American composer George Antheil (1900 - 1959) came into fame in Paris as the "Bad Boy of Music," writing aggressive, sometimes highly dissonant music, often with a strong element of ragtime and jazz rhythms. Novelty-mad Paris music audiences quickly embraced him—or at least significant portions of them did, for his premieres were often marked by near-riots. Once he quelled an outburst by whipping out his Colt 45 and slapping it down on the piano. He became best known for his Ballet mécanique, the notorious piece for multiple pianos, percussion, and noisemakers including an airplane propeller.

He became more conservative in idiom later and wrote effectively for regular orchestra, although his music often retains an aggressive edge. With his Symphony No. 4, "1942," written while he was war correspondent for the Los Angeles News, he achieved a style that earned him a reputation as a composer who could write music about war and battles.

He wrote several shorter concert works dealing with American historical themes. Among them are The Golden Spike (1939), Decatur in Algiers (1943), Over the Plains (1945), Heroes of Today (1945), and the instant work. In addition, he wrote scores for war films or war-related films such as Tokyo Joe (1949), Fighting Kentuckians (1949), Hunters of the Sea (1954), The Pride and the Passion (1956) and ten scores for the CBS-TV documentary series The Twentieth Century.

McConkey's Ferry (Washington at Trenton)} is a ten-minute programmatic work inspired by the U.S. Revolutionary War's most famous painting, Washington Crossing the Delaware. The picture and the overture depict one of the crucial turning points in world history.

Because of George Washington's humiliating expulsion from New York City in late summer and autumn, the British were poised to move out of New Jersey and take Pennsylvania, the keystone of the new Union, which would strategically shatter the new United States. Most of Washington's troops' enlistments ended with the Old Year on December 31. In a daring river crossing at McConkey's Ferry, Pennsylvania, Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River on Christmas Eve and seized the mercenary troops occupying Trenton, New Jersey and their supplies, armaments, and munitions.

These events are reflected in the music of this overture, which is tense and martial in tone nearly throughout. The work is based on an stirring call to arms, but its motive immediately turns to a worried oboe theme. The tempo is fast and soon builds up to rapidly occurring shifts between a lonely statement of the theme and battle-like outbursts. A new trumpet theme injects a sense of resolve to the music. The style of this music is rather like a hyper-active version of Shostakovich's World War II music.

About half-way through the overture, a richer, more major-key orchestration surrounds a more confident cello theme, but the music rarely remains reposed as Antheil builds the work by consistently injecting militant outbursts. Finally, there is a complete break in tempo that one supposes could represent the planning for the perilous crossing of the freezing river and silent execution of the tricky maneuver. The war music returns, this time without introspective interruptions, and at the very end Antheil depicts the victory and the rescuing of American morale.

The music is full of accessible rhythms and memorable themes, though some will find it strident and hectoring.

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