Years ago, when the time approached for the return of our oldest son from his mission, I felt inspired to write a missionary anthem for his homecoming. "Go Forth in the Service of God" came about while I was contemplating some words of President Gordon B. Hinckley. He talked about how missionary work offered the joy of the gospel to the hungering souls of the earth. He went on to say, "For this is the joy of which angels sang when they sang at the birth of God's Son." This wonderful quote and its follow-on became the climax of my song.
Next week, my youngest son leaves to serve a full-time mission in Arizona. Thirty members of our extended family came to our Ward to listen to him give his farewell talk and help provide a musical number. Together we sang my new arrangement of "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" with piano and flute accompaniment. This hymn has become a wonderful missionary anthem. The message of going, doing, saying, and being what the Lord would have us be and serving His children throughout the world is a great send off for any new missionary. It also helps us resolve to remember to do our part on the home front. After the meeting, a friend came up to me and said, "You are having a harvest day today." What she said was true. Five of my children and their families who live locally were there, as well as many of my brothers and sisters and their families. Not only did they come to offer support and encouragement for my son, they are talented musicians who love to bear their testimonies of the gospel through song. Years ago, when the time approached for the return of our oldest son from his mission, I felt inspired to write a missionary anthem for his homecoming. "Go Forth in the Service of God" came about while I was contemplating some words of President Gordon B. Hinckley. He talked about how missionary work offered the joy of the gospel to the hungering souls of the earth. He went on to say, "For this is the joy of which angels sang when they sang at the birth of God's Son." This wonderful quote and its follow-on became the climax of my song. The message of this anthem is not only for the departing missionary, but to all of us in fulfilling our callings and taking part in building the kingdom of God on the earth. In this respect, this anthem is not just a Missionary Anthem, but a song of exhortation unto all of us to "Press forward with faith and endure to the end 'til the work of the Master is done."
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![]() With the beginning of summer comes the time we get to perform many wonderful and stirring patriotic anthems. Some of my favorites that we sing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir are "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" arranged by Wilhousky, "Distant Land" by John Rutter, "And the Dream Goes On" by John Williams, and "America the Beautiful" arranged by Mack Wilberg. The words and choral parts of these anthems are moving and wonderful, but what makes the experience of singing them so exciting are the orchestrations. How great is it to be able to sing with such a wonderful orchestra! These pieces are all very different, yet powerful and thrilling in their own ways. During the next few months, we will get to sing many wonderful patriotic anthems on the Music and the Spoken Word Broadcasts, as well as concerts with the Utah Symphony at Deer Valley and the the Pioneer Day Celebration concert. My father was born on July 2nd. We have always had fun celebrations for his birthday in conjunction with the July 4th Independence Day celebrations for our country. Dad's jobs moved us all over the country, so we were able to experience many different ways of celebrating the birthday of America, as well as my father's. But, no matter how elaborate the fireworks, or parades or gala events, the thread that connected all of these celebrations was the music. And we had the advantage of knowing and understanding the many references in the songs about America, because we had first-hand knowledge of historical events and places from actually visiting them. For my father's 80th birthday, I felt inspired to write a song to thank him for helping me develop a love for our country. Not only did Dad take us to visit most of the United States, he taught us about how this land was preserved for a special purpose. This land was reserved as a place for the gospel to be restored and come forth in the last days. It is a promised land for those who are righteous and serve the God of the land. It is "My Promised Land" because of the covenants I have made to personally serve the Lord and strive to live righteously. It can be your promised land, too.
