Belinda the Chipmunk by Seymour Bernstein

 

My good friend, Jack Mills, brought me several large stacks of music a few weeks ago.  In one of the piles was "Belinda the Chipmunk" by Seymour Bernstein, copyrighted in 1986 and showcasing Belinda in the lower righthand corner of a retro faded coral cover.  It's not every day that I run into a chipmunk advertising a score, and the font was captivating, so I flipped it open to find a collection of a dozen short teaching pieces, black and white photography, and several paragraphs of narration. What could a chipmunk have done that was captivating enough to inspire this set?

But wait - I didn't want to know.

I called my brother-in-law and asked if he'd record the narration.  He agreed.  A few days later, I asked my sister if she'd edit the video together.  She was rightfully annoyed that Bill was already in on it, and neither of us had bothered telling her about it, but she agreed, too.

After playing through the pieces for a short time, I was charmed by the attention to detail, and the music struck me as both playful and sincere.  I never listened to any other performances and never read any of the narrations; I only played the music as it came naturally to me, and I did not learn of the beautiful friendship between Belinda and Seymour Bernstein until after Lien stitched it all together.  We hope you enjoy sweet Belinda.