• Ben’s proposal song: he created it himself. He’s only given me hints about what the lyrics actually were. Based on those hints, I imagine it was something in the same Venn Diagram circle as this: Paul Brandt “I Do”
  • Ben’s night song: “Underneath the Stars” by Robert Smith (The Cure) on the album  “4:13 Dream” However, you must realize Ben transposed it about a half-octave lower, slowed it even a little more, and sang it in his own accent. The guitar was the same– you can’t improve on perfection.
  • Sunday afternoon at the Hershel’s: “Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus” by Gounad. Many performers slow this way down, completely destroying the intensity of the piece. Here’s a lovely rendition: Performance by Cantamus Girls ChoirI was introduced to this piece when I sang in a church choir growing up– our conductor was a child psychiatrist at Walter Reed who had a degree in conducting and had sung with the Vienna Boys Choir. We had a tenor who went on to sing with the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, and he nailed the solos.

    Years later, I’d gotten up the courage to get together a quartet of friends and to attempt to accompany them at a ward (small congregation of maybe 120 people) sacrament meeting.

    The performance went so well that I had the unfortunate blessing of being asked to do it again at Stake Conference (a semi-annual congregation of wards– hundreds of people). Just at the critical moment at the end, my hands landed on the wrong notes, and I instantly found some sympathetic notes in the bass clef and pounded out 27 F major chords in the treble clef before switching to the lovely finish. I was mortified by how terribly I’d messed up. But, it turned out that the singers were so wonderful, no one had noticed how monotonous the accompaniment had suddenly become.