If I could have only one recording by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (and that would be a great shame), it definitely would be this one. It was one of the very first LP's I ever purchased, and long one of my favorites. Unfortunately, it is not available on CD and my original copy is now damaged with use, so it was with considerable pleasure that I located a used one in very good condition. I shall treasure it all my life, and if my family does not have it playing in the background at my wake, I'll haunt them from then on.

There are ten selections on this recording, and together they make a remarkable concert. Each one develops the theme of "brotherhood" with pathos and yearning, with determination and pride. Besides the old faithfuls (in arrangements that are subtly original but still comfortably familiar) -- Rudyard Kipling's "Recessional" set to music by Reginald de Koven, "God of Our Fathers" with a soaring soprano descant, the Navy hymn "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" -- besides these, there are a number of less well known pieces, some by well known composers, all of them inspiring with just a hint of modern dissonance. "Ballad of Brotherhood" grows out of the work of Walt Whitman with allusions to several poems from Leaves of Grass, memorable for the bold chant, "Open road, open road" that underlines the tribute to US heroes. As a companion, the quiet, gripping Whitman poem, "Two Veterans," about a father and son, both slain in the Civil War, is set to music as a dirge by Gustav Holst, with a vivid melody, expressive dissonance from a male chorus, and the incessant beating of drums. Side One concludes with sections from Ralph Vaughan Williams' Thanksgiving for Victory, with treble voices as of a children's chorus singing the prayer that begins, "Father in Heav'n, who lovest all / O help Thy children when they call." The song concludes with the soft, haunting coda, "The Lord shall be thy everlasting light, / And the days of thy mourning shall be ended."

But, for me, the absolute highlight of the album is on Side Two: the Pilgrim's Chorus from Wagner's Tannhauser. The pulsating theme of earthly passion is played on the organ with increasing intensity as the pilgrims sing their homecoming hymn, concluding "Of hell and death I have no fear. / My gracious Lord is ever near," then the triumphant "Hallelujah! Hallelujah, eternally!, eternally!" One cannot but be moved by the power and grace of these words and contrapuntal melodies.

But perhaps the most vibrant statements of the central theme are also on Side Two: John Greenleaf Whittier's "O Brother Man" is simple and elegant. "O Brother man! fold to thy heart thy brother; / Where pity dwells the peace of God is there; / To worship rightly is to love each other, / Each smile a hymn, each kindly deed a prayer." The selection chosen as the finale is Jean Sibelius' "Onward, Ye Peoples." As the notes suggest, this might well become a World Hymn of Brotherhood. It is charged with hope ("Onward, ye people, strive for the Light! / The Light that the Lord has given us for our guide") but also calm reassurance with the call of a heavenly choir from Mount Neboh ("Salem! Salem! Hark they call us / Upward and on to our Father's home."

I shall have this music digitized as quickly as possible, so that I can play it over and over again. In times like these -- Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Katrina, Haiti, the BP oil spill, the political nastiness in DC and hateful prejudice spewing across the land (against homosexuals, immigrants, the jobless and homeless, progressives, President Obama) -- in times like these, the sense of family, of brotherhood and sisterhood, seems lost beyond the horizon. These songs and hymns are a quiet but insistent reminder of who we are and the heights we could reach as a people. Salem! Salem!