{"id":40378,"date":"2020-05-26T05:45:32","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T10:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/?p=40378"},"modified":"2020-05-26T00:12:32","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T05:12:32","slug":"when-you-believe-an-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2020\/05\/when-you-believe-an-album-review\/","title":{"rendered":"When You Believe: An EP Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Friday, the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square released a new extended play record (EP), \u201cWhen You Believe: A Night at the Movies.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 I bought and downloaded the music this weekend and I have listened to it several times since then.\u00a0 The EP is short (totaling five tracks and about 23 minutes), but it is a lot of fun and displays a high quality of performance.\u00a0 My biggest complaint is that there isn\u2019t more.<\/p>\n

One of my first thoughts with the idea of the Tabernacle Choir recording soundtrack pieces was the question of whether the choir can bring something to the pieces that the original soundtrack recordings do not have.\u00a0 With the two pieces from blockbuster sci-fi films featured on the EP (Avengers<\/em> and Star Wars<\/em>), it feels like having a 300+ member choir combined with a virtuosic performance by the Orchestra at Temple Square packs a punch that added something extra to the tracks. \u00a0While I enjoy the originals, I think I enjoy these recordings more because of that added umpf.\u00a0 The choir has also cultivated a lighter, younger sound in recent years that worked well for a softer, angelic tone at the start of \u201cI\u2019ll Fly Away\u201d (though I felt like they had a difficult time making the transition to the rowdier, gospel-style singing I that I feel like the piece asks for later on in the arrangement) and makes for a pleasant rendition of “When You Believe.”\u00a0 \u201cEatnemen Vuelie<\/a>\u201d (the Song of the Earth used with the opening title of Disney\u2019s Frozen<\/em>) surprised me by having \u201cFairest Lord Jesus\u201d (\u201cBeautiful Savior\u201d) interwoven throughout.\u00a0 My gut reaction was surprise\u2014I love Jesus and I love Disney, but I don\u2019t usually appreciate mingling them in the same context.\u00a0 As it turns out, however, the version of the song with \u201cFairest Lord Jesus\u201d predates the Disney movie as a composition by the Norwegian musician Frode Fjellheim from the 1990s, combining the traditional joik music of the Sami people with the popular carol. \u00a0That original composition was later adapted for the film and stripped of references to “Fairest Lord Jesus,” with\u00a0 the “Eatnemen” also being dropped from the title of the song.\u00a0 It is a beautiful piece of music as presented on the EP, even if I\u2019m still having problems mentally reconciling Frozen <\/em>with \u201cFairest Lord Jesus\u201d in my head.\u00a0 In any case, I consider the EP a worthy addition to my soundtrack collection.<\/p>\n

My second concern was about whether the collection of soundtrack music would be overly secular in nature.\u00a0 As some Church leaders in the 1970s noted, there is always a concern that the choir would become merely a \u201cpolished and competent entertainment group\u201d rather than serving primarily as what it was created to be\u2014a church choir.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 As I listed to the EP, I realized that those concerns were unfounded.\u00a0 The choir\u2019s website makes the point that \u201cmovies \u2026 have the power to inspire, to build faith, and bring us closer to the divine\u201d and that \u201cmuch of that power is conveyed through music,\u201d[2]<\/a> so there is the idea that movies and soundtracks can be inspiring to the soul without being explicitly spiritual.\u00a0 In any case, two of the five tracks were religious in nature to begin with (\u201cI\u2019ll Fly Away\u201d and \u201cWhen You Believe\u201d).\u00a0 With the full context of \u201cEatnemen Vuelie\u201d including \u201cFairest Lord Jesus,\u201d that piece can be added to the list of overtly religious pieces. \u00a0There is also an argument that could be made that \u201cDuel of the Fates\u201d has a spiritual dimension. \u00a0The words to \u201cDuel of the Fates\u201d are a Sanskrit translation of a fragment from a medieval Welsh poem involving a forest battle.\u00a0 The specific text fragment focuses on a dreadful fight going on externally with \u201canother raging behind in the head.\u201d\u00a0 This is meaningful in the context of Star Wars, with the cautionary theme of falling to the dark side internally while fighting against evil externally (becoming the very thing you swore to destroy) and the theme of light pushing back darkness.\u00a0 There are some potential gospel applications there, though probably far too tenuous to justify performing the piece in general conference anytime soon.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 While focusing on popular soundtracks, the EP maintains a spiritual core.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen You Believe: A Night at the Movies\u201d is a fun, if brief, adventure into film soundtrack music by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and the Orchestra at Temple Square.\u00a0 It maintains a spiritual core while still presenting popular material that appeals to nerdy Millennials like myself.\u00a0 The music showcases the capabilities of both the Orchestra at Temple Square and the choir in a fantastic manner.\u00a0 As stated up front, my biggest complaint is that there wasn\u2019t more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> CMC to First Presidency, 21 December 1973, in CMC Office Files, cited in Michael Hicks, Mormonism and Music: A History<\/em>, p.165.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> https:\/\/www.thetabernaclechoir.org\/shop\/products\/when-you-believe.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> According to a\u00a0Deseret News\u00a0<\/em>article, director Mack Wilberg justified using music from Star Wars<\/em> and Avengers<\/em> by stating that: “Both \u2018Star Wars\u2019 and \u2018Avengers\u2019 are about overcoming darkness, darkness to light,” and stating that he felt strongly that the EP “had to be inspirational and it had to be faith-promoting.”\u00a0 See Lottie Elizabeth Johnson, \u201cWith \u2018Star Wars\u2019 music, Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square reaches its broadest audience yet,\u201d Deseret News, <\/em>21 May 2020, https:\/\/www.deseret.com\/entertainment\/2020\/5\/21\/21266754\/tabernacle-choir-and-orchestra-at-temple-square-utah-lds-mormon-when-you-believe-star-wars-avengers<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Friday, the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square released a new extended play record (EP), \u201cWhen You Believe: A Night at the Movies.\u201d\u00a0 I bought and downloaded the music this weekend and I have listened to it several times since then.\u00a0 The EP is short (totaling five tracks and about 23 minutes), but it is a lot of fun and displays a high quality of performance.\u00a0 My biggest complaint is that there isn\u2019t more. One of my first thoughts with the idea of the Tabernacle Choir recording soundtrack pieces was the question of whether the choir can bring something to the pieces that the original soundtrack recordings do not have.\u00a0 With the two pieces from blockbuster sci-fi films featured on the EP (Avengers and Star Wars), it feels like having a 300+ member choir combined with a virtuosic performance by the Orchestra at Temple Square packs a punch that added something extra to the tracks. \u00a0While I enjoy the originals, I think I enjoy these recordings more because of that added umpf.\u00a0 The choir has also cultivated a lighter, younger sound in recent years that worked well for a softer, angelic tone at the start of \u201cI\u2019ll Fly Away\u201d (though […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10397,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts","category-music-and-poetry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10397"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40378"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40382,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40378\/revisions\/40382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}