Item description for Songs from Ragtime: The Musical Cd

1 Ragtime - Ragtime Ensemble (1996)
2 Goodbye My Love - Marin Mazzie
3 Journey On - Peter Friedman
4 The Crime of the Century - Ragtime Ensemble (1996)
5 Gettin' Ready Rag - Ragtime Ensemble (1996)
6 Henry Ford - Ragtime Ensemble (1996)
7 Your Daddy's Son - Audra McDonald
8 New Music - Steven Sutcliffe
9 Wheels of a Dream - Brian Stokes Mitchell
10 The Night that Goldman Spoke at Union Square - Steven Sutcliffe
11 Gliding - Peter Friedman
12 'Till We Reach That Day - Steven Sutcliffe
13 What a Game! - Ragtime Ensemble (1996)
14 Coalhouse's Soliloquy - Brian Stokes Mitchell
15 He Wanted to Say - Steven Sutcliffe
16 Buffalo Nickel Photoplay, Inc. - Peter Friedman
17 Our Children - Peter Friedman
18 The Show Biz - Lynnette Perry
19 Back to Before - Marin Mazzie
20 Make Them Hear You - Brian Stokes Mitchell
21 Wheels of a Dream (Reprise) - Ragtime Ensemble (1996)

"Ragtime" utilzes so many different elements. From a compositional stand point, the music begins as does the story. We have three different classes of people and three different styles of music. As the musical proceeds and the classes begin to mingle and then clash, the music does the same thing. This is a subtle element of brilliance; most audience memebers wouldn't catch this. This piece comes as close to opera as does "Sweeney Todd". The recording includes a Orchestra Suite at the end that is so well written that it stands beautifully on it's own and doesn't sound like a last minute Overture. Each character is well defined by musical motif. The cast is outstanding with the very best singers and actors available to Broadway and Lincoln Center. Marin Mazzie sings the remarkable "Back To Before" and Audra MacDonald "Your Daddy's Hands" making them songs that will stand as monuments to theatre the way that "People" does for Streisand, "Rose's Turn" For Merman, "Hello Dolly" for Carol Channing. The musical skill of the orchestra is remarkable, whether it's the pianist, the clarinet sounding like an Eastern European standard. Or the remarkable first violin who climbes up a scale to bring a piece together at the end for a pitch so beautifully played at the top of the instrument's range. The songs themselves are spectacular; each piece develops and we do hear character development themes; each repeated motif in a song has thickened and developed along with the character, so we never ever feel as though the score was written hastily. "Ragtime" is a musical that defies the old line, " Theater in New York is Dead."