Still undecided on the format of my Channel so it will be on a "general" sense: Some Amateur Radio, Cycling, Hiking, Flute Playing, etc. Trying to establish a apolitical place here and have some fun. By the way, this is. “In Real Life” (IRL) Channel.
I’m learning this on my sax, having heard it on the Civil War series. It is quite possibly the best melody ever written, and has a poignancy and feeling that I cant describe. I’ve since read extensively on the War and am astonished at the numbers of people lost to it. Friends and families split, it was quite something. I am from England but found the story fascinating and intense.
This song just came to my head and I am so happy to have found this video. Treasure (and Eagle) Island will always hold the fondest memories for me. Thank you.
I heard this played at my great grandparents grave in those cemetery in Galia county in 1949. I was 10 and they had died in the 1890s. Ungar like all artist is inspired by others. He perhaps just heard a measure or 2, and it clicked. His ashokan is beautiful, poignant, and captures exactly the pain and pathos of our civil war.
Yes, Jay composed the lament in 1982 after the conclusion of Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camps after he felt great sense of loss and longing for the music, the dancing and the community of people that had developed at Ashokan Field Campus (now The Ashokan Center) . In 1983, Fiddle Fever (which Jay and Molly was a member of) was recording its second album, Waltz of the Wind, and they needed another slow tune. Hence they recorded the unnamed lament which Molly suggested the Title to be Ashokan Farewell, after The Ashokan Center.
From the Ken Burns Civil War documentary... This is Sullivan Ballou's heartbreaking letter to his wife, with this song playing... If you aren't weeping, you have no heart... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1VK1KcZoDu0.html
Judy Del Peso…..our Jay Unger concert was the favorite thing we ever did. I stIll think of you always…..and am still crazy about you…..love you…..the Mickster ❤
At our local Farmer's Market there are some folks who busk for donations, usually with a violin. I was there once when the musician began playing this. It was amazing how it drew people in. Lots of folks started gathering around instead of walking on past, and the dude made some good money, lots of people threw money into his box.
Ashokan Farewell needs to be archived in the Smithsonian for all time, a piece of Americana, when times had centred around the Constitution, baseball, and jazz, when the arts were free from big business.
Agreat song that reminds me of a sad time in American history as a nation we should never forget the hardships many sacrificed to for our country today.
