On a cold, winter morning at the end of 2017 American Choral Directors Association national convention in Minneapolis, I was enjoying a long, delightful brunch with Jean Applonie, director of the Brigham Young University Women’s Chorus, and Rosalind Hall, director of choral studies at BYU. While discussing future plans, Jean noted to me that the BYU Women’s Chorus was the only ensemble at the university for which I had never composed or arranged a piece, which stuck with me as a challenge from that point forward. But I didn’t want to write something just to satisfy that particular incongruence; if I was going to write something for Jean and the BYU Women’s Chorus, it needed to be special. I decided to wait until the right idea came to mind. It didn’t take long.

Just over a month later, as I was about to leave for work, a concept flashed through my mind, and I immediately wrote to Jean to share the idea, and she immediately came on board. The concept came during a time in which, as the bishop of an LDS ward (congregation) in downtown Baltimore, I had the opportunity to work with several women as they prepared to participate for the first time in the sacred ordinances of the temple. Many of these women had been members of the Church for a long time but had never been in the temple, and as I asked them to share their experience afterwards, each answer seemed to express in some form how they felt while in the temple. Thus, the concept for the piece was to convey in some way what these and other women feel while in the temple.

I have long been drawn to the beautiful Latin text, Locus iste, which is historically used in the dedication of churches as far back as Medieval times. It is a variant on Genesis 28:17, “…this is none other but the house of God,” and was most notably set by Austrian composer Anton Bruckner in the 19^th century. Though its origins relate to the building of Catholic churches, I often pondered its meaning to chapels and temples of other faiths, my own in particular. Given the high regard at which I hold the Bruckner setting, I have long resisted composing my own setting. However, the concept that came to mind provided an opportunity to use the text, though in a somewhat unusual way. I use a double-choir scoring to create a juxtaposition of two ideas. First, the temple, which is represented by the Locus iste text. Second, the women worshipping within, represented by the many “I feel…” statements.

For the latter, I anonymously surveyed nearly 200 women, comprising the women in the 2016-2017 BYU Women’s Chorus, along with a few dozen family and friends. Each woman was asked to answer one single prompt: “When I am in a temple, I feel...” Answers ranged from single words to long paragraphs. Many described peaceful, joyful experiences, while others conveyed conflicted sentiments stemming from questions and struggles along their personal journeys. I used analytics to determine which single words were used the most, which I included in the first part of the section using the “I feel” statements (e.g. love, peace, etc.). Then I excerpted small phrases (e.g. “…arms wrapped around me”) for the second part of that section.

Each time I sat down to compose I took the first 15-20 minutes to read all of the responses. Thus, even if a singer’s response didn’t end up in the score, each was most certainly a big part of the process of the piece’s creation.

Symbolism abounds throughout the piece, a comprehensive list of which would undermine the powerful experience of the singers and audience identifying meaning for themselves. However, a few examples include:

• For much of the Locus iste text, I have created something of an homage to the polychoral (multiple choirs) tradition of the early Baroque period, the religious architecture of which I find inspiring.
• The texture of the repeated Locus iste grows higher and higher until it reaches a center point, then descends again to where it began, creating the visual impression of a symmetrical “steeple” in the score.
• The lines of the Latin text are stated three times either between the two choirs or by each choir; the number three has long been a religious symbol in choral music and religious architecture.
• The phrases using the text, “I feel like heaven and Earth are one in me,” include expansive chords with lines ascending and descending towards one another, resolving to one central unison note each time.

These are a very small sample of the symbolic elements, and as is the case in houses of worship, I hope singers and audience members discover more meaning each time they encounter this piece.