The Diary
of
Anne Ku

1 November 2000 Wednesday

her solo (70 kB, mp3)

Class of 82
(1.5 MB, mp3)

Note:

Download Real Player free to hear mp3.

HER ANGELIC VOICE

Today I heard Patty's angelic voice floating beautifully above the rest - above the piano, the flute, guitar, the alto and the tenor voices. My techno friend Paolo had kindly converted the original 18 year old recording of the Class of 82 song using digital signal processing to bring out Patty's voice.

The original recording was done in our music teacher Mr Hall's classroom. I played on the baby grand piano while Adrienne played on her folk guitar. Her alto voice overpowered Patty's soft soprano. Robby's tenor voice was also too soft. Diane's flute and my piano dominated the piece. We did five takes, varying the tempo, accompaniment, and solos. Mr Hall was very patient with us. After all, we've already practised at my house for the graduation. I wasn't happy with the slow tempo. I kept saying, "Zest! Please add more zest!" and inadvertently sped it up when necessary.

In August, after Paolo had converted the cassette recording to CD, I tried to record the CD into another music software. My August 14th diary described the difficulty of doing so. An Internet superhero read of my frustration and came to my rescue. So many emails he sent and offered to do it for me in the end. Yet, I was too mentally exhausted to take up on his offer. A colleague Adriano offered to help. But the high-quality MP3's he made were too big for my website.

In the end, Paolo came to my rescue. Thank you! Thank you for your meticulous work of magic!

As I listened to her gentle, perfect, angelic voice floating above the rest, my eyes welled up. No one else has heard her so clearly before. Her solo in the final verse has come back to haunt us all:

We suffered, conquered, but came out strong

We regained all that’s gone astray

followed by Adrienne's alto solo:

We boasted and bragged and had it our way

But too soon we know it’ll end, not long.

Yesterday

Tomorrow

Related Links:

Tape to CD to MP3

Class of 82 Song

Facts on Patty

To Sir With Love

From my father 8 Nov:

I also read your long collection of reports on Patty's case. Like many unsolved murders or missing cases in Taiwan, that case has caused police and society to spend hours d hours and countless resources, but all in vain. Each summer students missing in central mountains in Taiwan for days were rescued. But 2 yrs ago a Caucasian father from New Zealand came to taiwan twice to look for his missing college student son in central mountains, but in vain. Patty's case has not been reported here.