Jay Ungar, and his wife Molly Mason have been running fiddle camps for a long time. Back in the early 80s, after a Summer fiddle camp had wrapped up, Jay Ungar was reminiscing about the fun that was had, and also lamenting the fact that it was over until the following year. He took out his fiddle, and a tune came into his head. The tune really affected him deeply, and brought tears to his eyes every time he played it. Molly, Jay’s wife suggested that he call the tune Ashokan Farewell. The family band recorded the tune on one of their albums, and Jay thought nothing of it. Documentary director Ken Burns somehow came in possession of a copy of the album with Ashokan Farewell on it and decided to use it in his upcoming documentary on the Civil War in the United States. The tune was featured 27 times during the documentary, and in one of the most poignant moments where a soldier’s letter to his sweetheart saying that he might not come home is narrated, Ashokan Farewell is featured as the soundtrack. Many people believed that the tune was an older tune from around the Civil War years, and someone even tried to sue Jay Ungar claiming that he plagiarized the tune from somewhere else. For a while Jay Ungar doubted that Ashokan Farewell was his original melody. It is an original tune by Jay Ungar.

Here is my recording on violin and piano of Jay Ungar’s Ashokan Farewell. He refers to this tune as a Scottish Lament by a Jewish guy from the Bronx in New York. Enjoy.