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A Vocal Marathon:
The Tabernacle Choir and the Olympics
by
Robb Cundick
Choir members await their turn on Earth (the entrance to
the "Light of the World" globe-shaped stage is in the
background).
The Tabernacle
Choir has gathered together - either for rehearsal or performance
- for thirteen straight days. Like the Olympic Torch Marathon, these
days have covered much ground and have been a test of our endurance,
yet they have been filled with anticipation of a singular and spirit-stirring
goal: the Opening Ceremonies. It is Monday, February 11 and at last
there is time to pause for a day and spend an evening with our families,
perhaps catching an Olympic event or two on television. The time
is also right to reflect on all we have experienced so far.
Light of
the World
This intense phase began on Tuesday, January 29 with the first
full dress rehearsal of “Light of the World”. [See Melanie Bridge’s
article http://www.meridianmagazine.com/churchupdate/020206light.html
to read more about this magnificent production.] This was our first
opportunity to meet the rest of the cast, and as we made our entrance
they greeted us with cheers.
Though our recorded
voices are heard throughout much of the production, plans called
for the Choir to actually be on stage for only one number at the
beginning. “O Come Ye Nations of the Earth” is a call to all nations
and peoples to embrace the light that our Heavenly Father radiates
upon the earth and all its creatures.
The unusual
stage is shaped like the surface of a globe with a steep pitch.
We were required to come up and over the globe quickly. Some of
us found it necessary to run in order to keep up with those in front.
It was a good thing we were singing to a pre-recorded track, for
it took me a while to catch my breath. But it was exhilarating to
experience the joy and excitement expressed by the cast at having
us join them. They helped get our “race” off to an energetic start!
But you don’t
stand around after you’ve run the first few yards of a marathon,
and after completing our song we marched straight over to the Tabernacle
to rehearse for other events. Wednesday and Thursday evenings were
spent in rehearsal as well, and Friday we returned to the Conference
Center for the first performance before an audience. After finishing
our part we stayed to watch the remainder of the show.
The working
title for this production has been “The Spectacular,” and it certainly
lived up to that billing. The cast was energetic and the special
effects breathtaking. It was made up of events from Church history
and inspiring stories about Olympic athletes. I felt a glow inside
at the conclusion - a feeling I hope everyone who comes will share.
I was particularly excited to find that the main story line is built
around the life of Alma Richards, the first Latter-day Saint athlete
to win an Olympic Gold Medal (for High Jump in the 1912 Stockholm,
Sweden Summer Games). I became acquainted with this remarkable and
touching story a couple of years ago and felt that someone should
write a play or make a movie about it. If you don’t know about Alma,
there is a wonderful article in the Internet archives of Brigham
Young Magazine, written by Lee Benson of the Deseret News.
See: http://advance.byu.edu/bym/1996/96august/s-richards.html
Saturday afternoon
was a matinee performance of “Light,” followed by a rehearsal. Sunday
dawned to our usual broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word. In the
evening we performed a concert with the Utah Symphony for the International
Olympic Committee. The concert was somewhat disappointing because
speeches went long and much of what we had planned to sing was cut.
My daugher Emma thrills to the sight of the Olympic Flame.
Rehearsing
for the Ceremonies
On Monday the first dress rehearsal for the Opening Ceremonies
was held. It proved to be the start of a long uphill stretch. Though
the program wouldn’t begin until evening, we needed to be downtown
at 2:30 to be identified, given security tags and bussed to the
indoor tennis facility at the University of Utah. Here we would
wait with other ceremony participants until it was time to enter
the stadium.
This experience
was reminiscent of last year’s Inaugural Parade in Washington, D.C.
where we waited for hours in a holding facility with other parade
participants. The tennis building was swarming with thousands of
people in colorful costumes. The noisy atmosphere was dominated
by a sound that would continue unabated throughout the week: the
chanting and beating of drums by members of Utah’s five Native American
Tribes.
The Ceremonies
were reminiscent of the Inauguration in another way as well - it
was very cold. The Salt Lake Organizing Committee had provided
us with long white coats as our costume, and we had been told to
wear anything and everything underneath in order to keep warm. I
put on so many layers of clothing I probably resembled a polar bear
by the time I buttoned the coat. Then, hoping for the best, I waddled
outside with the rest of the Choir and headed over to the stadium
in the cold night air.
We were excited
to discover we had been given choice seats at the south end of the
stadium, right next to the ice and in front of the athletes and
the towering Olympic Caldron. It was exciting to see the ceremony
for the first time but towards the end I was shivering too much
to have any fun. We hoped and prayed for warmer weather later in
the week.
