Videos
Letters from Lincoln: Letter to Mrs. Bixby
3 Apr 2019
Letter to Mrs. Bixby
Movement V. from Letters from Lincoln (2009) for baritone and orchestra
Music by Michael Daugherty
Words by Abraham Lincoln
Reno Philharmonic
Laura Jackson, conductor
Thomas Hampson, baritone
Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts
Reno, Nevada
March 10, 2019
Letter to Mrs. Bixby (November 21, 1864, Washington D.C.)
I have been shown in the files of the War Department that you are the mother of five sons who have died in the field of battle.
I feel how weak must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming.
I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
A. Lincoln
Letters from Lincoln (2009) for baritone and orchestra was commissioned by the Spokane Symphony, Eckart Preu, M