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, 2006, part of the bi-centenial celebration of the birth of Joseph Smith, Jr. The production 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 story of the opera covers the period of church 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

This limited edition volume of the opera contains the following: the DVD performance of the premiere production filmed at Brigham Young University, a piano/vocal score of the opera,  an interview “Song and Dance” by scholar Michael Hicks with the composer Murray Boren, and a libretto with an essay by the librettist.

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. 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. 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 though 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 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...

BOREN: ...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 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, he has published twelve projects with nearly 75 LDS artists which have been acquired by private collectors and public institutions worldwide.

THE EDITION

The Book of Gold is a two-volume work presented in custom slipcase printed with an image by Valerie Atkisson referencing moments that occur in the opera.

Volume one contains the 277-page opera piano/vocal score and a 40-page interview between Murray Boren and Michael Hicks, spiral bound with wrap book jacket); volume two contains the DVD (2:30 minutes, color, in English with subtitles) and 65-page libretto and essay in softcover binding.

The edition is limited to 25 copies for sale, plus five copies hors de commerce, signed and numbered by the librettist and composer.

The Book of Gold (limited edition two-volume set) - $100.00 No longer available