Music

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Jehovah is my Strength and My Song
2 Nephi 22:2

On composing Messiah, Handel is said to have remarked (1741),
“I did think I did see all Heaven before me and the great God Himself.”

The transcendent notion of a song, of singing, of music is one of the most amazing forms of human communication. This form of communication involves language, but more dominantly the spiritual realm within the soul of man.

When God breathed the breath of life into Adam he bestowed the gift of song, of music. Singing, indeed music, cannot exist without breath, without airwaves to carry the sound.

The tender whisper of a lullaby a mother or father sings to their child is most likely not a desire to communicate a complex message embed in the lyrics. No, it’s meant to convey tender emotional, spiritual vibrations of love coming from the deepest part of the soul.

Music, like faith, is a gift from God. Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught, “Music is part of the language of the Gods. It has been given to man so he can sing praises to the Lord. It is a means of expressing, with poetic words and in melodious tunes, the deep feelings of rejoicing and thanksgiving found in the hearts of those who have testimonies of the divine Sonship and who know of the wonders and glories wrought for them by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Music is both in the voice and in the heart. Every true saint finds his heart full of songs of praise to his Maker. Those whose voices can sing forth the praises found in their hearts are twice blest. “Be filled with the Spirit,” Paul counseled, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” (Eph. 5:18–19.) Also: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” (Col. 3:16.)

The scriptures are replete with metaphors regarding music and singing. Prophets referencing magnificent visions where they saw angels singing and praising God.

“And being thus overcome with the Spirit, he was carried away in a vision, even that he saw the heavens open, and he thought he saw God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels in the attitude of singing and praising their God.” 1 Nephi 1:8

The act of singing is so much more than making musical sounds with ones voice. It is the very act of praising God. When we understand the purpose of music, of singing we come to comprehend that it is very literally a high form of worship, or adoration of expressing love for God.

The global phenomenon since its creation, of Handel’s oratorio Messiah and the beloved “Hallelujah Chorus” is a perfect example of this. The transformative nature of this masterpiece is undeniable.

The writer Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) wrote a compelling account of the setting and emotions Handel felt as he stood at the threshold of composing the world’s greatest oratorio of Jesus Christ, Messiah. Weathering the tempests of his career he had been immersed in composing many forms of classical music, oratorio, opera and music for the organ. One day a letter lay on top of his desk from the poet Charles Jennens, who wrote to say that he hoped the great genius of music, would look graciously on his poor words and carry them up on his wings through the ether of immortality.”

Handel misinterpreted the letter from Jennens fearing that he was mocking him. Not even daring to read the poem, the envelope lay on his desk untouched. Determined to push it from his mind he retired for the evening.

“But he could not sleep. Handel rose, went back into his study and once again lit the candle. Messiah, read the first page. He turned over the title leaf and began to read. At the first words he started up. “Comfort ye,” began the libretto. It was like magic, that phrase – no, not a phrase, it was an answer divinely given, the cry of an angel calling from the overcast skies to his heart. Handel heard the phrase as music, as hovering, calling, rushing, singing notes.

“His hands shook as he turned page after page. Yes, he had been called, summoned. Every word entered into him with irresistible force. All his weariness was gone. Never before had he felt his powers so strongly, never before known the joy of creation streaming through him like this.”

“Again and again the words poured over him like warm, redeeming light. And suddenly he shivered, for there, in the hand of poor Jennens, he read: “The Lord gave the word.”

“He held his breath. Here was the truth: the Lord had given him the word; and behold, there the word was written, there it rang out, a word that could be repeated and transformed for ever: “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!”

“Tears blurred Handel’s eyes, so mighty was the fervour in him. Hastily, he picked up his pen and began setting down notes. He could not stop. It carried him away, like a ship with all sails spread, running before a stormy wind.”

Handel sat enveloped in a different world consumed with composing the music that he heard.

“No one ventured to approach him. He did not leave the study for three weeks. Handel knew nothing of the hour in those weeks. He lived entirely in the sphere that measures time only by musical beat and rhythm; he moved only with the current that surged from him as the work flowed closer to the sacred rapids of its conclusion.”

“At last, on 14 September, the work was finished. What before had been only dry, sere language now blossomed and sang, never to fade. Handel rose to his feet, with difficulty. The pen dropped from his hand. The strength had gone out of him. His body was tired, his mind confused. He fell on his bed and slept like the dead.”

After 17 hours of undisturbed exhausted sleep Handel began to regain his strength.

When I read this stirring account of Handel’s role being a conduit for God’s light, I felt as though a voice was expressing my own journey creating the worlds largest sculptural collection of Jesus Christ.

Handel’s gift was given through the power of music revealing power and beauty through notes passionately scribbled on a manuscript. While I spent most of my adult life pursuing excellence through vocal performance in the classical world of opera, my conduit gift was that of creating tangible, timeless depictions of events from the life of Jesus Christ in clay that then were cast in bronze.

There is no escaping the unflinching demands put on the mortal body when one is called to be a conduit. The exacting, pulsating tempo that coursed through my veins for thirteen years was fixed and immovable as I answered my call to create an artistic witness of Jesus Christ.

Beyond required scrutiny, my spirit constantly reached higher, demanded more, surpassing the mortal capacity of my body. Creating the highest level of beauty befitting the subject, relentless reaching upward is a powerful metaphor of faith. Love, the motivator, hope, the sustaining virtue creates in us a desire to drop the rags of the natural man and accept the glorious robes Christ has created for us, if we will accept them. “In my Father’s house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you.”

The completed Light of the World Garden at Ashton Gardens in Lehi, Utah is my sculptural version of Handel’s Messiah. Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace sing through sculptures like the choirs of Heaven declaring that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior of the World! There is no apology, only emphatic testimony declaring my love for Jesus Christ! Millions of voices declare their love for Him.

Several days after the first performance of Messiah Handel visited Lord Kinnoul. He paid Handel a compliment of “the noble entertainment” he had created. Handel is said to have remarked, “My Lord, I should be sorry if I only entertained them; I wished to make them better.”

Surely the objective of great art is to lift people higher, inspire them, awaken them to memories of premortal knowledge of who Jesus Christ is and why we are here on earth. The arts, which are divine gifts from God, can be the means of giving our eyes of faith greater vision, greater understanding leading us ever closer to our Beloved Savior and our eternal destiny.

My voice joins the choir of the angels proclaiming; “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation.