February 12, 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of our 16th president Abraham Lincoln. As everyone knows, he was strong, forthright and a prolific writer of letters and speeches.
During World War II, conductor Andre Kostelanetz commissioned several composers to create musical impressions of important, vital Americans as a patriotic gesture. Aaron Copland responded to this request with the choice of Abraham Lincoln. Here are his thoughts on the subject from his book Copland 1900 through 1942:
"My first choice was Whitman, but when Kern chose Mark Twain, Kostelanetz requested that I pick a statesman rather than another literary figure...
Lincoln seemed inevitable. When Virgil and I discussed our choices, he amiably (and wisely) pointed out that no composer could hope to match in musical terms the stature of so eminent a figure as Abraham Lincoln...I was skeptical about expressing patriotism in music-it is difficult to achieve without becoming maudlin or bombastic, or both. I was hoping to avoid these pitfalls by using Lincoln's own words. After reading through his speeches and writings, I was able to choose a few excerpts that were particularly apposite to America's situation in 1942. I avoided the temptation to quote only well-known passages, permitting myself the luxury of only one from a world-famous speech. The order and arrangement of selections are my own...The musical material is original with the exception of two songs: Foster's popular Camptown Races and a ballad first published in 1840 under the title The Pesky Serpent, but better known as Springfield Mountain.
I hoped to suggest something of the mysterious sense of fatality that surrounds Lincoln's personality, and near the end of the first section, something of his gentleness and simplicity of spirit. I was after the most universal aspects of Lincoln's character, not physical resemblance...In the conclusion, my purpose was to draw a simple but impressive frame around the words of Lincoln himself-in my opinion among the best this nation has ever heard to express patriotism and humanity."
Copland's 13 minute composition for speaker and orchestra was dedicated to Kostelanetz and was first performed on May 14, 1942 in Cincinnati with William Adams as narrator and the Cincinnati Orchestra. The first radio broadcast of it occurred on August 16, 1942 during Kostelanetz's Sunday afternoon CBS program with the Lincoln biographer and poet Carl Sandburg as speaker.
Since then, numerous luminaries including Copland himself, Rosalynn Carter, Henry Fonda, Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck and General Norman Schwarzkopf have spoken Lincoln's humble. powerful words. I remember hearing it on two different occasions with local actor Edward Bryce and Congressman Christopher Shays and the Norwalk Symphony.
If you have never heard this work, I invite you to check it out from the Westport Public Library.
