The Civil War Chronicles:
Lincoln Speak
The final part of the Civil War Chronicles series is filled with Lincolnesque humor, authentic songs of the Civil War, and 16mm films. The first version engaged the resounding acoustics of the Philip Morris Building with music by composer Semih Firincioğlu. Linda Mussmann designed a special environment for the space using fabric-covered window frames, and a cherry picker elevating Claudia Bruce, who delivers an oratorio based on the imagined reflections of Lincoln at the conclusion of the war, and on the eve of his assassination.
A second version was performed at the Great Hall at Cooper Union, where Lincoln himself delivered his famous “Right Makes Might” speech in 1860.
Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris
May 1989
Whitney Museum Sculpture Court at Philip Morris, New York, NY
written, designed, and directed by LINDA MUSSMANN
in collaboration with and performed by CLAUDIA BRUCE
music composed and performed by SEMIH FIRINCIOĞLU
assistant to the director and lights operated by JOYCE BAKER
set design, light design and 16mm by LINDA MUSSMANN
audio technician JACK BALCHIN
Jack Anderson, The New York Times:
“Shortly before his assassination, Abraham Lincoln dreamed he had died. That premonitory vision inspired Linda Mussmann’s “Lincoln Speak,” which her company, Time & Space Limited, offered Wednesday night in the sculpture court of the Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris. It was the sixth and final segment of American Civil War Chronicles, the cycle of mixed-media events Ms. Mussmann has been staging since 1987.
Ms. Mussmann has often blended music and text with dance and mimetic action. But in Lincoln Speak she was rigorously austere. Claudia Bruce simply stood on scaffolding, reciting, singing and occasionally gesturing for emphasis. She was accompanied by a score for synthesizer by Semih Firincioğlu, and slides and films were projected on suspended panels and the sculpture court’s walls.”
Jack Anderson, The New York Times:
“Ms. Bruce described someone who woke feeling confused. “My watch had stopped, my heart had not,” she said. She spoke of attempts to restore order, and the uncertainty she evoked could have been that of any troubled sleeper. But specific images in the text referred to Lincoln’s dream and America’s struggle to shake off the nightmare of the Civil War. Ms. Bruce punctuated her musings with Civil War songs and, near the end of the piece, a quotation from Lincoln’s noble second Inaugural Address.
The films and slides showed Civil War posters, newspapers, monuments, soldiers, and portraits of Lincoln and other historical figures like Clara Barton, the nurse known as the “Angel of the Battlefield.” The production’s sights and sounds successfully conveyed a sense of the weight of the past upon the present.
That Lincoln Speak was often touching was tribute both Ms. Mussmann’s imagination and to the inherent power of her subject matter.”
In 2022, a new documentary was edited using footage shot by Joyce Baker in 1989 of the installation and rehearsal of Lincoln Speak. This footage is interspersed with photos of the final performance, as well as freshly scanned 16mm films shot by Linda Mussmann, which were projected during the show.
For the time being, Lincoln Speak the film screens exclusively at Time & Space Limited in Hudson, NY. Check the calendar at timeandspace.org for updates.
The Great Hall at Cooper Union
September 1989
The Great Hall at Cooper Union
written, designed, and directed by LINDA MUSSMANN
in collaboration with and performed by CLAUDIA BRUCE
music composed and performed by SEMIH FIRINCIOĞLU
The Cooper Union News:
“Abraham Lincoln once said, “Matthew Brady (the noted Civil War photographer) and Cooper Union helped make me president.” It was in Cooper Union’s Great Hall, on February 27, 1860, that the young political hopeful from Illinois, took the stage and delivered his “Right Makes Might” speech, calling for the abolition of slavery. He later said this speech helped him win the presidency.”
This version of the piece utilized three projectors, with Claudia Bruce narrating from a podium just offstage.
