Practiced Ease

I have always been fascinated by the organ in the Tabernacle at Temple Square (and now, by the one in the Conference Center too). When I was very young, the organ seemed to be magical to me. It was impossibly huge, and the music it made was fascinating and mysterious. I couldn’t imagine where it came from. It had always existed as far as I was concerned, and was just part of the Tabernacle, which had always existed too. But www.lds.org describes the real history of the organ briefly:

It has been run by a team of five men pumping bellows. It has been run by a waterwheel in the basement. And now it is run by electricity. No matter what its source of power, the Tabernacle organ has always been considered one of the greatest organs in the world.

…Joseph Harris Ridges built the organ at the request of President Brigham Young. Timber for the wood pipes came from Pine Valley, 300 miles south of Salt Lake City. The metal pipes came from Boston, Massachusetts. Ridges’ early organ looked much different than the present version. It was five times smaller and had only two keyboards [and 700 pipes]. Over its history, the organ has been added to and updated several times. It now has 11,623 pipes, 206 ranks of voices, and 5 keyboards [not counting the foot pedals].

Most of all, I was enthralled by the musicians that played the organ. I could not imagine how someone could sit at the five keyboards (not including the foot pedals) with so many of those pullout thingies (stops). I had no idea what the stops did. I could not count them, and it baffled me how they could have both hands and both feet all playing something different while pulling stops out and pushing them in again. Dr. Robert Cundick, Tabernacle organist from 1965-1991, said the following in a Deseret News article of July 8^th 2015:

A skilled player at a large organ such as the Tabernacle must use both hands, both feet, their ears and their eyes simultaneously. It is an extremely complex and amazing instrument. Music is a language of emotions so, without words, you’re expressing your feelings. My testimony grows every time I play hymns on the organ.

As recorded in the same Deseret News article, organists described playing the organ as "exultant," "incredible," "celestial," "sublime" and "awesome." Few people have been blessed with that experience. Only 17 people have served as tabernacle organists since the first one was built in 1867, including the five people who currently serve.

The organ is often referred to as “The Great Tabernacle Organ” because of its great size, because of its capacity to speak with great power, and because (in my mind) it is a great tool for missionary work. It is often referred to as “the world famous Tabernacle Organ” because many millions have heard it, in many countries, and in its various forms over the years through daily recitals, General Conferences, and Music and the Spoken Word.

It is proper to refer to the pipes of any organ as “speaking” when they sound off. In its own way, the Tabernacle organ does speak. It speaks through the spirit to the hearts and minds of those who listen; it speaks of the truthfulness of the gospel and the beauties of the earth and the eternities. It can testify, as only beautiful sacred music can, of the divinity of the Savior and his infinite atonement.

But it is the great musicians who have developed and magnified their talents over years of study and practice that cause the organ to speak and truly convey the spirit to those who listen. They play one of the largest instruments in the world. They can make it moan with pain or sing with joy. It can be majestic or plaintive. It can whisper or crescendo with great power.

As I watch them, making wonderful music seems effortless for the organists. Their hands and feet move freely over the keyboards. Of course, I realize that they must practice and study to gain what it might be proper to call “practiced ease.” Practiced ease comes from practice. Bonnie Goodliffe, one of the five current organists, in her talk, Neither Shalt Thou Bury Thy Talent, given at the 1995 Women’s Conference, said this:

I studied organ for six years in college, three of those years as a graduate student. I gave my graduate solo recital when I was six months pregnant with my first child.

…as a professional organist—performer and teacher—I spend a lot of time practicing. I average two to three hours a day in practice plus more time for rehearsal and performance. People occasionally express surprise when they hear me practicing. They don't realize that even a frequent performer still needs to practice scales and other technical exercises. Some are surprised that I need to practice at all. Yet I practice more now than I ever did as a student. I practice more now because I am expected to perform at a professional level, and every minute of practice pays off eventually…

It is the same with us. Study and pondering (practice) are essential to our understanding of the gospel and our salvation. To develop the same “practiced ease” that many have with the gospel, much practice is required. Those great men and women who write and speak about the doctrinal aspects of the gospel have prayed, studied, and pondered about the gospel all their lives. They have felt the influence of the Holy Ghost constantly in their lives.

We can do the same. It is not our responsibility to pronounce doctrine, but to understand it. The gospel is not mysterious, as the organ was once to me. The organ gave up its “mysteries” to the great Tabernacle organists through years of study and practice. The gospel will give up its “mysteries” readily to us as we seek to learn and supplicate the Lord for guidance through the Holy Ghost – his appointed emissary to us. President Joseph Fielding Smith, in his book, Church History and Modern Revelation, explains:

The Lord has promised to reveal his mysteries to those who serve him in faithfulness. There are no mysteries pertaining to the Gospel, only as we…fail to comprehend Gospel truth. The Gospel is very simple, so that even children at the age of accountability may understand it [at their level]. Without question, there are principles which in this life we cannot understand, but when the fulness comes we will see that all is plain and reasonable and within our comprehension. The “simple” principles of the Gospel, such as baptism [and] the atonement, are mysteries to those who do not have the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord.

So our responsibility, then, is to “serve him in faithfulness.” Not to be “perfect,” but to serve. Quoting President Howard w. Hunter:

Perfection is something yet ahead for every one of us; but we can capitalize on our strengths, begin where we are, and seek after the happiness that can be found in pursuing the things of God.

Bonnie Goodliffe agreed to be a Tabernacle organist when first asked, on the spot, without equivocation. She agreed to serve, not to be perfect. Again quoting her, she said:

The very nature of mortals is that we make mistakes and that we will be affected by the mistakes of others. That is why we need the Savior. That is why we need the Atonement. What small part of this concept I now understand, I have learned from contrasting real life with my music life, where some of the laws are just the opposite.

One of the reasons I like to perform, especially baroque, contrapuntal music, is that for a short period of time, I am fully in control. I enjoy knowing that when I push my fingers down in a certain, disciplined way, I will hear music that I love. Always. I am never disappointed.

But there are very few things I can control in the same way. I am still trying to accept that fact. Brigham Young University provost Bruce Hafen beautifully explains the boundaries of human control: "From God's perspective on our lives, we can control the things that really matter: the righteousness of our desires, the purity of our motives, the wholeheartedness of our efforts to love God and keep his commandments, the genuineness of our interest in other people, and the extent to which our efforts reflect our inborn capacity. One way to distinguish what matters a great deal from what does not matter so much is to ask whether the subject is within our control. If it is, then it probably matters enough to merit our attention. But if the object of our fretting is inherently beyond our control, God is unlikely to hold us responsible for our ultimate success or failure as to that concern." (Bruce Hafen, The Broken Heart (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989), 101-2.

Serving the Lord and service to others are the same. (Mosiah 2:18) Learning our responsibilities under the gospel is a lifelong pursuit. Let us seek knowledge and understanding constantly and live the best life we can in mortality, enjoying to the end, and as president Hinckley said “The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.” He often quotes from a favorite newspaper article he saved years ago:

Most putts don't drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride. (Jenkins Lloyd Jones, Deseret News, 12 June 1973; as quoted in Go Forward with Faith, The Biography of Gordon B. Hinckley, p. 448)

“Practiced ease” comes only with practice. Gospel proficiency comes only with study, prayer, and service.  May the Lord help us all to reach those goals.