Program Note:

On its surface, the Bixby letter is a brief, consoling message sent by President Abraham Lincoln in November 1864 to Lydia Parker Bixby, a widow living in Boston, Massachusetts, who was thought to have lost five sons in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Research suggests that the letter may have in fact been written by Lincoln’s private secretary, John Hay; further, Bixby’s political sympathies and her sons’ actual fates are in question. The power of the letter’s sentiment trumps such concerns and it has over time assumed a prominent place in the American narrative. Hagen’s musical setting acknowledges the cloud of mystery that consequently surrounds the document. His method is to recontextualize Lincoln’s public remonstrance by underpinning it with his inner struggle, which is placed mainly in the piano. The word “freedom” is associated throughout with the poignant, “dying fall” of a minor second. Commissioned by Lyric Fest of Philadelphia in 2015, the setting joins three additional works in Hagen’s catalogue that run along these lines: On the Beach at Night, We Few, and Alive in a Moment—all challenging inner/outer monologues for men in extremis.