Lincoln and Music

[Gene C]

From James Conroy's "Lincoln's White House
"He enjoyed classical music, but preferred sentimental ballads.
Alone with him in White House, Ward Hill Lamon sang tear-jerking songs on the order of "The Lament of the Irish Emigrant" (p. 88)

The song is below, and it is a tear jerker. Lyrics sung are a bit different from those listed in "show more" which is probably the original poem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkcZMMgDc_w

[LincolnMan]

Interesting. Thanks Gene!

[RJNorton]

I think we discussed this a while back, but I have forgotten if we came to a conclusion.

"During the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln decided to mock the brass band which accompanied Douglas. Lincoln took out harmonica and played upon it. "This is my brass band" he said."

SOURCE: page 151 of Lincoln Talks: A Biography in Anecdote
compiled, collated, and edited by Emanuel Hertz (Halcyon House, New York, 1941).

It this story true or apocryphal?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Where does the quote/statement origin? Does Hertz give a source? I doubt Abraham Lincoln could play an instrument - why would he have asked Lamon and others to play for him so often? Also this would be way more "commonly known" if true IMO.
I also wonder (and rather doubt although it would be cool) if this alleged letter to the Hohner company indeed exists/existed.
http://harp-l.org/pipermail/harp-l/2009-...00551.html

[RJNorton]

Eva, yes. The source given by Hertz is Matthias Hohner. I did a seach for the letter in The Collected Works and drew a blank.

[Eva Elisabeth]

[undefined=undefined]I couldn't find that letter either, also not via German research.

[Eva Elisabeth]

PS: I wrote the Hohner Museum to inquire if they know about such letter as this site reports of claims it were there:
http://wafflesatnoon.com/lincoln-hemp-quote/

“

[RJNorton]

PS: I wrote the Hohner Museum to inquire if they know about such letter as this site reports of claims it were there:
http://wafflesatnoon.com/lincoln-hemp-quote/

“

Thanks, Eva. Please let us know if you receive a response.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Yes, I did. The "culprit" of the brass band quote is obviously Carl Sandburg's "Prairie Years" (see attached ad) - maybe Rob know where Sandburg got it from.

The reply (plus attachment) I kindly and immediately received from the director of the Hohner Museum translates about as follows:

"The letter is 'post-factual' [= based on lies]. For years I have been receiving similar requests, I'd like to learn myself who invented the story.

Abraham Lincoln possibly played harmonica*, which led the Hohner company to make use of for an ad in the 1920s (see attachment), but it's most unlikely he played an instrument made by the Hohner company. Although founded in 1857, it was still a very small workshop in the 1860s. I can definitely deny that the US President had any contact of any kind with Mathias Hohner, who in those days was a completely unknown person."
   
[*I personally think he mainly assumes due to the Sandburg reference in the ad, not due to further contemporary sources.]

[RJNorton]

Eva, thank you for finding the truth about this! Much appreciated. If Sandburg were relying on Hertz for this story, then IMO he was not using the best of sources.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Ops - I wasn't aware it was this way round and Hertz predated Sandburg.

[RJNorton]

I am not sure of the dates, Eva.

I am quoting from Merrill Peterson's Lincoln in American Memory:

"...as (Paul) Angle pointed out, the Hertz collection was indiscriminate, undocumented as to sources, and full of fraudulent material. It was, in short, like much of that enthusiastic Lincolnian's work, worse than useless."

I do not know for certain if Carl Sandburg used the Hertz collection as his source for the harmonica story.

[L Verge]

While trying to verify that there was a turnstile between the White House grounds and the enclosure of the War Department, I found this reference to Lincoln and music on the mrlincolnswhitehouse website:

Soldiers in the Marine Band performed on the South Lawn and Lafayette Park. Other regimental bands also serenaded the President — as did private citizens on occasions of military and political victories. Historian David Rankin Barbee wrote that although “he liked all kinds of band music, his favorite piece was the ‘Soldiers’ Chorus’ from Gounod’s Faust, which was nearly always played when it was known that he was present.”

[Gene C]

And here it is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqYbDBk1fCE

[Gene C]

Speaking of Lincoln and Harmonica's

https://archive.org/details/abrahamlincolnmulinc_0