People have been singing together for as long as we have kept recorded history. The history of Western choral music as we know it today had its origins in sacred music. Gregorian chant was commonly used in churches as a form of worship. Monks would sing the passages in unison, blending their voices to create the sound that we strive to achieve in modern choir; many voices sounding as one.
As music composition matured, the use of several different tones began to be common. Polyphony, or as we began to be used in increasingly complicated iterations. As polyphonic sound increased the breadth and depth of music heard in church, composers began to seek a greater range of sound.
Since women were not allowed to sing in church, composers turned to the high soprano sounds of young boys, who were able to sing the treble lines. Church music reflected the changes of society and with the Reformation of the 16th century, sacred music was forced to adapt.
The door to this building can be seen on the north side of the chancel although the building has long since been demolished. Choristers would have continued to be used over the coming centuries although the changing styles of service would have required similar changes in the music and where the singers would have sung from in the church.
The formation of the sort of choir we now have can be traced back to the s and an early chorister and later choirmaster was Thomas Helmore, a talented tenor and composer. In he founded and was the first conductor of the Stratford Choral Society but he went on to be choirmaster at the Chapel Royal where he was a huge influence on Arthur Sullivan, then a boy chorister.
It was at the consecration service to mark a major internal reordering of the church in that the choir appeared in cassock and surplice causing, it was noted, considerable amazement among the congregation. Under the care of George Arbuthnot vicar - the choir particularly flourished. Choral Evensong was sung daily and a Choir School was established although it only survived for nine years.
A picture from shows the choir had around 30 members. Moving to CBS in , the program has continued as the longest uninterrupted network broadcast in American radio history. Spencer Cornwall, who succeeded Lund in , vastly expanded the choir's repertoire and conducted its first, highly successful, European tour in Under him the Mormon Tabernacle Choir achieved the warm, homogeneous sound that characterized its ensemble for many years. Continuing in this tradition, the choir, under Richard P.
Condie conducted the first television broadcast of "Music and the Spoken Word" on 14 October Jay Welch, who replaced Condie in , remained only briefly. He was one of the most gifted and popular conductors the choir has ever had, and his sudden and unexpected resignation brought a number of administrative problems to the surface.
Though regarded as a tragedy at the time, this resulted in many important changes which have worked to the advantage of the present organization, including placing the choir under the direct supervision of the First Presidency of the church. Welch was succeeded by present conductor Jerold Ottley later in the same year. Under Ottley's leadership the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has achieved new standards of excellence, becoming stylistically more versatile and varied in its repertoire.
Touring has vastly expanded and the choir's role in the church has changed substantially. On one hand, its musical mission has been simplified, with an emphasis on hymn singing for the general meetings of the church. On the other hand, its role as a cultural and spiritual ambassador has led to a greatly expanded repertoire consisting not only of the great classical masterworks but also of many forms of ethnic and folk music, requiring much broader linguistic experience and training.
Such added responsibilities led in to the appointment of Donald Ripplinger as the first full-time associate conductor. The masterful "Spoken Word" vignettes of long-time choir commentator Richard L.
Evans inspired generations of listeners from until his death in , at which time J. Spencer Kinard became the "voice of the Tabernacle Choir. Organist Alexander Schreiner , who devoted the greater part of his outstanding career to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, was especially influential in the choir's rise to musical maturity. Schreiner was also the moving force behind the installation of G.
Donald Harrison's magnificent Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ, recently renovated and enlarged 11, pipes in ranks under the careful supervision of organists Robert Cundick , John Longhurst , and Clay Christiansen Richard Elliott was appointed in April to fill the vacancy created by Cundick's retirement later that year. The virtually round-the-clock schedule of the choir's current programs resulted in the appointment of two associate organists--Linda Margetts and Bonnie Goodliffe--in Originally unpaid volunteers, both have since been given part-time salaried positions, placing them on similar footing with the three full-time organists.
Other organists for the choir have included John J. McClellan , Edward P.
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