At age 81, Crawford Gates sees some irony in the title of one of the songs he composed for the famous 1947 musical "Promised Valley" commemorating the centennial of the coming of Brigham Young and the Pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley.
"One of the songs is, of course, 'I Dream of a Home in the Valley'; I never had one until now, and now I'm on the edge of the valley," reflected Brother Gates during an interview July 28 at his valley home in the foothills above Salt Lake City. After 34 years directing orchestras in Wisconsin and Illinois, he came back to Utah four years ago.
The composer is no stranger to the Beehive State, however, having spent the early part of his career on the music faculty at BYU and as a frequent guest conductor of the Utah Symphony.
Brother Gates is a native of San Francisco, Calif., and was reared in Palo Alto by faithful Latter-day Saint parents who had moved to California from St. George, Utah, for business opportunities. He would be their only child.
He recalls feeling a strong motivation in the study of music just after his baptism at age 8 and ascribes it to one of the gifts of the Spirit that attend those who receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Indeed, by the time he was 15, he had learned to play the piano, violin, viola, clarinet, trumpet and harp, and had composed some 100 works.
Deployed as a Naval officer in the Pacific Theater during World War II, he was trained for an eventual invasion of Japan. With a predicted casualty rate of 70 percent for amphibious officers in such an invasion, Brother Gates sees it as providential that the war ended before the action took place. "When they announced the end of the war, I heard about the guys kissing the girls in San Francisco and breaking windows and getting drunk," he reflected. "But I dropped to my knees in my barracks and thanked the Lord that the killing had stopped. I look at my family of 25 now [including wife, Georgia, four children and their spouses and 15 grandchildren] and think these would never have happened if I had been killed in the invasion."
Just out of the service, with an undergraduate degree and a Church mission to the Eastern States already under his belt, Crawford came to Salt Lake City for a job prospect. Later, at the age of 25, he got the contract to compose the score for a new musical, "Promised Valley."
The well-known play was not commissioned by the Church originally. Rather, it was the Utah state government that planned it as a centerpiece of a massive celebration leading up to July 24,1947, the centennial of the founding of the state by Brigham Young and the Mormon pioneers. "Oklahoma" had been a smash on Broadway just three years earlier; perhaps something of that magnitude could be created.
A delegation was sent to Broadway in New York City to find a writing team worthy of the grand plans. One luminary, Arnold Sundgaard, was hired as lyricist. The suggested composer, Kurt Weill (of "Three Penny Opera" and "Mack the Knife" fame) would have done the music, but was unavailable.
Back home in Salt Lake City, there was a local fire storm of protest. "Haven't we produced a composer in the last 100 years with the talent to celebrate our own event?" was the gist of the discontent, Brother Gates recalled.
His friend Lowell Durham, a music critic for the Salt Lake Tribune, wrote a column suggesting in order of priority eight Latter-day Saints who could do the job. Topping the list was Leigh Harline, a Church member from Salt Lake City, who had composed the score for the Walt Disney animated feature, "Pinnochio," including the classic song "When You Wish Upon a Star." At Number 8 on the list was Crawford Gates.
"No one would ever tell me how I got from Number 8 in Lowell's article to Number 1 by the time the commission awarded that contract." But from December 1946, Brother Gates worked 16 hours a day, six days a week composing music for Sundgaard's script. Finally, on July 20, two days before the musical was to open, he finished. "The final overture was still wet on the paper" when the opening took place, he commented.
In 1953, he found himself back in the New York area pursuing a graduate degree. The Hill Cumorah Pageant director, Harold Hansen, engaged him to compose an original musical score for the pageant.
A member of the YMMIA General Board and the General Church Music Committee at the time, he had little spare time. But he set to work on a musical background for the "Christ scene" of the pageant. Seventeen attempts later, he was ready to concede failure. To Brother Hansen, he confided, "Harold, I need a blessing."
An appointment was arranged with Elder Harold B. Lee, then of the Quorum of the Twelve. "I remember five or six things from my blessing," he said. "One stands out in mind: 'You will hear music in the night.' "
He made another attempt at a score.
Brother Gates said he rarely dreams, and when he does, the dreams make no sense. This time it was different. He dreamed of being in a recording session in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. He heard the choir and orchestra performing his music. Some months later, the scene was played out as he had dreamed it. To him it was a confirmation that the composition was acceptable to the Lord. And it was a fulfillment of Elder Lee's blessing.
By 1966, Brother Gates was looking to grow professionally. He found that opportunity in an offer to go to Beloit, Wis., and direct the Beloit/Janesville Symphony, and later, orchestras in Rockford and Quincy, Ill., over 34 years.
Now, back in the "promised valley," he conducted the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square July 20 at the choir's "Music and the Spoken Word" broadcast and that evening at the Church's Pioneer Day Commemoration. (See July 26 Church News.) After the broadcast, he received a plaque recognizing his lifetime of service to the Church through music.
One of the selections performed for the commemoration was "I Dream of a Home in the Valley."
"The song has all the more meaning for me now, and when I did it that night, it had a double meaning," he said.
E-mail: rscott@desnews.com.