At this season of remembrance, may we take the time to remember our forefathers and their resolve to build America as the land of the free and the home of the brave. May we commit to live righteously, for as John Adams said, "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." ![]() Singers quite often have a dilemma they face when performing. "Do I think about the words of the song and sing with emotion OR do I try to ignore the words and rely on technique to carry me through so I do not cry." On one of the songs on the Father's Day Broadcast, the women really had a hard time singing without falling apart. "Turn Around" is a tender song about watching a daughter grow up from a tiny babe to a wife with babes of her own. All of us have children in our lives who have grown up too fast before our very eyes and the music makes our tender hearts ache and our noses run and our eyes leak! During the run-through, there were very few of us who were actually singing by the last verse! So what to do? Some singers have suggested that they have to think about doing the laundry back home or making a grocery list. One friend said that she imagined one of the tenors doing pirouettes down the steps of the loft in a comical way. Others carry silly pictures in their folders to focus on during the "tearful tender" sections. I found that for me, thinking about the technical aspects of the music helps me hold it together. "Turn Around" -- the title helped me think about the musical device called a "turn around." This is a device used between phrases to provide a springboard back into similar thematic material or to provide momentum into a modulation to a new key. So, for the actual Broadcast, I paid attention to how the harmonia played a beautiful little motive as the strings swelled just a bit to give it some life. I noticed how the horns and lower strings accompanied the men's verse all in the bass clef. Then, I listened as the modulation swelled with all of the instruments doing a grand crescendo with the harp glissando and then all of the singers came in with the last verse. Then I focused on how the woodwinds played a lovely accompaniment with the strings supporting the voices. And I watched how the vibraphone player was using four mallets all at the same time! And guess what? I made it through the song without weeping! Yay for me! It is not that we singers do not want to give a proper interpretation of the words, it is more the problem of how to get through the performance and still be capable of singing at all! So, we do our best to put the interpretation into the voice through musical techniques -- crescendo, diminuendo, legato, staccato, shaping the line, etc --- and RELY TOTALLY ON THAT during the times when we have to strategize ways to hold our emotions together in the hope to be able to get through the song! Listen to this beautiful and touching song on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir YouTube Channel. "Turn Around" ![]() My neighbor sitting next to me in the choir the other day leaned over and said, "I am always so amazed at our conductor. He is always teaching us things to help make us better. Every vowel sound, our entrances and cut-off's, how we make the shaping happen...he is always prodding us to do better." She is right. Our conductors are excellent at listening acutely for every little thing that could be fixed to make us sound better. But what impressed me was when Mack Wilberg kept giving us reminders of what we needed to fix just before we came to it in the music. He would give us a little signal as a reminder and never even miss a beat. He is always thinking one or more steps ahead of the choir and orchestra. really is the sign of a great conductor -- someone who envisions the sounds and interpretation he wants and knows what to do to get it out of his performers. It can seem nit-picky, but so worth the effort when the result is so refined and great. I have sung in choirs where the conductor really could not isolate problem spots and just had us plod on oblivious to our problems. have also sung in groups where the conductor could only really hear her own voice part, mostly melody. She would spent inordinate amounts of time correcting that one part, but not even be aware of problems in the other parts. While it is true that the melody, or often the highest part, is most likely all the audience pays attention to, they can still tell when something is not right with the entire group. They might not be able to pinpoint the problem, but they will very freely give their opinions when something just did not sound right. Like a good cook who can isolate and tell you the component ingredients in a dish just from taste or smell, so a good conductor can isolate problems in his choir or orchestra just by listening. And then he will quickly proceed knowing just what to do to balance or correct the issues. That takes years of perfecting musicianship skills and lots and lots of listening! But the talent of giving little cues just before the problem is to come in the music, that is really something! That takes thinking ahead and planning just what to do to get the best performance out the of the singers. A conductor who can do that is definitely not thinking of himself, he is only thinking of what is best for the music. And when the chorus watches and responds well to those timely reminders, a great performance is bound to occur. It is a truly amazing conductor who can make that happen! ![]() The workings within the percussion section of the orchestra can be interesting to watch. The players trade places often to cover the different instruments as they are called for in the score. Usually the drums and chimes and mallet instruments and hand-held noisemakers are all grouped together, but occasionally they are strategically placed throughout the orchestra to get just the right effect. During the rehearsal for the broadcast, the glockenspiel player was asked to move with his instrument to be beside the harp so that they could work and "feel" together. Their plucking and pinging were to happen precisely together for reenforcement. When they were on opposite