LDS composer Crawford Gates was interviewed in his Beloit, Wis., home, where he was working on a new musical score for the Hill Cumorah pageant, "America's Witness for Christ." The interview was conducted by Richard L. Emery, Madison Wisconsin Stake public communications director. (Coverage on the new version of the pageant, which premiered July 22, is on page 6.)
Q. Is your new score a revision of the old one or a completely new undertaking?A. The 1988 new Hill Cumorah pageant is quite new in many respects. It was created under the direction of the Church Missionary Committee. The First Presidency and other General Authorities are vitally interested in its content and its effectiveness in touching the hearts of a large non-member audience. Orson Scott Card was chosen to write a new script. Dr. Charles Metten is the new artistic director. Eric Fielding has designed seven new stages and a completely new lighting scheme for the hill.
It was my honor to be invited to prepare a new orchestral-choral score as background to the new pageant. While Dr. Metten encouraged me to use some musical themes from the score to the earlier Hill Cumorah pageant, he basically wished a new score.
Q. Why did this revision take place?
A. The objective was to make the pageant's message to the non-member even clearer. There has been a concern for some years that in spite of the beauty, spectacle and majesty of this durable, 50-year-old pageant and the tremendous affection that it draws from many Church members, a great many of the non-members in the audience did not really understand the heart of the pageant's message.
Q. Can we look upon the revising of the pageant as an attempt to simplify it?
A. In one important sense it is a simplification. The new pageant will be very understandable to the non-member audience. But in some technical aspects there are new complexities, such as the building of Nephi's ship before the audience's eyes and then the rocking of the ship in the storm. To do this is not simple.
Q. What are some of the circumstances surrounding your composing of the original score back in the 1950s?
A. In 1953 the official invitation to compose the music to the Hill Cumorah pageant came to me from the First Presidency of the Church, in response to my nomination by Dr. Harold I. Hansen, director of the pageant for over 40 years. From very early in its development, he had in mind the creation of a musical background, unique and especially created for the pageant. As a young Eastern States missionary, I had served a minor function in the stage crew of the pageant. Later I had gone to graduate school at nearby University of Rochester (Eastman School of Music) so the hill was familiar and beloved territory to me. To eventually receive the assignment for the creation of its musical score was a highlight of my life. Some 34 years later to be invited a second time is a double honor for which I am deeply grateful.
Q. What were some of the challenges in composing the original score that you faced in writing the new one?
A. The most difficult challenge is to compose a musical theme worthy of portrayal of the Savior. The initial invitation to write the score came in 1953, but the completed orchestral-choral recording (by the Utah Symphony and the BYU combined choirs, did not materialize until 1957. Two of those years largely were spent wrestling with many versions of the "Christ theme," which theme finally would be the basis of much of the unfolding music.
I also wanted musically to symbolize the unique personalities of the prophets who testified of the divinity of the Savior in the Book of Mormon. This two-fold musical challenge existed in the writing of the new score.
Q. It appears that your writing of the score was the final step in the overall pageant revision.
A. In a creative vehicle like a large-scale pageant there are many ingredients. In the order of creative input, music has to come after the script, of course. After the script is finalized, other ingredients are placed in their proper place, such as costuming, stages and their equipment and props, lighting, the recording of speaking parts, etc. But even after the music, there were battle and dance scenes choreographed to the completed and recorded music.
Q. How precise did your music have to be to fit into the overall effect of the production?
A. Precise timing is very important. Dr. Metten has timed every speech and every action in advance. Music was composed to this timing and both voice recording and music recording was precisely timed and overlayed in the final recording much the same as is done in a motion picture.
Q. How did you work the music into the actual production of the pageant?
A. The pre-timing of speaking parts and action was a very helpful procedure. Then as the musical score was recorded in May in the Salt Lake Tabernacle by the Utah Symphony and the Tabernacle Choir and the Salt Lake Children's Choir combined, it was my job to make sure the recording was made at every instant to the pre-timed planning that went into its creation on paper. Later in the summer at the hill, as the tape was used for rehearsal of the actors and dancers, the integration of recorded voices and musical background was made to live stage action.
Q. How do you feel personally about your latest undertaking?
A. Naturally, I feel very honored to be chosen to compose this score, and to conduct its recording with the fabulous choirs and symphony orchestra. I prayed hourly in the privacy of my study at home as I worked on this project, that the Lord would guide me to the desired end. If there are any weaknesses, they are mine; if there is majesty, it is of the Lord.
