Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" Back in the News

By Ed Epstein

Washington, D.C.

Wednesday, August 7, 2025

Big-time blogger, podcaster, and historian Heather Cox Richardson narrated composer Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday at the Tanglewood festival, the orchestra's summer home in the Berkshires.

Her performance of Lincoln's words was a big enough deal to merit a long story in the New York Times, and it brings to mind the vast number and variety of narrators who have delivered Lincoln's words in Copland's somber, moving, and musically stark 16-minute piece. He wrote it after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, with the work commissioned by conductor Andre Kostelanetz of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. It premiered in the summer of 1942, helping to cement American patriotism and unity during the war and reminding people that America stood for freedom and equality, ideas closely associated with President Abraham Lincoln.

Over the decades, the "Lincoln Portrait" has had its ups and downs. During the Red Scare of the 1950s, Copland was investigated for leftist leanings, and the piece was performed less. But since then, it has become a staple for major symphony orchestras, local groups, and college musical performances. It has been performed around the world, and in languages other than English.

For instance, in 1976--the year of the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence--the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein performed the "Portrait" with narrator William Warfield, an operatic baritone. When the philharmonic went on a European tour, Warfield narrated the "Portrait," translating Lincoln's words into French or German.

The "Lincoln Portrait" is perhaps most closely associated with such Hollywood heavyweight actors as Gregory Peck and Henry Fonda. But before they performed it, Copland's work was associated with English-born actor Claude Rains.

Beyond them, a dizzying variety of people have tackled the task of narrating the "Lincoln Portrait". How about baseball player Joe Torre or longtime Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin Scully?

The list goes on and on: Walter Cronkite, Margaret Thatcher, Maya Angelou, Marian Anderson, James Earl Jones, Katherine Hepburn, Julius "Doctor J" Erving, James Whitmore, John Goodman, Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg, and even a fellow named Aaron Copland.

Perhaps the most star-studded version came at Super Bowl XXXVI, in February 2002, the first Super Bowl after the 9/11 attacks. Music was performed by the Boston Pops, and Lincoln's words were performed, on tape, by former Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton and former First Lady Nancy Reagan.

Copland selected Lincoln's words carefully for inclusion in his piece to remind people of all political stripes of the need for constant defense of freedom.

For instance, from Lincoln's message to Congress on Dec. 1, 1862, Copland included these words: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save our country."

For a great way to get a taste of a Lincoln Portrait, visit https://archives.nyphil.org/lincolnportrait/.

It features the original score as commissioned by Kostelanetz. He had performers autograph the score, which has been preserved in the New York Philharmonic's archives. Click on their autographs and you'll be taken to a clip of their performances.