Welcome to this simple site which features dozens of examples of classical music from Utah’s past, ranging from the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s. Most of these compositions were found in vintage sheet music, and others in various online archives. To browse the music recordings section of the site please use the links near the top of teach page, or click here for the piano solos, which is a good place to start.
This site is not intending to be focused on or limited to LDS/Mormon composers, but due to the location and time period covered most people listed here were of that background. My only rationale for including composers here is simply that they spent a portion of their creative life in Utah, and/or made Utah a subject of some of their music. I don’t mean to sleight lyricists, but for various reasons this site is centered on instrumental music. I will be using both the terms “Mormon” along with “LDS” due to the fact that it was the well known standard reference for 150 years, and this site hopes to reach both Utahns and others, who may not be familiar with the varieties/subtleties of the names.
For anyone seeking historic LDS/Mormon Music specifically, I strongly suggest the site SingPraises.net which specializes in that field. It has cataloged hundreds of music selections on the topic, with links to many historic sources, some of which I have used for research and sourcing. My other sources range from libraries, online archives, E-bay, and simple dumb luck in antique shoppes and thrift stores.
Many (but not all) of the pieces shared here include recordings. Some have the music as part of a video, which includes the modern recording of the old music, along with some background notes and trivia about the composer and the music. Many others are audio-only recordings, simply because of the time it takes to make videos for each piece. Preparing these projects as videos is for practical reasons, as stashing videos on YouTube and linking to them from this page works nicely, even if the video element is secondary to the music.
The recordings included here are a mixed bag. Some were done by live musicians especially for this site, but most were made by using synthesized musical instruments, made via music notation software. A few were taken from live concerts or broadcasts, and several are from recordings shared by other musicians with their permission.
The list of recordings on this site is approaching 50 pieces, so instead of a long single page it is slowly transitioning to multiple, shorter pages divided by the types of instruments featured. (The menu buttons at the top of each page may change over time.)
An extra page on this site includes a list of some of my own original musical projects, including old and new compositions, along with a few arrangements. (Note: Recordings for more of these may be added gradually over time.)
What is next for this site? Around a dozen new videos, audio examples, or music mentions were added in late 2025, bringing the total of works on this page to over 40 selections. Another dozen may appear in 2026 as they are in various stages of preparation. Other possible upgrades might be to:
1) Add a “Wikipedia” link or comparable link to share deeper info/trivia about some of these composers.
2) List the sources of some of the sheet music used here. Maybe even post some examples of downloadable sheet music PDFs from this list?
3) Will also be considering other ways to structure the list, as it is getting long enough to make it hard to navigate/skim for a quick look at the material. Maybe a change to listing styles? Break the list into additional categories on different pages? Perhaps split the list into four (4) pages for piano, chamber music, large ensembles, vocal and choral, to allow for people to browse it more quickly without needing to look at dozens of entries.
4) Scheme to find a way to get real vocal performances recorded for some of the many topical songs of a century ago, including a bunch of comic songs referencing polygamy. There are new advancements in automated singing software, but I have not tried those systems yet.
5. Reserve a better web site name (URL) reflecting the subject being showcased. I have recently secured the domain names ” utahclassical.com ” and ” utahcomposers.com ” so one of those will soon be the main web address for this project.
6. Hoping to find some additional good examples of works by female composers to include. I do have some recorded but not yet posted, and have a promising lead on such a composer from Logan!
Site stuff. At the risk of being obvious, most of the videos on this list are housed on my personal YouTube page, along with other unrelated content I’ve posted there. This “Utah Classical Music Gallery” does have a “play list” there for the items from this list with videos. See my channel at: https://www.youtube.com/@douglaswood6813/videos
The audio-only listings are hosted on this site, but I may soon need to upgrade the storage for them.