Music

From this winding-down decade of my life, I sometimes like to go back in my mind to the beginning of my life as a composer of simple gospel-themed music. I was about thirty-eight years old, all of our children were in school, and I found myself with time each day to dream a bit about things I might like to do. I had enjoyed the music that filled my childhood home, I had majored in music at Brigham Young University, and I had tried to teach my children to enjoy good music. But I had been too busy rearing children, serving in the Church, and following my passion for playing ball on Church and city ball teams to think of writing music. 

While I was recovering from a serious sports injury, our bishop asked me to write original music for the ward road show. I found I loved writing the songs—something I had not done since my BYU days. I wrote down a specific goal that I wanted to add to the simple music of the church, the kind that had helped my own testimony grow through all the years of my life. I have previously related the story behind the writing of my first song, “I’ll Follow Jesus,” and after its success I constantly thought about what I would like to write next. At times I couldn’t fall asleep at night because I was so anxious for morning to come so I could start writing again. Some of those first songs hold a special place in my heart even now, three decades later. 

A Young Boy Prayed 

I discovered through the years that ideas for songs do not always come at opportune times. One day as I began a solo fifty-mile drive on the freeway between Provo and Salt Lake City, I began thinking about the Joseph Smith story, which I had just read in the Pearl of Great Price. I felt absolute awe that a fourteen-year-old boy’s humble prayer was answered with a heavenly vision that would change the course of mankind. I also realized I had the same right as Joseph to kneel and pray to Heavenly Father and expect answers to my prayers. It was a humbling and empowering thought. 

Words and music just started happening in my mind. I reached for a scrap of paper in my purse and taped it to the center of the steering wheel. Each time a new line came I jotted it down (not a practice generally recommended for freeway driving!). When I reached my destination, I had three verses and a chorus scribbled on that scrap of paper, and the melody in my mind. I was afraid I wouldn’t remember the melody later so I sat in the car and drew music staff lines on the back of lube-and-oil invoice I found in the glove compartment and wrote out a rough version of the song before proceeding to my appointment. The song “A Young Boy Prayed” was later published and recorded just as it was conceived that day on I-15. 

            A Young Boy Prayed (JKP, 1976) 

As a child I learned at my mother’s knee
What a prayer of faith to a child could be
As she told of a boy with a troubled mind
Whose prayer was answered for all mankind           

                Chorus:

A young boy prayed
And opened up the heavens with his faith
Because He prayed
He heard and saw the Father face to face
This simple truth helps me in all I do
Because I know that I can pray too
How I love to hear of the sacred place
Where he talked with Jesus and saw His face
When I’m all alone and I kneel in prayer
I close my eyes and pretend I’m there

                Repeat chorus

As I go through life with its good and bad
I will try to think of the faith he had
I can pray to the Father to comfort me
As Joseph did in that grove of trees 

               Repeat chorus

In the Hollow of Thy Hand 

In 1977 my good friend Monita Robison came to me with a request. Her son Scott was soon to leave on a mission and she had written lyrics for a song entitled, “In the Hollow of Thy Hand” and wondered if I would compose the music. I had read that phrase in the scriptures and thought it a very comforting idea that the Lord would hold someone safe in the hollow of His hand. Our oldest son Steve’s mission was also imminent, so my feelings matched Monita’s exactly. 

Parents throughout the Church share these same tender feelings as their sons and daughters leave their homes for missionary service—perhaps that accounts for the rapid spread of this song throughout the Church. It was an amazing and unexpected phenomenon. Over the years we have received scores of thank you letters for providing a song that expressed parents’ tender feelings as their children leave on missions. Ten different composers have sent copies of their choral arrangements of the song, at least ten parents have sent their adaptations of the words for their daughter’s farewell, several people have adapted the words to fit a family funeral, and many have orchestrated or added instruments. The outpouring of interest and emotion which the song generated truly testifies of the deeply felt emotions of the Saints as their children leave the safety of their homes to bring souls to Christ and to sanctify themselves. 

After twenty-plus years I received a call from an honest person who said, “Have you written anything else for missionaries? I Have heard this song at so many farewells I am sick of it!”

When I chuckled, she added, “Oh, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded—it’s a great song. It’s just that I’ve heard it for so many years.” I considered that a compliment.

