Songs of the Civil War

Sibler, Irwin - Compiler and Editor; Silverman, Jerry - Music Arrangements

ISBN 10: 0486284387 / ISBN 13: 9780486284385

Published by Dover Publications, Inc, Mineola, New York, U.S.A., 1995

About this Item

385 Pages Indexed. First Dover Edition. Tight bright and square book with no marks or stamps. Faultless interior. From the turmoil and tragedy of America's Civil War came an outpouring of song that was clearly no longer European in inspiration, but distinctively American, born of a deeply shared experience. It has been estimated that over lO,OOO songs were written about the Civil War. This book brings together 125 of the finest and most typical of these songs in one of the best edited, most comprehensive collections of Civil War songs ever published. The songs are richly varied in subject and theme. Among them are stirring marching songs and patriotic hymns, sentimental ballads and comic ditties, boasting songs and drinking songs, fighting songs and loving songs. Of course, the rousing Battle Hymn of the Republic, Dixie, When Johnny Comes Marching Home and Tramp, Tramp, Tramp are here. But so, too, are the less familiar but no less memorable Booth Killed Lincoln, The Vacant Chair, The Cumberland and the Merrimac, All Quiet Along the Potomac and Many Thousand Gone. Contents in Nine Parts: The Union Forever, In Dixie Land I'll Take My Stand, Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness, Weeping Sad and Lonely, Tenting on the Old Camp Ground, It's All About That Terrible Fight, Let My People Go, Grafted into the Army, and The Blue and the Gray.

Seller Inventory # 12352

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Songs of the Civil War
• Publisher: Dover Publications, Inc, Mineola, New York, U.S.A.
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0486284387
• ISBN 13: 9780486284385
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Condition: Near Fine

About this title

Synopsis

A collection of 125 songs written about the Civil War. Includes Battle Hymn Of The Republic, Dixie, When Johnny Comes Marching Home, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp and many more. Divided into nine sections, thiscollection of songs is drawn from many older anthologies ranging from The Union Fever and In Dixie Land I'll Take My Stand to Grafted Into The Army and The Blue And The Gray.

From the Author

125 Civil War Songs with Historical Notes
  Songs of the Civil War Compiled and edited with historical notes by Irwin Silber When ""Songs of the Civil War" was first published in 1960 by Columbia University Press, America was preparing to commemorate the centennial of our country's most profound military-political conflict. At that time, the story of the Civil War was traditionally told principally by recounting the military exploits of its generals and the political considerations of its most prominent figures. Of course, historians had not completely overlooked the cultural memorabilia -- diaries, letters, songs, photographs, drawings -- through which one glimpsed the human dimensions of that titanic struggle. But the approach generally taken to such expressio ns (with a few noteworthy exceptions) was largely antiquarian, more suited to the preservation of "precious memories" than to deepening our understanding of the main currents that shaped the lives of those who lived in such perilous times. In bringing together this collection, I was determined to do more than provide an anthology of the most popular and most typical songs of that era. I envisioned a book which would situate those songs in the vast sea-change America was then undergoing in the period leading up to and including the Civil War. For this was the period in which a distinctively American cultural identity was fully emerging.The songs, of course, are all here. The ones you would expect -- inspirational songs like "Battle Hymn of the Republic," "John Brown's Body," "Dixie," "Battle Cry of Freedom," and "The Bonnie Blue Flag"; the sentimental songs like "Tenting Tonight," "Lor ena," "All Quiet Along the Potomac," Just Before the Battle, Mother" and "Somebody's Darling -- and many less familiar but no less significant: comic songs, abolitionist songs, songs written by soldiers themselves and many more, 125 in all and each with historical notes on the songs and The circumstances on which the songs are based. Here's what the Chicago Tribune said of "Songs of the Civil War" at the time: "A wonderful distillation of Civil War music for the modern reader and musician. . . a fine job of selecting the best and most singable of Civil War songs... the historical notes are full and accurate." The New York Times reviewer wrote: "Admirable. . . destined to becomethe standard collection of its period." When Dover Books asked to bring out a full-size paperback edition of "Songs of the Civil War" in 1995, I looked back at the original and decided there was no need to change a thing. -Irwin Silber