Nationalism can be a dangerous thing, but a love of country and all that it stands for is the only thing that can lead to the development of a serious “national sound” among composers, says Robert Jones. Individuals like Copland and Bernstein aside, America has never really had its own tradition of classical music, and even works identified as distinctly “American” are often written by European composers like Dvorak. “America always seemed nervous about nationalism in music,” and Jones says that will have to change if anyone expects the U.S. to develop a compositional tradition as easily recognized as those of countries like France, Finland, and the Czech Republic.