David Cieri

David Cieri: An Homage to Carl Th. Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc

Acclaimed film composer David Cieri set to release his Live Score for Carl Th. Dreyer's 'The

Passion of Joan of Arc', due out September 22, 2023 on Ropeadope Records.

New Sounds WNYC presents - Live from The Winter Garden in NYC -  The Passion of Joan of Arc (a recording of the live score to picture that took place on January 27, 2023)

(New York, NY — January 27, 2023) — David Cieri, a visionary and prolific composer of film music —best known for his work on the films of Ken Burns — has recorded a new score for one of the essential films of the silent era, Carl Th. Dreyer's La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (The Passion of Joan of Arc). On September 22, 2023, Ropeadope Records will release New Sounds WNYC presents - Live from the Winter Garden - The Passion of Joan of Arc, Cieri's new score for this cinematic classic. Director Ken Burns adds: "[David Cieri’s] score for Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc — featuring music by turns earthly and ethereal — mirrors the intensity and magic of this enduring work of cinema."

Also on January 27, The Winter Garden, screened La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc with Cieri and an eight-piece ensemble performing the score live. 

David Cieri has collaborated on projects with Ken Burns for more than a decade, starting with The National Parks: America’s Best Idea in 2008 and running through The Revolutionary War in 2024. In 2017, Ropeadope Records put out Notes from the Underscore: Ten Years with Florentine Films, which included recordings from ten years of Cieri’s collaborations with Burns. Additionally, Cieri has worked extensively with filmmaker Barak Goodman scoring the films Oklahoma City, Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies, and  The Gene: An Intimate History. Cieri recorded a pair of critically lauded releases with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Yusef Komunyakaa; these albums, entitled White Dust and Dark Furniture, were released by Ropeadope Records. Cieri has scored two seasons of The Paris Review

podcast, serves on faculty at City College of New York, and recently completed a major new work for carillon, which was premiered on the carillon bells at Yale University’s Harkness Tower.

Released in 1928, Carl Th. Dreyer’s film The Passion of Joan of Arc, and detailing the trial and execution of St. Joan of Arc is regarded by film scholars as one of the great works of the silent era of cinema. The portrayal of St. Joan by Renée Maria Falconetti is frequently heralded as the all-time finest performance in the history of film — “You cannot know the history of silent film unless you know the face of Renee Maria Falconetti (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times) — and Dreyer's idiosyncratic and virtuosic filmmaking method vaulted the director into the ranks of the art form's supreme geniuses

Cieri has long been drawn to the grandeur and grittiness of Dreyer and Falconetti’s depiction of St. Joan’s faith on trial while she’s tortured, found guilty by corrupt arbiters, and burned at the stake. The  recorded album — New Sounds WNYC presents - Live from the Winter Garden - The Passion of Joan of Arc — due for worldwide release on September 22, 2023, can sync with the film, but stands on its own as an authoritative piece of music. 

Cieri plans to tour the project performing the score live alongside screenings of the film.

Musicians

Tenores de Aterue - traditional sardinian vocal

Trina Basu - violin

Mike Brown - bass

David Cieri - piano, waterphone

Shazad ismaily - moog, guitar

Sam ospovat - drums, percussion

Produced by: John Schaefer - new sounds -  wnyc

Recording engineers:

Edward Haber

Duke Markos

George Wellington

Album art and live event photography

Rachael Hacking

ABOUT THE COMPOSER:

DAVID CIERI has written scores for some of the best-known documentarians currently working,

including the filmmakers Ken Burns, Erik and Christopher Ewers, and Barak Goodman, amongst many others. Cieri’s film-scoring work with Burns has been extensive, and includes The Vietnam War (with Yo-Yo Ma and Trent Reznor, 2017), The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (2014), The Address (2014), Prohibition (with Wynton Marsalis, 2011), Baseball: The Tenth Inning (2010), and the Emmy-winning The National Parks: America’s Best Idea (2008). In 2018, he wrote the score for The Mayo Clinic: Faith - Hope - Science, a film by Erik and Christopher Ewers. Cieri wrote music for Goodman’s Sundance-screened Oklahoma City (2017) in which Cieri was short listed for an Oscar nomination -  and the Emmy-nominated -  Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies (2015). In 2014, his original score for Raymond De Felitta's Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story was long-listed for an Oscar nomination, and in 2013 he worked with George Lucas, writing the score for The Heart of the Matter (2013), a short film for The Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to his film scoring work, Cieri has made numerous stand-alone releases of his music. These include the albums White Dust (2017) and Dark Furniture (2018), collaborations with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa. A compilation of Cieri’s original score compositions for Burns’ Florentine Films, Notes From The Underscore, was released by Ropeadope Records in 2017. In 2016, David wrote Graves of Light, a major new work for carillon bells which was premiered by carillonneur Paige Breen on the bells at Yale University’s Harkness Tower. Lastly, in conjunction with Ropeadope records, Cieri wrote and performed music for his two part record series - Omniotik Books One and Two which arrived in 2022 and in addition, New Sounds WNYC presents - Live from the Winter Garden in NYC - The Passion of Joan of Arc, will be released with Ropeadope as well in September of 2023.

