After the success of the miniseries Gettysburg ten years ago, the team decided to make a follow-up, based on Jeff Shaara's book Gods and Generals.  The score for the original was by Randy Edelman, and despite seeming rather anachronistic with its walls of synths, it proved very popular and was a commercial hit.  Unfortunately a scheduling conflict meant that Edelman was unable to commit full-time to Gods and Generals so he scored only a few sequences, leaving the bulk of the task to John Frizzell, who frankly would seem even less likely than Edelman as a composer for this type of thing.  

Thankfully, it turned out to be the right decision.  Frizzell has recently become typecast into cheap horror flicks like Ghost Ship and 13 Ghosts (and possibly some films that don't include the word "ghost" in their title) but it's possible that Gods and Generals will lead to more opportunities.  It's a stirring, huge work for orchestra and choir.  After a beautiful song, "Going Home", performed by Mary Fahl, we get a massive version of the main theme.  While it's the sort of piece that is almost guaranteed to please, it also leaves one a little fearful that the album is going to be an hour of jingoistic, overbearing material - but it isn't.  Several cues take the famous Edelman piano-and-strings approach, often with great assists from Mark O'Connor's violin.  Much as Fahl's song was a beautiful and fitting way of opening the album, Bob Dylan's "Cross the Green Mountain" is a good way of ending it.  I'm not quite sure how the producers coaxed Dylan to write a song for this - perhaps the truckload of money then sent to his house didn't hurt - but I'm glad they did.

Inevitably, the fact that this is the work of not only two composers but no fewer than nine orchestrators means that the music does have something of an anonymous air.  The melodic core is rich and rewarding, but arrangements are somewhat generic.  Fortunately performance and recording are both top-notch, making this a pleasure to listen to.

For an hour of diverting, easy-listening music, this is a good place to look.  I'm not sure I would agree with the "best of the year" praise given elsewhere, but it's a surprisingly impressive work from a composer who has done little to impress previously.

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