Tuesday evening
was a special performance of "Light" for media and special
guests of the Church. One of the cast members told me that
like the Choir, she and many others were participating in the Opening
Ceremonies as well. So they too were running a marathon and
were undoubtedly as tired as we when we all returned to Olympic
Stadium for the second dress rehearsal on Wednesday night.
But since I was better prepared for the cold, Wednesday was a better
experience than the first.
NBC Today Show Weatherman Al Roker meets the Tabernacle Choir.
The Today
Show
Thursday we were up early, arriving at the Tabernacle at 6:30
AM for our performance on the NBC Today Show. Hosts Katie Couric
and Matt Lauer were broadcasting from Park City so we didn’t see
them. But jovial weatherman Al Roker was on hand to chat with Brother
Jessop and introduce our selections (a verse of “America the Beautiful”
and part of “Battle Hymn of the Republic”).
During one of
the breaks, Al was joking around and started to sing the children’s
song, “Bingo” (“There was a farmer had a dog…”). To his delight,
the Choir joined right in. When he went on air to interview Craig,
he turned and asked us to sing it again while he beat time. We sang
out and started to improvise harmony. It was one of those funny,
spontaneous moments for which Al is famous. But talk about overkill.
Getting the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to sing “B - I - NGO” is like
firing a howitzer to squash a mosquito!
As the cameramen
were packing up we sang “Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho” and “God
Be With You ‘Til We Meet Again” especially for Al. These two numbers
have become a great “one-two punch” lately. They reach straight
to the heart in expressing our love for the Lord and for all mankind.
Al Roker, too, seemed moved by them. (You may be wondering why we
use “Joshua” so much - it is a stirring arrangement by Moses Hogan.
We have committed it to memory and it is convenient because it requires
no accompaniment.)
The Today Show
broadcast did not complete our morning’s work, however. We learned
that since Tuesday’s “Light of the World,” President Hinckley had
decided the Choir should be on stage at the end of the production
as well. The week suddenly became more complicated since this would
take from the rehearsing we had planned to do while not on stage.
But we are glad to carry out any request from the Prophet. Those
who could stay were asked to go to the Conference Center and block
out a new formation for the conclusion of the production, where
we would sing “High on the Mountain Top.” This was our longest day,
for we returned again in the evening to perform “Light of the World.”
The Big Day
Arrives
Friday, February 8. At last the most anticipated day of the
Olympics had arrived. We awoke to a blanket of snow. A storm had
cleared out the grimy air that results when warmer temperatures
in the upper atmosphere trap cold winter air in the Salt Lake Valley.
It was an answer to prayer, for the clearing of the inversion meant
the temperatures for the Opening Ceremonies would not be so frigid.
After meeting
downtown, our first destination was the Utah State Capitol Building
where President Bush was to speak at a welcoming reception. We stood
on the stairs and balcony at the west end of the rotunda, right
behind the speaker’s podium. Distinguished guests from all over
the world sat before us. Among them I saw UN Secretary Kofi Anan,
Madeleine Albright and General Colin Powell. We sang “O Come Ye
Nations of the Earth” (from “Light of the World” and tailor-made
for this occasion), “Climb Every Mountain,” and “Battle Hymn of
the Republic” accompanied by our Tabernacle Organists and an Army
Band.
For our Cultural Olympiad Concerts, the balcony of the
Tabernacle has been decorated with the flags of many nations. There
are 84 in all.
President Bush
obviously enjoyed sitting right in front of us while we sang the
Battle Hymn. At the end of the ceremony he turned and walked straight
to the Choir, shaking hands with all he could reach. When I returned
to the bus I saw Bill Gibbons, who had been standing up front. “Did
you shake the President’s hand?” “Yes!” Bill replied. I extended
my hand to Bill and guess what? I got to be the first person
to shake Bill’s hand after he had grasped the President’s.
Even now I’ll bet there’s a trace of Presidential DNA on my right
hand!
Upon our arrival
at the tennis center I met the Pastor of Salt Lake City’s Calvary
Baptist Church, whose gospel choir was also participating. As I
said hello we heard a voice behind say, “Has anybody seen the Mormon
Tabernacle Choir?” We turned to find it was a member of his choir,
and the Pastor said, “Here’s one of them right here.” This man was
so excited to meet members of the Choir and asked where we would
be. Later in the afternoon, members of the Calvary Baptist Gospel
Choir and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir got together and had a little
“sing-in” (of course, we sang “Joshua” for them). They sang for
us and we all sang familiar songs together such as “Amazing Grace”
and “Amen” - all to the continued beat of those Native American
drums!
