ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia — At the first performance of the BYU-Hawaii Concert Choir's Harmony with Aloha tour to China and Mongolia, one song in particular reached out and grabbed me: Ubi Caritas. Defying logic and reason, this song tugged firmly at my heartstrings and, in a flash of uncommon sense, had me fully convinced it was written just for me. That, my friends, is the magic of music.
You can imagine my surprise when I learned the song was composed by one of our own Concert Choir members, Timothy Max "Cooper" Johnson, a music major from Delta, Utah.
Johnson composed the song for his music composition class, under the direction of Daniel Bradshaw, BYUH's newest music faculty member, who recently received his Ph.D. in composition from Indiana University.
"I wrote the song just as an exercise, but Brother Bradshaw liked it and felt it should be performed," said Johnson. "He actually suggested the idea to Brother Belnap."
BYU-Hawaii music professor Michael Belnap, director of the Concert Choir, had already chosen another version of Ubi Caritas, a standard Latin Catholic text, and had submitted it for approval by the Chinese government to be included in the tour program. "It was serendipitous," added Johnson, "because after the song was approved, he learned it was out of print. When Bradshaw told him I had composed another version of Ubi Caritas, he was immediately open to performing it."
Johnson, who began composing mostly piano and orchestral music when he was 16, chose Ubi Caritas because of the simplicity of the text and the power of the message. "I liked the song because it is non-denominational and talks about principals that we believe in," said Johnson. The message, when translated, conveys that when charity and love are true, Christ is present. Christ's love unifies us and encourages us to love each other with a sincere heart.
The song was first performed for a composition recital with an ensemble of about 50 student singers. "We learned it and performed it for the recital, but it wasn't very musical at the time," said Johnson. Justin Whitmer, an ICS major from Colorado Springs, Colorado, was a member of that first ensemble to perform it. "The song has evolved a lot since it was sung at the recital. It's amazing to hear it sung by the whole choir. Just having Brother Belnap to direct it makes a big difference because of what he can pull out of us. And the message alone is really inspiring."
When asked what it feels like to hear your own song being performed for the first time, Johnson replied with a laugh, "Very tingly. The first few times I sung it on stage with the whole choir I couldn't feel my arms."
Getting more serious, he expressed, "It's been a real high for me — surreal. The choir brought it to life in ways that I hadn't expected. Brother Belnap turned the alleluia section into the climax and I actually had not planned to put that in because it's not in the original text, but it came to me one Sunday afternoon in about an hour, and it's some of the best music I've ever written. It's very flowing and has a ribbon of color to it."
"It's really cool to sing a song that somebody in the choir wrote," said Scott Campbell, a music major from Oregon, "but it's even cooler to sing a song of that caliber that somebody in the choir wrote."
Bilge Purevsuren, a Computer Science major from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, added, "The song is very tender and yet very grand at the same time and I love having the creator, the performers and the audience all in the same place. It makes the music much more accessible."
— Photo by Eldon McElwain
