Michael Aaron

Ashokan Farewell

Renowned fiddler and composer Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, his musical partner and wife, have run the Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camp in upstate New York for many years. Jay wrote 'Ashokan Farewell' in 1982 at the camp season's end, to express the sense of loss he felt after the departure of the musical community. The melody's sweet, haunting sadness proved to be a perfect match for Ken Burns's 1990 PBS series 'The Civil War', which introduced it to millions of viewers. In this guitar arrangement, the bass line enters as an ascending response to the melody, which is then harmonized in sixths and thirds the second time through. The arrangement is a good study in position shifting up and down the fingerboard, and provides a great showcase for dynamic and tonal nuance in the phrasing of the melody. It is an excellent concert selection and will be a popular addition to the repertoire of any fingerstyle player, on either steel- or nylon-string guitar.