Parlor Songs of the Civil War explores feminine history

One hundred and fifty years ago, the trajectory of the Civil War shifted with over fifty thousand corpses of both Union and Confederate soldiers rotting in the summer sun. The Battle of Gettysburg has been immortalized in classrooms as eighth-graders across the country memorize and recite President Lincoln’s famous commemoration, “Four score and seven years ago...” The history of the Civil War, however, does not belong solely to its leaders whose losses and victories are remembered in speeches; to its generals whose strategic plans are relived in role-played battles; nor even to the corpses whose bodies replenished the earth. Duke will re-remember the history of the Civil War through the voices of women in Baldwin Auditorium on November 8 at 8 p.m.

“Women’s Voices: Gettysburg 1863” will feature a program of readings from women’s diaries, oral histories and letters. The performance will concentrate around the events of 1863, progressing through the Battle of Gettysburg and leading up to the dedication of the first National Military Cemetery and the Gettysburg Address. Throughout the readings, parlor songs of the period will be performed by soprano Susan Dunn and accompanied by pianist David Heid.

The event, which is free, is a product of the research done by Dunn, Professor of the Practice of Vocal Music and Director of Opera at Duke. Dunn recalls the stories passed down from her great-grandmother about going through picket lines in Little Rock, Arkansas in order to retrieve supplies. She also relates how the Civil War period became a time of empowerment for American women.

“The conception of women’s liberation was during the Civil War as women were left alone to take care of their homes and families while their husbands and older male children went off to fight in the war,” Dunn related. “I was interested in how the music of the period might represent the changing attitudes about women, home life and society.”

History about women in the Civil War is often related in terms of their lost children and spouses, but rarely focuses on the way in which women assumed positions of power during this time. Much is said of Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, but little is said about Clarissa Barton, who provided aid to wounded soldiers and later founded the Red Cross, or Pauline Cushman, who acted as a Union spy or even future First Lady Lucy Hayes, who followed her husband to camp and ministered to the homesick and wounded. Even when we remember famous women from that time like Louisa May Alcott, Susan B. Anthony or Harriet Tubman, it is usually outside of the context of the Civil War.

This performance will expand our understanding of the Civil War through first-hand accounts and personal testaments of the women who helped to shape its history.

“Far from shrinking violets in petticoats and bonnets and fainting at the sight of blood, these ladies worked hard every day, raised families and were subjected to privation and difficulties through no fault of their own,” Dunn stated. In addition, women took on a substantial role during the Civil War apart from caring for the home. Many served as Civil War nurses, acted as spies and even cross-dressed as men in order to serve alongside their husbands and brothers.

Although many of the songs were originally performed in parlor settings, they may also have been played at benefit concerts for the war. Dunn is hopeful that the new, redesigned acoustics of Baldwin will aid in recreating that intimate feel of a parlor.