as a wailing siren or a town band. But how is this any different from Mozart and Rossini stealing themes from street performers?
Innovation is a tricky thing to define, but in its simplest form, I think innovation is the creation of something different from common base materials, perhaps as simple as sticks and string. Yes, in fact, innovation is very easily observed through watching someone knit. They take two sticks, at least one ball of string and from those materials they create something completely unique to the knitter. The question to me is not how Ives and Griffes created something unique from their technical European training, but why there is any surprise that their creations were a deviation from the European style. Studying in Europe does not immediately imbue composers with European music, but simply the European technique. Both composers came from a background completely unlike their European counterparts, and those uniquely American experience are what makes their music stand apart from that of Europe.
Two knitters can have the same instructor, same size needles and the same yarn. They can knit the exact same pattern, but each product will have the individual knitters unique stamp on it with one knitter working the pattern loosely, one will be tight, and there will be an array of stitches that were worked differently, no matter how simple the pattern.
And just as the knitting is no less beautiful and interesting, so the endless variety of music is no less intriguing.