Lincoln Portrait (1942). Aaron Copland /aaron and abraham and barack/

barbara gallardo via Flickr

Deceptively Simple has found a YouTube video of Barak Obama narrating Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait.

I happened to blog about the performance at the time in 2005. Unfortunately, the link to the Chicago SunTimes article I used no longer works and a quick search on the site doesn't turn it up. I don't really remember why I thought this important enough to post although I was aware of Obama's speech at the Democratic Convention the year before. But any additional context remains cloudy.

In any case, the quote from the newspaper about Obama's performance skills foreshadows recent events:

Obama brought an orator's skill without an actor's slick veneer to Copland's "Lincoln Portrait.'' The comforting quality of his voice gave added emotional resonance to Lincoln's words.