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Sounding `The Mystic Chords of Memory’: Musical Memorials for Abraham Lincoln, 1865–2009

Kernan, Thomas J.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1416234184

Abstract Details

2014, PhD, University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music: Music (Musicology).
Composers have memorialized Abraham Lincoln in musical works for the home, concert hall, and theater stage from his death in 1865 to, most recently, the 2009 bicentennial of his birth. They have invoked the name, biography, or character of Lincoln in compositions that address social, cultural, and political movements of their own times and places. In this study I consider the music composed and performed during Lincoln’s national funeral, Reconstruction, periods of mass immigration, the Civil Rights Movement, and the bicentennial of the president’s birth. In this music composers have portrayed Lincoln as martyr and saint, political advocate, friend to the foreigner and common man, and champion of equality. This study touches on issues of modernism and postmodernism, with specific consideration of changes in funerary and mourning rituals as well as the consequences of industrialization, commercialization, and the internet age in shaping presidential legacies. Careful attention is paid to aspects of ritual, protest, and cultural change. I argue that composers, through their memorial songs, symphonies, and dramas, have shared in creating our historical memory of the first martyred president. Moreover, I posit that the American desire for a civic leader with recognizable moral security, to which subsequent generations have bound their causes, has led to a series of changes in the Lincoln topos itself. The ability of musical memorials to thrive in dynamic, public arts—funerals, rituals, protests, and commemorations—evinces that these compositions provide an effective means for tracing the trajectory of American historical memory over a span of 150 years. This analysis advances our understanding of the role musical culture can play in both shaping a presidential legacy, and promoting social and political causes.
bruce mcclung, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Jeongwon Joe, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Jonathan Kregor, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
276 p.
Music
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865; musical memorial; musical monument; Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Musical settings

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kernan, T. J. (2014). Sounding `The Mystic Chords of Memory’: Musical Memorials for Abraham Lincoln, 1865–2009 [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1416234184

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kernan, Thomas. Sounding `The Mystic Chords of Memory’: Musical Memorials for Abraham Lincoln, 1865–2009. 2014. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1416234184.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kernan, Thomas. "Sounding `The Mystic Chords of Memory’: Musical Memorials for Abraham Lincoln, 1865–2009." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1416234184

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1416234184
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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.