Each of the five movements is based on a song of the period: Dixie’s Land, Battle Cry of Freedom, Just Before the Battle, Mother, When Johnny Comes Marching Home and Battle Hymn of the Republic. A sixth, undocumented melody, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, appears in three of the five movements, representing the omnipresence of slavery in America. It hauntingly opens the work and reappears as a countermelody during the redemptive climax of Battle Hymn of the Republic. The five movements together form a rough-hewn programmatic representation of the American Civil War.

The first movement opens with the troubled mists of a barely-recognizable Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, interrupted ominously by the distant cannon fire of looming conflict ahead. These images are soon shrugged off in favor of a set of idyllic variations on Dixie’s Land, both fast and joyful, and dreamy and romantic. At the beginning of the war, the first recruits on both sides were filled with idealized misconceptions of a conflict that would be both short and decisive. No one was prepared for the gruelling reality of the war ahead, and the first movement ends on this confident note of ill-advised hubris.

In some circles, Dixie’s Land is viewed today as a politically incorrect cultural icon. This feeling parallels a cultural shift which began in the 1980s and resulted in the removal of the Confederate flag from governmental display, most notably in its removal from the Georgia state flag. At the extreme, both Dixie and the Confederate flag are viewed by certain reactionaries as American versions of the swastika, with African-Americans serving as the oppressed minority.

My own feelings are non-political. Growing up in San Antonio in the 1970s, our cross-town high school rivals were the Stars-and-Bars toting Robert E. Lee Volunteers, and Dixie was (and still is) their fight song. As an undergraduate in college, I wrote an arrangement of Dixie for my younger sister’s high school, the Hayes County Rebels. Northern schools use it too. A friend went to school outside of Boston in the heart of Yankee country and Dixie was (and still is) the school song of the Walpole High School Volunteers.

In Civil War Suite, it captures the sincere, but naïve enthusiasm with which both sides entered the war. If, in addition, Dixie’s Land holds darker associations for some listeners, then perhaps for them the movement has additional depth.

The second movement is based on Battle Cry of Freedom, and opens with the optimistic dawn of gathering military forces. With polished weapons and new uniforms, the soldiers march confidently forward, naivety masquerading as courage, only to be ambushed by the deadly chaos of battle. The movement ends with the fragmented aftermath of the dead and wounded and the realization that America will never be the same again.

The third movement is based on George Root’s 1862 classic, Just Before the Battle, Mother. Originally conceived as a letter written by a soldier who is slain in battle, the song is equal parts bravery, fear and sadness. The setting created for the Suite is the haunted world of a now-quiet battlefield, strewn with the dead and suffering. The music is a chaconne, with the ground derived by inverting the first eight notes of Root’s original melody. The inverted melody of the chaconne in the low voices, pitted against the hocketed melody in the upper voices, creates a disturbing, bi-tonal song setting, evoking horror through its morbid and persistent simplicity.

The fourth movement, with its scherzo-like feel, is based on When Johnny Comes Marching Home. In Patrick Gilmore’s original song, the musical phrases alternate between major and minor, mirroring the famous ambiguity in the lyrics about the fate of Johnny. Through seven diverse variations, this movement tries repeatedly to musically reverse the course of sentiment about the war. It is all in vain, as the movement ends with the jaunting melody plucked quietly and ambiguously on the heart-strings of the cellos and basses.

In 1947, the American composer Morton Gould wrote a famous set of variations for orchestra based on When Johnny Comes Marching Home, entitled American Salute. Easily Gould’s most popular work, a band transcription came soon afterward (also versions with choir), making it essentially impossible to get through the music education system in America without playing American Salute several times in your career.

As a result, 25 years later American Salute still casts a long shadow for me. I debated internally for quite a while to determine if I had anything new to say about Johnny that Gould hadn’t already thoroughly been over. However, once the dramatic shape of Civil War Suite came into focus – with its arc-of-the-war story line – new ideas about Johnny became obvious to me. I also realized it was important for the Suite to include the song. With great care, I have scrupulously avoided any known resemblance to American Salute in the fourth movement of Civil War Suite.

The fifth movement spins forth redemption from this horrible conflict through a single strand of melody in the low brass. Battle Hymn of the Republic emerges haltingly as if struggling to be born. The lines gather, gaining strength from each other, and release in a brass choir variation. At the climax, accompanied by Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, there is redemption, forgiveness and the hope in a nation for spiritual renewal.

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