sides of the orchestra, that effect did not come across as well. I noticed that in the Broadcast, when they were beside each other, the two players were better able to "feel" the exact instant of their unison plucks and pings and the effect was magical. Some choir conductors like to group their singers in "pods" of soprano, alto, tenor and bass. They feel that by equally dispersing the parts throughout the choir, they can achieve a better quality blend. Other conductors feel that they can control the blend of the singers better when they are in their homogeneous sections. I have sung in both arrangements and have enjoyed both models. The pod arrangement worked very well for a small choir of 40-60 voices on stages with very good acoustics. The blending was easily achieved because we were all very close to each other and could "feel" together easily. Besides, it is very fun to sing in an SATB pod and hear all the parts so close around you. But unless you are very well tuned in to how you blend with your fellow sectioneers as well as your podmates, your voice may actually stick out from the fabric of the choir as a whole and you may not realize it. For the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, I have the feeling that the microphone issues are the real reason we cannot sit in "pods." The blend that the conductor hears from the podium a football stadium's distance away from the choir is very different from the blend that the microphones pick up very near to the seats of the loft. I can just imagine how problematic the "pods" arrangement could potentially be. Individual voice colors regularly pop out of the choir sound even within our big sections. That problem could easily be magnified a hundredfold if we were sitting in pods. The guys in the sound booth can make an educated guess which mic is picking up the stray sound within a section, but it would be too hard to isolate the problematic sound if all the parts were coming through all of the mics. For us, the homogeneous sections help us unify our section sound for reenforcement and we rely on the conductor to keep us balanced with the rest of the choir (which we cannot always hear as well). This really does help us "feel" it together, too. And when we achieve that unity, it is truly magical! ![]() One of the last activities my mother completed during her years in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was to record Handel's Messiah. My sister Bonnie and I have had the unique privilege of just completing the recording of Messiah with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Because my time in the choir is running out, I feel like this is such a sweet bookend experience to our mother's experience. Many memories come flooding back of the Sunday mornings when our house would be filled with the sounds of the glorious choruses of Messiah as we woke up and got ready for church. Mom played this recording at full volume so that all parts of our house (and half the neighborhood) would benefit from hearing it. I can even smell the roast beef on the stove being browned to be left in the oven for the hours we would be away at church. I even remember having my hair brushed in time to "For Unto Us a Child Is Born." That chorus has always been one of my favorites! We took such joy in the fact that our mother, Carolyn Thompson Lee and her mother, Lora Harmon Thompson, our grandmother, both sang with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Our Mom sang in brief stints between pregnancies between 1955 and 1965 when we moved to Texas. Our mother's three brothers also sang in the choir during the 1950's and 1960's. Everywhere we moved, all 36 moves, our mother was a celebrity. She had sung on radio broadcasts and made recordings, gone on tours, and even garnered a Gold Record with the MoTab recording of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." This was her particular claim to fame because she sang the high cadre notes at the end of this incredible piece. Every time I sing "Battle Hymn," I think of her as now I get to sing the high notes! Sometimes I can feel her presence as I sing! Can't wait to sing that song again tomorrow on the Memorial Day Special! ![]() How fitting that the last song we recorded of the Messiah was "For Unto Us a Child Is Born." We worked for hours to get enough perfect takes of the individual sections so that this project can go out to the world as a labor of love to last another 50 years. The final words were a stirring testimony of Jesus Christ, Messiah, the Savior and Redeemer of the world, "Wonderful! Counselor! The Mighty God! The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace!" I can truly say, as Ryan Murphy did at the close of the last take, "Hallelujah!" Tonight is our last night of recording Handel's Messiah. This has been a wonderful experience and a very long and tiring experience. Sustaining energy and excitement over the long haul has been challenging. Here we are at the end of our portion of the work and I for one am feeling the exhaustion. One of the unexpected tolls has been the sleepless nights filled with melismas playing over and over in my brain. As much as I love the music of Messiah, I simply cannot get the sleep I need with passages of music punctuating my dreams. I am not even sure I get into the dream state. The intricate 16th note runs have wormed their way into my psyche and keep making me practice all through the night! Instead of waking up refreshed, I tumble out of bed exhausted from working through the night! Our conductor has had quite the job of trying to keep us enthused throughout these last few sessions. We know he is exhausted, and still he has the added burden of trying to keep us on task and up to speed. And, even after we are done with our portion, he still has all of the editing left to do! Whew! He said something to us the other night that really struck hard. He hoped we could keep from SOCIAL LOAFING or relying on the other people in choir to provide the energy asked for by the conductor. We simply cannot ride on other people's energy. We must get in there and continue to give our 100%. Wish us success!
