Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Flood the Earth

"Flood the Earth" was written in 1989 in response to a talk by President Ezra Taft Benson, the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at the time.  We wrote this song for our BYU Ward as part of a Stake program that put into action the words of President Benson's talk to "flood the earth with the message of the Book of Mormon".  We were honored to perform the song at the Stake program with President Benson in attendance.

Links to download each page as a PDF are at the bottom of this post.  





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Look Around Me

This song was written in 1988 shortly after Krista and I were married.  I had been playing around with chords on the piano and Krista decided it would be nice to add words to what I was playing.  "Look Around Me" is the result.  This was a time when we felt significant blessings from the Lord that left us wondering how we could repay Him for all He had done for us.

Thanks to Krista's brother Jim I have a recording of Krista singing this song.

Links to download each page as a PDF are at the bottom of this post. 



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Let Me Lead You to Eternity

Krista wrote "Let Me Lead You to Eternity" in 1986 for me before I went to Japan for two years to preach the Gospel of Christ.  She and a couple of her friends sang it at my Mission Farewell.

Thanks to Krista's brother Jim I have a recording of Krista singing this song.

Links to download each page as a PDF are at the bottom of this post. 


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…and…FIFTY! “The Song of the Heart”

“For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me” Doctrine and Covenants 25:12

Anyone who knew Krista knew of her love of music.  And of her love to perform beautiful music.  I always joked with her that I was her wildcard whenever she wanted to join a choir.  Krista had a beautifully mellow first alto voice that was appreciated by those she sang for.  But having a first alto range made it difficult when asking to join a choir because it is a very common range for women.  Whenever she had a director tell her they had enough first altos she would mention that her husband sang first tenor.  At that point the director would tell her she could join if she brought her husband.  Not that I have an extraordinary voice but it is uncommon to have a man in the first tenor range, and even more uncommon for them to want to sing in a choir.

Singing together began for us in high school choir and continued throughout our life together.  In her later years she loved singing Handel’s “Messiah”.  She would often sing the alto solos and duets during performances of the oratorio.  In the years following her diagnosis she and I would often sing the alto/tenor duet “O death, where is thy sting”.  As I’ve mentioned before, she would joke that we were “throwing down the gauntlet” every time we sang it.  Now, just thinking of this song brings bittersweet tears.  We were scheduled to sing the duet at the Artisan Center Theater the week after Krista passed away.  We had been performing the duet for a few years as part of their annual Christmas Messiah sing along.  As a tribute to Krista they kept the duet in the program but had it performed as a Clarinet/Recorder duet.  This was a beautiful tribute to a beautiful woman.

In her younger years Krista also had an interest in writing music.  She wrote “Let Me Lead You to Eternity” and sang it with her friends for my mission farewell.  Early in our marriage she wrote a couple other songs, “Flood the Earth” and “Look Around Me”, that I wrote the accompaniment for. 

By now you’re probably wondering, what does 50 have to do with any of this?  Well, today is Krista’s 50th birthday and I have been blessed with another wonderful wife who wanted to make this a special day for all who knew Krista.  Marlena knows of the love of music that Krista and I shared and thought we should use her 50th birthday to share what she loved with others.  So, to remember Krista's 50th birthday I’m uploading the songs she wrote to her blog.  Each of the next three posts will be one of the songs she wrote.  The scoring of the music is very rough but it should be enough for anyone who wants to try to play through them.  Feel free to use them however you like, I know Krista would be pleased.