Original Soundtrack - The War: A Ken Burns Film
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Artist: Original SoundtrackBrand: PBS
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Soundtrack
CD Release Date: 2007-09-11
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
- American Anthem - Norah Jones
- Walton, The Death of Falstaff - Leonard Slotkin & London Philharmonic Orchestra
- The Wang Wang Blues - Benny Goodman Sextet
- Movin' Back - Wynton Marsalis (composer & arranger)
- How Long Blues - Count Basie
- In the Nick of time - Edgar Meyer, Joshua Bell, Sam Bush & Mike Marshall
- It's Been a Long, Long Time- Bing Crosby with Les Paul
- America My Home (Excerpt) - Wynton Marsalis (composer & arranger)
- If I could Be With You (One Hour Tonight) - Kay Starr, accompanied by the Capitol International Jazzmen
- Blue As the Turquoise Night of Neyshabur (Excerpt) - Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble
- Until I'm In Your Arms Again - Wynton Marsalis
- Variations For the Healing of Arinushka - Kalle Randalu
- Basie Boogie - Count Basie & His Orchestra
- Solitude - Duke Ellington & His Orchestra
- Concerto for Clarinet, Strings, Harp and Piano (Excerpt) - Benny Goodman, Aaron Copland & Columbia Symphony Orchestra
- If You Can't Smile and Say Yes - The King Cole Trio
- American Anthem - Amanda Forsyth & Bill Charlap
Music reviews of The War: A Ken Burns Film
Music Review: Good With The Best Being the Fine Popular Music of the Time
Rating: 5 Stars
This CD seems to be the lead in sampler of the music to Ken Burns' documentary, The War, his long awaited film on the Second World War. Actually it is just one of four separate CDs available if you don't want to buy the entire soundtrack. One of the CDs is strictly classical music, two popular, and this one relies on a hodgepodge of music, mostly period, some not, mostly popular, some classical, one or two semi-new age, some jazz, etc. Although Burns uses his selections with the same special care and nicety that marked his Civil War songs, there is never the thematic consistency as was the case with the grandaddy of this sort of production, Victory at Sea. A few words on this Homeric original documentary on World War II are in order to give perspective on Burns' efforts. Winner of an Emmy in 1954, Victory at Sea was the brainchild of Henry Salomon, a researcher for historian Samuel Eliot Morison's monumental 15 volume History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. (A great book incidentally.) Salomon was friends with Robert Sarnoff, son of the chairmen of RCA, and they successfully talked up a huge and expensive half-million dollar project, based on Morison's book and using film archives from the warring countries. With the cooperation of the US Navy they ended up with an incredible 60 million feet of film. I'm sure Ken Burns could tell us just how many minutes that runs, but whatever the time involved it's a lot! This series was shown in 26 half-hour programs without commercial interruptions - surprise! - beginning in the Fall of 1952 and finishing up in May of 1953. Burns covers the entire War in almost exactly the same time, one hour more at 14 hours. (Perhaps like many of the G.I.s he documents Burns is superstitous about the number 13?) Victory at Sea boasted a truly amazing music score, the collaboration of musicals giant Richard Rodgers and top orchestrator Robert Russell Bennett. Without going into all the released permutations of that score, suffice it to say it's unlikely we'll see the like again, though the indefatigable Philip Glass may prove me wrong. The music was huge part of the shows success, and to this day I can't hear the music to "Under the Southern Cross" without picturing the quiet wartime Brazilian city of Bahia.
Burns, having already put together a large documentary on Jazz, with an emphasis on the first thirty years, or roughly from World War I through the end of World War II, has no difficulties calling up the right music for the moment. From previews he clearly has mastered the art of applying the most apt music of the time to a scene. When he streches outside the parameters of popular topical music-making his choices are usually for emotional scene setting. Why he chose to omit Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, the slow movement from his B minor quartet forever linked with moments of American public rememberance after it's use at Franklin Roosevelt's service, I can't say, though I think it a serious error. Just because it was used in Platoon? That was twenty years ago Ken - an entire generation has grown up. Besides, it's nice to see things in their original context, isn't that what documentaries are supposed to be about?
Overall the music Burns choses is great stuff, and will serve very well as introduction to a new generations' picture of what Tom Brokaw quite correctly labled, "The Greatest Generation." Burns has five CDs, one with all the music, and four sold separately. Of these I recommend the two with the most music of the period, titled "Sentimental Journey" and "I'm Beginning to See the Light". These should offer the best slice of music of the day. The classical selections remind me of BBC productions, and the sort of stuff organists once upon a time played in darkened music halls for silent films. Nothing wrong with that, either, but I prefer my classical music 'au naturel' - and not attached to extraneous medium associations unless specifically linked to a historical moment, as is the case with the Barber Adaigo for Strings.. But you may disagree, and the samples always are there if you're curious.
The Barber Adaigo can be found on several CDs, though I urge the curious to try the late Thomas Shippers' wonderful performance of Barber's music on a single CD including the Adaigo. (Barber's aunt, Louise Homer, a singer at the Metropolitan Opera, helped raise Bonds during the first World War.)
Description of The War: A Ken Burns Film
This stunning soundtrack recording to Ken Burns's epic series features seventeen pieces of music from the film. It includes war-era favorites from Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Bing Crosby, and Nat 'King' Cole as well as music from Edgar Meyer, Aaron Copland and Yo-Yo Ma. The soundtrack also features new compositions from Wynton Marsalis, and Norah Jones's breathtaking performance of "American Anthem"- exclusive to this album.The War Photos
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | Photos courtesy of the National Archives and Library of Congress
More from The War
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The soundtrack for The War, documentarian Ken Burns's 2007 PBS series on World War II, alternates between earlier, wartime, and postwar material, all designed to complement the narrative. The material was clearly selected to evoke the mood of the era: Benny Goodman's sextet tears off a hot 1942 "Wang Wang Blues," and Count Basie lets fly with "Basie Boogie" (1941) and the prewar "How Long Blues." Also evoking the war years are Bing Crosby's hit "It's Been a Long, Long Time" with the Les Paul Trio, "Solitude" (1934) by Duke Ellington's Orchestra, and Kay Starr's "If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight)" and the Nat "King" Cole Trio's "If You Can't Smile and Say Yes" from a wartime V-Disc. Classical numbers include Leonard Slatkin and the London Philharmonic's 1989 version of "London: The Death of Falstaff" and an excerpt of Benny Goodman, in his spare time a respected classical clarinetist, performing "Concerto for Clarinet, Strings, Harp, and Piano" with Aaron Copland and the Columbia Symphony Orchestra in 1950. Newer recordings include Norah Jones's "American Anthem," reprised at the end by Amanda Forsyth and Bill Charlap, "Movin' Back," "Until You're in My Arms Again," and "America My Home" by Wynton Marsalis. --Rich Kienzle
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