Our choir presented 15th-Century Flemish composer Johannes Ockeghem's M. Au Travail Suis at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Berkeley on April 21, 1978, the same evening as his Requiem.* That night was the group's final public performance, and it was our best. Yes, there were imperfections -- a vocal section not blending as tightly here, a breath not executed cleanly there, but minor in the overall. We were a bunch of friends doing what we loved, not hired professionals whose commercial recordings failed miserably to do the music justice.

And, being Ockeghem, this was not easy.

I dug out the score I had transcribed for the group and used it here as the video backdrop, traveling in sync with the audio. At the time we thought nothing of it, but, in retrospect, I'm amazed the group was able to read my scribbles. Sure, this was before Finale and Sibelius, not to mention the mere existence of any home computer, but still, what was I thinking?

When my then-gal-pal (who sang alto here) and I U-Hauled from San Francisco to New York City later that August, we stopped at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, to visit John Ronsheim, the once-in-a-lifetime music professor who introduced Ockeghem to hundreds, probably thousands, of students there. I played this tape for him and his wife Eileen at their home. As is his nature, John listened intently, disregarding whatever vocal blips that might have distracted others. It was at the end of the Credo when his eyes opened wide and he exclaimed, "There it is!" The group had found that sweet, magic moment of musical transcendence. I'll never forget it.

His validation meant the world to me. We never saw each other again.

Sopranos: Diana Dillaway, Diana Rogers, Kyle Rolnick
Altos: Catherine Bauman, Rachel Levin, Lyle York
Tenors: Doug Goodkin, Ken Gundry, Tad Merrick, Peter Sorensen
Basses: Scott Horton, Dick Illig, Peter Kohn
Director: Don Giller

* Our performance of Ockeghem's Requiem that same evening is uploaded here:    • Ockeghem Choir of San Francisco, 1978...