Helping to Heal Our Land
by Robb Cundick
“Meridian’s Voice from the Tabernacle Choir”

“What you do for the Church-what you do for the spirituality of this country-cannot be duplicated anywhere else in the world.” -Senator Orrin Hatch to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

For the Tabernacle Choir as for the rest of the world, many things look different since September 11th. It seems everything we think of is colored by it. A couple of weeks ago I didn’t get to sing in “Music and the Spoken Word”. When you miss Thursday rehearsal you’re still encouraged to come, but you take on the role of observer in hopes you’ll learn things to make you a better participant. It is a humbling experience to sit in the audience. You feel like a tiny fleck of paint that, having fallen to the museum floor, looks up to see the beautiful painting from whence it came. Longing to rejoin it, you feel chagrinned to see it is just as glorious without you. People nearby have no idea you’re missing. Were you to point it out they’d probably be amused you thought you mattered very much. But you can take some comfort in the fact that the painting would indeed suffer if enough of its brushstrokes peeled away; your contribution is meaningful, though things would move along just fine without you.

In New York and Washington, enough brushstrokes did suddenly vanish from the picture that is America as to leave a void that will stand out for generations. It is a wound that will ache for a long time. But we have learned how important it is to continue living as fully and bravely as we can, and since that day, helping our country heal has become an important part of our work in the Choir.

The Memorial Services
It was providential that we had previously scheduled a concert for September 11; we were to sing for a convention of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Underwriters. The concert was quickly recast as a memorial service. Some of the lighter selections were replaced with more solemn fare, and though there was no time to rehearse the new (though familiar) material it didn’t seem to matter; the pent-up emotions of the day were channeled directly through our hearts to our voices. Surely there was no better balm anywhere in the world that night. In addition to the words of comfort from our beloved First Presidency, we keenly felt the presence of Him who is able to heal all wounds. The patriotic numbers were more poignant than they have ever been-the audience standing spontaneously as we sang favorites such as “America” and “God Bless America”.

Such was also the case later in the week when we performed in the services for the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance. President Hinckley had asked Brother Jessop about the possibility of providing a soloist or small group from the Choir. “President Hinckley,” Craig replied, “all of the Choir members will want to participate.” And nearly all of us were indeed both willing and able to arrange our schedules to come.

The opening of the service with the 3-minute tolling of the Nauvoo Bell was unprecedented. Each strike seemed to pound deeper into our hearts the realization that this was an occasion like no other, for this was a time for the entire world to mourn together. Blessed they. Blessed are they that mourn. These words of the Savior, set by Brahms in his beloved Requiem, put the week in its proper perspective: it is we who are left behind that are most in need of the Lord’s comfort and blessing. Our brothers and sisters who perished are already in His loving arms.

The experiences of the week moved me deeply and were the inspiration for the following words. Perhaps more prose than poetry, they nevertheless distill the thoughts and emotions that filled me as I sang in the Choir:

From the north they flew-from the wellspring of patriots.

Revere-like in resolve, yet only to be revered

By madmen, fanatics, and fools.

Sophist Silversmiths; riding the bowels of great silver eagles

Whose valiant eyes they had plucked

And replaced with vacant orbs of viciousness.

Descending upon the Alabaster City

They coldly sacrificed our innocent brothers and sisters,

Plunging them into the hearts of the giant Twin Towers

They supposed to be our gods.

The gleaming blue sky dimmed with smoke and ash,

Mingled with human tears.

How to avenge the thousands?

Perhaps by unmasking the mockery of their martyrs.

By refusing to worship gods of gold and greed and gluttony.

But rather look to the founder of our freedom:

That God to whom we turned in tortured tribulation.

With heart of gold, who asks us to love even these brutal enemies

Who thought themselves liberators,

While blinded by their own desperate depravity.

The intervening weeks have brought a return to some sense of normalcy, but as this world-changing event has brought new opportunities for spiritual renewal to our nation, so it has for the Choir as well. Every time we sing of God and Country our hearts are full. General Conference is always a spiritual peak, but I believe our singing this time was filled with more feeling and devotion than ever. We sense the need for unity in our nation and in the world at large, and our hope is to uplift and unify through this great universal language of music.


