by LAURA KEIL
When you hear your own voice recorded, it sounds different.
When you hear your own voice recorded singing together with family on other continents – what does that sound like?
Local author and grandfather Seiji Hiroe is waiting to hear.
Hiroe has eight grandchildren, four of whom live in Slovakia. Two more live in Squamish (and sometimes visit the other side of their family in Europe), and two live in Valemount. His grandchildren are seldom all in the same country, never mind the same room. He says they all get together once every two to three years.
Last year, Seiji, a published children’s author, decided to write a song. He said it took him a long time to write it.
He then asked his children to record their children singing the song – and to send it to his son-in-law Tom Korver so he could mix the recordings into a single track.
“It’s very simple; not like songs of Pavarotti,” Hiroe says.
Korver is arranging the song and says he will add piano and violin and may change the key of some voices to create harmonies. He’ll do this in his recording studio here in Valemount.
While the three-minute song is not yet finished, Hiroe and Korver hope to have it done by Christmas so Hiroe can send it out as a present.
He says it’s amazing what technology can do nowadays.
“To put things together from people from different parts of the world – I thought that is pretty nice, amazing.”
The song is called Sing Hallelujah, and tells the biblical Christmas story. Hiroe says four or five of the grandkids are old enough to take part in the song.
While their voices may not mingle very often, Hiroe can’t wait to hear his grandchildren singing together on Christmas Day.
