notes sent to frank about a peice in orin hatches singing career

some things that i am not sure the dude who is writing the ariticle has approached but should, that i mentioned briefly on the site

1) the lds church has no formal choirs, and its hymns were written for our culture, the usual protestant classics found commonly in other protestant sects have the lyrics changed or are not part of the corpus (all of the hymns are on line here: a couple of interesting examples
a) should we hie to kolob, the most mormon of the mormon hymns (kolob is the planet nearest the sacred home of g-d) is sung to the tune kingston, which is horribly anglican (so anglican that it has been used since the 18th century).
b) the other is the textual changes to the ubqitious how great thou art--i cant find my copy of the big green monster, so it might be a copy of days before i can actually find the changes.

2) the lds church is hugely patrotic. i remember growing up and singing o canada in church, and the hymn book includes several american texts, including, if i am not mistaken. In thier statement of principles, the article of faiths, the 12th reads: 12 WE BELIEVE in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.They believe that when jesus comes again, he will come to a place called adam ondi ahaman (sp), which is present day jacksonville missouri, and which was the garden of eden there (D&C 78) (is/was?) a hymn ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam-ondi-Ahman_(hymn)); http://www.ldslastdays.com/talk_adamondiahman.htm ) to this place in the green book, and altough it a bit of deep magic (ie the handsome men in white shirts wont tell you it) the church considers it foundational. so when hatch sings such work as heal our land or any o the more patrotic work, it is a lot more ingrained the kinder kirche kuche work typical of the mainstream american republican protestants.

from miracle of forgiveness from spencer w kimball (lds prophet, 1973-1985)
America is a great and glorius land. It is "choice above all other lands" It has a tragic and bloody past, but could have a cglorious and peaceful future, if the inhabitants would really learn to serve their God. It was constracted as a land of promise to the people of the Americas, to whom God gave these conditional promises..." (316)
and he follows up with a list of 12 or so. I could type the promises out if you really want--but to understand Hatch;s culture, it might be worth a look at the work.

3) their is a long tradtion of people who are good singers (clear, clean, precise, and humble) to sing as a special musical number during such events as weddings, funerals, baptisms, blessings, missioanary send offs, homecomings, etc. to understand this, is to remember that the lds church does not have a formal calendar, a preisthood, a lirturgy. a service on sundays would go thusly:
opening prayer
ward buisness
hymn
talk
sacrament hymn
sacarment
talk
hymn
talk
closing prayer

the hymns are sung by t he congreation, the talks are given by the congreation, the opening and closing prayers are spoken by the congreation, and the sacrament, or the lords supper, is given by young boys, 12, 14, and 16 year olds. The third hymn is the one sung, often in harmony, sometimes accompined by piano, but v. v. plain, no mellissima, no ups and downs, just pure crystaline voices. its really hard to explain, because it has none of the explosions, and raw xtc of other churches, or the rigour of hi anglicans/catholics. the churches are all blonde wood, and the chapels w/i the churches have no pictures, no stations of the cross, no banners, nothing. i have found the unordained singing very close to the unordained churches. Hatch sings in this tradition. often they are not hymns but something else, there is a strong industry of sheet music, for example

4) the church really respects talent, there is much talk in sunday school (caleld primary) about using yr talents to glorify good, and their is a culture of participation, art shows, craft shows, home making lessons for the women, even the lds obsession with scouting, all centers around using yr talents to work for the lord (the road shows, annual ward and then stake wide theatrical revues, of skits, relgious movements, etc follow in this tradtion--as are larger productions (i once saw an entire production of joseph and the technocolour dream coat), the burgeoning mormon film industry (esp something called legend and a film version of johnny lingo, a mormon obsession that you have to see to believe) , the annual fine art contests put on by the brass in salt lake, et. al) it is one of the most under rated and misunderstood qaulities of lds membership, and though it is often mocked, hatch's sincerity, earnestness, etc all fall strictly into the mormon love of hand crafted theater. im sure there have been soc articles written about it, and i can send links.

(side note, i am obsessed with morg art, because almost all of it is illustrative, and the most popular work was comissoned by pulp artists from the 50s, the politics of it are fascinatiing)

5) an mp3
http://www.ldsmusicworld.net/audioclips/heal_our_land_clip.mp3

6) the lds hymn book
http://www.lds.org/cm/display/0,17631,4650-1,00.html


i dont know if he working in a religious context, but i dont know how else you can see hatch;s work.

hope this is helpful
ase