Jacqueline Schwab plays for Ken Burns

PianoDisc recently recorded a collection of music from the Civil War era featuring Jacqueline Schwab, pianist for Ken Burns’ history-making PBS documentary, “The Civil War.” 

Burns’ masterpiece is widely considered one of the finest documentaries ever made and one that broke new ground in documentary film-making. Since there were no moving pictures from the era, Burns moved his camera across still photos, creating the illusion of movement.  With the addition of music from the period played by Scwab, fiddler Jay Ungar and other talented musicians, Burns was able to create a documentary with all the drama and excitement of a feature film.

In addition to the traditional music from the era, Ms. Schwab also created many solo piano improvisations for  “The Civil War.”  A noted specialist in folk music from the 19^th century, Scwab recorded incidental music for the documentary with director Burns sitting right beside her during the recording sessions.   With just a few words about the mood he wanted her to convey or the action that would take place on screen, Schwab was able to create on the piano exactly what Burns wanted.  Their collaboration was so successful that Burns has worked with Schwab on many more documentaries, including his award-winning “Baseball.”

Schwab created Civil War inspired improvisations for her PianoDisc recording, too, as well as traditional songs from the era like “Battle Hymn of the Republic”,  “Dixie”, “Abraham’s Daughter”,  “Faded Coat of Blue”, “Aura Lea” and “When Johnny Comes Marching Home.”  She also recorded the documentary’s popular theme song, “Ashokan Farewell”, a contemporary piece written by Jay Ungar.