I have been thinking about the idea of SOCIAL LOAFING. How many times have I been guilty of that in other areas of my life? How many times have I relaxed (loafed) and allowed, or rather assumed that other people would provide the energy to move some activity along? How many times has my attitude of "go ahead and impress me" ruled the day? And how many times have I remained unimpressed and not brought any enthusiasm to the event when my energy could have made a positive difference? I have done my share of conducting and directing. I know how hard it is to pull a performance out of my performers. I understand how wonderful it can be to feed off the group's collective energy and ride the crest of their "high" wave. Most of that energy comes from the simple decision to make it happen. So tonight, I will go into the recording session with that decision made. No SOCIAL LOAFING for me. Tonight I bring my attitude and energy positively charged -- 100%. Then maybe, after tonight, I will be able to get some sleep! ![]() A couple of weeks ago, we got to sing in Choir Heaven under the baton of two guest conductors - Anton Armstrong and Bob Chilcott. These men are giants in the world of choral conducting today. They each conduct their own choirs and are active in the adjudicating circuit. This means that they travel around giving seminars and master classes with college, high school and even children's choirs around the world and judge performances at festivals. They were in Utah for this purpose, but also agreed at Mack Wilberg's invitation to guest conduct the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on a Broadcast. They both happened to be in Utah the same weekend. ![]() Bob Chilcott, a former member of the King's Singers, is a great composer and arranger as well as choral conductor from England. Anton Armstrong, considered a pioneer in American acappella music today, conducts choirs at St. Olaf's College in Minnesota and is one of the most sought after adjudicators and clinicians in the country. My colleagues in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir who are choral teachers themselves were delighted and awed to sing under the batons of both of these wonderful conductors. One friend had spent the day before in masterclass sessions with her children's choir under the baton of Bob Chilcott. She was happy to have a second dose of inspiration from these wonderful choral masters. Wilberg is also considered a giant among choral conductors in the world today. These men are friends and colleagues. He told us that he had thrown out the invitation to come guest conduct the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to each of them separately in casual conversations years before. He never imagined that they would both be in Utah and available to guest conduct on the very same weekend. It posed a challenge for us because that weekend was just after our mammoth Messiah concert and just before our massive week of recording it, oh yes and the Mother's Day Broadcast was in there, too. Each conductor chose two pieces for the Broadcast from their own repertoire. These pieces were not our normal fare. Mack tried his best to squeeze in some preparation time into our overloaded schedule. Anton Armstrong had us sing a gorgeous a cappella piece that really tested our mettle. It was written with no time signatures. Nearly every measure was in a different meter. Once we got the hang of it, we enjoyed singing it very much. Bob Chilcot had us sing two of his original pieces that were just beautiful. We had the unique experience of learning different perspectives of performance from two very different conductors and had a marvelous time. Although, we regularly enjoy singing in Choral Heaven under the baton of our own conductor, we were triply blessed to sing under two more masterful conductors, as well. People are always asking me why they can't find me on the Broadcast. "Why don't you bribe the cameramen to do a long close up on you or something?" Well, of course, I would never do anything like that! Since there are so many people in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, I am sure they try their best every week to pan as many singers as possible with the cameras. But they cannot linger for more than a few seconds on a single person. Yet, I am told that occasionally, the cameras do give me some face time. ![]() In choir school, new members of the choir are given lessons in proper broadcast deportment. We were taught never to look directly into the camera or even act aware of the camera. We must hold our folders at a certain height so that we don't block the camera views of any faces. We should not sway our bodies or jolt our heads around. (That looks unnatural and unprofessional!) And we must look alive with smiling, open eyes, but not smiling lips -- that would not allow formation of proper vowels. And