St. Martin’s Chamber Choir presents “Beat! Beat! Drums!: The Civil War at 150”

April 9, 2015 marks the 150th anniversary of the end of the U.S. Civil War, and President Lincoln’s assassination mere days later (April 14). St. Martin’s Chamber Choir presents “Beat! Beat! Drums!” a Cameo consisting of 12 singers, and interspersing readings from the Civil War rendered by Civil War antiquarian Richard de Tar with musical selections. Come hear portions of Lincoln’s Inaugural Addresses, Frederick Douglass’ moving tribute to Lincoln, Confederate diarists Sarah Morgan and Mary Chesnut, Robert E. Lee’s farewell to the Army of Northern Virginia, Joshua Chamberlain’s speech on the anniversary of Gettysburg, and Sullivan Ballou’s (thanks to Ken Burns now famous) letter to his wife the day before he died at the Battle of Bull Run; these interspersed with settings of Walt Whitman poems about the Civil War, two African American spirituals, some Herman Melville poetry, “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, and an American folk tune of the day called “O Come, Angel Band.”