By Charles Burns, assistant editor/production assistant
“After the Fireworks” is a playlist for the stillness after celebration. This weekend, we observed 250 years of American independence, and the unfinished, ongoing work of becoming the country we imagine ourselves to be. After the last firework has arced across the sky, after the traces of incandescence fade, after the last boom has echoed, I’ve been thinking about what it means to be American during unsettled, divided, and uncertain times.
Aaron Copland, Florence Price, Charles Ives, and William Grant Still shaped the sound of American music. This playlist, filled with their quieter music, holds space for private reflection. It reminds me that the sound and spirit of our country is larger than any single anthem or point of view. For this playlist, I wanted music that creates room to sit and reckon with ourselves and the country we are still trying to become.
