I recently found a forgotten recording from 20 years ago that includes me singing a solo. I was nervous about listening to it. I have a certain sense of how I used to sound–and of how I sound now. Maybe I’d learn my memory was flawed. Vanity. Maybe my memory is accurate, and I’d be depressed at my current ability. Reality.
Cantus Novus was a small amateur chamber chorus of 24 or in Bloomington, Illinois. We were competent, with some flashes of artistry, but we sang challenging music and had a great time doing it. That concert had six songs by Aaron Copeland, and my turn comes on “The Boatmen’s Dance. In addition to some good fiddling, the recording features a song suite, “South Dakota Shadows,” which I remembered as a really pretty piece. Not only had I forgotten the recording, I’d forgotten that my son Andrew, and his then-girlfriend (now wife) Molly played in a string quartet.
Here’s a link to our recording of “The Boatmen’s Dance”
