Music from the Soundtrack "New York": A Documentary Film [Soundtrack]

Brian Keane | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 12, 1999)
• Original Release Date: October 12, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B00001T3HX
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,579 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Hamilton's Theme

2. City of Dreams

3. Back to the Apple

4. Rhapsody in Blue [Excerpt 1]

5. Hamilton Returns

6. Transformation

7. Diverse Bizarrie Sopra de Vecchia Sarabanda O Pur Ciaccona

8. Famine Irish

9. The Last Rose of Summer

10. Manhattan Beach

11. O Mio Babbino Caro

12. Out of the Harbor

13. Hamilton's Theme [Slow Reprise]

14. Dark History Waltz

15. Wall Street Rag

16. Rhapsody in Blue [Excerpt 2]

17. Anything Goes

18. Trouble

19. Dark History Theme

20. Take the "A" Train

See all 24 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Historical New York Captured, December 17, 1999

By 

Frank Caprio (New York NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Music from the Soundtrack "New York": A Documentary Film (Audio CD)

If historical New York could be put to music any better, I haven't heard it. The music that you expect is here on the CD (i.e., Gershwin, Bernstein, Ellington, etc.), and Brian Keane's "City Of Dreams" is, as Caryn James reviewed in the New York Times, "piercingly beautiful".

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My city gets the perfect music it deserves, June 18, 2004

By 

Rocco Dormarunno (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Music from the Soundtrack "New York": A Documentary Film (Audio CD)

This is perhaps the most-played (since 1999) CD in my collection, and the reason is simple: Brian Keane has written and compiled the most elegant and moving music that celebrates the greatest city in the world, my city, New York. Each original piece carries palpable gravity or soars with weightlessness, depending on the historic moment being illustrated.

"Hamilton's Theme/Hamilton Returns" captures the splendid pride all New Yorkers should feel for one of its greatest citizens, Alexander Hamilton.

"Transformation" is a haunting piece, filled with anticipation and caution: a perfect combination to express the changes that have occurred on this little island, sometimes subtly, sometimes not.

A deceptively simple piece, and most great pieces of music are, "Trouble" simmers with dread.

To capture some of the most terrible events that occurred in New York, like the Triangle disaster or the Draft Riots, "Dark History Theme" is a gut-wrenching composition of melancholy and tragedy that befits the catastrophes.

A counterpart to "Dark History Theme" is "Dark History Waltz". Although lighter in feel, "Dark History Waltz" is more heartbreaking in a way. The soaring strings toward the end of the piece sound like piercing human cries, and yet there is a beauty to it that would bring tears to the hardest heart.

Then, of course, is "City of Dreams". No other piece that I can think of best evokes the hopes, desires, and ambitions that people invest in Gotham, whether they are new to the town or have grown up here all their lives. But I think it is especially true for the former group: the newcomers came here to create better lives for themselves, better opportunities. In my imagination, this is the piece they might hear in their hearts the second they see the skyline, especially at night, for the first time.

As if these original pieces were not enough, Keane reaches into the vast catalog of songs about New York, and pulls out all the gems. Here's a sampling: "Take the A Train," "Rhapsody in Blue", and "Anything Goes". To me there is one glaring omission, and that is the tune that the documentary itself declares to be the most famous song about New York: "The Sidewalks of New York". (By the way, does anyone know who sang the beautiful rendition of this song on the documentary? I would love to get my hands on it!) But this oversight does not have any negative impact on my opinion of this wonderful CD. The liner notes and essays are marvelous, and the illustrations in the booklet are perfect. By all means, if you have ever been touched by the dreams and beauty of New York, buy this CD.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Series, Great CD, December 14, 1999

By 

Jack Hannah (New York NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Music from the Soundtrack "New York": A Documentary Film (Audio CD)

The New York documentary by Ric Burns lured me in and I was glued to my chair for five nights in a row. In the course of watching the series on television, I was haunted by the music and bought the CD. Now the CD never seems to leave the CD player. Great series and great CD!