A Great Hope Fell: Songs From Civil War sets the poetry of several American writers, including Maya Angelou, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Emily Dickinson and Stephen Foster as well as traditional texts of Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore and Julia Ward Howe and a letter of Annie Davis.

About

This song cycle was commissioned by the Eos Orchestra, written for baritone and chamber orchestra. The first performance took place on February 21, 2002 at the Society for Ethical Culture in New York with baritone Gordon Hawkins and the Eos Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Sheffer.

The cycle begins with a prologue, and each of the songs is divided into sections.

Prologue: Ships That Pass in the Night (Paul Laurence Dunbar)

1. Africa (Maya Angelou)

2a. When Johnny Comes Marching Home (Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore)
2b. Letter to President Lincoln from Annie Davis, 1864
2c. Was My Brother in the Battle? (Stephen Foster)

3. A Great Hope Fell (Emily Dickinson)

4a. Glory (Julia Ward Howe)
4b. America (Maya Angelou)

Songs

Prologue: Ships That Pass in the Night

Jake Heggie

Paul Laurence Dunbar