Music and the Spoken Word
Encyclopedia
Music and the Spoken Word is a weekly 30-minute radio and television program of inspiring messages and music produced by Bonneville Communications with music performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
(often accompanied by the Salt Lake Tabernacle organ
and the Orchestra at Temple Square
).
The radio program is distributed by the CBS Radio Network
and its broadcast center is KSL (AM) Radio, a Salt Lake City station owned by Bonneville International Corporation
, which is in turn owned by the LDS Church. (KSL is a former CBS Radio
affiliate; it switched to ABC Radio, now Citadel Media in 2005) In addition, it is currently broadcast by over 2,000 television and radio stations worldwide.
was the director of the choir for the first program, and Earl J. Glade
the general manager of KSL was the director and producer of the first program. Glade had been the moving force behind getting the program started.
Since its first broadcast, the program has run continually for 80 years and has been broadcast over 4,000 times. The unbroken length of broadcasts makes Music and the Spoken Word the oldest continuous nationwide network broadcast in the world.
In 2004, the program was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters
Radio Hall of Fame, in conjunction with its 75th anniversary on the air. It is one of only two radio programs to be so inducted, the other being the Grand Ole Opry
.
In addition, the program was also inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame
in 2010.
" from The Sound of Music
, patriotic songs, such as "America the Beautiful
", as well as a wide range of other selections. The broadcast also regularly features an organ solo
played by one of the tabernacle organists.
On some occasions, special guests will also perform with the choir during the broadcast. These guests have included Renée Fleming
, Frederica von Stade
, Sissel
, The King's Singers, Maureen McGovern
and other well-known groups, musicians, and actors.
Mormon Tabernacle Choir is a 360-voice choir which was founded in Utah in 1847, one month after the Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley.
Called "America's Choir" by U.S. President Ronald Reagan
, all members of the choir are volunteers and are not remunerated for their time or talents. The choir is led by director Mack Wilberg
.
In addition to Music and the Spoken Word, the Choir performs regularly throughout the year, including an annual Christmas Concert, Patriotic Concert, and various other concerts as well providing music for the LDS General Conference
. The choir has also been on national and international tours.
The Orchestra also undertakes its own concert season performing from standard orchestral literature, which has included Mahler's Symphony No. 4
, the Firebird Suite
by Stravinsky
and Symphony No. 9
(from The New World) by Dvořák
.
Like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the 110-member Orchestra is made up of volunteers, some of whom are also professional musicians.
one of the world's largest pipe organs. The current organ is largely the work of G. Donald Harrison
of the former Aeolian-Skinner
organ firm. It was completed in the late 1940s. The organ has undergone a few minor modifications since that time.
Presently, the Tabernacle organ is played regularly by five main organists when accompanying the choir. Clay Christiansen, Richard Elliott, and Andrew Unsworth are full-time organists, while Bonnie Goodliffe and Linda Margetts are part-time organists.
, who continued in that capacity for over forty years until his death in 1971. At that time the writing and announcing assignments were split, with a committee doing the writing. J. Spencer Kinard
was the announcer from 1972 until he stepped down in 1990. Lloyd D. Newell
has been the announcer from 1990 to the present.
The program is broadcast from the Salt Lake Tabernacle
, more commonly called the Mormon Tabernacle. The dome-shaped building was built between 1864 and 1867 on the west center-line axis of the Salt Lake Temple and is located inside Historic Temple Square
. The overall seating capacity of the building (since its renovation) is 7,000, which includes the choir area and gallery (balcony). The central feature of the tabernacle is the large pipe organ.
Between 2005 and 2007 the program was temporarily housed in the Conference Center
located across the street from Historic Temple Square.
Mormon Tabernacle Choir
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, sometimes colloquially referred to as MoTab, is a Grammy and Emmy Award winning, 360-member, all-volunteer choir. The choir is part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . However, the choir is completely self-funded, traveling and producing albums to...
