Audience members were uplifted and edified as they listened to BYU-Idaho's music groups perform original compositions in the Tabernacle on Temple Square Nov. 14. The BYU-Idaho Symphony Orchestra, Collegiate Singers, Men's Choir and Women's Choir traveled icy roads Saturday morning from Rexburg, Idaho to perform to a full audience in the historic building.
"This evening's presentation represents countless hours of preparation dedicated to a wonderful cause," said Kevin Brower, BYU-Idaho's department of music chair while introducing the performance.
Although the weather wasn't ideal for traveling, it was worth it, said Robert Tueller, BYU-Idaho faculty member and director for the performance. Just performing in the Tabernacle was a great experience.
"For us, the students really rose to the occasion," said Brother Tueller. "Being in the historic place with the great sound quality was wonderful. … There is something special about the Tabernacle."
The oratorio-like work titled, "God's Everlasting Love," was composed by Robert Cundick, retired Salt Lake Tabernacle organist. The text written by Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve. It was commissioned by BYU-Idaho as part of their Sacred Music Series.
Although the performance is not a traditional oratorio, it is intended to be a spiritual, devotional experience.
"The main theme ... signifies the very essence of God's everlasting love," it reads in the performance program notes. "It is placed in clear form at the beginning of the work in such a way that the attentive listener can easily identify it as it recurs again and again throughout the work without transformation, suggesting the ongoing power of God's love and His stabilizing influence in our lives."
The music is formatted after a worship service, including an invocation to begin the performance as well as a benediction at the end. Arrangements of the hymns "Jesus, Once of Humble Birth," and "I Know That My Redeemer Lives," were embedded in the performance, making the structure of the performance like a sermon.
"We journey in mortality to have our hearts changed. Our hearts are changed by His love. God's everlasting love," the text reads.
The sacred music emphasized the love God has for each of His children, the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, and the ability individuals have to change through the Savior.
"I would hope they [the listeners] would walk away with a change," said Brother Tueller. "I felt it myself. The text talked about change and after that performance I felt changed."
Saturday night's performance marked the third performance of this new sacred work, with the last performance on Friday, Nov. 20, on the BYU-Idaho campus.
The next piece of music commissioned by BYU-Idaho for the Sacred Music Series is scheduled to be done in the summer of 2012. The composer commissioned for the work is K. Newell Dayley.
