Daryl Waters’ contribution to A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration is integral: he has set Paula Vogel’s script to virtually continuous musical scoring from beginning to end. Waters discusses his role in the process, his music, and his inspiration as a composer.

Let's start at the beginning: what exactly does “musical supervision” entail?

My job is part creative and part administrative. Creatively, I'm responsible for the vocal arrangements (vocal harmonies and interpretation of the songs) and the incidental music arrangements (the music under dialogue and between scenes that helps to support the dramatic moment). Those jobs are often handled by two separate people.

Andrew Resnick, our fantastic music director, has the main responsibilities of rehearsing the cast and playing/conducting the show.

So much of this piece has been about storytelling. How does the music — vocal and instrumental — serve that function?

I've loved working with Paula. Her pictures, words, and intents are so clear that the music has virtually written itself. There are certain characters that have their own motif, like Abraham Lincoln. The motifs have been used in the underscored moments to add another emotional layer to a scene, sometimes subtle, sometimes not.

The vocal arrangements also have to reflect the moment; sometimes simply by the choice to add harmony or just have everyone sing the melody.

Talk a little about the different kinds of music in the piece — the Civil War songs, the Christmas music, and the spirituals — and what it's like to weave them together. And how much does your own contemporary sensibility infuse the sound?

I think of the songs in this show as a musical quilt; snippets that when woven together create an aesthetically pleasing, one-of-a-kind piece.

The decision was made from the beginning to look at the music from a contemporary point of view, which interested me far more than re-creating period music. The key was to do it in a way that was not disrespectful to the material. Hopefully you'll think I succeeded.

In her introduction to A Civil War Christmas, Paula Vogel says that her inspiration for the play comes, in part, from "subliminally processing music:” “As a schoolgirl in Maryland," she writes, "I was taught the lyrics to...'Maryland, My Maryland,' sung to the tune of ‘O Tannenbaum.’" Do you have any musical "processing" memories of your own, either regarding this music or any other?

In a sense, my own musical style is an amalgam of processed memories, whether it's listening to the Percy Faith Orchestra on my grandmother's radio, playing in my own R & B band in high school, or playing/arranging for people like Cab Calloway and Sammy Davis, Jr. I would not be who I am without those memories and many more.

This piece was excerpted from an interview originally conducted by assistant director Katie McGerr for Long Wharf’s 2008 production of A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration.