Reb-RN
Wow a double post… 
I joined the SCV in Memphis, TN under the “Chalmers” camp. My relative was Elijah Vaughn who fought with the army of tennessee. He was actually with the 4th Mounted Kentucky Infantry who fought with the Army of Tennessee. He refused to sign his pardon at wars end.
You’re quoting Jay Ungar, right? It’s not clear from your post–instead, it reads as though you wrote the tune yourself.
M
Some one correct me if I am wrong, but I thought that it was a popular instrument among the troops.
I have heard one tune played several times in documentaries, “Moreen” AKA “The Minstrel Boy.” Although I am sure that the piece that you are looking for is “Ashokan Farewell.”
Much thanks everyone, I certain that Ashokan Farewell is the song. I hope to have it learned soon.
I’m sorry to here that. I always enjoyed his parts in the series simply because of his accent.
I picked up a lot of tunes from that series I hadn’t known before. I especially like All Quiet Along The Potomac Tonight and The Bonny Blue Flag.
LOL…Yes its a quote. I couldn’t ever take credit for a beautiful tune as of that.
Hm, this isn’t going to be as straight foreward as I had hoped. I went and downloaded the song and though beautiful, it doesn’t seem to be in the key of D, which in itself wouldn’t be a bad thing, but it also goes beyond the range of my Clarke D (both on the high and low ends). I may need to do some creative arranging.
This may take a while.
Ac || d3 c BA | F4 EF | G3 F ED | B,2 D3 B,|A,2 D2 F2 | A2 d2 f2 | f3 g
f2 | e4 Ac|
d3 c BA | F4 EF | G3 F ED | B,2 D3 B,|A,2 D2 F2 | A2 d2 f2 | A2 c2 e2 |
d4 FG|A3 F D2 |
d4 A2 | B3 c d2 | A F3 E2 | F3 E D2 | B,4 G,2 | A,6 | A4 FE | D2 F2 A2 |
=c6 | B3 c d2 |
A2 F2 D2 | A,2 D2 F2 | A2 d2 F2 | E3 D C2 | D4 ||
This version only has a few lower notes which you can raise an octave without bending the tune unduly out of shape.
Now you know why it’s played on the fiddle.
JP
Jay composed it himself, and it had nothing to do with the movie or the Civil War … it just sounds so good and evokes the feelings that one would have facing a loss such as war inflicts … http://www.jayandmolly.com/ashokanfaq.shtml
I consider the Catskills my real home–though I was born in Kentucky, moved around a lot and have lived in Brooklyn since 1969. When my father was overseas on military service–twice in my childhood–and during the many periods of time when the family was between military postings, we lived in the old homestead in Napanoch, New York, in an 18 room house my Grandfather built. The house still stands and my cousin lives there today. During the construction of the upstate reservior system, that house was for a few years used as a boarding house for the sandhogs involved in the construction of the Neversink Reservior. Grandpa had tried his hand at farming again, lost that spread to fire and returned to Napanoch and reclaimed this house. My mother was born in or near the town of Neversink, which is also part of the Castkill reservoir system of which the Ashokan Reservoir is part. You can get from the Neversink to the Ashokan by taking the Peekamoose Road, a ride I recommend highly. That road goes past the old Furman Cemetery in Yaegerville, and I have forefathers going back to the early to mid 1800’s buried there. An irony of history is that original town of Neversink is now under 50 to 100 feet of water. My father worked on the dam that created the body of water under which the town of Neversink has, in fact, been ‘sinked’ since before WW II, I believe.
I also attended the State University College at New Paltz, which is the branch of the State University of New York that has that facility up near the Ashokan Reservior–the place at which the Tune was apparently written. I now work for a City of New York agency that routinely handles litigation involving the Catskill watershed and the City’s water that comes from it. The tap water I drink every day–the best in the world, for my money, because it’s free and clear–probably comes from the body of water that covers the house in which my mother was born.
YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS STUFF UP!! I had better learn that tune–or at least try.
I always thought that Ashokan did not seem like a Celtic word, but chalked that up to my ignorance of that branch of the Indo-European language family.
My thanks to the various contributors to this thread–it has served to remind me of my roots, of what has been lost, of what has been retained, and of what has yet to be reclaimed.
Tom Dowling
Maybe I should re-string my viola and give it a crack. 
Oddly enough, there’s a Welsh pop band called ‘Ashokan’. Anyway.
Thanks, everyone, for reminding me of this lovely tune. One summer years ago, when I was teaching and had a month and a half off in July/August (those were the days…), that Civil War documentary was on every morning for a couple of weeks. I don’t think I’ve heard the tune since then. It was great to hear it now. That really is a wonderful series of documentaries, too, and I remember Shelby Foote and his contributions. Hedd i’w lwch - peace for him.
I must get to grips with Peter Laban’s arrangement cos I was puzzling how to fit it on whistle.
Diolch - thanks!
I once played that tune as the bride’s processional . (on piano though, not whistle)- It’s what she wanted and there was not a dry eye in the house. 
I lifted that off the web somewhere. There was a harmonised arrangement there as well. It’s pretty straight forward, you raise the (too)low notes an octave.