With 3,000 well-wishers at the Union Pacific depot noisily waving them off, the "largest, happiest, most select excursion party that has ever left this Territory" chugged off to Chicago.
It was the choir's first trip outside Utah - the precursor of hundreds of later trips that would take the famed Utah choir to every corner of the world. The occasion was the Chicago World's Columbian Exhibition noting the 400th anni versary of Christopher Columbus' landing in the West Indies. A choral competition or "Eisteddfod" had been arranged by Welsh entrepreneurs and the Tabernacle Choir was pitting its musical expertise against that of some of the world's best.The First Presidency of the LDS Church accompanied the choir, ensconced in the Union Pacific's Pickwick Car, "kindly and generously placed at their disposal" by the railroad. The elegant walnut and mahogany furnishings and the attendance of "three colored porters" assured them a comfortable trip.
Mormon leaders had great hopes for their musical contingent. "Utah's sweet singers will advertise this territory as it has never been advertised before," they said.
To help the singers make a good impression, they were provided a list of etiquette rules, including "Never dunk in public. At home, go ahead," and "Never eat with your elbows sprawled on the table. Between courses, one elbow, not both, may be leaned upon."
When the group boarded Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway cars to make the return trip, their hopes had been largely fulfilled, although the choir had placed only second. Second place was, by any measure, an impressive accomplishment in a first international competition, but Tabernacle Choir promoters were a bit disappointed. One of the First Presidency claimed the competition had been "fixed" by the Welsh organizers.
President Joseph F. Smith, in a letter home, said somewhat bitterly that the Salt Lake choir had merited first place "fairly and honestly . . . but this was too much honor to confer upon Utah and the Mormons." Even so, he continued "I consider that it has done more good than 5,000 sermons would have done in an ordinary or even an extraordinary way."
Critics, however, felt the choir's performance lacked "soul." It tended, like all large vocal groups, to go flat, they said. And they criticized the stage presence of choir leader Evan Stephens, noting his failure to bow upon entering and leaving the stage and "generally exhibiting unfamiliarity with the tricks of a professional conductor." He nevertheless was awarded a gold medal for his performance, and the audience overall was "surprised and pleased," the critics said.
Stephens' presence in an international competition was a little miracle in itself. An LDS convert and emigrant from Wales at 12 years of age, he had little formal education. He trained himself in music, and during the Chicago event, President Wilford Woodruff commented that "A shepherd boy came down from the mountains and is here today to contest in this great competition."
During his long career as a Utah musician, many of Stephens' works were published, including 88 hymns, six anthems and several operas and cantatas. He wrote the state song, "Utah We Love Thee."
He led the choir from 1890 to 1914 and also taught music at the University of Deseret for 17 years. Temperamental by nature, he held a heavy hand over his singers. "My authority must be absolute," he stated. "I would permit no one to interfere in my work."
Once, when he threatened to quit in disgust at the choir's "provincialism" and return to teaching childrens' singing, the LDS First Presidency doubled his salary from $1,000 to $2,000 annually. They were able to convince him to devote his full time to the choir.
When famed Australian opera singer Nellie Melba appeared in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, she and Stephens engaged in a bit of telling repartee: Assuming all Mormon men had multiple wives, she tweaked Stephens by asking how many spouses he had. "Not so many but what I could take one more," he quipped. He wouldn't allow the noted soprano to cow him into putting on a swallow-tailed coat for her performance.
Early choir members were called on "missions" to counteract the widespread prejudice against the church that then prevailed.
LDS Church members almost from the beginning had accepted music as an important appurtenance to their religion, taking to heart scripture that states: "the song of the righteous is a prayer. " Saints "sang their way across the plains" as the church gathered in the Great Basin, some historians say.
The first choir in the Salt Lake Valley sang for a general conference of the church on Aug. 27, 1847, 29 days after the lead party had filed from Emigration Canyon into the valley. Today, the choir has more members than the total number of Saints in the area at that time.
As the population grew, local church leaders put a premium on ward members who could sing. One bishop advertised that he would give 10 acres of his town's best land to a good tenor for the choir.
In 1869, Brigham Young, who declared "there is no music in Hell, for all good music belongs to Heaven," called George Careless on a mission to "lay a foundation for good music" in Utah.
Careless, a convert and well-trained musician from England, was struggling to make a living from 24 paying pupils at the going rate of 100 pounds of flour for a series of lessons. He responded, "I'll stay with my music for two years. If I starve, you will have to bury me."
The first time the choir rehearsed in the new Tabernacle, it was a terribly cold night and the 40 singers willing to brave the weather struggled to the unheated building through knee-deep snow. They sang with a candle in one hand and their music in the other, a choir history says.
Careless complained bitterly, and even though church leaders grumbled at the expense, he was able to get a stove and an oil lamp chandelier to provide light. For some time, absenteeism for practices was high, often with fewer than half the singers present.
On Oct. 3, 1873, the first "substantial" Tabernacle Choir sang for general conference. Careless had assembled the best of the choirs from surrounding communities to bolster the 85 members of the Salt Lake Tabernacle Choir. Singers came from Ogden, Brigham City, Farmington, American Fork, West Jordan, Parowan, Coalville, Willard, Logan, Herriman, Wellsville, Spanish Fork and Bountiful.
A total of 304 singers participated. But they had not all prepared the same versions of the same songs before coming to Salt Lake City. Hymnals of the day often had the words but no music, and different tunes were used by different groups. The "musical chaos" of that experience led Careless to push for an official churchwide hymnbook, an endeavor in which he played a crucial role.
When Stephens took over the group and increased its standing number to more than 300, the Tabernacle was redesigned with the semicircular seating that became the group's oft-photographed hallmark.
The first pipe organ was installed in the building in 1867.
Several successive directors left their imprint on the choir. Over the years, several debates were waged as to what type of music the choir should sing, with some opting for classical-only or religious-only programs and others touting the value of a more popular re-per-toire.
The advent of radio, television and electronic recording methods brought the choir into the homes of hundreds of thousands. Now well-established as one of the leading groups of its kind in the world, the choir remains one of the church's most impressive ambassadors as it is eagerly welcomed by music lovers in many nations.