Mormon Hymns
Although the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is celebrated worldwide, many Mormon musicians remain less well known outside their local circles. Utah composers compose intricate piano sonatas and symphonies but rarely reach audiences outside the Latter-day Saint community.
Ben Howington and The Piano Guys have earned millions of views online through stunning cinematic videos that blend classical pieces with current hit music.
Hymns
Mormon music includes hymns as a vital component. Latter-day Saints use them to prepare for church services, strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ, and teach family members gospel principles. Hymns can provide comforting musical pieces which help participants enter church meetings with peace in mind.
Elder Morrison states that collective musical expressions sung together are not only an effective form of prayer but can also strengthen fellowship within the congregation and help people feel the spirit more clearly. Hymns like “There Is A Green Hill Far Away” allow individuals to reflect upon Christ’s atonement for our sins and his sacrifice on our behalf.
Hymns are at the core of Mormon religious life, playing an essential role in services, meetings and homes alike. To ensure harmony among its members worldwide, Mormon Church provides language-specific editions of its hymn book to them all around the globe. By creating and providing this hymnal resource they strive to maintain harmony within the Mormon family.
Music for the Church
Music was central to Mormon efforts during their settlement of Utah and surrounding regions in the second half of the 19th century. Pioneers took great care to transport musical instruments across the plains; stories abound of how wagon wheel spokes were used as instruments or xylophones for making sound. Evan Stephens of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir composed numerous hymns and choral works; Leroy Robertson, Crawford Gates and Merrill Bradshaw used music to express Mormon historical and scriptural themes without using specifically Mormon sonic devices or composers such as Stephens did so explicitly.
Michael Hicks’s authoritative Mormonism and Music published by University of Illinois Press provides us with an understanding of its early musical roots. More recently, Glen Nelson of Mormon Artists Group in New York City has kept tabs on contemporary LDS composers worldwide.
Music for the Home
Music can be an effective tool in teaching gospel principles to children at home. Coupled with family scripture study, this practice can build faith in both our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ.
As part of its effort to revise its 1985 hymnbook and 1989 children’s songbook, the Church is soliciting feedback from members as it revises each collection; hymns and songs may also be submitted for inclusion in this effort, expected to be completed by 2026.
The Church has established a music department to promote artists and provide resources and training for music leaders within its ranks. Furthermore, a questionnaire developed by this department may be used to measure the impact of home musical environments on children’s development; further research could look at parental singing’s influence on musical, social and cognitive development in children. Furthermore, Utah-based Mormon Tabernacle Choir stands out among Utah institutions.
Music for Special Events
Utah’s Mormon heritage is represented by a world-famous choir known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, who are regularly seen performing at biannual general conferences of their Church. Not only are they an effective means of proselytism and proselytizing music albums but they have become iconic icons within Utah.
Early efforts of cultural cultivation by the Church produced several local musical legends, including Leroy Robertson and Crawford Gates who proudly displayed their faith by writing religious pieces with explicit religious themes or by alluding to church history in their compositions.
Others, such as classical composers who emerged from New England Conservatory in the 1920s, eschewed direct Mormon references in favor of creating music with tonal, dramatic, and exotic qualities that proved influential on a wider scale. Today’s top Mormon musicians, such as Grammy-nominated DJ/music producer Kaskade, cultivate musical sounds that are modern, universal, and free from any sense of Mormon musical history or Mormon-American cultural accumulation.