#71 "That Is What He Said..."

On May 14, 1942, the Cincinnati Orchestra played music that had never been heard before, but would become one of the most popular orchestral works of all time. Under the direction of the composer, Aaron Copland, the orchestra played "Lincoln Portrait" which included excerpts from speeches--including the Gettysburg Address--that were spoken by William Adams.

Copland was commissioned by Andre Kostelanetz to write the piece as part of a three-part presentation lauding some of the nation's most important individuals. Jerome Kern wrote a piece about Mark Twain and Virgil Thompson highlighted New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and journalist Dorothy Thompson. At first, Copland wanted to compose a piece about Walt Whitman, but Kostelanetz asked him to choose a statesman instead. That's when Copland chose Lincoln. I, for one, am glad he did.



Here's the text of the narrative to accompany the orchestration:

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history."

That is what he said. That is what Abraham Lincoln said.

"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We, even we here, hold the power and bear the responsibility." [Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862]

He was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana, and lived in Illinois. And this is what he said. This is what Abe Lincoln said.

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we will save our country." [Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862]

When standing erect he was six feet four inches tall, and this is what he said.

He said: "It is the eternal struggle between two principles, right and wrong, throughout the world. It is the same spirit that says 'you toil and work and earn bread, and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation, and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle." [Lincoln-Douglas debates, 15 October 1858]

Lincoln was a quiet man. Abe Lincoln was a quiet and a melancholy man. But when he spoke of democracy, this is what he said.

He said: "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."

Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of these United States, is everlasting in the memory of his countrymen. For on the battleground at Gettysburg, this is what he said:

He said: "That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. That this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth."

(Sources: Pollack, Howard, Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of An Uncommon Man. New York: Henry Holt & Company. 1999. Child, Fred. "Copland's 'Lincoln Portrait.'" Transcription of National Public Radio broadcast. Aired November 10, 2004.)