Civil War melodies subject of meeting

Kelley said that many aspects of the Civil War have been researched and publicized, but little has been done on the music of the war or the era. That's why they decided to have the conference, which may become an annual event.

"Without television or video games or other things, music was really important at that time," said Denise Messinger, assistant to the director of the center. "People made and sang their own music."

It was so much a part of the war that regiments had their owns bands.

"Some soldiers marched into battle to music," she said.

Kelley said one bugler played so beautifully that both sides would stop fighting at night just to listen to him play across the lines. Bands from both sides would have "good-natured competitions" with each other during lulls in the fighting, he said

"The union would play 'Dixie' and the confederates would play 'John Brown's Body,'" Kelley said.

The quality of the music varied, Kelley said.

He described the song "Gettysburg, My Gettysburg" as a "rollicking, rolling song" written by the Union side following the battle, jubilant over its victory and full of "many disparaging words" about the other side.

Another song, "Break it Gently to My Mother," was written as though by a dying young soldier.

"And some of it was just musical dreck - almost comical," Kelley said. "It wasn't that way on purpose. Somebody was trying to write a serious song."

The conference will be an academic and musical exercise. It will study questions related to African-American music, "Musical Portraits of Women in Songs in the Civil War" how Southern symphonies and culture were affected by the war, among other topics, Kelley said. Performance workshops also will be held.

The cost for the conference is $95. The public concerts on Friday and Saturday night are $5 each.