Original blog post from April 4, 2013 

At the end of my fifteenth “nostalgia” recital, “A Touch of Old,” presented last summer in Gravenhurst near my home town of Port Carling, several people asked me for copies of the speech I had written for Doreen to deliver while I was changing into my old-fashioned dress.  I have decided to share it here, since it gives some background as to why I am so passionate about the old “parlour” songs.  

For those who do not know, my “nostalgia” recitals are all based on a similar framework.  I present selections of opera arias, art songs, folk songs and music theatre songs, finishing with a set of so-called “parlour songs” from the early 1900s.  I carefully programme the songs and dialogue to create a flow of mood that is deep yet uplifting.

Doreen Uren Simmons is not only a fantastic and versatile collaborative pianist familiar from childhood with the old-fashioned songs, but she is also a wonderful actress.  Here is the speech she delivered on my behalf at “A Touch of Old:”

Amy had a unique childhood over there in Port Carling.  Her parents, Nora and Paul, spent years in the 1950s, 60s and 70s collecting antique phonographs and gramophones, cylinders and records from the early 1900s, when these treasures were being discarded as out of date.  The scratchy and wiggly, yet surprisingly rich-sounding recordings permeated Amy and Vicky’s childhood, indoctrinating the girls with old-fashioned songs and a style of singing that is vastly different from that of today.

This was an era before radio and television took over, when family members entertained and comforted each other with stories, songs and music.  There is an emotional quality to these songs that to today’s ears can seem overly-nostalgic and melodramatic, but Amy sees in their sometimes simple sentiments an innocence and charm that believes in a shared humanity.  We must remember that this was an age, not so long ago, when death was no stranger to the daily lives of a family, and struggles with poverty and illness drew communities together.  Nature was not so removed from their lives as it is from ours – its challenges were not so easily ignored, and its beauty healed the soul.  Travel to another land meant parting for good – no texting or skyping, telephones or airplanes.  Faith in God, beauty, love and humanity were the strongholds that kept their souls intact, permeated by the pain of parting and loss.

Those who lived through 1914-18, were the first of us to witness the insanity of a modern war and the widespread mass destruction human technology was capable of producing.  Yet they could remember a time before, when the future did not hold the possibility of such darkness of the human spirit.  And so in song they clung even more strongly to golden memories of an innocent age, and to the powerful forces of love and hope.

Moving back to Amy’s family life and early education… the Dodingtons tend to accumulate things that “normal” people have thrown out.  Amy’s surprise arrival on this earth resulted in the room that was meant to be her mother’s walk-in closet being converted to a small bedroom for Amy.  She never resented her tiny, “prettiest room,” with its south-facing window, because she understood that the records and machines that filled the spare bedroom, and every available nook and cranny in the house, were a treasure trove of living history; and that her kooky, imaginative Dad who woke them up with blaring cylinder records every morning was also an encyclopedia of knowledge about this history.  

Whether Amy’s mother resented the loss of her walk-in closet, is perhaps a question we might have asked her…  but she was no less guilty of accumulating treasures than the Dodington clan she married into.  One such treasure Nora saved is a vintage Victorian dress from her grandmother, along with an Irish lace shawl from her great-grandmother.  

Paul and Nora were of like minds when it came to antiques – despite shocked exclamations from outsiders that such treasures should be kept safely vacuum-sealed in a museum display case, they believed that in order for us to REALLY appreciate the personality of these treasures, they must be EXPERIENCED.  Therefore, the antique records were daily played on the vintage machines, and the 1914 Model T Ford was gaily driven along dusty, twisting, pot-holed Muskoka back roads, with Paul and Nora in full “hysterical” (historical) costume.  Nora soon managed to scrounge a fancy feather hat and high-button boots to go along with her vintage dress and shawl, and with Paul in his tails and beaver top-hat the two made quite a sight, windblown in their beloved Model T.

Amy, a true Dodington, has now accumulated vast piles of antique sheet music from family and friends, from which we will be performing in this last set.  Amy has also inherited her great-grandmother’s dress and great-great-grandmother’s Irish lace shawl, and the hat and high-buttoned boots from her mother… perhaps a little worse for wear, but as alive with purpose as on the day they were first made.  She has a new hat tonight, generously given to her by Helen Robinson from Leonard Lake, in honour of Nora.  Amy promises not to wear the new hat in the Model T.

Please note that my next nostalgia concert is coming up on October 13, 2018 in Toronto.  The format has changed slightly, with the musical genres mixed together rather than in sets.  Songs are grouped by theme.  Dad may be making a special guest appearance with one of his phonographs.

Thanks for reading!  'Til next time.
Amy

Further note: “A Touch of Old” was recorded for my live CD, “Roses of Yore,” now available for order from my website.