             In the Hollow of Thy Hand (words by Monita Turley Robison, 1977)

Dear Lord, who blesses us with love
Please send this day Thy spirit from above

As this Thy son accepts a call from Thee
Help him, we pray, to learn humility
Direct his footsteps every day
And keep him ever walking in Thy ways
Give him the courage of a righteous man
Lord, hold him in the hollow of Thy hand

                Chorus:

In the hollow of Thy hand
As he grows from boy to man
Help his understanding deepen and increase
In the hollow of Thy hand
As he grow from boy to man
Let him know the special blessing of Thy peace
Dear Lord, who hears and answers prayers
Please keep Thy servant always in Thy care
As he prepares to teach his fellowmen
Please keep him safe and bring him home again
Protect him from all worldly ways
And always send Thy spirit when He prays
Give him the courage of a righteous man
Just hold him in the hollow of Thy hand

               Repeat chorus

As he faces life’s demands
May he take a valiant stand
Give him shelter in the hollow of Thy hand

Where is Heaven 

I wrote “Where is Heaven” on a melancholy afternoon when I was thinking of our little son Richard who had lived for only five hours following his birth.

I often found myself wondering exactly where he was and what he was doing during the time of our separation from him. I strained to remember our pre-mortal existence, hoping to find comfort from what had happened there. But the veil remained firmly in place, leaving me to walk by faith for now. My comfort came from realizing that the only glimpse of heaven I could have right now was that which I felt in the presence of our own earthly family. I prayed that Richie felt that same happiness with those loved ones who greeted him on the other side of veil. Although the lyrics do not explicitly talk about death, the song has most often been sung at the funerals of children, so something I was feeling evidently came through these words: 

            Where is Heaven (JKP, 1977) 

I wish I could remember the days before my birth
And if I knew the Father before I came to earth
In quiet moments when I’m all alone
I close my eyes and try to see my heav’nly home

                Chorus:

Where is heaven? Is it very far?
I would like to know if it’s beyond the brightest star
Where is heaven? Will you show the way?
I would like to learn and grow and go there some day

I wish I could remember the Father’s loving face
And all the friends and family that filled that holy place
Was I a child there? Did I walk with God?
And was that where I learned about the Iron Rod?

               Repeat chorus

Although I can’t remember, and cannot clearly see
I listen to the Spirit, and so I must believe
But still I wonder, and I try to find
The answer to the question that is on my mind

                Repeat chorus

 I’ve a feeling that it’s not so far
 When you’re with the ones you love, it’s right where you are.

My Star is Rising (JKP, 1977)

About a year after I began writing gospel music in earnest, our stake Young Women president asked if I would write a song for the approaching Young Women conference. They had chosen the theme “My Star is Rising” and the Laurel presidents from the eight wards in our stake were to form a chorus to introduce theme song after which all the girls in the stake would sing it.

I loved their theme and went to work enthusiastically. Although I had been a tomboy through my life I had always felt very comfortable in my role as a woman and decided to start the song with a strong affirmation of that fact: “May the light of my womanhood shine bright and crystal clear through all time.” I knew the young girls in our ward well and could see they were approaching the time when they would be making major life-decisions. I hoped my song would help them feel confident in themselves and their womanhood in this critical time.

Hearing the song performed at the conference was very rewarding to me, as it was a new experience to hear my words and music come to life in a live performance. I later came to think of the song in a completely different sense when it was performed at the baptism of Tina Gunn, BYU’s six-foot, five-inch basketball star, before her marriage to Scott Robison of our ward. She was already a bonafide star on her team, but at her baptism her star was rising in a whole new meaningful way. 

            My Star is Rising (JKP 1977)

May the light of my womanhood
Shine bright and crystal clear through all time
As the torchlight is passed to me
I’ll hold it high, hold it high.
This is the time, oh yes these are the golden years
And I will meet the test somehow

Oh I can see I’m coming to an open door
I feel it now . . .

                Chorus:

My star is rising, and I feel a gentle surge
As new horizons come into view
I see before me many roads to take
What should I say? What should I do?
My star is rising.

May the light of my womanhood
Shine bright with purity from now on
Though the world tries to conquer me
I’ll travel on, travel on
For I am reaching upward to my destiny
And I can see the golden sky
I know I’m making memories for eternity
The world is mine . . .

                Repeat chorus

             It’s rising . . . My star is rising.

Conclusion

Looking back at these first songs which were written three and a half decades ago can definitely bring on the nostalgia for those first exciting stirrings of the spirit that helped me realize the power of a simple song, and let me know that I wanted to be part of the glorious experience of providing such songs for myself, my family and others. The words seem very simple now, and perhaps I have improved some in my ability to turn a poetic phrase and set it to music. But on the other hand, I never want to stray too far from my original goal to add to the simple music of the Church because in the very year I began my composing I heard Elder Boyd K. Packer speak these words at a BYU devotional (1976) and set my heart to follow his counsel: 

Some of our most gifted people struggle to produce a work of art, hoping that
it will be described by the world as a masterpiece! monumental! epic! when in truth            the very simple, compelling theme of “I Am a Child of God” has moved and will            move more souls to salvation than would such a work if they were to succeed.

All four songs referred to in this article are from the album Where is Heaven. Both the original album cover and the 25^th anniversary edition of the cover appear below, including a link to the album to our website.

Janice Kapp Perry: Composer, author, lecturer

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