(often accompanied by the Salt Lake Tabernacle organ
Salt Lake Tabernacle organ
The Salt Lake Tabernacle organ is a pipe organ located in the Salt Lake Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah. Along with the nearby Conference Center organ, it is typically used to accompany the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and is also featured in daily noon recitals...
and the Orchestra at Temple Square
Orchestra at Temple Square
The Orchestra at Temple Square is a 110-member orchestra located in Salt Lake City, UT. The Orchestra was created in 1999 under the direction of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Church President Gordon B. Hinckley as part of the creative initiative to continually strengthen and...
).
The radio program is distributed by the CBS Radio Network
CBS Radio Network
The CBS Radio Network provides news, sports and other programming to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by CBS Corporation, and operated by CBS Radio ....
and its broadcast center is KSL (AM) Radio, a Salt Lake City station owned by Bonneville International Corporation
Bonneville International
Bonneville International Corporation is a broadcasting company wholly owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through its for-profit arm, Deseret Management Corporation...
, which is in turn owned by the LDS Church. (KSL is a former CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
affiliate; it switched to ABC Radio, now Citadel Media in 2005) In addition, it is currently broadcast by over 2,000 television and radio stations worldwide.
History
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir's first network radio program, Music and the Spoken Word was first transmitted on July 15, 1929. The organ, choir, and announcer shared a single microphone which was attached to the ceiling of the tabernacle. The announcer stood on a ladder in order to speak into it. A telegraph was used to alert the sound engineer at KSL to start the broadcast. Anthony C. LundAnthony C. Lund
Anthony Canute Lund was the director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City, Utah from 1916 until 1935. Lund was also a professor of music at Brigham Young University....
was the director of the choir for the first program, and Earl J. Glade
Earl J. Glade
Earl J. Glade was the 25th Mayor of Salt Lake City.Glade was born in Ogden, Utah. A Latter-day Saint, he served a mission in Germany from 1904-1907, some of this time serving as president of the Breslau Conference...
the general manager of KSL was the director and producer of the first program. Glade had been the moving force behind getting the program started.
Since its first broadcast, the program has run continually for 80 years and has been broadcast over 4,000 times. The unbroken length of broadcasts makes Music and the Spoken Word the oldest continuous nationwide network broadcast in the world.
In 2004, the program was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters
National Association of Broadcasters
The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association, workers union, and lobby group representing the interests of for-profit, over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States...
Radio Hall of Fame, in conjunction with its 75th anniversary on the air. It is one of only two radio programs to be so inducted, the other being the Grand Ole Opry
Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM...
.
In addition, the program was also inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame
Radio Hall of Fame
The National Radio Hall of Fame is a project of the Museum of Broadcast Communications.Although no physical building currently exists to house it, the National Radio Hall of Fame is a project of Bruce DuMont, CEO of the currently homeless Museum of Broadcast Communications, and is purported to be a...
in 2010.
Broadcast
Each broadcast revolves around a specific theme which is usually based on a religious and uplifting topic which have included family, hope, faith, Christmas, patriotism, joy, peace, kindness, etc., and are usually universal in application.Music
The choir performs both sacred and secular pieces that correspond with the chosen message. In addition to hymns and sacred anthems, the choir has performed Broadway songs, such as "Climb Ev'ry MountainClimb Ev'ry Mountain
"Climb Ev'ry Mountain" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. Here it is sung at the close of the first act by the Mother Abbess...
" from The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music is a musical by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers...
, patriotic songs, such as "America the Beautiful
America the Beautiful
"America the Beautiful" is an American patriotic song. The lyrics were written by Katharine Lee Bates and the music composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward....
", as well as a wide range of other selections. The broadcast also regularly features an organ solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
played by one of the tabernacle organists.
On some occasions, special guests will also perform with the choir during the broadcast. These guests have included Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming is an American soprano specializing in opera and lieder. Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice.Fleming has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano repertoires. She has sung roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. She also...
