The late Presbyterian pastor D. James Kennedy once observed that we live in an age in which prejudice is no longer tolerated, with one notable exception: “Today, the only group you can hold up to public mockery is Christians.”
From film depictions of people of faith to Broadway productions, that insight is more relevant now than ever. In an age where musical mockery dominates so many social media discussions about The Book of Mormon, a cherished scriptural text in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it can be timely to remember the rich history of song-writing that builds faith and provides a fitting tribute to a book that bears witness of the Savior.
Music witnessing of faith
James Dunne is a convert to the faith in Santa Monica, California — baptized at age 22 into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1974. After meeting a Latter-day Saint girl at school, he recalls “she had something I didn’t know what it was — an anchor, a grounding,” leaving him wondering, “What is that?”
When he asked her, she told him about her faith. The Book of Mormon ended up being a major factor in his conversion. “I was completely intrigued by it and everything related to it,” he reflected.
It was years after his baptism that Dunne heard for the first time a favorite passage of scripture referred to as “Nephi’s Psalm” (2 Nephi 4:15-31) — where this ancient prophet declares, “my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord” and “my heart sorroweth (and) groaneth because of my sins” — followed by “Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin.”
Upon realizing this has been considered a psalm, Dunne remembers asking, “Where’s the music?” At the time, he was shocked that he couldn’t find any songs in existence centered on this text so well suited to musical treatment.
Since that time, that has definitely changed. For instance, John S. Tanner, who later became President of BYU-Hawaii, wrote two different musical tributes to Nephi’s Psalm, first in 1999 to the melody from Jean Sibelius’s Finlandia (and Be Still, My Soul), called “I Love the Lord,” with the help of Ronald J. Staheli, and later in “Sometimes My Soul” (2001).
Tabernacle Choir organist Robert Cundick’s “The Song of Nephi: Awake My Soul” was also performed by BYU Concert Choir and Orchestra in 2005. More recently, Elenyi recorded “Awake My Soul” (2020), K. Newell Dayley’s created “Sometimes My Soul” (2022) and Shari Orme wrote Awake My Soul (2024), all inspired by the same passage.
But 30 years ago, Dunne saw only a dearth. “I was immediately enthralled with the potential of hearing this passage set to music,” he remembers. “Somebody’s got to do this.”
Music inspired by the ancient text
Dunne is not the only one who’s felt such a nudge, with many other songwriters over the last few decades creating music inspired by the text. Still, many members today are only familiar with pioneer-era “The Iron Rod,” by Joseph L. Townsend and William Clayson. In addition there are well-known primary songs in the Children’s Songbook for the Church of Jesus Christ, such as Elizabeth Fetzer Bates’ “Book of Mormon Stories” (1969), Daphne Matthews’ “The Books in the Book of Mormon” (1978), Janice Kapp Perry’s beloved “We’ll Bring the World His Truth” (1983) about the sons of Helaman and Wilford N. Hansen Jr., and Lisa Tensmeyer Hansen Nephi’s Courage (1986).
There are other remarkable contributions that far less people are aware of:
- For 84 years beginning in 1937, the Hill Cumorah Pageant was presented with 700 performers and an extensive soundtrack covering major events in the Book of Mormon.
- In 1953, composer Leroy Robertson also performed his masterpiece, the Oratorio from the Book of Mormon (style-wise like The Messiah by Handel) — prompted by encouragement to try something like this from Elder Melvin J. Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1919 (a good sample is the remastered “Old Things Are Done Away” by the Tabernacle Choir and The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2023).
- Composer Wanda West Palmer describes hearing the words from Alma 29 in church and asking her organist “Oh, can’t you hear the music to those words? To me, I could just hear it.” She recounts kneeling down and asking God to allow her to put that music to words. As she eventually watched “O That I Were an Angel” (1969) be performed around the world, and recorded over and over, Palmer maintained till her death that “this song was written in the heavens” and it was her “privilege” to help it come to life.
- The Millennial Choirs and Orchestras released “Messiah in America: One Fold, One Shepherd” by Brett Stewart in 2011. (Update: Millennial Choirs and Orchestras is in the process of turning that work into a full-length production in collaboration with Gentri, entitled “Messiah in America” ready for performance in 2025).
- Tabernacle choir singer Michael D. Young has written hymn lyrics for every individual chapter in the Book of Mormon — and points to “Press Forward, Saints” (1985) as an example of how even a small sample of text (2 Nephi 31:20) can become a beloved hymn.
- Pianist Christian Asplund performed six selections from The Brick Church Hymnal in 2021 — with text directly from the Book of Mormon. In 2023, this musician with a background in avant jazz released “The Waters of Mormon 2″ based on another set of 27 passages.
In an age of so much cynicism towards faith, it’s gratifying to appreciate the rich tradition of music that draws people’s hearts and minds closer to this ancient text.
