BWW CD Reviews: THE ROOSEVELTS: AN INTIMATE HISTORY (Original Score) is a Glorious Slice of Americana

Typically, I review albums that feature Broadway vocalists or some other type of singer. However, as a junior high and high school student, I played the French Horn in my schools' bands. I adore well written scores and gorgeous orchestral pieces, so I was thrilled when THE ROOSEVELTS: AN INTIMATE HISTORY (Original Score) landed in my mailbox. This music was chosen and written to accompany the film by the same title by Ken Burns, and it also serves as a gorgeous slice of Americana.

The album opens with a speech excerpt from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, asking the American people to meditate on the future generations of Americans. This cues Cieri's hymn "Stand By Water," which appears in four versions throughout the album. Instantly, "Stand By Water I" conjures images of white clapboard, protestant churches surrounded by fields of glowing grains. Aurally it is reminiscent of great American compositions such as Aaron Copland's "The Promise of Living" from THE TENDER LAND. It perfectly sets the stage for a score that represents 100 years of American music in approximately 52 minutes.

Scott Joplin's "Strenuous Life," with its muted trumpet and vibrant woodwind melodies, gives listeners a glorious ragtime composition that brings a smile to the face and encourages dancing in your seat. In that vein, lively and brassy melodies played by enthusiastic winds bring surplus of joy to the album in the way of Harry Von Tilzer and Andrew B. Sterling's "Wait Till the Sun Shines Nellie," Harry Tierney and Joseph McCarthy's "Alice Blue Gown," and both David Cieri's "TR Rag" and "Know Howe."

With rich emotional drama and poignancy, David Cieri's compositions for "Roosevelt Saga," "Solemn," and "Huzun" all capture the inner turmoil of the private lives of the Roosevelts. With its evocative and heartbreaking melody-played alternately by solo wind instruments and a solo string instrument-set against subdued piano chords, "Margaret and Eugene After the War" stands alone as a sublimely heartbreaking moment on the album. The tonal ambience curates a deep, resonating melancholy in the best way possible. Likewise, the plaintive strumming of notes that give way to stirring and dark moans on discomforted strings makes "Meditation 9" wondrously powerful. Strings and piano are also captivatingly affective on somber compositions like "Letting Go," "Mother and Child," and the vigorously unsettled and impassioned "Everything in Its Place."

Whether you're a fan of American History, Ken Burns' films, The Roosevelts or not, as long as you appreciate and enjoy the wide breadth and scope of American music, THE ROOSEVELTS: AN INTIMATE HISTORY (Original Score) has something to offer you. The bright and happy-go-lucky numbers are tempered with undulating, opulent, and superbly orchestrated moments of devastating depth, giving the album an appealing emotional balance.

The Roosevelt Film Project released THE ROOSEVELTS: AN INTIMATE HISTORY (Original Score) digitally on September 14, 2014, and these copies can be purchased from iTunes and Amazon. Physical copies were released on November 25, 2014, and they can be purchased from PBS' online store.

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