, Frederica von Stade
Frederica von Stade
Frederica von Stade is an American mezzo-soprano. Born in Somerville, New Jersey, she acquired the nickname "Flicka" in her childhood. Von Stade attended the Mannes College of Music in New York City. She made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in 1970 and in 1971 appeared as Cherubino in The...
, Sissel
Sissel Kyrkjebø
Sissel Kyrkjebø , also simply known as Sissel, is a Norwegian soprano.Sissel is considered one of the world's top crossover sopranos. Sissel's musical style runs the gamut from pop recordings and folk songs, to classical vocals and operatic arias...
, The King's Singers, Maureen McGovern
Maureen McGovern
Maureen Therese McGovern is an American singer and Broadway actress, well known for her premier renditions of the Oscar winning songs "The Morning After" from the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, and "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno in 1974.-Early life:McGovern was...
and other well-known groups, musicians, and actors.
Choir
The Grammy Award-winningGrammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
Mormon Tabernacle Choir is a 360-voice choir which was founded in Utah in 1847, one month after the Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley.
Called "America's Choir" by U.S. President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, all members of the choir are volunteers and are not remunerated for their time or talents. The choir is led by director Mack Wilberg
Mack Wilberg
Mack Wilberg is a composer, arranger, conductor, and Choral clinician, as well as the music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir...
.
In addition to Music and the Spoken Word, the Choir performs regularly throughout the year, including an annual Christmas Concert, Patriotic Concert, and various other concerts as well providing music for the LDS General Conference
General conference (Mormonism)
In the Latter Day Saint movement, a general conference is a meeting for all members of the church for conducting general church business and instruction....
. The choir has also been on national and international tours.
Orchestra
The Orchestra at Temple Square was created in 1999 in order to increase the aesthetic and musical quality of performances. The Orchestra frequently provides accompaniment for the weekly radio and TV broadcasts.The Orchestra also undertakes its own concert season performing from standard orchestral literature, which has included Mahler's Symphony No. 4
Symphony No. 4 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 4 by Gustav Mahler was written between 1899 and 1901, though it incorporates a song originally written in 1892. The song, "Das himmlische Leben", presents a child's vision of Heaven. It is sung by a soprano in the work's fourth and last movement...
, the Firebird Suite
The Firebird
The Firebird is a 1910 ballet created by the composer Igor Stravinsky and choreographer Michel Fokine. The ballet is based on Russian folk tales of the magical glowing bird of the same name that is both a blessing and a curse to its captor....
by Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
and Symphony No. 9
Symphony No. 9 (Dvorák)
The Symphony No. 9 in E Minor "From the New World", Op. 95, B. 178 , popularly known as the New World Symphony, was composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1893 during his visit to the United States from 1892 to 1895. It is by far his most popular symphony, and one of the most popular in the modern repertoire...
(from The New World) by Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
.
Like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the 110-member Orchestra is made up of volunteers, some of whom are also professional musicians.
Organ and organists
The organ in the Tabernacle is a very visible and notable part of the Tabernacle. The original organ was made by Joseph H. Ridges and contained 700 pipes. However, the number of pipes now counts 11,623, making the Tabernacle organSalt Lake Tabernacle organ
The Salt Lake Tabernacle organ is a pipe organ located in the Salt Lake Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah. Along with the nearby Conference Center organ, it is typically used to accompany the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and is also featured in daily noon recitals...
one of the world's largest pipe organs. The current organ is largely the work of G. Donald Harrison
G. Donald Harrison
George Donald Harrison crafted some of the finest and largest pipe organs in the United States. He started out in 1914 as a patent attorney but after military service he began to pursue an interest in pipe organ building working with Henry Willis & Sons of London.After immigrating to America,...
of the former Aeolian-Skinner
Aeolian-Skinner
Æolian-Skinner Organ Company, Inc. — Æolian-Skinner of Boston, Massachusetts was an important American builder of a large number of notable pipe organs from its inception as the Skinner Organ Company in 1901 until its closure in 1972. Key figures were Ernest M. Skinner , Arthur Hudson Marks ,...
organ firm. It was completed in the late 1940s. The organ has undergone a few minor modifications since that time.
