This large-scale, six-movement orchestral composition is a twenty-six minute musical statement of American history in the 20th century, suitable for "serious" regular symphony concerts as well as pops concerts and special occasions.

Williams often uses a fairly aggressive modern 20th century idiom, sometimes atonal, in his classical concert music. For the general audience expected for the premiere of this music he tempered that modernism, drawing on his film music style.

Under the title Unfinished Journey, it was written as part of American Journey, a millennium event in Washington, D.C. In that version it was the soundtrack to a multimedia presentation filmed by Steven Spielberg, with speakers presenting the words of the poets Rita Dove (the U.S. Poet Laureate), Robert Pinsky, and Maya Angelou. In addition, the spoken text included passages by Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Its first presentation in a complete form (without narration) was on a recording released in 2002.

The six movements are played without intervening pauses. Rather than present a chronological history, Williams built the work around several leading ideas that emerged in the United States during the century. It is arguable whether he deliberately took themes from some of his films touching on these themes, or whether perceived similarities reflect their shared emotional origin.

The first movement, Immigration and Building, begins with a fanfare figuration. Then a quiet section might be taken to hint at the dangers and uncertainties faced by immigrants. The music builds into a confident peroration. If there is a film reference here, it is to Far and Away, a tale of Irish immigrants in the Oklahoma land rush at the start of the century.

The Country at War is not martial. Quiet fanfares and military tattoos only frame an elegy that also hints at the purposefulness behind some of America's conflicts, and the bass drum, rather than marking time, reflects explosions of guns or bombs. A film comparison might be to Born on the Fourth of July or Saving Private Ryan.

Just as its subject has in real life, Popular Entertainment provides immediate relief. In bright rhythms and primary colors, the music takes on for the first time a Coplandesque quality, reminiscent of Rodeo in expressing one of America's most important exports.

In the fourth movement, Williams depicts other pastimes in Arts and Sports. With engaging coloration from orchestral piano, this is a busy and kinetic piece that seems to reflect the unceasing activity and creativity in these spheres.

America's ideals and the struggle to realize them give seriousness to the suite in Civil Rights and the Women's Movement. A questing horn call and a gospel-related bass riff generate the feeling of an unstoppable movement. Echoes of JFK seem fitting here.

The finale, Flight and Technology, also presents an area in which America has been one of the world's leaders in the century of greatest change in human. Fittingly, it begins with quiet, rustic winds.

© Joseph Stevenson, Rovi