A setting of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
for mixed chorus, children’s chorus, baritone solo and orchestra
duration - 15 min
In 1963 conductor Josef Krips asked David Diamond to compose a choral setting of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Commissioned by the Buffalo Evening News and radio station WBEN, it was premiered late that year by Lukas Foss conducting the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra. Krips later perfomed it with the San Francisco Symphony. In 1994 Gerard Schwarz recorded the work with the Seattle Symphony on Delos. This recording has been reissued on Naxos [8.559156]
Steven Lowe wrote for the Seattle Symphony performances:
"A 43-bar orchestral introduction sets the tone for the powerful text. As is typical, Diamond’s harmonic vocabulary is tonal/modal, with judicious use of piquant dissonances to heighten emotional impact. It is always a challenge for a composer to set prose, rather than the customary poetry, in a song cycle, and Diamond’s imaginative setting balances the rhythmic freedom of recitative with the structured cadence of an aria."
The Gettysburg Address with Audio Samples from This Sacred Ground
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Reviews of the Naxos reissue
A reissue of recordings made in the early '90s for Delos, this Naxos album adds to David Diamond's representation in the acclaimed American Classics series, and reaffirms his status after years of unjust and incomprehensible neglect. Diamond's concert suite from the ballet "TOM," based on Uncle Tom's Cabin, and "This Sacred Ground," a setting of "Lincoln's Gettysburg Address," are pure Americana. In these celebratory works, Diamond's open-hearted music is readily accessible, enjoyable, and moving. No preparation is needed to appreciate Diamond's diatonic harmonies, straightforward melodies, and lean counterpoint.
--Blair Sanderson, All Music Guide
Diamond's music is refreshingly free from gimmickry and razzmatazz. And these are seemingly exemplary performances by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under their long-standing chief. So why hesitate?
In 1963 conductor Josef Krips asked David Diamond to compose a choral setting of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Commissioned by the Buffalo Evening News and radio station WBEN, it was premiered late that year by Lukas Foss conducting the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra. Krips later perfomed it with the San Francisco Symphony. In 1994 Gerard Schwarz recorded the work with the Seattle Symphony on Delos. This recording has been reissued on 
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
A reissue of recordings made in the early '90s for Delos, this Naxos album adds to David Diamond's representation in the acclaimed American Classics series, and reaffirms his status after years of unjust and incomprehensible neglect. Diamond's concert suite from the ballet "TOM," based on Uncle Tom's Cabin, and "This Sacred Ground," a setting of "Lincoln's Gettysburg Address," are pure Americana. In these celebratory works, Diamond's open-hearted music is readily accessible, enjoyable, and moving. No preparation is needed to appreciate Diamond's diatonic harmonies, straightforward melodies, and lean counterpoint.