When it came
time to enter Olympic Stadium, there was Michael Kamen (see my previous
article), shaking the hand of every Choir member. I wanted to say
something nice, but you know how it is when you don’t have time
to think. I blurted out, “we sure love you!” and I’m afraid I scared
the poor man. He seemed taken aback but I heard him tell the next
fellow, “Well, I love you, too!”
I don’t know
what I can say about the Ceremonies themselves that you won’t already
know, but how exciting it was to be in the middle of it all! To
see those images on the giant screens and know that the whole world
was watching made my heart swell with pride to be an American; to
be a Utahn; but first and most of all, a Latter-day Saint representing
my brothers and sisters all over the world.
The arrangement
of our national anthem was composed before it was known it would
be sung before an honor guard holding the flag that the survived
the World Trade Center destruction, but its reverent expression
couldn’t have been more appropriate. Another highlight was the entrance
of the athletes. It was fun to wave and shout a welcome as they
passed next to us in the aisles. And there are so many returned
missionaries and foreign language speakers in the Choir that many
were greeted in their native language.
Then there was
the lighting of the Cauldron. We had been initially told we must
not turn around to watch, but someone managed to get that changed
and we’re so thankful they did, because no eye was looking anywhere
but at the lighting at that moment. Did you cringe as I did when
the flame seemed to disappear about half way up to the top? What
an anticlimax that would have been! But I suspect Mountain Fuel
had a guy hidden at the top holding a Bic lighter just in case.
We were much
more comfortable than we had been the previous nights so there was
nothing to keep us from enjoying this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
to its fullest. The Lord had surely smiled upon us and answered
many prayers in providing the improved weather. As we left the stadium,
one of the volunteers asked me, “Are you glad it’s over?” “Oh, we’re
not done!” I replied.
The Last
Couple of Miles
This article has perhaps gone on long enough, but there were
two more days remaining before our Monday rest, and it is what happened
on those days that will be perhaps linger even more significantly
in our memories than did the Opening Ceremonies. In our vocal marathon,
we had “hit the wall.” While we did get to sleep in a little on
Saturday, we had to hurry downtown for a matinee performance of
“Light” followed by a rehearsal and a concert that night (there
was no time to go back home). The rehearsal was pretty ragged, and
by the time evening came, Choir members were clearly exhausted as
we awaited the concert in the basement of the Tabernacle.
Elder Neal A.
Maxwell came by and tried to cheer us up, saying, “One of these
days maybe you’ll get home to see your families. You might find
that one of your sons has gone on a mission while you were gone!”
We had a good laugh, but there was more truth in that statement
than any of us cared to think about.
Members of the Salt Lake International Children’s
Choir await their performance in the Tabernacle.
But this was
to be an occasion for another of those fabled, “Tabernacle Choir
miracles.” When the concert started we were blessed with renewed
energy. Perhaps some of it can be attributed to the excitement that
always comes when rehearsals are over and it is time to perform.
Certainly our “reinforcements” helped - the Orchestra at Temple
Square, the Salt Lake International Children’s Choir dressed in
beautiful native costumes from all over the world, the U.S. Army
Herald Trumpets from Washington, D.C. and renowned soprano Fredericka
Von Stade. And not to forget John Williams, who came to personally
conduct "Call of the Champions" (the Salt Lake City Olympic
theme) and two more of his own compositions (the orchestra's rendition
of the theme music from the John Wayne movie, "The Cowboys"
was stunning).
But we in the
Choir know it was more than that; for when we have done everything
possible to carry out what has been asked of us, the Lord has always
stepped in to provide what is needed to finish the race. Saturday
evening and again on Sunday morning for the broadcast and another
concert, my fellow Choir members and I can testify that the Lord
did indeed provide in full measure.
And as we finally
crossed the finish line, how heartening it was to find our Prophet
waiting there. President Hinckley came forward at the conclusion
of Sunday’s events to say, “By all rights you should all be home
in bed with pneumonia! I am here to thank you and your families
for the many sacrifices you have made this week.” Thank you, President
Hinckley. We'd do anything for you - and the Lord!
But now - another
week and another race, and then another one after that. And after
a week’s hiatus, yet another busy week when the Paralympics come
to town. But I still don’t hear any complaining. As always, it is
a wonderful time to be part of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!
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