When I was a teenager every other year our area was involved in the play/production of "And it Came to Pass" but we called it The Temple Pageant. The pageant is performed in the Auditorium of the Tri-Stake Center on the grounds of the Oakland California Temple. I sang in the balcony choir twice. It was a big deal to do this. We would practice as a stake after church and on Saturdays. Then as the performance drew closer we would meet with other stakes within our area and sing together. I loved doing this. The music would swell in my heart.
Let me set the stage for you we've practiced months and months. We make a few dry runs up at the Tri-Stake Center next to the temple. There are two groups of people involved for this production. The cast and the balcony choir. I always sang in the balcony myself. But we were to learn the songs and find a dress that was all white. We were instructed to enter quietly so the audience wouldn't know we were up in the balcony (and even taught how to stand without making a noise). Anyhow, the play was about the history of the church. It opened with Joseph Smith and his search. The first song we sang was my favorite
"Who Am I".
“Who am I, this being that I am, who walks the earth midst beings as myself?
Born was I of parents; who are they?
Why do I exist to walk a while and then depart? Who am I, who takes up time and space,
Who motions vacillate, some bad some good,
Who feels the null and void of all of this, without the question answered, who am I?
By happenchance have I come about by some ornate confusion?
By happenchance have I grown from rudimentary species eons past evolved?
By happenchance? By happenchance am I a worthless piece of thing
So dross, so void, so much of nothingness that when I pass,
My passing is just passing into past?
Who am I? This is who I am!
My spirit lived with my Father before the earth was formed. …
I am a child of my Father. I am a child of God.”
Anyhow, as we sang I would get chills that would go up and down my body. Today I recognize that as a witness that what I am doing and feeling are true and a testimony was being born to me of the truthfulness of this gospel. I have issues with remembering many things but words to some music just seem to come to my mind and I remember almost every word.
The very last part of the pageant the balcony chorus stands and everyone is dressed in all white. The cast is in all white and as we began to sing about the truthfulness of the gospel we sang "The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning. Participating in this has left a lasting impression in my heart and soul. So last Sunday as we sang this same song I was transported back 35 years ago to a balcony where these same feelings started. I loved being taken back and thinking back to this time.
One other thought the second year we sang they added a song called "We are the Vision the Prophets Saw". I wasn't in love with it because it was new and I felt no ties to it. It almost felt like it didn't belong. It was really my least favorite song. (I think it might have been written by Keith Merrill?) I remember sitting in the big hall at the Tri-Stake Center going over some rough patches with songs and we had been told that maybe Pres. Benson (He was President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles then) might attend the Pageant. We were practicing "We are the Vision the Prophets Saw" and the doors swung open and in walked Pres. Benson. I remember that day wanting to sing just a little better so Pres. Benson could feel that yes we are the Vision the Prophets saw. For that moment this song had great meaning to me as I sung it for a Prophet of God.
“We are the vision the prophets saw.
We are the promise of the latter-day.
We are the vision the prophets saw.
We are God’s bastion in our humble way.”
I remember the first time I went to General Conference and I was sitting on the left side of my mom on those old hard benches. It came time to sing and I looked around for hymn books. None were to be found and I found this rather odd. I asked my mom how we were suppose to sing if we didn't have any books. She said to me something that has stayed with me to this day (and always brings a smile to my face) if you want to sing with the angels in heaven you need to memorize the songs so you can sing with them as they probably don't use books in Heaven. So to this day if it is a song I know I don't use the hymn book. Cause I want to be in the Heavenly Choir and sing these wonderful songs of praise.
Music is an amazing tool. It makes you smile, it can bring comfort, it will bear witness to divine knowledge, it teaches, it can bring happiness to your moment or your day. I love music in my life and all types of music. Most times I think music has come as a gift from above. Granite some music does not! But none the less I love surrounding myself with music.
Here is an New Era article written in 1977 about the pageant. It no longer exists but for me it lives in my mind and heart. https://www.lds.org/new-era/1977/02/songs-sung-backstage-and-in-balconies?lang=eng
