Lincoln’s Triumph (a Funeral March)

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I spent Thanksgiving of 2008 in the Shenandoah Valley, an area which was the scene of many conflicts throughout the Civil War. West Virginia, and the area surrounding Lewisburg, were strategically important to both the Union and Confederate sides, and few areas exemplify more the fratricide of the Civil war, brothers fighting brothers, than this area of West Virginia which flipped allegiance more than once.

In visiting several war cemeteries and considering the tremendous casualties of the Civil War (more than all other American wars combined), I thought of the Funeral Marches written for Lincoln by various composers. None of these felt like Lincoln to me so I decided to try my hand at writing my own brass memorial for our great martyr president. In my version, a solemn and melancholy procession is gradually overcome by a more uplifting tone and my idea that Lincoln’s death symbolized much more than sadness. In effect, his legacy still to this day continues to be very much a part of our present reality, our national identity, and our hopes for the future. The levity of my musical ending suggests the idea that despite his untimely death, in the end Lincoln may indeed have the last laugh.

“Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865

Image: Philadelphia Inquirer, April 20, 1865, Gift of Susan and Steven Raab, Rosenbach Museum & Library

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