Jay Ungar has provided us with the story behind this waltz, mainly performed by solo violin, with guitar and bass accompaniment: “Ashokan Farewell was named for Ashokan, a camp in the Catskill Mountains not far from Woodstock, New York. It’s the place where Molly Mason and I have run the Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camps for adults and families since 1980. Ashokan is the name of a town, most of which is now under a very beautiful and magical body of water called the Ashokan Reservoir...

“I composed Ashokan Farewell in 1982 shortly after our Ashokan Fiddle & Dance Camps had come to an end for the season. I was feeling a great sense of loss and longing for the music, the dancing and the community of people that had developed at Ashokan that summer. I was having trouble making the transition from a secluded woodland camp with a small group of people who needed little excuse to celebrate the joy of living, back to life as usual, with traffic, newscasts, telephones and impersonal relationships. By the time the tune took form, I was in tears. I kept it to myself for months, unable to fully understand the emotions that welled up whenever I played it. I had no idea that this simple tune could affect others in the same way.

“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.” - Program Note by Foothill Symphonic Winds concert program, 8 March 2015

This gorgeous melody became famous as part of the soundtrack to the television mini-series The Civil War. Composed by Jay Ungar for solo fiddle, the piece works perfectly for concert band. - Program Note from publisher

Jack Campin writes; "Ashokan Farewell" was published by Mel Bay on 1 January 1983. Must have made Ungar a fair bit in that form, before the Civil War royalties started rolling in. I don't have that print collection but I doubt it varies one little bit from what all the thousands of Ashokan fiddle camp participants played as their final number over the next 40 years.

1 January 1983? Are you sure, Jack? This doesn't ring true to me. And, as you say, you don't have that print collection. I'm not surprised! Jay Ungar wrote the tune after the summer of 1982, and says he kept the tune to himself for months. The tune could not possibly have been widely known by January 1983. I don't see how Mel Bay could have published it then. In that case, it would be wrong to say that the royalties started rolling in then too.