Music amplifying faith
With so much attention given to instances of public mockery, it’s also a striking counterpoint to consider one particular man’s passion across 30 years to create music revealing the beauty of the Book of Mormon text.
The central character in the Book of Mormon, James Dunne says, has provided throughout his life “an example of how to interact peacefully, teach via questions, seek out knowledge, find joy, view things with an eternal perspective ... and yet be aware of our limitations.”
Yet after trying his best compositional hand for six months at a song worthy of the “Psalm of Nephi,” Dunne was at a loss. He just couldn’t figure out how to create anything to match Nephi’s words until it occurred to him clearly that “the magic” was in “his words, not mine.”
Instead of creating music about the text, that began his decades-long journey to create songs centered around the direct words from this ancient scripture — as he says, “wrapping music around prophetic words.”
Early on, Dunne became inspired by his friend Brett Raymond, a long-time music arranger for the NBC Today Show, who had arranged favorite Primary Songs into popular arrangements in the style of James Taylor, Sting, Billy Joel and Paul McCartney.
Soon after visiting Raymond in Southern California, Dunne was also touched by a Saturday night session talk by his stake president in Salem, Oregon, which focused on “17 Questions in Alma 5″. After realizing “the questions alone carried the entire message” in his own study, this aspiring musician sought to match the tone of Alma’s questions musically.
Testimony turned into song
This began his long search for more song opportunities in the rest of the ancient text. Over time, Dunne says it “became clear to me that the passages that worked best were personal testimonies, outpourings, or soliloquies” — thanks to the “passion, insight, and emotions” saturating those texts, “ranging from triumph to depression.”
Those most passionate parts of scripture, Dunne tells Deseret News, really “bring out the heart and soul and the spirit of an individual from the scriptures.”
By 1995, Dunne had composed songs about Nephi, Enos, King Benjamin and Alma. Later in 2014, the musician borrowed time in a friend’s home recording studio, before eventually securing his own, creating “in DIY fashion” early recorded versions of these songs with orchestral arrangements and vocalists.
During this time, Dunne learned to audio engineer, obtain publishing rights and copyrights, and get music on streaming platforms. Even through years of child-raising and working in a career as general management, Dunne continued to work on his “most serious musical passion, Book of Mormon ‘lyrics’ set to music.”
Higher-level recordings
By this time, Dunne was happy to see his songs had been heard on six continents and 30 countries — but he would joke with people, “all 30 people like them.”
In the wake of his music’s early release, Dunne began to feel in 2021, “this was the best I could do, but it wasn’t enough” — not “good enough to represent my beloved Book of Mormon.”
So he began researching local professionals to help rerecord some of his songs at a higher level. After reaching out to Daniel Blomberg for help arranging and Dave Zimmerman, the owner of Noisebox Studios, Dunne began reimagining the music and rerecording the songs with new vocalists, at higher quality sound and production.
Beginning with the Alma-linked “Can You Feel So Now?” sung by Conlon Bonner, 10 additional songs were recorded in a new contemporary format. The titles were selected to ensure a nondenominational appreciation for these testimonies of Christ. (“Rejoice, My Soul” and “Written in Your Heart.”)
Lehi sings his dream to wayward sons. Enos asks “How is it done?” Alma sings of nourishing the word. Mothers witness Christ weeping over the blessing of their children (“He Wept”), and witnesses describe what it was like to hear the Savior petition for them specifically (“We Heard Him Pray”).
Vocalists include Alex Boyé, Conlon Bonner, Yahosh Bonner, Amy Lynn Whitcomb, Daniel Beck, Allie Gardner, Yaphet Bustos, Daniel Beck, Allie Gardner, Rachael Hallam, and alumni of Vocal Point and BYU Noteworthy.
Dunne recalls feeling surprised at the enthusiasm and passion the singers brought to the recording session; they often “had tears because they had a chance to become these people from the scriptures who we have great reverence for.”
“We had to stop and let them recover,” he says, recalling Yahosh Bonner’s performance, “because when they started crying, they couldn’t sing.”
It was witnessing this emotion that led Dunne to retitle the project, “Passionate Testimonies of Christ.”
Looking forward
“You have created something quite wonderful, James,” Lex de Azevedo told the musician. “The question now is what to do with it.”
Artist Garth Smith also said, “This is a project that will change lives.”
Although Dunne has the music on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music, he laments that in today’s glut of music available via worldwide streaming, publishing new music can feel “like dropping it off the side of a cruise ship in the middle of an ocean and hoping it lands somewhere to be heard.”
Despite sparse royalties from streaming platforms, Dunne hopes to record Spanish versions one day and produce the remaining 13 songs already composed from the Book of Mormon. He imagines them being used as the background for other videos and soundtracks, or turned into short vignettes of individual songs inviting listeners to consider the messages of the text.
But ultimately, Dunne’s dream of dreams is to see songs like he is creating woven together into a Book of Mormon Musical (The Real Deal) — one “worthy of the source.”