On Mormon Hymns

One thing us Latter-day Saints are pretty good at is the composition of Hymns. Hymns have an important place in the LDS worship experience, and in fact section 25 of our Doctrine and Covenants contains a revelation from the Lord to Emma Smith, wife of the Prophet Joseph, commanding her to, among other things, compile a hymnal for the Church, which of course she did.

Our Hymnals contain many works common to other Christian denominations such as Martin Luther’s ‘A Mighty Fortress is our God’, and the ubiquities ‘Onward Christian Solders’, as well many of the traditional Christmas Hymns (the most famous LDS composed Christmas Hymn is probably ’Far, Far Away on Judah’s Plans’ which also appears in some protestant Hymnals). Mormonism boasts its share of prolific Hymn writers, many of them church leaders, including in the early days Parly P. Pratt (’The Morning Breaks’) and W. W. Phelps (’The Spirit of God'), and in more modern times the likes of Bruce R. McConkie (‘I Believe in Christ‘). Jancie Kapp Perry is one of our more prominent modern Hymn writers, who has also collaborated on several albums with Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, and had her work recorded by artists such as Gladys Knight.

Despite some powerful recent compositions like ’Faith in Every Footstep’ written for 1997’s 150th anniversary commemoration of the great Mormon pioneer trek, it is older Mormon hymns that get most of the attention. I am particularly fond of ’Redeemer of Israel’ and ’Carry On’ with their spirited 19th century of sense of religious triumphalism against great obstacles. That is a sentiment they share with what is probably Mormonism best known distinctive hymn ’All is Well’, written as a poem in the middle of the Iowa wilderness in 1846 by William Clayton, shortly after learning of the safe delivery of his son by a wife still in Nauvoo. This song expresses Clayton's spirit of triumph in adversity practically relevant to the mass Mormon migration then in progress, as he states in the 4th verse:

And should we die before our journey's through,
Happy day! all is well!
We then are free from toil and sorrow, too;
With the just we shall dwell!
But if our lives are spared again
To see the Saints their rest obtain,
O how we'll make this chorus swel
-- All is well! all is well!

In this glorious hymn Clayton expresses his joy at just being involved in the work of the Lord, and that nothing will stop that work from progressing, so that even if one were to die for the cause, he or she would still have had the honor of being a part of it.

Other Hymns of great religious/cultural importance to the Latter-day Saints include ‘In Our Lovely Deseret’ which is set to the Civil War marching tune ‘Tramp, Tramp, Tramp.’ The Hymn is an idyllic odd to life in the Mormons desert kingdom then called Deseret (from a Book of Mormon term meaning ‘Beehive‘, and symbolizing thrift and unity):

In our lovely Deseret, Where the Saints of God have met, There's a multitude of children all around.
They are generous and brave; They have precious souls to save; They must listen and obey the gospel's sound.
Hark! hark! hark! 'tis children's music-- Children's voices, oh, how sweet,
When in innocence and love, Like the angels up above, They will happy hearts and cheerful faces meet.

That the children may live long And be beautiful and strong,Tea and coffee and tobacco they despise,
Drink no liquor, and they eatBut a very little meat, They are seeking to be great and good and wise.
Hark! hark! hark! 'tis children's music-- Children's voices, oh, how sweet,
When in innocence and love, Like the angels up above, They will happy hearts and cheerful faces meet.

Also worth note is Phelps ‘The Spirit of God’ composed for the 1836 dedication of the Kirtland Temple and sung at the dedications of all subsequent LDS Temples, as well as other significant occasions such as the 2000 dedication of the Conference Center in Salt Lake. This work might rightly be called the Mormon national anthem, and in fact serves as the anthem for a renewed ‘State of Deseret’ in author Orson Scott Cards book ‘The Folk of the Fringe’, which concerns the inhabitants of a Mormon state established after a nuclear war. The first verse and chorus:

The Spirit of God like a fire is burning;
The latter day glory begins to come forth;
The visions and blessings of old are returning;
And angels are coming to visit the earth.

We'll sing and we'll shout with the armies of heaven:
Hosanna, hosanna to God and the Lamb!
Let glory to them in the highest be given
Henceforth and forever, amen and amen!

As a close tie in to the ‘Mormon national anthem’ the LDS Church has its own version of ‘Hail to the Chief’, which is sung at nearly all formal occasions when the Church president is present, its called ‘We Thank Thee Oh, God for a Prophet’:

We thank thee Oh God for a Prophet;
To guide us in these Latter-days.
We thank they for sending the gospel;
To Brighten our lives with its rays.
We thank thee for every blessing;
Bestowed by thy bounteous hand.
We feel it a pleasure to serve thee;
And love to obey they command.

However if I had to pick out just one Hymn that I thought was the greatest LDS hymn, in terms of its sentiment, musicality, and doctrine conveyed, I would have to chose Eliza R. Snow’s ‘Oh, My Father’. Next to Emma Smith, Snow was probably the most widely known and celebrated Mormon of the 19th Century. At the time of her conversion to the Church she was already a poet of some renown, and continued to write throughout a busy life that would see her serve as the second president of the Church’s women’s organization The Relief Society, and be a very vocal exponent for both women’s suffrage, and the cause of polygamy (Snow was a plural wife to both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, not to mention the sister of Lorenzo Snow, the 5th President of the LDS Church).

‘Oh, My Father’ beautifully conveys one of Mormonism’s most distinctive, controversial, and least talked about beliefs, that of the existence of a ‘Heavenly Mother’, from verse three:

I had learned to call thee Father,
Through thy Spirit from on high;
But until the key of knowledge
Was restored, I knew not why.
In the heavens are parents single?
No; the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason, truth eternal
Tells me I've a mother there.

Here the doctrine is logically presented as a rightful compliment to the existence of a ‘Heavenly Father’, and yet in conjunction with the music it’s spiritual import is also conveyed. The longing for the divine feminine so consistently suppressed or distorted in the patriarchal religions is reconciled with much of traditional Christian cosmology, from verse four:

When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
In your royal courts on high?
Then, at length, when I've completed
All you sent me forth to do,
With your mutual approbation
Let me come and dwell with you.

The late Church president Ezra Taft Benson told a story of being a missionary in England in the 1920’s and being given the chance to convey but one aspect of his faith to a discerning women, he chose to play this song and spoke of the great spiritual understanding it brought between the two of them.

While I could go on for some time writing about the Hymns of the Latter-day Saint movement (and may actually do this at a later time), I hope that I have left the reader with something of a appreciation for the contributions of music to Mormonism.