The Scottish Waltz with Two Lives – Ashoken Farewell
Ashoken Farewell was composed by Jay Ungar, an American Folk Musician and Composer. The music, beloved by tens of millions worldwide, has been described as haunting, mournful, hopeful, beautiful, poignant, and very emotional. Many associate Ashoken Farewell with documentarian Ken Burns’ 1990 TV American Civil War mini-series. They mistakenly assumed it was a Civil War period piece. It was not. Burns heavily blended it in as interpretive background music.
Ungar observed, “Ashokan Farewell was written in the style of a Scottish lament. I sometimes introduce it as, 'a Scottish lament written by a Jewish guy from the Bronx.' I lived in the Bronx until the age of sixteen.”
Jay wrote the music in 1982. It emerged, almost spontaneously, from his soul at the conclusion of another summer season at the Ashoken Center, a music and art camp in Olive Bridge, N.Y.
The lyrics revealed an expanded dimension he hadn't considered at the time.
The sun is sinking low in the sky above Ashokan.
The pines and the willows know soon we will part.
There's a whisper in the wind of promises unspoken,
And a love that will always remain in my heart.
My thoughts will return to the sound of your laughter,
The magic of moving as one,
And a time we'll remember long ever after
The moonlight, and music, and dancing are done.
Will we climb the hills once more?
Will we walk the woods together?
Will I feel you holding me close once again?
Will every song we've sung stay with us forever?
Will you dance in my dreams or my arms until then?
Under the moon the mountains lie sleeping
Over the lake the stars shine.
They wonder if you and I will be keeping
The magic and music, or leave them behind.
Jay, and his life partner and fellow Folk Musician and Composer, Molly Mason, close their annual Ashoken Center season with Ashoken Farewell.
They had recorded the piece when, in 1984, Ken Burns first heard it. The music resonated with him. It was the emotive, reflective feeling of the human waste and terribleness of war. Yet, it was also a ballad of love, life, and tragedy.
Major Sullivan Ballou was an American lawyer and politician from Rhode Island. He was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was mortally wounded in the First Battle of Bull Run, 1861, the first major battle of the War. A week before his death, he wrote to his beloved wife Sarah.
Portions of his letter, of love, duty, and sacrifice, are frequently recorded with Ashoken Farewell.
”If it is necessary that I should fall on the battlefield for any country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American civilization now leans upon the triumph of government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution, and I am willing, perfectly willing to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government, and to pay that debt…
Sarah, my love for you is deathless. It seems to bind me with mighty cables, that nothing but Omnipotence can break; and yet, my love of country comes over me like a strong wind, and bears me irresistibly on with all those chains, to the battlefield.
My dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, nor that, when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name.
Sarah, do not mourn me dear; think I am gone, and wait for me, for we shall meet again.”
Sarah never remarried. She is buried next to the believed remains of her husband the army returned to her in 1862.
The Ashoken Center is a very important part of Jay and Molly’s lives. It is important to the lives of those who experience the simple gifts of nature and community that the Center facilitates.
The Center is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It spans 385 acres of forests, meadows, and streams on land that was once home to the Munsee Indians.
Jay and Molly host thousands of visitors to the Center for environmental education programs while blending in traditional music and dance camps at the Center.
In 2006, Jay and Mollie purchased the property to create an enduring legacy through which music, the arts, and the joy of folk traditions connect people to the living history of the land.
Spring 2025, the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation approached the Ashoken Center with a simple question. Would you be interested in a gifted historical interpretive marker about the Ashoken Center and the song?
Our request was modest. They could write the text, but we asked that when they identified Jay Ungar, they acknowledge his Jewish heritage. Jay assented.
In April of 2026, the National Park Service-style wayside marker was sited at the entrance to the Ashoken Center.
From the marker text; “The tune resonates with timeless memories of beauty, loss, and longing—influenced in part by Ungar’s Jewish heritage. “Ashokan Farewell.”
The Scottish Waltz, Ashoken Farewell, composed by Jay Ungar, the nice Jewish boy from the Bronx, truly has two enduring lives.
Jerry Klinger is the President of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.
Source: The Scottish Waltz with Two Lives – Ashoken Farewell
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