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Copland: Lincoln Portrait, for Speaker and Orchestra (1942)
Samuel L. Jackson, Orchestra of St. Luke's, James Levine
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"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history"
That is what he said
That is what Abraham Lincoln said
Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history
We of this Congress and this administration
Will be remembered in spite of ourselves
No personal significance or insignificance
Can spare one or another of us
The fiery trial through which we pass
Will light us down in honor or dishonor
To the latest generation
We, even we here, hold the power
And bear the responsibility
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He was born in Kentucky, raised in Indiana
And lived in Illinois
And this is what he said
This is what Abe Lincoln said
The dogmas of the quiet past
Are inadequate to the stormy present
The occasion is piled high with difficulty
And we must rise with the occasion
As our case is new
So we must think anew and act anew
We must disenthrall ourselves
And then we shall save our country
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When standing erect
He was six feet, four inches tall
And this is what he said
He said
It is the eternal struggle
Between two principles: right and wrong
Throughout the world
It is the same spirit that says
"You toil and work and earn bread
And I'll eat it"
No matter in what shape it comes
Whether from the mouth of a king
Who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation
And live by the fruit of their labor
Or from one race of men
As an apology for enslaving another race
It is the same tyrannical principle
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Lincoln was a quiet man
Abe Lincoln was a quiet and melancholy man
But when he spoke of democracy
This is what he said
He said
As I would not be a slave
So I would not be a master
This expresses my idea of democracy
Whatever differs from this
To the extent of the difference
Is no democracy
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Abraham Lincoln
Sixteenth president of these united States
Is everlasting in the memory of his countrymen
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For on the battleground at Gettysburg
This is what he said
He said
That from these honored dead
We take increased devotion to that cause for which
They gave the last full measure of devotion
That we here highly resolve that these dead
Shall not have died in vain
And that this nation under God
Shall have a new birth of freedom
And that government of the people
By the people and for the people
Shall not perish from the earth
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