September 14, 2012 10:49 am
Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’ Nails the President’s Weird, High Voice
In theaters November 16th, Steven Spielberg’s upcoming movie Lincoln seeks to chronicle the life of the 16th President during the run-up to the end of the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery. A trailer for the movie, which is based on a book by biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin, was released yesterday to a mixed reception. On Reddit, however, some discussion churned over the pitch of lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis‘ voice.
One user said, “It was a bit surprising seeing Lewis with a high voice, I expected it will open in a low Gettysburg accented voice, really interesting how that played out.”
Or, “[A]s others have mentioned, really surprised with [Daniel Day-Lewis'] choice of tone for his voice. Can someone tell me is he perhaps imitating Lincoln’s voice as history remembers him?”
Others, the astute vanguards of historical accuracy, responded, “Yes It has been recorded that Lincoln’s voice is high-pitched. I think some woman even wrote that his voice was “shrill.”"
That woman, who described Lincoln as shrill, was actually a man. A man named Harold Holzer. Last year, Smithsonian‘s Megan Gambino interviewed Holzer to find out, What Did Abraham Lincoln’s Voice Sound Like?
“Lincoln’s voice, as far as period descriptions go, was a little shriller, a little higher,” says Holzer. It would be a mistake to say that his voice was squeaky though. “People said that his voice carried into crowds beautifully. Just because the tone was high doesn’t mean it wasn’t far-reaching,” he says.
Further, “Lincoln’s accent was a blend of Indiana and Kentucky,” said Gambino.
“It was hard to know whether it was more Hoosier or blue grass,” says Holzer. The way he spelled words, such as “inaugural” as “inaugerel,” gives some clue as to how he pronounced them.
More from Smithsonian.com:
Secret Message Found in Lincoln’s Watch
Lincoln’s Contested Legacy
How Lincoln’s Assassination Launched the Funeral Industry
Sign up for our free email newsletter and receive the best stories from Smithsonian.com each week.
2 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
I just watched the trailer and I don’t think that his voice is high pitched or weird. He sounded perfectly normal to me.
Comment by Carol Henderson — September 23, 2012 @ 12:26 pm
I read many years ago, in Smithsonian, I believe, of Lincoln’s high voice, which I believe was also described as nasal. I imagined something like the voice of Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass music. For some reason, we want to accept the Raymond Massey voice as the true voice of Lincoln. We forget the young Mr. Lincoln of Henry Fonda or the later performance of Hal Holbrook. These latter voices were higher, and more nasal, than that of Daniel Day-Lewis in this clip, and probably closer to Lincoln’s real voice. I would not characterize Day Lewis’ voice here as high – he just doesn’t adopt the Massey stereotype, to the credit of those involved in this production.
Comment by Gray — September 24, 2012 @ 11:27 am