Sidebar: Putting presidents' words to music
Read the main article: Lincoln inspires a return to the "great books"
Exactly 146 years ago, President Abraham Lincoln delivered one of the most monumental speeches in United States history – the Gettysburg Address. President Lincoln's moving addresses will be put to music in the world premier of "Lincoln Echoes" at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 19 at Schonberg Hall.
"Lincoln Echoes" is a 36-minute musical piece with lyrics drawn from quotations by Presidents Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Barack Obama, and other sources including the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. This "secular cantata" was written by UCLA associate professor of music composition and theory, David S. Lefkowitz to celebrate and honor the 200
th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's birth. The concert is part of the
Center for Liberal Arts and Free Institutions inaugural event, a four-day
Celebration of Abraham Lincoln.
David S. Lefkowitz, composer of "Lincoln Echoes" and associate professor of music composition and theory.
"Lincoln's words, echoing down through the years, have found resonance in the speeches of later prominent Americans — few more so than Presidents Roosevelt and Obama," said Lefkowitz.
"Given that Lincoln was staunchly anti-slavery and signed the Emancipation Proclamation, it seemed especially appropriate to celebrate the election of the nation's first black president together with the Lincoln Anniversary. Couple that with Roosevelt's fight against economic tyranny — and the parallels we can draw between Roosevelt's time and the present, and the idea of Lincoln's words echoing down through Roosevelt and Obama seemed a perfect fit."
The composition will be performed by John Duykers, tenor of the San Francisco Opera, who will sing the words of Roosevelt; Michael Dean, baritone and associate professor of music at UCLA, who will sing the words of Obama; and LeRoy Villanueva, of the Los Angeles Opera, will speak the words of Lincoln. Under the direction of the Professor Don Neuen, director of choral activities, the UCLA Chorale will sing selections from the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Neal Stulberg, director of the UCLA orchestras, will conduct the UCLA Philharmonia in the performance.
The concert, titled "A Celebration of Lincoln," will also include Aaron Copland's "Canticle of Freedom" and the world premiere of "I, Lincoln." "I, Lincoln" is based on a script by UCLA alumnus Brett Ryback '06 and integrates popular period music with the events leading to Lincoln's decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.
The evening of music and theater is part of a four-day celebration of the Lincoln Bicentennial (Nov. 18-21) organized by law professor Daniel Lowenstein and sponsored by the Center for Liberal Arts and Free Institutions. Other activities include a reading of "The Rivalry," a play by Norman Corwin about the Lincoln-Stephen A. Douglas debates; and lectures by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Daniel Walker Howe on Lincoln's writings and noted Lincoln biographer and scholar Allen Guelzo.
