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Ashoken Farewell
Words Grian McGregor; tune Jay Ungar; Air or Waltz (3/4 time).
ARTIST: fiddler Jay Ungar;
Listen: Ashoken Farewell/ The Red Barron/The Banchee- (fiddle: Julia Kwolyk, bouron: Brian Lupo)
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes DATE: 1982
RECORDING INFO: Flying Fish, "The Best of Fiddle Fever." recorded by Priscilla Herdman on "Forever & Always" on Flying Fish records.
OTHER NAMES: The 'folk process' has yielded several titles based on miss-hearings of the word Ashokan, including "The Choking Farewell," and "I'm Choking, Farewell."
SOURCES: Matthiesen (The Waltz Book), 1992; pg. 14. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 2, 1995; pg. 238. Various sets of words have been attached to the tune, including ones by Grian MacGregor, written in 1991 and sung by Priscilla Herdman, on her Flying Fish Records CD "Forever & Always."
NOTES: "D Major. Standard. AA'B. One of two lyrics that Mr. Ungar has authorized. The tune was chosen by Ken Burns as the theme for 1992's celebrated PBS series "The Civil War." However, rather than a melody from that era it is a 1983 Grammy winning composition by fiddler Jay Ungar (West Hurley, New York), and the "goodbye" tune composed in 1982 for the music and dance camp run by he and Molly Mason at Ashokan, New York. The name Ashokan first appears in Dutch records from the 17th century and may be a corruption of an Indian word. The town of Ashokan itself was largely inundated by the vast Ashokan Reservoir, one of New York City's watersheds in the Catskill Mountains."(Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
The sun is sinking low in the sky above Ashokan,
The pines and the willows know soon we will part.
There's a whisper in the wind of promises unspoken,
And a love that will always remain in my heart.
My thoughts will return to the sound of your laughter,
The magic of dancing, of moving as one.
And a time we'll remember long ever after
The moonlight and music and dancing are done.
Will we climb the hills once more?
Will we walk the woods together?
Will I feel you holding me close once again?
Will every song we've sung stay with us forever?
Will you dance in my dreams or my arms until then?
Under the moon the mountains lie sleeping,
Over the lake the stars shine.
They wonder if you and I will be keeping,
The magic and music, or leave them behind.
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