Welcome to this simple site which features classical music from Utah’s past, including many from the 1800s. 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 the page, or click here for the piano solos which is a good place to start.
This site is not technically 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 rationale for including composers here is simply that they spent a portion of their creative life in Utah, or made Utah a subject of some of their music. I don’t mean to slight lyricist, 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 standard name for 150 years, and this site hopes to reach both Utahns and others, who may not be familiar with the varieties of the name.
For anyone seeking historic LDS/Mormon Music specifically, I strongly suggest the site SingPraises.net which specializes in that, and 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 thrift stores.
Many (but not all) of these pieces 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, most were made by using synthesized musical instruments, and a few were taken from live concerts or broadcasts, and even a few 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.
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.)
