LIT WITH FIRE

I cried with joy when President Ezra Taft Benson called for artists to create more works from the Book of Mormon. He didn't know, but I had already begun! During the lowest, darkest time of my life, when I felt all doors had closed upon me, I began to seek refuge and comfort in reading from the Book of Mormon. Late at night, when I could finally rest my tired body and open the pages of my Book of Mormon, I entered, through reading, my Savior's presence. A "window of light" opened to my soul as I longed to capture through music, the color, intensity, pathos and joy I had often felt as I read my scriptures. Could I actually capture those beautiful moments on musicians' manuscript? I was lit with fire with the desire to try.

I prayed for melodies that might come to my mind to depict that joy. Surely Heavenly melodies come to earth! I wanted to shout to the world about the power that one can feel from reading the Book of Mormon. Drawing upon this power, and with a prayer in my heart for a specific melody, I would become aware that as I sat at my piano and placed my hands on the keys, my fingers were guided to play mature, educated cadences, and springing from the,m I discovered heavenly melodies. What joy!

I received strong impressions to write music that would use words of pure scripture taken directly from the pages of the Book of Mormon. The fire that was lit within me burned even brighter as I followed the promptings of the Holy Ghost and continued to write this music. Then, after I heard President Benson's words, "...I have a vision of artists putting into film, literature, music and painting, the great themes and characters from the Book of Mormon...," the fire within me became unquenchable.

I felt as though a heavenly conduit of pure inspiration was opened to me. There would be tunes floating in my head that would not go away until I could write them down. I could put my hands on the piano keys and make beautiful music that matched the scripture I was reading. This would work as long as I had a personal witness of that scripture and could read it as I played the piano, with my Book of Mormon opened on the music stand before me. Those precious words, pure scripture, fashioned each cadence, molded the harmonies, and gave birth to the melodies. This music flowed into my heart and my mind, but with no particular concern for my schedule, where I was, or what I was doing.

One came at dinnertime when I was stirring the gravy. I turned off the stove so I could go to the paino and write it down. I didn't want to lose it! "I Will Heal You" was born. Another time I half woke at 4:30 a.m., and in my "twilight" sleep, I became aware that a particular melodic phrase kept interrupting my rest. I rose and jotted down the tune, since I knew it could leave me in a flash if I didn't. That became "He is the Light and the Life of the World." Again, during a Sacrament service one Sunday as I scanned my worn pages of Mosiah 27 and Alma 36, I found the key to repentence, which became the heart of a new song: "Alma, Born of God." My role as woman, wife, and mother burned with clearer definition when the words, "I will go and do the thing which the Lord hath commanded" met their melody in my heart and emerged as "I Will Go!"

How can I contain it? Each scripture is a song whose message sears the soul! Each one I have composed has been inspired from my readings of THE BOOK OF MORMON, ANOTHER TESTAMENT OF JESUS CHRIST. Each has given me a spiritual experience, which I have recorded. But the most precious thing that has come to me from composing this music is my personal testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon.

I don't profess to be a Handel or a Mozart, but then, they didn't have the Book of Mormon to write from, and I do! As you listen, perhaps your pains will be eased by this music and your hopes will be lit with fire as mine have been.

May I share it with you?