- Ashokan Farewell was written in 1982 and named after the fiddle & dance camp that the composer ran during the summer months. Ungar struggled to transition back to “life as usual” after wrapping up the season with the camp and wrote this tune as an outlet for his emotional response.
- Ungar’s collaborative partner and (now) wife, Molly Mason, came up with the name for the song.
- According to the composer, Ashokan Farewell was written “in the style of a Scottish lament. I sometimes introduce it as a Scottish lament written by a Jewish guy from the Bronx.”
- In 1984, Ken Burns came across a recording of the song and asked to use it in his upcoming PBS series, The Civil War. Consequently, Ashokan Farewell has become an incredibly popular song nationwide.
- Fun fact – Ashokan Farewell was the only contemporary tune in the Civil War series.1
Sources
- Jay Ungar, “The Story of Ashokan Farewell,” Jay Ungar & Molly Mason, accessed September 28, 2022, http://jayandmolly.com/ashokan-farewell/ashokan-farewell-faq/.
Cut IDs
16439 16443 19822