He recently completed recording music for his second season of The Paris Review Podcast, as well as the score for a four-part documentary about genetics, The Gene: An Intimate History, as written by Siddhartha Mukherjee, which will arrive on PBS in 2020. Ken Burns continues to keep Cieri busy, he is presently contributing music to Florentine Films’ projects on Muhammed Ali, Ernest Hemingway, Benjamin Franklin, Hiding in Plain Sight - with a soundtrack release on Ropeadope -  (about Youth Mental Health), and The forthcoming The Revolutionary War (2024, Henry David Thoreau (2025), and Hiding in Plain Sight 2 (2026) (about Adult Mental Health).

Omniotik Book 1

released April 1, 2022

Martin Haroutunian, duduk, shvi, dap
David Cieri - piano, Wurlitzer, Haken Continuum, voice, una corda.
Shahzad Ismaily - Moog Rogue, bass drum, bass guitar, guitar, harmonica, percussion

Recorded at Figure 8 - Brooklyn, NY - February 22 2021
Phil Weinrobe - Engineer and Mix at Figure 8 - February 23 2021
Kevin Blackler and Blacker Mastering - Mastering - March 8 2021

David Cieri, a visionary and prolific composer of movie music for celebrated filmmakers Ken Burns, Tony Gerber, and Barak Goodman has made a new score for one of the essential films of the silent era, director Carl Th. Dreyer's La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (The Passion of Joan of Arc). On January 24, 2020, Ropeadope Records is pleased to release An Homage to Carl Th. Dreyer's 1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc, Cieri's expansive and gripping new score for this cinematic classic. Cieri's release can be synchronized to the film for the full experience, but stands on it own as a dynamic and independent musical work. 

Cieri has collaborated on projects with Ken Burns for more than a decade, starting with The National Parks: America’s Best Idea in 2008 and running through The Vietnam War in 2017 — Burns calls Cieri a “master composer”. Further, he has collaborated with Barak Goodman scoring the films Oklahoma City, Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies, and the forthcoming The Gene: An Intimate History. Cieri worked in tandem with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Yusef Komunyakaa, on a pair of releases for Ropeadope Records, and wrote music for a documentary theater project by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage. Cieri has scored two seasons of The Paris Review podcast, serves on faculty at City College of New York, and recently completed a major new work for carillon bells, which was premiered at Yale University’s Harkness Tower. 

Released in 1928, The Passion of Joan of Arc, details the trial and execution of Saint Joan of Arc. The film depicts the last few days in the life of Joan of Arc, who fought to save France from English conquest. After her capture by the Burgundians, she was sold to the English and tried for witchcraft; her courageous stand led to her torture and execution by immolation. Director Carl Th. Dreyer’s movie, based on the records of Joan’s actual trial, is regarded by film scholars as one of the great works of cinema. Dreyer’s inventive use of close-ups, which constitute much of the film, were considered a revolutionary cinematic breakthrough. The portrayal of Joan by Renée Maria Falconetti is frequently heralded as the all-time finest performance in the history of film, and Dreyer's unusual and virtuosic method, in seeming to render the very soul of his actress, vaulted the director into the ranks of the art form's supreme geniuses 

From the moment he saw the film, Cieri heard music in his head, and after his years of experience working with acclaimed filmmakers he set himself to the reflective and detailed work required to capture the mood, the feeling, and the deep sense of humanity exposed in the film. The recorded album — An Homage to Carl Th. Dreyer’s 1928 The Passion of Joan of Arc — will be released worldwide on January 24, 2020 and stands on its own as an authoritative piece of music; often somber, sometimes threatening, and occasionally light and joyous. Cieri plans to tour the project performing the score live alongside screenings of the film. 

About David Cieri

Once again David Cieri translates life into music. His recent release - Notes From The Underscore show his work on a variety of documentaries with Florentine Films. His previous work with Yusef Komunyakaa and Mike Brown captures the intersection of poetry and music just as if you were wandering by a downtown club and heard it live. And now, David returns with the soundtrack to the new documentary - The Mayo Clinic: Unity Of Forces. Here David composes for the unique film, with the great Bill Frisell on guitar. He describes the documentary in this way:

‘This documentary is a 2 hour comprehensive dive into the history of a health care ideal as exemplified by The Mayo Clinic. The story traces the clinics origins - a pact - made by a visionary doctor named William Worel Mayo and the sisters of St Francis in Rochester Minnesota to set up a hospital which put the needs of the patient first.  From this singular philosophy, a model of health care in the United States emerged with international influence and impact.

Talk surrounding our current health care crisis needs to step away from the divisive, un nuanced, and essentially useless binary modes of I’m right and your wrong.  The Mayo Clinic model is actively shifting this conversation away from political gridlock and into the realms of discovery and earned possibility.

The music is striving to represent this ideal - historically and into the future - this perhaps is an uncommon story because it offers real hope and prescription rather than description of our ills which too often get inordinate attention.  My intent was to bake the church pew and Wagner and Americana into the compositions.  It’s the most moral music I’ve made to date.  The sessions were challenging - it’s one thing to give the darkness due weight in music but it was another challenge altogether to make very positive gestures have real and earned gravity too.  And the musicians!  Listening back to Bill and Putnam dialoguing on a few of these cuts is to feel immense love and joy in being here to witness, to watch, to pry, to learn, to become something better than we have imagined.’ (David Cieri)