This is a Personal Touch, a chance to check in with ordinary people making an extraordinary difference in the world. I’m Rebecca Cressman. And today our guest, Lex De Azevedo, a renowned and esteemed musician and composer, I want to say for decades and decades. And yet how beautiful, Lex, that you are taking a celebration of life and resurrection during the time period of Easter and helping us all focus on the life of Christ with your production of “Hosanna.”
Q: Tell me a little bit about that, about what you have created when it comes to the life story of Jesus Christ.
A: Well, Rebecca, a few years back, I got to the point where I looked at my life and I said I don’t know how many years are ahead of me but there’s certainly going to be less than the number of years that are behind me. I was tired of doing what I call “disposable music.” Like film and television scores and commercials and things like that. I call it disposable music. I break my heart out and then they put a train through it or people would talk over it. Just like playing and giving a concert, people are talking over your offering. I wanted to do something a little more meaningful, and the first thing that came to me was the Scriptures. I had never actually set the Scriptures to music. I had written songs about the Scriptures with original lyrics and text and clever rhymes and things like that, but never actually taken the Scriptures and put them to music. So I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to do the life of Christ, and I looked at it and immediately it fell into three parts: the nativity portion, the ministry—in other words, the teachings of Christ—and then his last final days—the triumphal entry, the Last Supper, Gethsemane, the Trial, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. And what we’re performing on March 19th and 20th right here in Salt Lake actually at the First Presbyterian Church we’re performing “Hosanna, the Life of Christ Part Three.” And so in Hosanna, literally, every word is from the King James Bible and we will tell—the choir and soloist and orchestra—sing the Bible. That’s what it is.
Q: And it’s a King James Version of the Bible that you…
A: Yes.
Q: And have you excerpted different passages from the different point of views of the apostles?
A: What I did actually is I took the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and correlated them to get one story, and then edit it down to make it—because it would have been an eight-hour production, so I had to edit it down. And that was tough: what are you not going to tell? What is in there that you judge less important that you’re not going to tell? That was a huge decision. I edited it down. I set it to music, and it ended up being over two hours, the first concert. That wasn’t working because it was just too long. And truthfully, Rebecca, the interesting thing is people were exhausted. I mean, the choir—they’ve just been through the trial, I’ve been through the crucifixion, I’ve been through Gethsemane, bleeding through every pore. I’m exhausted and drained and weeping through this whole thing. So we cut it down to the current length which it is now about an hour and a half. It is an extremely moving experience because it is Scripture. It is the Scripture set to music. And there’s power in the word of God. I believe there is power in the word of God. When people come and they hear it, it’s like nothing they’ve ever heard. I don’t know of another work that has taken these last days and told the whole story in the King James and set it to music. I don’t know of another work like that.
Q: And so when you say that you were looking for something that was the antithesis of disposable music, then you went to the timeless testimonies and stories in the Bible and not only composed that to music and correlated that but then it’s brought forth with so many voices. You have the Millennium Choir that you have been conducting and leading for quite a while now. How many voices are in the Millennium Choir?
A: Well, the Millennium Choir is actually two choirs. We have the Millennium Choir, which varies. People come in and people go out. They have to pass auditions. But it’s typically around 50. Now, we have the Millennium Chorus, which is almost 150 members. So in the concert at the First Presbyterian Church, it’s a beautiful, beautiful venue with all the stained glass windows and it’s almost built like a concert hall and they have this balcony. Well, the balcony is going to be filled with the 150 singers who will be answering the choir on the front stage. They’ll be singing “Crucify him; crucify him and may his blood be upon us and on our children.” So you have a choir coming from the back of the hall and this one upfront, and the effect is really powerful.
Q: And when you say about the effect of the music that we will have a chance to hear in just a little over a week now, is the power coming from what you’ve composed because of the words that are coming from the Bible or because… I guess I want to go to the point that you purposely created the Millennium Choir because you wanted to be able to hear music that was faith-centered. So is there just power in being able to hear so many voices all in unison as well as in harmony with a common faith and a common belief. And in this sense it is in the faith that the story of Jesus Christ is one that is true and powerful and one that should be revered, especially during Easter time.
A: Well to answer your question, yes, there is great power in voices coming together singing to praise God. However, the power of Hosanna—I have to say there are five other composers alive that have turned to segments of the life of Christ and set it to music far more masterfully than I have. But the power of Hosanna is in the text. The music is secondary. My intent is not to focus on the music. My intent was to make the text live. To make the text come alive through the emotional power of music, because music is an emotional media. Music makes us feel. And so with this massive choir, and then George Dyer singing the words of Christ and I have Jenny Oaks Baker who’s the featured amazing violin soloist all the way through. The violin really plays the role of the Holy Spirit. It comments on what is happening. And there are certain things that words can only express. Words are limited in their ability to express things, and there are certain particularly sublime feeling about deity and certainly the atonement and the resurrection that words cannot express. And so musically—the whole resurrection movement is basically Hosanna and Hallelujah, and the music at that point is what carries the expression of the sublime experience. Does that make sense?
Q: And I imagine for those who are there present who experience that because you were talking about as a composer and as a conductor and a musician you feel yourself going through the entire journey with Jesus Christ and you were exhausted and emotionally spent by the time that you were at the end of the performance. But we, I guess as members of the audience, are enwrapped in some ways or in that same journey as well in the sense that this makes it come to life for us as well and makes us feel like we have been there, that we walked the road.
A: That is our intent, and that’s certainly what people say when they come out. They say, “I’ve never experienced…;I feel like I have just been to Gethsemane.”
Q: Wow. I imagine that is because of all the senses: the voices, the text of the story of Jesus Christ and the music all surrounding you in a beautiful venue. Well, Lex, I have to congratulate you on such a beautiful lofty and noble goal to try to memorialize the life of Christ, even though you distilled it into three different parts. How beautiful for us during the Easter season to be able to look forward to Hosanna and this portion of the life of Christ. Thank you so much for joining us today on a Personal Touch, Lex.
A: Thank you. Thank you for having me, Rebecca. It is always a pleasure to speak with you.
Q: And of course we’ll have information about the event and how to attend that here in downtown Salt Lake City online, so be aware of that. Thank you again for joining us for this week’s edition of a Personal Touch. I’m Rebecca Cressman and we’d like to invite you to please check your email next week to find out who else is making a difference in our world like Lex De Azevedo with a Personal Touch.
