“Shenandoah” takes us outdoors, where the warm words and sounds of early 19th-century American folklore shine on composer and listener. Like Getty, I grew up in love with Fred Waring’s choral setting of this on the radio, but when I first overhead this tune in Getty’s arrangement, recorded by soprano Lisa Delan at Skywalker Ranch, I was awestruck by its alluring harmonies and potent lyricism. Working with full orchestra and chorus, the composer makes audible the currents of the “rolling river”.
From the liner notes for Beauty Come Dancing
Jeff Kaliss