Mormon Artists Group

Mormon Artists Group announces the publication of The Book of Gold
by Glen Nelson & Murray Boren

The premiere of the opera The Book of Gold took place on November 4, 2005, part of the bicentenial celebration of the birth of Joseph Smith, Jr. The production staged at Brigham Young University boasted performances by Metropolitan Opera sopranos Ariel Bybee and Jennifer Welch-Babidge as Lucy Mack Smith and Emma Smith, and in the leading role, British baritone, Darrell Babidge.

Of the opera, the press wrote, “…Boren has written some of his most poetic and poignant music…. Boren’s score captures the spirit of the libretto wonderfully. Besides the tender love scenes and the evocative music accompanying Smith’s visions, Boren depicts early 19th century rural America with a robust earthiness that is at once persuasive and gripping.” Edward Reichel, Deseret Morning News

“The story has moments of both unusual interest and uncommon beauty…. Composer Boren, something of a prolific wonder in creating new musical statements and sounds, forged an arsenal of wonderful percussion colors and textures that worked underneath and between episodes of drama, dialog, and music.” Ron Simpson, Meridian

“The libretto by New York-based Nelson was full of poetry, humor and honesty. Nelson breathes life into Smith….” Jennifer Barrett, Salt Lake Tribune

“Glen Nelson’s libretto is perfect for an opera—sparse, direct, naturally and honestly conversational, no flowery baggage, so that the music can provide the poetry to support that clear and convincing message. It a script to be coveted by any of the world’s great opera composers, historical or current.” Clayne Robison, BYU, Professor of Voice and Opera, Emeritus

The story of the opera covers the period of history from 1828 to 1830 and tells the story of the translation and publication of The Book of Mormon. It portrays a turbulent period of Smith’s life and a pivotal moment in church history.

THE VOLUME

The limited edition, The Book of Gold, is a three-volume work, containing the following:

1) an extended interview, “Song and Dance” by scholar Michael Hicks with the composer
Murray Boren;

2) the piano/vocal score of the opera;

3) a DVD of the premiere production filmed at BYU, and a libretto with the full text of the opera and an essay by Glen Nelson.

EXCERPTS

From the librettist’s essay “How The Book of Gold Came to Be”:

Murray had expressed to me an interest in writing an opera about Joseph Smith, Jr. years ago while we were developing a project for the Houston Grand Opera. Ultimately, the Texas project was not pursued, and we turned our sights tentatively to Joseph. It was something I found intimidating. Putting words into a historical figure’s mouth is an uncomfortable job for a writer, and in writing about the prophet, I sensed potential landmines all around.

At any rate, our first thoughts were to depict Joseph’s life in the Nauvoo period ending with his martyrdom, but Murray and I were not satisfied with our story ideas about it. Actually, our failure regarding it was painful. Writers are always taught to write about what they know. I did not have a feel for the landscape of Joseph’s last days—his civil and religious duties, his acts leading up to being arrested, his polygamy, to say nothing of his thought processes and language—sadly, it went nowhere.

A year or two passed, and it occurred to me that although I did not have it in me to write the story of the almost 40-year old Joseph, I well understood what it is like to be a newly married man, a young father with a sick child, an author of a first book being published. I had been through those struggles and the accompanying self-doubt, and while my experience was certainly not to the magnitude of Joseph’s, I was willing to try to write it, and furthermore, I had something to say about it.

From the composer’s interview, “Song and Dance”:

HICKS: I know that people scratch their heads over your music and my music. But what do you think that they’re reacting to? What is it that bothers them…?

BOREN: There’s so many different aspects to that problem and it’s such a universal one that I have trouble addressing it. It’s funny, when I was living in New York, Tim Page wrote in a review, “I wish this man could write a note that wasn’t religious.” And there was nothing religious on the concert. But he was just inferring that in everything I did. And the same piece would be played here [at BYU] and I’d be accused of being anti-religious. There’s something about the audience itself and its preparation that baffles me as a composer.

I work hard to try to do a good job. I also work hard to try to communicate. I’m not trying to offend anyone and not trying to repel them, because that doesn’t do me any good….

I guess when it bothers me is when it’s our students, our music majors. Music is supposed to be their life or a big part of their life. It’s supposed to be important to them. They can’t be pulled around to understand even how to listen, what a piece of music can bring to them. And I don’t care if it’s pretty or not. I don’t even care if it makes them feel good or not. I just want them to be moved by it, to be touched in some way so that they can’t deny the experience….

My definition of art is this super-idiosyncratic expression. It’s very individualized, it’s one person’s view of something. It isn’t meant to be doctrinal. Does that make sense? It’s meant to be probing or exploratory, or “This is how I feel about this now.” But we, I think, in general, like our artifacts to be more answers than questions. And artists are much better at questions than they are answers. And so that puts us automatically at odds with each other.

HICKS: And testimony is seen as always an affirmation.

BOREN: But for me, that testimony is a series of questions… the question you raise [regarding faith] interests me because I don’t expect to ever get perfect knowledge. I don’t think most people really get very much perfect knowledge. I mean I think we spend most of our lives way below the 50% mark in understanding things and that faith is necessary.

So music is cool because music can do all kinds of things that language can’t do very easily. And I think it does it very precisely, although it doesn’t articulate into language very precisely. So you were talking about that chord in the moment in the First Vision. The sonic series of events there can take you places that language would have trouble taking you. And it’s complex and it’s not easily reducible to a simple sentence. But for me it’s undeniable that you go through that process. You’re experiencing something that’s beyond words. And most of the things that are important in life, to me, are beyond words.

THE AUTHORS

Murray Boren is the composer of nine operas and nearly one hundred chamber music works. In addition to many vocal pieces, his large orchestral works for symphonic orchestra and band have been commissioned and performed throughout the United States. He has taught music, theory, and composition at the University of Nsukka College of Education in Uyo, Nigeria, and at Brigham Young University, where he was composer in residence.

Glen Nelson has written texts for three operas, two cantatas, and five sets of art songs with Murray Boren. His poetry and essays have been published in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought and in Silent Notes Taken. As director of Mormon Artists Group since its founding in 1999, he has published fourteen projects with 75 LDS artists which have been acquired by private collectors and public institutions worldwide.

THE EDITION

The Book of Gold is a three-volume work presented in custom slipcase (11.5” x 9.5” x 2.75”) printed with an image by Valerie Atkisson that depicts moments from the opera. The artwork is a reproduction of the painting (The Book of Gold, 2005, oil on wood) commissioned for the composer and presented to him on the opening night of the opera. Volume one contains the interview “Song and Dance,” 44 pages, in a Japanese stab-binding hemp leaf pattern. Volume two contains the 280-page opera piano/vocal score in a coil binding. Volume three is a container of the DVD performance (138 minutes, color, in English with subtitles) in hard plastic case and 52-page libretto and essay in softcover binding.

The spines of the three volumes are overprinted with details of the cover image to create a visual wraparound when all volumes are stored inside the slipcase. The edition is limited to 25 copies for sale, plus five copies hors de commerce, all are signed and numbered by the librettist and composer.

The Book of Gold (limited edition three-volume set) - $125

ORDERING

Send check payable to Mormon Artists Group to: 457 West 57th St. #601 New York, NY 10019.

New York residents include 8.625% sales tax. Shipping and handling cost is $15, via USPS. Free delivery available in New York City.

To place an order online through our distributor, go to www.mormonpavillion.com.

For additional information, contact Glen Nelson (212) 586-7826 / mgknelson@aol.com