Abe Lincoln and The Missouri Harmony
The Missouri Harmony was on hand in the 1830s in New Salem, Illinois. Legend has it that Abraham Lincoln and his sweetheart Ann Rutledge sang from it. Carl Sandburg, a musician, poet, and biographer of Abraham Lincoln’s prairie years, noted:
sang from a book, ‘The Missouri Harmony,’ printed and published by Morgan and Sanxay in Cincinnati. It was “a collection of psalm and hymn tunes, and anthems, from eminent authors: with an introduction to the grounds and rudiments of music, and a supplement of admired tunes and choice pieces of sacred music. According to another story, young Lincoln parodied a song in the old tune book. He’d “tip his chair and roar it out at the top of his voice, over and over again, just for fun.”
Lincoln, let it be recorded, had a terrible singing voice. Sandburg wrote about the sixteenth United States president: “His voice was tenor in pitch, and managed tunes in a reciting, singsong tone. A song titled ‘Legacy’ was a favorite with groups who heard him substitute his own words ‘old gray’ for the regular words ‘red grape’ in the hymn.” The song was arranged by Irish poet Thomas Moore, who titled it “The Legacy” (it is named “Legacy” in The Missouri Harmony), and it entered the oral tradition in the countryside around New Salem.
On a visit home in 1914, poet Edgar Lee Masters heard the same tune played by a local fiddler whose father had been a close friend of Lincoln’s in his New Salem days. It belongs to a family of fiddle tunes that includes “How Shall We Abstain from Whiskey,” and “St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning,” but Masters’ fiddle-playing friend used Moore’s lyrics and called the song “Missouri Harmony.”
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Famous quotes containing the words abe lincoln, abe, lincoln and/or missouri:
“This state is full of these log cabin Abe Lincolns with price tags on ‘em. The louder he yells, the higher his price.”
—Robert Rossen (1908–1966)
“Old Abe is much better looking than I expected & younger looking. He shook hands like a good fellow—working hard at it like a man sawing wood at so much per cord.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)