Mormon Tabernacle Choir marks recording milestone


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[e-mail received] By The Associated Press (Jennifer Dobner)

Last Edit: Jun 10 2010 - 1:42pm

SALT LAKE CITY -- In the decades since 1910, the all-volunteer Mormon Tabernacle choir -- which today has 360 members -- has recorded 175 albums, earned five gold records, two platinum records and a Grammy award.

Music lovers can now hear some of those earliest recordings on a new 32-track, three-disc combination CD/DVD. The project includes digitally reworked versions of early recordings and rarely-seen video of choir performances. It also includes the songs most-requested by choir audiences worldwide, Music Director Mack Wilberg said.

"It's interesting, listening to those recordings, I think the essence of the choir is very much the same as it was 100 years ago," said the 55-year-old who is his third year as director. "The makeup of the choir is much the same ... the finest singers from throughout the region still come together and it's still totally volunteer."

Some of the choir's unique and consistent sound may be derived from its 143-year-old Tabernacle venue, which is renowned for it's sensitive acoustics, Wilberg said.

The choir also continues to sing the same genre of music selections, including hymns, music of the masters and popular inspirational tunes.

Modern digital technology is making it possible for the choir's first recorded songs -- "Let the Mountains Shout for Joy" from 1910 and "Worthy is the Lamb" from 1927 -- to be heard today, Wilberg said.

"When I first heard those old recordings, they were pretty scratchy and hard to hear," he said. "But it's kind of a miracle what they are able to do to clean them up."

Singing the old standbys performed and recorded by previous incarnations of the choir never gets old, said Natalie Blackwell, 52, a soprano who is in her third year on the choir roster.

"It's interesting, you wouldn't think singing 'America the Beautiful' or some of the songs we've sung since we were in elementary school can move you, but they really can," the former vocal teacher said.

Being a part of the choir also stirs Blackwell's sense of history.

"I had a piece of music in my folder that was published in 1929," said Blackwell, of Cedar Hills. "It was so yellowed and crumbing and I had to wonder, how many people had held this piece of music before I did. It's pretty cool."

The choir was formed in 1847 as Latter-day Saints trekked across the plains to settle Utah. The group may be best-known for its weekly program, "Music and the Spoken Word." The 30-minute Sunday morning program has been airing for more than 80 years and is the longest-running continuous broadcast in America. It is carried by more than 2,000 radio and television stations and cable systems.

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