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DESCRIPTION AND EXPLANATION
In 1942, Aaron Copland composed Lincoln Portrait, a musical tribute to a mild-mannered, yet monumental President who is seen as personifying American democracy. It is a thirteen-minute work for narrator and full orchestra commissioned just days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1942. The work samples folk music and famous Lincoln quotations, "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy."

ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809 in a modest log cabin in Kentucky. He eventually moved to Illinois where his upstanding reputation earned him the nickname "Honest Abe." On November 6, 1859, Abraham Lincoln was elected President. Shortly afterward, many Southern states, fearing the loss of their slave-owning privileges, seceded from the Union. Because of his belief that, "A house divided against itself cannot stand," Lincoln raised an army, marking the beginning of the Civil War. Four years later, on April 9, 1865, Lincoln proved victorious, for the Union was restored and slavery abolished. However, several days after the end of the war, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH
Seated Lincoln (Working model for Lincoln Memorial sculpture) Bronze, 1924-25
In 1914, the Lincoln Commission selected artist Daniel Chester French to model the statue of Lincoln to be installed in Henry Bacon's Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. This commission needed much study and research on the part of French. By March of 1915, French had completed the working model similar to the one pictured here. He read all available biographies, interviewed those who had known the President, and carefully studied both photographs of Lincoln and plaster casts of his hands and face. His seated Lincoln shows the President victorious and his destiny as President completed. "Work over, victory his - he sits looking toward the city of Washington with memory and hope." The memorial was finally dedicated on May 20, 1922, after which French began to consider the production of bronze replicas or copies of his memorial sculpture. On January 25, 1925, August Heckscher purchased the second casting of the bronze replicas and later donated it to the Museum.

• How does the impact of French's small-scale model in a museum setting differ from that of the finished piece enclosed in a Greek temple-front in Washington, D.C.?
• How does French portray Lincoln- what qualities does he lend him, and visually, how does he achieve this?
• In what way is Copland's song a portrait of Lincoln? What characteristics does he give him and how does the music communicate these qualities?
• Compare and contrast French and Copland's portraits. What does sculpture better convey? What does music better convey?

• In the Copland piece he abruptly juxtaposes soft, simplistic melodies with louder, more complicated passages. What is the effect of this shift, and what does it convey about the subject?
• Why does Copland intersperse music with quoted material- do they complement or detract from one another?
• Compare and contrast the two portraits. What qualities do French and Copland imbue Lincoln with? What is the emphasis or vision behind each man's work?
• What would film bring to this ongoing portrait of Lincoln?

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