Presently, the Tabernacle organ is played regularly by five main organists when accompanying the choir. Clay Christiansen, Richard Elliott, and Andrew Unsworth are full-time organists, while Bonnie Goodliffe and Linda Margetts are part-time organists.
The "Spoken Word"
The announcer opens and closes the broadcast with an adaptation of Richard L. Evans' hallmark phrase, beginning with, "From the Crossroads of the West, we welcome you to [Temple Square in Salt Lake City for Music and the Spoken Word with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square.]" The announcer introduces the music with information about the piece, or with short scriptural or literary passages. At some point, usually near the middle of the program, an inspirational spoken message is delivered. The quote, "Again we leave you, from within the shadows of the everlasting hills[; m]ay peace be with you, this day and always," signals the end of the program, and it is usually followed by the choir singing the hymn "God Be With You Till We Meet Again".Announcers
Since its inception in 1929, the "spoken word" segment of the program has been voiced by three separate individuals. The original writer, producer, and announcer of the spoken portion of the broadcast was Richard L. EvansRichard L. Evans
Richard Louis Evans was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , the president of Rotary International , and the writer, producer, and announcer of Music and the Spoken Word for forty-one years .He received a BA and MA from the University...
, who continued in that capacity for over forty years until his death in 1971. At that time the writing and announcing assignments were split, with a committee doing the writing. J. Spencer Kinard
J. Spencer Kinard
J. Spencer "Spence" Kinard was a reporter for KSL television when he was invited to replace the late Richard L. Evans as voice of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Kinard had previously worked for CBS in New York. He spent 18 years as the voice of the choir....
was the announcer from 1972 until he stepped down in 1990. Lloyd D. Newell
Lloyd D. Newell
Lloyd David Newell is the voice of the oldest continuous nationwide network radio broadcast in America, Music and the Spoken Word. He is also a professor of religion and family life at Brigham Young University and was formerly an anchor for CNN and at WSEE-TV. He is a descendant of Susannah Stone...
has been the announcer from 1990 to the present.
The Tabernacle
Salt Lake Tabernacle
The Salt Lake Tabernacle, also known as the Mormon Tabernacle, is located on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah along with the Salt Lake Assembly Hall and Salt Lake Temple.-History:...
, more commonly called the Mormon Tabernacle. The dome-shaped building was built between 1864 and 1867 on the west center-line axis of the Salt Lake Temple and is located inside Historic Temple Square
Temple Square
Temple Square is a ten acre complex located in the center of Salt Lake City, Utah, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . In recent years, the usage of the name has gradually changed to include several other church facilities immediately adjacent to Temple Square...
. The overall seating capacity of the building (since its renovation) is 7,000, which includes the choir area and gallery (balcony). The central feature of the tabernacle is the large pipe organ.
Between 2005 and 2007 the program was temporarily housed in the Conference Center
LDS Conference Center
The Conference Center, located in Salt Lake City, Utah, is the premier meeting hall for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Completed in spring 2000 in time for the church's April 2000 general conference, the 21,000-seat Conference Center replaced the traditional use of the nearby Salt...
located across the street from Historic Temple Square.
See also
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Mormon Tabernacle ChoirMormon Tabernacle ChoirThe Mormon Tabernacle Choir, sometimes colloquially referred to as MoTab, is a Grammy and Emmy Award winning, 360-member, all-volunteer choir. The choir is part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . However, the choir is completely self-funded, traveling and producing albums to...
- Orchestra at Temple SquareOrchestra at Temple SquareThe Orchestra at Temple Square is a 110-member orchestra located in Salt Lake City, UT. The Orchestra was created in 1999 under the direction of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Church President Gordon B. Hinckley as part of the creative initiative to continually strengthen and...