Download the album booklet - Boston Modern Orchestra Project

AssAssinAtion of AbrAhAm LincoLn, currier & ives, c. 1885 (detail), liBrary oF conGress, prints and pHotoGrapHs division
by Eric sawyer
musical realities
in an opera containing colliding realities, i sought music that could give distinct identities
to the comic play and historical drama while at the same time connecting them. the
orchestral prelude, a musical background to the drama, springs from abraham lincoln’s
second inaugural address given only a few weeks before, in particular from the words
“With malice toward none, with charity for all… let us strive… to bind up the nation’s
wounds.” the opening musical phrase, with its rising steps followed by a descending
cascade into silence, is emblematic of lincoln’s call for forgiving and forgetting. this
opening emblem constitutes the musical bridge between two realities: as peace can
come only from forgiveness, the spirits of the theater audience can be lifted only through
forgetting the strife of war and giving their cares over to a harmless comedy.
the musical and dramatic shape moves from the backstage darkness of the actors’
entanglements to the bright spirits of the stage once the curtain is lifted. the opening
scenes of the play consist of songs and light musical repartee giving a nod to the popular
operetta of the time. as the onstage plot thickens and the audience feels increasing
involvement with the characters and plot, the music evolves toward a less stylized and
more dramatic trajectory. the music taking place inside the play and that outside of it
grow closest in the scene preceding the assassination, as a gesture of generosity and love
onstage touches and informs a moment of intimacy between the lincolns.
Folded into the lyrical, extended tonal fabric are bits either quoted from or inspired by
period music, including “dixie,” “Hail to the chief” (prefigured by the orchestral prelude),
3
comments