Innovation. Interpretation. Inspiration.
Kenneth Cope is a master at all three. The Utah singer/songwriter/composer is involved in taking music in new directions, but he is also dedicated to the underlying principles and messages that continue to add a compelling element to his music.
One of his latest projects is a prime example. Cope was asked to do the music for an interactive CD-ROM on the life of Joseph Smith. It was both exciting and challenging, he says, to work in this new genre.
Titled "Joseph Smith, The Seer," the CD-ROM is the first project from a new company called Capital Media and is designed to combine information and entertainment in striking new ways. It employs a lot of visual imagery and multimedia interpretations: video, both contemporary and historic photography as well as comprehensive information resources, as it explores the life and teachings of Joseph Smith.
So, the music has to support those various styles. But Cope didn't want it to be like a lot of the music used as background for video games and some other CDs, which is irritating in its sameness.
He looked at the music for the CD-ROM more as a film score, but it isn't quite that, either.
For one thing, movie music is designed to move you along, to take you somewhere, he says. "But here it is used just to set the tone." It is meant to be listened to in short pieces, in perhaps random order, as people click on various options on the computer screen.
At the same time, the music must have a continuity, so that if you just listen to the soundtrack (and a separate soundtrack CD was produced) it will have a sense of completeness.
This movielike music was a new experience for him. "The only other score I've ever done was for a student film back in school."
Another difference: "I've always been a man with a message, and I've always used lyrics to convey that message. But here I had to let the music do the talking. The notes had to speak for me musically all by themselves," he says.
But Cope proved up to these challenges. The results are a musical biography filled with power, emotion and fresh interpretation — from haunting Hebrew melodies to lilting melodies and dramatic scene-setters — that works exceptionally well in this new format.
It's exciting, he says, to see the new directions music is going. "This is just the beginning," he says. "Projects like this can open new doors. They are taking both music and information to a whole new level, creating something that is beautiful to the eye and beautiful to the ear in a meaningful way."
A few years ago, we couldn't even imagine things like this, he says. And it makes you wonder just where music will go in the future.
But this is not the only new project Cope is working on. He is also teaming up with artist Liz Lemon Swindle and author Susan Easton Black for a book/CD package detailing the life of Christ. That four-year project is set for completion in 2003.
"I can't picture working on anything more important," Cope says of that endeavor. "I feel like this is what I went to school for, what I've been preparing for in everything else I've done. I feel like it will be my 'magnum opus,' in many ways."
Cope does bring a lifetime of musical involvement to these innovative new projects. He grew up in a musical family in Houston, Texas. His mother's family traveled around the country performing and playing at dances (and were even on the "Lawrence Welk Show"). His paternal grandmother studied to be an opera singer. So, he says, "there's a lot of music flowing in my genes."
And he remembers when he was in fourth grade. "I was in the car with my mom. I was in the backseat, and I was making up and singing harmonies to the music playing on the radio. She turned around and said, 'Son, you really have a gift for music.' That was the first time I really thought about music as something I could do."
The Jackson 5 were popular at that time, and so he got his brothers to pretend they were the Cope 4 and sing with him. When he was in the eighth grade, he "paid a guy $2 to show me some chords," and he taught himself to play the guitar.
He attended the High School for the Performing Arts in Houston and began focusing on vocal music. His singing and performing eventually led him into songwriting and eventually into producing albums for the BYU Especially For Youth program and working with noted composer Lex de Azevedo.
In 1989, he received critical acclaim for the first of his faith-centered concept albums, "Greater Than Us All," which dealt with the life of Christ. That was followed by "Women at the Well," "My Servant Joseph," and what he considers his most personal offering, "Stories From Eden's Garden." His latest CD, "A Prayer Unto Thee," featuring soft, lyrical interpretation of some of his favorite hymns, has also been well received. Cope has won numerous Pearl Awards from the Faith-Centered Music Association for his work.
Early in their marriage, he and his wife Kathy spent five years in Los Angeles, where he worked in the music industry. But, he says, they felt that Utah was where they were supposed to be. And since then, he has had more opportunities to do the work he loves.
Making music has come relatively easily for him, and he does feel he has a gift for it. "That doesn't make me any better than anyone else," he says. "A gift is given." But he also knows he must work at it. "If you don't work, you don't grow." And it gives him a deep feeling of responsibility to use his gift well, to give back.
"Music is such a powerful medium. I just try to make music that helps other people feel what I feel."
Cope makes no apologies that his message is a deeply religious one. It's a message the world needs, and it is this, he says: God loves us.
After Cope became a father (the Cope's have three daughters: Eden, 8; Hannah, 5; Eliza, 3), he says, he truly came to understand and appreciate the power and emotion of a father's love. "I would do anything for my girls. And God in Heaven is that same kind of father; there is nothing he wouldn't do for his children.
"That's why he sent his son here; that's why he has sent prophets to guide us; that's why he has shown us how, through faith and effort, we can truly be his sons and daughters. Everything he does expands from that. And everything I do musically is filled with that message."
Cope's work may take different forms, but the underlying message remains the same.
A message of hope, a message of inspiration, a message of love.
E-MAIL: carma@desnews.com