It is hard to describe a transcendent experience in earthly terms, so God gave us music. Thank you Dr. Jones for this wonderful work, which brings the First Vision closer to me.

A wonderful depiction ... I could easily see this choreographed as a ballet.

"Above the Brightness of the Sun" was written in early 2019 and premiered by the Brigham Young University Chamber Orchestra on March 22, 2019 as part of special collaborative concert between BYU and the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Here's the program note I wrote for the concert: 

In my life’s experience the moments of greatest joy and strength have been those in which I have encountered divine love and truth. Whether manifest in prayer or quiet meditation, in interactions with my family and friends, or in a host of other ways, these experiences have brought beauty and selflessness into my life and purified my heart. I cherish them and seek for them on a daily basis.

While few in number, scriptures record experiences some have had encountering the divine in a personal way. "Above the Brightness of the Sun" is a meditation on the story of Joseph Smith, who records a revelation of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ to him in 1820 in a grove of trees near his home in upstate New York. The work’s three sections are framed by three images from his story:
• On a beautiful spring morning he went alone to the woods to pray. 
• As soon as he began to express to God the desires of his heart he was “seized upon” by a power that entirely overcame him. Thick darkness gathered around him and he felt abandoned to destruction. 
• Calling upon God to deliver him from this “moment of great alarm,” he saw a pillar of light above him, “above the brightness of the sun,” which gradually descended upon him and delivered him from the darkness that had held him bound. In this light appeared God and Jesus Christ, who spoke to and directed him in his search for truth.

Joseph’s singular experience is one of great dramatic intensity. I am sure this work falls short of communicating the depth of either the darkness or the light he encountered, yet trying to imagine how to represent it sonically has caused me great reflection about many truths I know and many questions I yet have. I hope it will do the same for those who listen.

Art credit: "The First Vision," by Warren Luch (1935 - ), hand-rubbed linocut print, 1990.

Above the Brightness of the Sun (2019, premiere)

I'm a composer and professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, USA. Below is a short bio. I hope you enjoy my music! 

Stephen Jones is Professor of Composition in the School of Music and former Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communications at Brigham Young University. He is also the former chair of the Board of Directors of the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition.  

Jones’ works have been played throughout the United States and internationally, including performances by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, the Utah Symphony, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the Fairbanks Symphony, the The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, and many other professional and university-based ensembles. His works have been heard in performances at the Beijing Modern Music Festival and at national conferences of the Society of Composers, the College Band Directors National Association, the Percussive Arts Society, the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music and the British Association of Symphonic Bands and Wind Ensembles. 

Jones studied composition as an undergraduate at Brigham Young University and received MM and DMA degrees in composition from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, where his principal teachers were Jonathan Kramer, Joel Hoffman, Alan Sapp, and Earle Brown. His studies also included work with Bernard Rands at Aspen and Joseph Schwantner at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. 

He is the recipient of a Utah Arts Council Artist Grant, an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship, and a Composer Assistance Grant from the American Music Center. His music can be heard on the Gasparo and Tantara labels. His works for wind band are published by Boosey and Hawkes as part of their Windependence series.

Above the Brightness of the Sun (2019, premiere)

Stephen Jones

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