Ashokan Farewell

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The Ashokan Reservoir, located in Ulster County, NY, USA. The region inspired "Ashokan Farewell" (music).

"Ashokan Farewell" is the title theme of the television miniseries The Civil War, which aired on the PBS in 1990. Fiddler Jay Ungar composed the waltz in 1982 in the style of a Scottish lament (e.g. Niel Gow's lament for his second wife) or Irish air. The most famous arrangement of the piece begins with a solo violin, later accompanied by guitar.

Before its use as the television series theme, "Ashokan Farewell" was recorded on "Waltz of the Wind," the second album by the band Fiddle Fever. The musicians included Ungar and his wife, Molly Mason, who gave the tune its name. It has served as a good-night or farewell waltz at the annual Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camps that Ungar and Mason run at the lakefront Ashokan Field Campus of the State University of New York at New Paltz.

(Ashokan was the name of a Catskill Region village that is now mostly covered by the pristine Ashokan Reservoir.)

In 1984, filmmaker Ken Burns heard "Ashokan Farewell" and was moved by it. He used it in two of his films: The Civil War, which features the original recording by Fiddle Fever in the beginning of the film, and his 1985 documentary on Huey Long.

Viewers of the The Civil War frequently -- and erroneously -- believe the melody is a traditional tune that was played at the time of the Civil War. In fact, it is the only modern composition on the Burns documentary's soundtrack; all other music is authentic 19th century music.