Humility: A Personal History (Part Two)

And then it was music's turn ...

When I was in elementary school, I had a fine soprano voice—got picked for solos for parent programs, and the like. One of those I did not like: dressed up like Tom Sawyer or someone, holding hands with a fine girl singer (dressed like Becky Thatcher, I guess), and singing "School Days" with her—to a fine response—but I could not drop her hand fast enough—and I'm sure she felt the same, if not with more venom.

When we arrived in Hiram, Ohio, in the late summer of 1956, the voice was still there. And then one day it began its departure. We were in music class—7th grade—and singing a song I really liked ("I Know a Green Cathedral"), and suddenly my voice cracked.

I coughed. Didn't help. And it took about a year and a half for my voice to settle into the mediocre baritone, where it has remained.

Suddenly, vocal music was not one of my favorite classes.

We did have a wonderful vocal music teacher at Hiram High School: Mrs. Ruthana Dreisbach, wife of one of the chemistry professors at Hiram College, where my dad was now teaching.

She was ambitious for us, too, and did three operettas while I was there—slightly diminished versions of The Mikado, Die Fledermaus (called Masquerade in Vienna), and Trial by Jury.

I wasn’t going to try out for Mikado my freshman year, but my older brother, a fine musician, encouraged me. I auditioned for Pish-Tush, a minor character—but who had a solo.

I didn’t get the part.

But the guy who did quickly quit, and suddenly I, a frosh, had a minor lead in the high school musical! And I had a tremendous amount of fun, began to think of myself as a singer again (I was wrong, of course).

The show went over very well, and I’ve recently realized I ought to have been ashamed to wear yellow make-up, as all of us did. That would not go over well at all these days. But back in 1958? I never thought one second about it.

I played the male leads in both the other two operettas later on.

And I had some other good fortune—chosen for the all-county choir my freshman year. Each year the three groups—all-county chorus, choir (a more select group), and band put on a performance at the college in the spring—well-attended.

But I knew by then—by the junior or senior year—that I was not all that good (I sang near guys who were far better than I).

When I got to college, I didn’t even join the vocal groups. I knew.

But I did have one vocal experience my senior year—but we’ll save that for next time ...

TO BE CONTINUED