American Anthem: Songs by Ives, Copland, Barber, Rorem, Bolcom, Scheer, Holby, Niles, Gorney

Ives (Composer), Copland (Composer), Barber (Composer), Rorem (Composer), Bolcom (Composer), Scheer (Composer), Holby (Composer), Gorney Niles (Composer), Nathan Gunn (Performer), Kevin Murphy (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Nathan Gunn, Kevin Murphy
• Composer: Ives, Copland, Barber, Rorem, Bolcom, et al.
• Audio CD (June 30, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: EMI Classics
• ASIN: B0026LR4R8
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #290,426 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Shenandoah, folk song

2. Brother, Can You Spare a Dime, song

3. Early in the Morning, for voice & piano

4. The Lordly Hudson, for voice & piano (from 'Poems of Paul Goodman')

5. At Howard Hawks's house, for voice & piano

6. Holding each other, for voice & piano

7. The Lass from the Low Country, for voice & piano

8. Recuerdo, for voice & piano

9. Nocturne, song for voice & piano (also arr. for voice & orch.), Op. 13/4

10. Sure on this shining night, song for voice & piano (also arr. for voice, orch, chorus & piano), Op. 13/3

11. Fur (Murray the Furrier), for voice & piano

12. Over the piano, for voice & piano

13. Song of Black Max (as told by the de Kooning Boys), for voice & piano

14. Two Little Flowers, song for voice & piano, S. 379 (K. 6B68)

15. General William Booth Enters into Heaven, song for voice & piano, S. 255 (K. 6B50)

16. The Lamb ('Little Lamb, who made thee?'), for voice & piano

17. I Wonder As I Wander

18. At the River, song for voice & piano (Old American Songs II)

19. Long Time Ago, song for voice & piano (Old American Songs)

20. Lean Away, for voice & piano

See all 21 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Sorry, but I didn't like this CD in any way., August 24, 2010

By 

Mark E. Baxter "Inquirer" (Layton, UT United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: American Anthem: Songs by Ives, Copland, Barber, Rorem, Bolcom, Scheer, Holby, Niles, Gorney (Audio CD)

I love Copland and some of the 20th Century American music by composers like Gershwin, etc. But these are more modern music, avant-garde, non-melodic, atonal, dysharmonic experimental numbers. Once through is enough and you can have my CD if you head down to the nearest thrift store.

Many of these composers have great reputations based on a few compositions that have popular acclaim. But these aren't compositions you will hear at the local Pops summer concerts. The reason is that, frankly, they aren't very good.

Also the presentation via an operatic singer with simple, dysharmonic piano accompaniment didn't do anything for me.

I was hoping for something along the lines of one of the best concerts I have ever been to - Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the Utah Symphony and the Tabernacle Choir doing some great American Composers and Folk music.

Sorry, but I wouldn't get this CD if I were you. It's just not very musical. Kind of the aural equivalent of watching the film melt in the stuck movie projector.