Music and the Spoken Word
From within the shadow of the everlasting hills
For many, no visit to Salt Lake City would be complete without attending a Sunday morning live broadcast from Temple Square of “Music and the Spoken Word,” featuring the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The TRAX light rail system will take you from the University Guest House to Temple Square, and then just a very short walk to the Conference Center. The doors open at 8:30 am and you must be seated by 9:15 when the doors are closed. The broadcast is begins at 9:30. Please note that children under the age of eight will not be admitted.
The first broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word was on July 15, 1929. The heat was sweltering, and there was only one microphone, which was suspended from the ceiling of the Tabernacle on Temple Square. The announcer had to climb to the top of a ladder to get to the microphone, and then stayed there for the entire thirty-minute broadcast. The audio engineer was alerted by telegraph when to start the broadcast, and he gave a hand cue to the announcer on the ladder, who began, “From the crossroads of the West, we welcome you to a program of inspirational music and spoken word." The same words have opened the broadcast each week for nearly eighty years.
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir 1929
Music and the Spoken Word has become the world's longest-running continuous network broadcast and is carried on more than 2,000 radio and television stations and cable systems. It has been broadcast from locations across the country and around the world, although most of the broadcasts have originated from the 8,000-seat Salt Lake Tabernacle. The Tabernacle is a dome-shaped building, constructed 1864 to 1867 on the west center-line axis of the Salt Lake Temple. To accommodate renovations made to the Tabernacle, the broadcast was moved to the Conference Center in 2005. Located across the street from the Tabernacle, the Conference Center seats 21,333, and is believed to be the largest theater-style auditorium ever built.
The center-point of each broadcast is the GrammyAward-winning Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The 360-voice choir was founded in 1847, one month after the Mormon Pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. The choir will often be joined by special guests, including popular or well-known mucisians, singers, or actors, or by the 110-member Orchestra at Temple Square, which was created in 1999 in order to increase the aesthetic and musical quality of the choir’s performances.
Since its inception in 1929, the "spoken word" segment of the program has been voiced by three separate individuals. The original writer, producer, and announcer of the spoken portion of the broadcast was Richard L. Evans, who continued in that capacity until his death in 1971. J. Spencer Kinard took over as announcer in 1972 until he stepped down in 1990. Lloyd D. Newell has been the announcer since then. The broadcast opens with the words, "From the crossroads of the West, we welcome you to a program of inspirational music and spoken word." The announcer then introduces the songs by reciting short scripture quotes and literature before each song, with a longer spoken message near the end of the program. Music and the Spoken Word closes with the words: "Again we leave you from within the shadow of the everlasting hills. May peace be with you, this day and always," followed by the choir singing the traditional LDS hymn "God Be With You Till We Meet Again".