Tabernacle Choir, Voices of Friendship Festival Choir,
and 21-harp orchestra rehearse for Music and the Spoken Word
(photo by Tom Cundick).

A Brotherhood of Nations
I felt this particularly when we sang a very unusual episode of Music and the Spoken Word. In late October children’s choirs from all over the world were in Salt Lake City for a concert entitled “Voices of Friendship”. It was the first major non-Church-sponsored event to be held in the Conference Center. The following morning the Festival Chorus (made up of about 300 children from Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Romania, Korea, and Slovakia dressed in native costume) joined with the Tabernacle Choir for the broadcast. But if that weren’t impressive enough, a “harp orchestra” of 21 harps also performed.

I have never heard so many harps play at once. What a heavenly sound! And it struck me that 21 harps are a symbolically appropriate salute to the Lord. But events like this are not brought about with ease. When so many children from so many time zones are awakened early on a Sunday morning it is a recipe for pandemonium. Mack Wilberg drew the wrong straw to be conducting this one and he was very relieved when it came off well.

The challenges aside, I have not had many more moving experiences than when we closed with Mack’s arrangement of the hymn, “Thou Gracious God Whose Mercy Lends”. Think of these words in light of September 11th:

Thou gracious God, Whose mercy lends

The light of home, the smile of friends

Our gathered flock Thine arms enfold.

As in the peaceful days of old.

Wilt thou not hear us while we raise,

In sweet accord of solemn praise,

The voices that have mingled long

In joyous flow of mirth and song?

For all the blessings life has brought,

For all the sorrowing hours have taught.

For all we mourn, for all we keep,

The hands we clasp, the loved that sleep.

The noontide sunshine of the past

These brief, bright moments fading fast.

The stars that gild our darkening years,

The twilight ray from holier spheres.

We thank Thee, Father, let Thy grace

Our loving circle still embrace,

Thy mercies shed its heav’nly store,

Thy peace be with us evermore.

Poignant words in their own right-but then imagine them sung by over 600 children and adult voices accompanied by 21 harps and the full power of the Mormon Tabernacle Organ. There could be no more glorious symbol of the brotherhood of nations. Perhaps it was a foreshadowing of what it will be like to sing in Choirs above!


Singing the National Anthem at the Utah Jazz Basketball
Game (photo by Gretel Cundick).

Singing for the Utah Jazz
It seems that nearly every public occasion since the attacks has included some kind of special observance. Such was the case for the season-opening NBA basketball games, and guess who was asked to sing at the first Utah Jazz Game? I doubt the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has ever been called upon to sing the National Anthem at a sporting event, but these are extraordinary times.

The weekend before the game we were on a “mini-tour” to Idaho where we performed for the centennial of Idaho State University in Pocatello and at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg. We used the same program as last Spring’s Southern States tour. Singing that beautiful music which we have all committed to memory was once again a moving experience. The audiences were large and appreciative, and we again reveled together in a great celebration of love for the Lord.


Indoor Football Arena at Idaho State University where we
performed and also practiced our walkon for the Jazz Game.

While rehearsing in a huge indoor football arena in Pocatello we also did a blocking practice to figure out how to march the Choir on and off the Delta Center basketball floor in less than two minutes each way. It was a rather amusing experience. The men and women entered from opposite sides marching quickly, two rows at a time. We repeated it several times and felt a bit like soldiers drilling on a parade ground.

But when game time arrived on Tuesday night we felt a huge responsibility resting on our shoulders. Expectations are high whenever and wherever the Tabernacle Choir performs. An elevator operator at the Delta Center said, “We’re so glad to have you. It will be wonderful to hear our national anthem sung right for a change!” In our formal concert attire we felt as out of place at the Jazz game as we had last June marching through Disney World. But as at all times we wanted to conduct ourselves with dignity and under the influence of our Heavenly Father’s Spirit.


Choir members pictured on the Utah Jazz Scoreboard (photo
by Gretel Cundick).

