http://www.lightplanet.com/Mormons/music/music.html
Here's a synopsis of music and Mormonism. Hicks begins, promising enough with this line, "Throughout the Church's history, music has always permeated the assemblies of the Saints and has energized their pursuit of spiritual and cultural betterment. The diversity of styles in the Church is echoed in the diversity of roles that music plays in LDS life."
Following this statement is a brief paragraph summarizing the place of music in church members' lives (all brethren sanctioned): roadshows, pageants, and family home evening make the list. I think given Hick's list, it's not too far from the truth to likewise argue that the diversity of ways to most economically connect two dots in space reflects the diversity of styles in drawing straight lines.
It seems, according to Hicks, that music had a hopeful future in Mormonism's early days, he notes,
From the 1870s through 1920, the Sunday School and other Church auxiliaries gradually assumed leadership in musical training, providing singing lessons and band memberships for young Latter-day Saints as well as publishing a large amount of newly composed music.
But then the church's creativity stifling top-down approach registers:
Little attempt was made to correlate or standardize LDS musical affairs until 1920, when President Heber J. Grant appointed a General Music Committee for the Church.
The type of music most consistently endorsed has been sacred vocal music prepared especially for LDS worship. LDS composers have written hundreds of hymns and anthems and have created many large-scale, sometimes modernistic sacred works, such as Evan Stephens's "dramatic cantatas" of the 1920s
I'm sure Grant and his committee saw to that (the bold). Scratch's link to totalitarian art forms rings true. Unforgettably, per Hicks, there are also the pageants -- those who have been to the Manti pageant surely have been possessed by the spirit of Mozart -- and the youth music in the 70's and 80's the church desperately threw together to answer the influence of rock n' roll.
A few stylistic issues have surfaced in the twentieth century. Some Church authorities have advised against certain popular styles of music
The thinking has been done...
Nevertheless, in nonliturgical settings, ethnic religious music thrives
Keep that crazy African music out of the chapel!
But Hicks is torn between speaking honestly and perpetuating the ruse.
The enduring value of much music indigenous to the Church is difficult to predict.
Say it isn't so! You mean, the church that breeds the best and brightest, and infuses them with the power of the Holy Ghost isn't sure to produce the next "more spiritual" version of Wagner, as SWK predicted?
On the one hand, the vernacular music often echoes the more ephemeral styles of denominational Christian music.
We've all read the small print from the Hymn books and know LDS worship music is ripped off from other churches and the local bars of early Mormonism, and that it has never evolved a single step since then.
On the other hand, some impressive settings have emerged from the hymnody of the Church, and some of the larger works manifest a continuing increase in sophistication.
Such as the "sometimes modern" compositions one can count on a single hand that spanned the first part of the twentieth century he listed earlier?
Furthermore, the extensive use of worship music borrowed from other Christian traditions unites the Saints to a larger fellowship of believers.
Mediocrity is a blessing, if SWK's dream were realized, how could Mormons relate to the rest of the world?
Above all, the sheer abundance of music in the Church reveals how untiring are the aesthetic impulses of its members. Whether or not a distinctively LDS style emerges, music of many styles undoubtedly will continue to inspire the Saints.
Cultural betterment where there is no distinctive culture. I wonder how that works.
