The Exquisite Risk of Civil War Brass (2002)

The Exquisite Risk of Civil War Brass is an exploration of the relationship between a Union Army reenactment band and its collection of vintage Civil War instruments. This piece examines the conscience-raising influence that instruments, still at a stage of experimentation in the 1850s and 1860s, have on the lives and functioning of a contemporary community band from Watertown, Wisconsin. Delves into gender and authenticity issues as well as the natural inclination to anthropomorphize instruments which resist easy performance. All this from a band of extraordinary originality, leadership and musicianship.