The American Civil War in Four Minutes

[edschweppe]

As found on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqq3YcrIogU

The background music to this video ("Ashokan Farewell") was, of course, the signature theme for Ken Burns' famous movie The Civil War. Remarkably, it was the only piece of contemporary music (as opposed to period music) used in the entire film.

Comments

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

It's also one of the standard contradance waltz tunes; I've probably danced to it a hundred times. It sounds period and Appalachian, probably because it was composed in the style of a Scottish lament -- Celtic music infuses a lot of the Appalachian tradition.

The video itself is cool. It's quite clear that after 4 years of fighting, the South's resources were running out and the defense collapsing. Defeat was inevitable -- we could outlast them.