When our time came we marched smartly out to fill the entire playing surface. As we looked up at the faces in the crowd while singing “The Star Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America”, we knew that for those few moments this worldly occasion was transported to a higher plane. Eyes were moist and faces solemn as all contemplated the true meaning of those patriotic words. I looked over to catch a glimpse of team owner Larry Miller, standing just a few feet away and struggling to contain his emotions. After we finished, we changed clothes and most of us stayed to enjoy the game.

Upcoming Events
The 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics are also raising the Choir’s visibility and creating opportunities to share our joyous message in new ways. December will be a remarkable month. Television’s “Sixty Minutes II” has taped a segment to be shown sometime during the month (it shows on Wednesday nights, so keep an eye out for it). On December 22nd we will be featured on what I understand is to be the series finale of “Touched by an Angel”. It was taped last week. I wish I could tell you what it was like but I was unable to participate. [I heard it was quite an ordeal. The Choir arrived at 10 AM and didn’t finish until after 10 PM. Most of the time was spent waiting around.] Then on Christmas Eve, PBS will air a nationwide broadcast of a Christmas Special we taped last year featuring Ralph Vaughn Williams’ Christmas Cantata, “Hodie” (meaning, “This Day”).

There is no better recipe for healing than the blessed Christmas season, especially when we focus on its proper observance. We have the Church-wide First Presidency Devotional broadcast to look forward to on the evening of December 2nd. Then the Choir and Orchestra will join with special guest Angela Lansbury for our Christmas Concerts on December 7th and 8th, and for “Music and the Spoken Word” and a concert following on Sunday morning the 9th. All will be held in the Conference Center and I believe there are tickets remaining for the Sunday morning performance.

In February we’ll join with the world to celebrate the long-anticipated 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, singing at the Opening Ceremonies on the 8th. There is something scheduled almost every night but Mondays for the entire month of February. We’ll participate in “Light of the World: A Celebration of Life” -the Church’s multimedia theatrical and musical production for the Olympics. There will also be special Cultural Olympiad concerts in the Tabernacle with opera star Frederika Von Stade, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, the King’s Singers, and percussionist Evelyn Glennie. All of that in addition to our regular rehearsals and performances of “Music and the Spoken Word.”

So we will not completely sacrifice our family lives by feeling obligated to participate in everything, the size of the Choir has temporarily been boosted from 320 to 360. Those who were to have retired recently were granted a few more precious months, and remaining singers from Mormon Youth Chorus who have passed the Tabernacle Choir auditions but are still younger than the minimum 25 year age limit have been invited to join us through the Olympics.

All that and we have just released a new album! “The Sound of Glory” features hymns arranged by Barlow Bradford and Mack Wilberg as well as Tabernacle Organist John Longhurst. Thanks to the Internet you can listen to samples of the selections and even download a full mp3 of our most-requested selection, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

See: https://www.telarc.com/gscripts/title.asp?gsku=0579&mscssid=4EFSV5C3U8S92PJ70G05AFURQN3521T3

There is also a page with samples of our latest Christmas Album, “A Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas” at:

https://www.telarc.com/gscripts/title.asp?gsku=0552&mscssid=4EFSV5C3U8S92PJ70G05AFURQN3521T3

Both albums include full orchestral accompaniments with the Orchestra at Temple Square. Our new recording partner, TelArc, does superb work. You should see the Tabernacle when we have a recording session. We bring quilts from home to cover the balcony benches and make the hall a little less “live”. All those multi-colored quilts make for quite a sight!

At the beginning of this article I quoted Senator Orrin Hatch, who spoke to us after the broadcast on November 18th. The program included a performance of “Heal Our Land,” with text by Senator Hatch and music by former Choir Member Janice Kapp Perry. Both were present for the performance and were very moved. The words are in the form of a prayer, and I thought the following excerpt would provide a fitting close to this article:

Heal our land, heal our land
And guide us with Thy hand
Keep us ever on the path of liberty.
Heal our land, heal our land
And help us understand
That we must put our trust in thee
If we would be free.

May our faith and trust be in the Lord, and may this Christmas season be a happy and healing one for us all.

 

 

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