Review
Title: When You Believe: A Night at the Movies
Artist: The Tabernacle Choir & Orchestra at Temple Square
Publisher: Intellectual Reserve/Deseret Book
Genre: Film Soundtrack
Year Published: 2020
Number of Songs: Five
Format: CD; Digital Download
Price: CD 6.99[1]; Digital 4.99
Reviewed by Andrew Hamilton for the Association for Mormon Letters
My teen son is obsessed with Star Wars. My wife says that is my fault, but my father is the one to blame. After all, it was he who presented me with the original line of Star Wars toys in 1978[2] when I was five years old. So, when I saw that the Musical Artists formerly known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir had released an EP of movie themes that included “Duel of the Fates” from “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,” I knew we had to listen to it together. Since my son is a thirteen year old fan pf pop music, The Tabernacle Choir is not very high on his playlist. But with the promise of Star Wars, he agreed to listen.
I popped the CD into my computer and selected track five, “Duel of the Fates.” We loved it. Once it ended, I pointed out that “Main on End” from Avengers: Endgame was also on the album. He agreed to listen to that too. After that, I left the CD running and he continued to listen and enjoy as “I’ll Fly Away” from “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” “Eatnemen Vueli (Song of the Earth)” (inspiration for the theme from “Frozen”), and “When You Believe” from “The Prince of Egypt “played. And just like that, the Tabernacle Choir had a new fan.
Joking and teenage sons aside, When You Believe: A Night at the Movies is a great little album. With songs from Star Wars, Avengers, and “O Brother Where Art Thou,” I expected that I would enjoy this album and have fun listening to it. What surprised me was how moved I was when I heard these songs play together. At first glance, the musical pieces on When You Believe seem completely unrelated. You have a track from a laser sword fight in a space opera, the accompaniment from a bunch of superheroes popping out of magical portals, a folk song from a comedy, the main title from a Disney cartoon, and a musical number meant to inspire an animated Moses. While these pieces of music seem very disparate, they are all songs about hope, belief, and overcoming and, as combined by the Tabernacle choir, they have a very synergetic effect on each other. This combined power of these songs moved us as we listened and had a powerful effect on us. The album’s introductory note states:
From the dramatic to the sublime, fantasy to history, from epic scorched-earth battle scenes to gentle melodies from the Nordic regions, this sampling of movie music shows that no matter the story, the genre, or style, a night at the movies can encourage the divine within us, and aid us in our quest to believe.
For my son and I, that is exactly what happened. We were inspired when we listened and I believe you will be too. For just about all of us, 2020 has been a kick in the backside. While When You Believe won’t fix that, it may just give you an inspiring boost to help you through.
Along with being filled with inspiring music, another cool thing about When You Believe is that it has wonderful album liner notes. In this day of digital downloads, liner notes are starting to be a lost art, so it is cool to see an album that not only has them, but that has really great ones. The CD sleeve starts with a page describing why the album was made, then each song gets its own page of notes. These notes tell the story of each song and give information about its composition. They are both educational and fun. For example, over the last twenty years, I have probably heard “Duel of the Fates” hundreds of times. Even with all of those listens, I’ll be honest here, I thought that the “lyrics” were mostly a simple vocalization of “Ahhhhhh, Ah, Ah!” or something very similar. But the notes in the When You Believe booklet tell this fascinating story about the lyrics in “Duel.” It explains that they:
are a fragment of an ancient Welsh poem that (John) Williams had translated into Sanskrit – he then rearranged the syllables himself to make the text essentially meaningless, while still retaining a forceful chant-like power. He intended the choral singing itself to give the scene (in Phantom Menace) an explicitly religious feel as if it were a ceremony. (Notes page 6)
That is just one example of the fascinating information contained in the liner notes of When You Believe.
I only have one complaint about this CD, it’s TOO SHORT! I get that it is an EP and was advertised as such, so I knew I was only getting five songs, but with so many inspirational film soundtracks to choose from, the Tabernacle Choir could have easily made this an LP[3], or even a double LP! So, Tabernacle Choir, if you are listening, I hope that When You Believe ends up being “Volume One” of a Night at the Movies series!
[1]When You Believe is selling for 6.99 at Deseret Book. The LDS Church is selling it for 5.94 on its Distribution website. Amazon is selling it for 8.98
[2] In 1977 no one expected “Star Wars” to get as big as it did. Because of this, there were no Star Wars toys available for Christmas that year. Instead, you bought an empty box, mailed in the UPC, and in early 1978 when the action figures were ready, the Kenner toy company mailed the action figures to you. Look it up, it’s a fun story!
[3] While Vinyl has been making comeback recently, some folks might not remember the old vinyl terms. In the days before tapes, CDs, and digital downloads, there were three basic types of records. A “Single” had two songs on it with the “A Side” being the main release. An “EP” was an “Extended Play” album that usually had 4 to 6 songs on it. An “LP” was a “Long Play” Album that generally had 12 to 14 songs on it.