The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts > Calendar of Programs

Mystic Chords of Memory: Abraham Lincoln and the Performing Arts

Sheet music (first edition)
The New York Public Library
for the Performing Arts,
Music Division

In celebration of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts will present a series of free public programs exploring Lincoln's love for the performing arts. Mystic Chords of Memory will also focus on those works that have been inspired by Lincoln's life and work.

On February 27, 1860, in Cooper Union's Great Hall, Abraham Lincoln delivered his "right makes might" speech. Nearly 140 years later, in that same auditorium, the Performing Arts Library presented its public programs during the first two years of the renovation of the Library's Lincoln Center building. As part of the programs-in-exile, Songfellows, a quartet which grew out of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus, was asked to perform songs related to Lincoln. Four of the songs from that program, which the Library presented on June 5, 1999, are available here (.mp3 format).

In the most difficult moments of his presidency, nothing provided Abraham Lincoln more respite than to immerse himself in a play at either Ford’s theater or Grover’s playhouse. It is estimated that Lincoln visited the theater more than a hundred times during his four years as president.

" It gave him an hour or two of freedom from care and worry," an assistant observed, and what was better, freedom from the interruption of office-seekers and politicians. The theater held all the elements of a perfect escape. Enthralled by the live drama, the costumes, the scenery and the stagecraft, Lincoln was transported into a realm far from the troubling events that filled the rest of his waking hours. At a performance of Henry IV, it was noted how thoroughly Lincoln enjoyed himself. He has forgotten the war. He has forgotten Congress. He is out of politics. He is living in Prince Hal’s time.

-- Doris Kearns Goodwin