A Civil War Requiem, by Paul Carey

As this coming spring marks the 150th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War, I am pleased to announce the availability of a composition which was premiered last Spring by the Mid-Columbia Master Singers, directed by the fine young conductor Justin Raffia. The piece is called “A Civil War Requiem”, and is a multi-movement work setting Civil War texts by Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and others. The piece is for SATB/piano. The setting is quite unusual in that much of the raw musical motifs for the piano part as well as the voices are borrowed from Charles Ives’ epic Concord Sonata (a public domain composition). I felt that Ives music is so boldly imaginative and holds so much grandeur, yet also contains moments of deep sadness and intimacy, that it would truly fit the texts I had chosen to set. The piece was very well received at its premiere performances by singers and audience. It is of medium difficulty for the singers (a college or quality community choir could handle it) and, admittedly, more difficulty for the pianist. The poems progress through the story of the Civil War (a short poem about John Brown by Melville begins the piece) and ends with a poem of grit yet hope by Whitman, who was a volunteer wound-dresser during the war. The piece is about 17 minutes long. The movement “Shiloh”, text by Melville, could be excerpted and is quite touching. Another movement could also be excerpted, “Melt the Bells”; an uptempo movement describing the fervor in the south as they tried to match the North’s resources, going even so far as asking churches in the South to allow the generals to melt down church bells into cannonballs. This movement ends in an absolute wall of fff sound. Contact me at for more info, perusal score, etc. Thanks for reading!