I’ve been trying to learn this tune (from the sheet music), and would like to hear it properly played. Is there a website that has an audio clip of it?
Thanks
Paulsdad
[ This Message was edited by: paulsdad on 2002-12-02 17:23 ]
Jay Ungar and Molly Mason have a clip of it. It’s a midi though.
http://www.jayandmolly.com/ashokanfarewell.shtml
Steve
We play it in our group. It’s a lovely haunting tune. Instruments involved after the whistles, flute, guitars, accordian, piano and two mandolins. Didn’t know it had lyrics though. (btw has anybody come up the html to do a cat howling? Please) 
Well, I just thought that everyone should know the history of this great tune.
Jay Ungar wrote this for his friend’s documentary on the Civil War. His friend was Ken Burns, who happens to be fairly enthusiastic about traditional music in general.
This tune, as well as the recording that Jay and Molly did for the movie, is from what I hear more or less what got him very famous in the folk world.
He runs a music camp in which they play Ashokan farewell at the end of each session. They also have some New England contra dancing and English dancing, but from what I hear, it’s mostly music.
I have heard other folk tunes in some other Ken Burns documentaries, but I think that I like this one the best.
He does do some great stuff…
I think he composed the tune when he was at Ashokan, for a tune that portrayed the sadness of leaving the camp, and then it was used for the documentary later, because it fit. But I’m not sure.
I was always under the impression that he wrote it for the documentary, but I could be wrong.
I have known one person who refuses to believe to this day that Jay Ungar wrote that tune.
Sort of a folk-music “flat earther,” I suppose.
I like the tune–it works well for flute or whistle.
Best,
–James
http://www.flutesite.com
I have Jay Unger’s video in which he talks about as well as plays the piece. I have to agree with Staten Island…if I’m not mistaken, he wrote the piece first and then it was chosen for the documentary. That said…does it really matter. BTW…I made my fiddling “debut” at the jam last Wed playing that tune. GM I told the group before hand that I could only get better!
Ashokan Farewell was one of my most favorite tunes when I was still playing Piano… so beautiful, yet even though the Piano has an amazing capability for emotion, it always felt like it needed a Violin or now that I think about it…
… a whistle. 
Problem is, in the key I learned it in, the range was way, waaay too low for a Violin, let alone a little ole whistle! 
Been to Root Camp at Ashokan several times, long before Jay was asked to do the soundtrack to The Civil War. Ashokan Farewell was always played as the last goodbye tune - it had a lovely, haunting sweetness about it, and was the perfect ending to the week. Jay just chose it for the Civil War series because of its excellent qualities, but he did not compose it for Ken Burns. It was written for us, the Root Campers.
Unfortunately the series kind of spoiled the tune for me, as it resulted in having to overhear several hundred puffing flute players, aspiring fiddlers, and hammered dulcimermaids flog it to death at workshops, festivals, and sessions. You have to understand, I work in an office right next to the HMT lessons room. For about a year, it seemed like every single student’s Tune of the Month was Ashokan Farewell.
Sorry - pet peeve. I kind of get upset when a perfectly decent tune that I used to like starts setting my teeth on edge from overpopularity.
I forgive you all. [Bless, bless, sprinkle with water from the Root Canal] . . . there - you’re all absolved. It’s OK, really it is - go ahead and play it if you want.
Just let me take my lunch break at the same time.
As Wendina says, the tune was written “for” the camp, and only later adopted by Ken Burns for his documentary. As the FAQ on the Jay Ungar website linked to above also verifies…
I had the pleasure of meeting Jay and Molly several years ago at a mini-concert in a local Border’s books, I told Jay that I loved playing Ashokan on the whistle and flute. He said “Hmmm, that should work” or something like that. Now, this MAY be a cooincidence, or not, but about about a year or so later, the Albany Symphony ( terrific orchestra, BTW)did a symphonic version of that piece featuring Jay and Molly as soloists, and the arrangement they played started out with a solo… on whistle !