we must always maintain focus on the conductor! All this being said, there are times when the roving camera man comes close enough to make us really nervous. Case in point -- Yesterday, during the run-through, the roaming camera man was coming up the aisle shooting close-up shots of the ladies along the lowest rows. I thought this was normal and appropriate for Mother's Day. (Besides, those ladies are used to that treatment. It happens every week.) Then for the next song, he walked up a few more steps and then pointed his camera right at my nose. He spent a lot of time adjusting the lens during the opening measures of the song. I wanted to tell him that the first verse of the song was sung by the men followed by a long orchestral interlude, but he just stayed there, stuck, focusing on my nose for a full minute and a half -- that is an eternity in broadcast moments! Talk about awkward! I couldn't help looking in the camera! I had no other options! When we ladies finally started singing, he took his shot and moved on. I wondered if he would actually do that same thing in the broadcast. When the time came for that song in the broadcast, the camera guy started the same route, but fortunately sat down on the step and rested during the first two verses of "I Often Go Walking." But, right on schedule, he got up and pointed his camera NOT at me but the row behind me, only not directly up someone's nose. He then swung down and panned my row briefly. So I may have gotten some face time. I don't actually know since I haven't watched the broadcast yet. So, there, it is possible that I got some camera time after all. But, let it be known -- I DID NOT BRIBE THE CAMERA GUY!!!!! ![]() A wise conductor once said that what you put the time and effort into mastering becomes a part of you. We were reminded of that as we finished a marathon week of rehearsals and performances of Handel's Messiah on Temple Square and streamed live on the Internet. This magnificent master oratorio was so glorious and powerful to present. The orchestra, soloists and choir of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir family worked diligently under the baton of Mack Wilberg to fashion the work according to best academic practices but infused with our own personal witnesses of the life and mission of the Lord and Savior of the World. And now, after a brief recovery period, we will be privileged to labor again to make a 2 CD recording of this glorious work. Learning to master the Baroque period articulations for this oratorio was new and different for many of the singers and orchestral players of our organization. We have been used to singing and playing in a conventional choral mode with our own signature style. That has worked very well for us over the years and our fans have seemed to like it. But in order to sing the Baroque style melismas (decorated phrases with very fast running notes) with the agility and speed required, we needed to take the time to build up better endurance and accuracy. Our conductor had us begin to work on these skills slowly by introducing more and more pieces requiring these articulations over the last few years. He had a master plan in mind, but did not tell us about it until he was feeling more secure that we could accomplish these skills. Once the recording project was announced many months ago, we were told we were preparing to run a marathon, and that we had better be diligent and put in the effort build up the endurance. Many academics scoff at the idea that a very large choir could attempt and be successful singing Messiah for anything more than their own amusement. The oratorio was written for a small chorus of 20 to 30 singers (maximum) with a small compliment of players. According to them, "No big mass of singers can hope to have the agility and cohesion to pull it off." But over the years, some of the choruses of Handel's Messiah have been inextricably linked to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. If you asked people on the street, "Who sings the Hallelujah chorus?" they would undoubtedly answer, "The Mormon Tabernacle Choir." True, we are not a small, tight, Baroque chorus of the British Cathedral tradition, but I think we are poised to give a very good accounting of ourselves in this recording. And what we have learned academically and vocally have become a part of us. But more importantly, our appreciation of this brilliant choral master work about the birth, passion, mission and resurrection of Jesus Christ and our part in making this work available for fans to hear and enjoy for years to come will be a treasured part of our lives forever. |
AuthorMy name is Betsy Lee Bailey. I enjoy singing and writing all kinds of music. I have performed and directed or taught music all of my life. This blog is dedicated to all of the people who have been encouraging me to write about my experiences. |