This five-movement, immensely likeable work, filled with direct quotations drawn from various corners of American musical life, was first assembled around 1900 from a group of Ives' early church preludes and secular overtures, with development sections and orchestrations added in 1907-1910. Ives continued to tinker with the work from time to time for the rest of his life. This symphony predates, by almost 30 years, the work of American nationalist composers such as Roy Harris, Aaron Copland, and Virgil Thomson.

The first movement is in an Andante moderato tempo. A beautiful fugato, at first solemn and romantic but soon turning playful (with a bit of the fiddle tune "Pig Town Fling"), opens the work. A hint of Stephen Foster's "Massa's in de Cold Cold Ground" makes its way into the lovely counterpoint. "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean" suddenly appears out of nowhere but fits in perfectly. A slight, delightful ragtime passage with pizzicati forms a transition section. The music again becomes grand and full before thinning out to a lovely, small string group.

A sweet oboe solo provides a segue into the second movement, which opens with a high-spirited setting of Henry Clay Work's tune "Wake Nicodemus", set for the winds and brass and echoed by the strings as the music modulates through several keys. The well-known revival hymn "Bringing In The Sheaves," played in a minor key but in a jolly rhythm, appears as a second subject amidst continual modulations of the first theme. Some lovely pastoral writing with modal gestures against a drone, as in Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, leads into a lyrical setting of the old college hazing tune "Where O Where Are the Verdant Freshmen?"; then fragments of the previous tunes are entered into the constant modulation scheme and full tunes are recapitulated as the movement continues. The development soon moves into triplets combined with offbeat snare drum accents as the intensity builds. Much of the opening material is repeated and the hymn "Hamburg" is added in the brass to bring the movement to a grand conclusion with a snatch of lively rhythm.

The third movement, Adagio cantabile, quotes "Beulah Land" in a cello solo, as well as "America the Beautiful" ("Materna") and the hymns "Missionary Chant" and "Nettleton." As in the other movements, there are brief passages of raw, strong open fifths and parallel movement of chords recalling the early New England psalmody tradition and its homegrown harmonization. There are even moments of nineteenth century Romantic orchestral style.

The relatively brief fourth movement, Lento maestoso, reorchestrates and extends material from the first movement in a grand style. Even "Columbia the Gem of the Ocean" now has a rolling, dramatic accompaniment. Ending on an unresolved dominant seventh chord, the fourth movement seems like an introduction to the fifth and last movement.

A fiddle tune quickly moves into Foster's "Camptown Races," and some lovely orchestration recalls the mood of the first movement. Reveille, "Wake Nicodemus, "Pig Town Fling", and "Columbia" are played together for a bang-up ending.

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