U of L music professor learned first hand
about filmmaking, appearing in ‘Lincoln’

Michael Tunnell, a University of Louisville music professor, knows first hand about the blue-collar job of filmmaking.

In a flag-raising ceremony filmed in Petersburg, Va., Tunnell appears with three other members of an ensemble called “The Kentucky Baroque Trumpets” in the film “Lincoln.” They perform with other musicians from the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., region and play the Civil War piece, “We are Coming Father Abraham.”

Last year, the production team for “Lincoln” contacted Kentucky Baroque Trumpets’ founder Don Johnson, who has played with many of the Civil War bands in the U.S. and is president of the National Association for Civil War Brass Music.

Johnson, Tunnell and others were ready to go shoot the scene as early as October 2011, but several scheduled shoots were cancelled.

Then last December, Tunnell and fellow musician Reese Land, a former student who now teaches at Campbellsville University, made the drive to Virginia. They got into makeup and begin rehearsing the scene the following morning, with the actual shoot happening a few days later.

Tunnell said he remembers “Lincoln” director Steven Spielberg listening to the musicians play during a rehearsal and saying, “you guys sound great.”

“He actually has us playing in the film,” Tunnell said. “It’s not overdubbed, but it’s us playing Civil War era instruments. Spielberg wanted as authentic a sound as possible.”

The instruments came from a collector of Civil War era instruments.

After learning he was going to be part of the film, Tunnell signed a disclosure agreement and was sworn to secrecy about his involvement.

“My wife knew, of course, but I tried not to tell anyone,” he said.

Tunnell met up with Spielberg again when they and nearly 9,000 people were in Gettysburg, Pa., for ceremonies to mark the 149th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.” Spielberg was the keynote speaker and Tunnell and his fellow musicians played.

Tunnell said he gained an appreciation for the film, the director and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book, “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” upon which the film is based.

He even gained a larger appreciation for mid-19th century instruments.

“At this point, I now own a Civil War-era instrument, but I didn’t before the film,” he said.