Ken Burns' Mark Twain Soundtrack

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DOWN THE RIVER AND BACK THROUGH TIME

The Soundtrack to Ken Burns' 'Mark Twain'

By Christopher M. Wright

FIND THE DVD AND SOUNDTRACK HERE

Hard to find good music these days? Here are some albums worth listening to. These recommendations are completely independent - AIM accepts no promotional fees or CDs whatsoever. The music rises or falls on its own merits. To be recommended, the music has to find its way into my collection and get played repeatedly. That rates an 'Honorable Mention' while 'Discovery', AIM's highest distinction, is reserved for those rare occasions when the music is among the best of its kind.

The paddle wheel turns lazily around as the steamboat glides down the Mississippi, past Hannibal, Missouri, boyhood home of Mark Twain.

Twain, perhaps America's original 'man of letters', is the subject of a 4-hour, 2-part documentary by Ken Burns, the filmmaker who produced the 'The Civil War' and, now, the 'American Stories' series that airs on PBS. Burns' calls the Twain production his "funniest and saddest film".

The soundtrack contains "traditional melodies and spirituals that were among Twain's favorites," Burns says in the copious and satisfying liner notes. The notes describe how music shaped Twain, entered his work, and consoled him in tragedy, for Twain's was a life filled with sorrow and loss - financial ruin and the death of his wife and a child before him.

A Piece of Americana

Ken Burns told NPR's Bob Edwards that "Mark Twain wrote with the bark on." Before Twain, American writers strove for a degree of refinement derived from English literature. According to Burns, "[Twain] was saying, 'No, no, no..., art can be created out of the American environment.'" The music on the soundtrack is from the same place.

This is distinctly "American" music that could not have been written anywhere else, part of the national treasure like Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals and Gershwin songs. Called 'roots music', the selections date mostly from the late 19th century, a time when America was transitioning from frontier days to some semblance of civilization.

The soundtrack features period instruments like guitar, mandolin, harmonica, banjo, and the fiddle. The piano sounds the way your grandmother might have played it. No overblown orchestration here. The album's simplicity is one of its strengths. Actor Kevin Conway punctuates the musical numbers with spoken word selections drawn from Twain's writings.

One song is 'Sweet Betsy From Pike' (sample in the Amazon player above), popular in the 1870s. The soundtrack only contains instrumental renditions, but the song is about Betsy's misadventures and hardships while crossing the prairie with her lover Ike:

"They swam wild rivers and climbed the tall peaks,
And camped on the prairies for weeks upon weeks,
Starvation and cholera, hard work and slaughter,
They reached Californy, spite of hell and high water."

Other tunes well up from somewhere deep in the national consciousness. You know you've heard these songs before; you just don't know them by name. One example is 'Poor Wayfarin' Stranger' (sample in the Amazon player above):

"I'm just a poor wayfarin' stranger
travelin through this world of woe
ther's no sickness toll nor sorrow
in that bright world to which I go."

Pieces like 'Dogue Creek' are contemporary - written in the roots music tradition but incorporating modern elements, as well. (Sample in the Amazon player above)

"'Dogue Creek' is very much in the tradition of American folk music, but I added a bridge section that has chords that would not be found in a traditional tune," says award-winning musician and composer Al Petteway. "For the soundtrack," Al continues, "they had their own musicians rerecord the piece with banjo, mandolin and bass. The addition of those instruments gave it an even more traditional flavor and helped it fit into the rest of the soundtrack a bit better."

Petteway considers it a "real honor" to have his music included in a Ken Burns film. 'Dogue Creek' was chosen for its "emotional resonance" - it "sounds like a boyhood summer along the Mississippi," the liner notes say. When asked how the piece found its way into the soundtrack, Al points out, "I actually had three tunes on the soundtrack. In addition to 'Dogue Creek', they used 'Shadows on the Marsh' and 'Falls'. All three were written originally for my album "The Waters and the Wild" on Maggie's Music. The record label sent the CD to Ken Burns years ago and it just sort of surfaced again when they were working on the Mark Twain special."

Why Buy This Album?

Ken Burns' obviously has an ear for music. The album is quiet, soothing and evocative. Experts in roots music might scoff at something so smooth and well-produced, but anyone who wants a tasteful example of 19th-century Americana to round out their music collection will enjoy this CD.

The album should also appeal to anyone who likes their music to make them feel something.

The soundtrack has been criticized for being 'roots Muzak', nothing more than elevator music. But a soundtrack is supposed to be unobtrusive. It is not supposed to distract the viewer or overpower the story. This album definitely has emotional impact, but of the kind best savored when you are in quiet reverie. It's sweet and sad all at the same time. The album shows that 'unobtrusive' does not necessarily have to mean 'unemotional'.

The album closes with a surprisingly upbeat treatment of 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot', a Twain favorite. Interestingly, the musicians were asked to record several takes of each piece to evoke different moods, allowing the film editors to choose the versions that suited their purposes best. After all the tragedy and loss in Twain's life that the film depicts, maybe upbeat is just what the doctor ordered.

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