Lincoln's Battle

When Maestro Christopher Wilkins approached me about the possibilities of writing a new work for the Orlando Philharmonic?s concert featuring works centered around Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, I began to research and learn more about Lincoln and the Civil War. I learned that Lincoln was a fascinating personality; kind and gentle, yet ambitious with tenacious perseverance. A man with humor, but also with a dark and deep melancholy (what we would now call ?depression?) that affected him from about the age of twenty-four onward. At a time where the United States fought for its most difficult search for identity, Lincoln faced not only the outward battles of the War, but also his own internal battle with his destiny, which was filled with bloodshed and pain. In Lincoln?s Battle, I have tried to express some of that darkness and some of that struggle. I have used three tunes from the Civil War period; Dixie, and The Battle Hymn of the Republic, which are set in counterpoint at the end of the work and which were favorite melodies of Lincoln?s. ?TAPS,? used by both the Confederacy and the Union, comes at the end of the work as a final salute.