Te Lucis and the Life, Suffering/Death, and Resurrection of the Savior

I posted earlier on this blog about an experience that I was fortunate to have with my high school choir performing in Carnegie Hall in New York City (for those who haven't read it, click on this link http://eldersbsowards.blogspot.com/2011/03/one-of-my-most-powerful-testimony.html). Lately, things haven't quite been going the best. I've been battling an illness for about a week and things with missionary work haven't gone as I expected them to go. While I was pondering the events that were troubling me and trying to cheer myself up, I thought back to this experience. Once again, I was filled with gratitude for the opportunity to have this amazing experience. I also thought back to a particular song. The song "Te Lucis Ante Terminum" was our most difficult song of that year and probably the most difficult song I learned in my entire time at high school. It's really long, and it's A Capella, which means that there is no instruments accompanying us to help us stay in tune.

The song has 2 parts to it. The first part of the song, the music is happy and slow, drawn out, and really beautiful. Then the music changes and it changes drastically and without any warning. It goes from this calm scene to what we called the nightmare section. Then after this, it switches back to what it was before, slow, drawn out, and really beautiful. Now what does this song have to do with the gospel? To help me learn it and get the feel for how it should sound, I compared the beginning with the Savior's life. He was performing miracles, helping people, teaching the gospel and everything was happy with those who followed him. Then came the Atonement, when he suffered and bled from every pore, was whipped and mocked, hung on the cross, and died for us all. Then comes the glorious resurrection, and the victory over death and the grave. With the resurrection brings hope that we can all live with our Heavenly Father again. I think it's way sweet how it all connects!   

Most of the work that we did in class and in extra rehearsals either before or after school were on this song. It was a totally amazing experience. My best year of high school, no doubt about it. I have posted the song so you'll hear how our hard work paid off. I believe the recording is of the actual performance in Carnegie Hall. Enjoy.