'Wonderful' concert by Tabernacle Choir
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President Thomas S. Monson characterized them as "our music pioneers" in concluding remarks. Indeed, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir celebrated a pioneer legacy of its own — "100 Years of Recording Excellence" — at its annual Pioneer Day Commemoration Concert with the Orchestra at Temple Square July 16 in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.
"One word has flowed through my mind throughout this concert," President Monson said in his address to the audience. "The word is wonderful."
He declared, "We're richly blessed by this magnificent choir and orchestra. In their dedicated service, they stand shoulder to shoulder with the choirs above in singing the praises of a just God. These are men and women who say their prayers, who serve in their church, who sacrifice."
He applied the words to the hymn "Hark, All Ye Nations!" to the work of the choir. "From its pioneer beginnings, as we have heard tonight, their recordings have taken the word of God into homes around the world."
He added, "No missionary effort of the Church has brought greater spirit to the work of the Lord than the singing and playing of these saints behind me and the tens of thousands who filled the choir seats before them. Tonight, we praise our music pioneers."
Beginning with the well-known pioneer hymn "They, the Builders of the Nation" the choir and orchestra presented a representative sample of their repertoire over the years, augmented by video clips and recorded statements by several of the principal personalities who are or have been associated with the choir.
Music director Mack Wilberg, for example, said, "It's the Mormon Tabernacle Choir that stands out with one of the longest traditions of sound recording in history. So, for the last 100 years, with every step forward in the recording industry, it seems like the Tabernacle Choir was there. It all began in 1910, when 300 singers under the direction of Evan Stephens made what was the first recording of a large choir in America. There were no microphones, no digital recording equipment. If you can believe it, the recording was laid down on a wax disc kept warm by a light bulb. And it was from that, you might say, that a recording tradition was born."
Richard E. Turley Jr., assistant Church historian, described that primitive technology, which included two large horns suspended above the choir members from a rope strung from the Tabernacle gallery on each side.
The choir performed two selections from that first recording session: Brother Stephens' composition "Let the Mountains Shout for Joy" and Charles Gounod's "Unfold Ye Portals."
J. Spencer Kinard, former announcer for the choir's long-running radio program "Music and the Spoken Word," said that in the 1920s the popularity of fledgling radio began to cut into the success of the record business and that the Tabernacle Choir saw advantages in both. "Therefore, on Monday, July 15, 1929, what is today 'Music and the Spoken Word' debuted on radio with Anthony Lund as director of the choir. By today's standards, the scene for that first program was makeshift at best, with 19-year-old Ted Kimball, the program's first announcer, perched atop a 15-foot ladder. Above him hung a single microphone to pick up the choir and the announcements of that full 30-minute program." The program is now the longest continuously running nationwide network broadcast in history.
At the concert, the choir performed "The Morning Breaks," the hymn with which the choir opened that first broadcast in 1929. It also performed a popular song of the era, Jerome Kern's "Look for the Silver Lining."
Choir administrative manager Barry Anderson related that in the 1940s, Harvey Fletcher, an engineer with Bell Telephone Laboratories and a Church member, engaged the choir and the Philadelphia Orchestra in a demonstration of a new kind of sound reproduction called stereophonic, or mulitple-track, recording, which would revolutionize the industry. With his three tons of equipment assembled in the Tabernacle, the choir sang into three microphones, each feeding into separate sound tracks, performing "Come, Come, Ye Saints" and excerpts from Mendelssohn's "Elijah." That recording was publicly demonstrated at New York's Carnegie Hall.
Associate music director Ryan Murphy said the choir's recording of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" from its album "The Lord's Prayer" was an instant blockbuster that by October 1959 won a Grammy Award and had climbed the Billboard magazine charts, pulling ahead of such popular groups as the Kingston Trio. Billboard at the time wrote that this was "the first time a recording by a symphony orchestra and religious choir has clicked in a rock-and-roll oriented pop single field."
At the concert, the choir and orchestra performed Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus" and "Battle Hymn of the Republic" using the same microphones, announcer Lloyd Newell said, that were used at the 1949 recording session.
Edward J. Payne, senior producer of the choir's broadcast, said the choir got its first recording break in the movies in 1952, when news commentator Lowell Thomas engaged the choir for the soundtrack of his colossal film in Cinerama, a film format of an earlier era similar to today's giant screen productions.
Retired Tabernacle organist John Longhurst spoke of the Tabernacle organ, saying it is one of the world's larger instruments and is known by millions due to the choir's weekly broadcast. In honor of the instrument, Tabernacle Organist Clay Christiansen performed "Festival Toccata" on the Conference Center organ, wowing the audience with intricate virtuosity.
Former music director Jerold Ottley said his first experience recording with the choir was for television. He said the choir sang live at various outdoor locations, including Ensign Peak in Salt Lake City, for a German television company.
Brother Newell said the choir's practice of recording music from the theater began with that first session in 1910, which included "Gypsy Love Song" from "The Fortune Teller" by Victor Herbert. At the concert it performed three such melodies: "It's a Grand Night for Singing," "Seventy-Six Trombones" and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain."
Choir general manager Scott Barrick noted that having recorded with a number of commercial labels over the year, the choir in 2003 created its own record label. Since then it has produced 33 recordings, including CDs and DVDs. "With our own label, we are unfettered as ambassadors of the Church to be able to reach out around the globe," he said. "We are on iPods in Mexico and ring tones in the Far East. We have a Facebook page that in one year has exceeded 40,000 fans. Not surprisingly, on Facebook, Salt Lake is number one in hits. But number two is not Provo or Orem. It's Santiago, Chile. That just tells us that the choir is indeed more than America's choir; it's the world's choir."
Demonstrating the cultural diversity of the choir's offerings, it performed the Nigerian carol "Betelehemu" and, accompanied by bagpipes, the hymn "Amazing Grace."
A recording of a "Spoken Word" from Elder Richard L. Evans, the member of the Quorum of the Twelve who served as the choir's broadcast announcer until his death in 1971, was played and then segued into a live "Spoken Word" by the current announcer, Brother Newell.
"Just think: The choir has been on the cutting edge of the recording industry from the very beginning," said choir president Mac Christensen in remarks near the end of the concert. "Very few musical organizations can claim such a legacy. We've been blessed by the prophetic leadership of Elder Richard L. Evans, President Gordon B. Hinckley, and today, President Thomas S. Monson."
