Organ Recital in the Tabernacle

My Dad works as a tour host at the Conference Center downtown, and he told me about these Organ Recitals that happen daily at 12:00 and 2:00 in the Tabernacle. I grabbed a friend and we headed down. We were planning on attending the 12:00 one but we missed it, so we spent our extra hour at Gateway shopping and grabbing a bite to eat.

This time we got there early and enjoyed the Orchestra on Temple Square’s recording of various hymns, before he concert started. What I thought was interesting and quite amusing was that before each recital the usher in charge does a acoustic demonstration for everyone in the Tabernacle. He started first by just talking and telling us more about these organ recitals on Temple Square without using a microphone, and you could hear him easily. Then he went on to rip a piece of newspaper, which you could here like it was only a little way away, not 50 feet. Then he dropped three straight pins, one after the other, and then a small nail. This was the cool part! I have been in the Tabernacle on numerous occasions because my older brother plays in the Orchestra on Temple Square and I grew up in Salt Lake City, but I have never seen this done. When he dropped the pins and the nail I could hear it like it was being dropped on the bench next to me. The nail was the same just slightly louder. Then as he welcomed us to the Tabernacle and concluded his little speech he turned in a complete circle to show that you could hear him just as well, even when he was facing the choir seats. It was amazing! My favorite part about the Tabernacle is that if you sit up in the balcony you can hear the instruments like they are right about you; that is how good the acoustics are. If you get the chance you should definitely go listen to a organ recital, or any concert in the Tabernacle, and just marvel at the amazing sounds produced without microphones.

Anyway, on to the recital: the woman who played the recital did the acoustic demonstration again right before she started just in case more people had wandered in. She opened with a Trumpet Tune that was short and bright, and then she moved on to a famous organ number of Bach’s called Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. This one was more alive and loud; Bach was always one of my favorites on the organ. The next piece she played was a new hymn that a contemporary artist had written called God Weeps with Us Who Weep and Mourn which was pretty much just a hymn, but more somber and like a sacrament hymn as you can guess from its title. Then she played her own arrangement of Come, Come, Ye Saints which then slowly became America the Beautiful because of the 24^th of July weekend. It was a beautiful rendition. Then she played an older melody. For the finale she played a French piece from the Romantic Era called Toccata in B Major by Eugene Gigout. I thought this piece was the best and connected most to class because it was from the Romantic Era and lately we have been talking about how music and art from the same era tends to have the same qualities. There was this energy and life to the piece that reminded me of the Romantic Era and the wall behind the pipes was this beautiful shade of Fuchsia that fit right in.

I think the whole atmosphere was awesome, because it was really casual, but the recital was good enough to have been at night and cost 15-20 dollars. The high caliber of the performance was a huge contrast to the casual, walk-in status of the Tabernacle, and it was FREE! What could be better? I would give this recital a 8.