If, as we hear in recent years, these underlying factors are gradually disappearing, such a change is as yet scarcely visible in the everyday happenings which constitute the immediate stuff of American life. It is still far from affecting our basic psychological premises. Fluidity, in the sense used, is one of the most essential and decisive factors of our tradition. It is likely to remain so for a long time to come. It is relevant in the present context because contemporary music life frequently takes on the aspect of a constantly shifting struggle between a number of contrasting forces. This is more true in the United States than elsewhere; and the characteristic fluidity of our cultural life is one of its features most difficult to understand, particularly for those who do not know the United States well. At the same time, in this set of facts, conditions, and premises one finds elements which have caused Americans to misunderstand other western cultures. Another important element in our tradition may be derived from the fact, evident and admitted, that in our origins we are a nation of _émigrés_. A dear friend of ours, of Italian origin but a fervid American convert, G. A. Borgese, once half jestingly remarked, “An American is one who was dissatisfied at home.” If one takes this idea of “dissatisfaction” in not too emotional a sense, he can take note of the variety of its causes and see that its results have proved to be many and varied. The United States has been created by nonconformists in flight from Anglicanism or Roman Catholicism, as well as by Roman Catholics in flight from Protestantism; by Irishmen in flight from famine and by German revolutionaries in flight after defeat in 1848; by venturesome tradesmen and by others who, either in the spirit of adventure or for other motives, wanted to escape from the toils of civilization; by thousands who sought better economic conditions, more space, and the opportunity to prosper socially, and by others with as many other motives of dissatisfaction. Even such a sketchy summary hints at the variety and even the conflicting character of the interests which found common ground solely in the element of “dissatisfaction at home.” It is perhaps not an exaggeration to say that this tradition of filial dissatisfaction and the variety of its original forms is the basis of many of the most characteristic and deeply rooted American attitudes and problems.