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The Virgin of the Sun God
She was my muse
At an age so young I may not have known what “virgin” meant, I used to sing the “Virgin of the Sun God” right along with Yma Sumac. On my father’s record player — vinyl, can you imagine? I marveled at the diva’s Inca-princess costume on the cover of the Voice of the Xtabay album.
Yma Sumac had a four-and-a-half octave range. Well, maybe it was four. Or maybe it was five. She’s a legend, after all, and her range was legendary, unparalleled to this day except, some say, by Minnie Ripperton and Mariah Carey.
In any case, Sumac’s high notes were too high for me no matter how much I screeched, and I growled when attempting her low notes. My range was a little less than three octaves. I didn’t know this was impressive. I just loved to sing.
By the time I was 14, Respighi’s The Pines and Fountains of Rome had become my favorite piece of music even though there’s no singing in it. Now, I think it’s boring. But back then, the piece seemed to me to be “stentorian” — also several other words I didn’t know at age 14 like “sonorous” and, even…
