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Brigham Johnson (the patriarch's son) is a Stake Music Chairman. He has memorized the entire hymn book. |
Jessie Assogba, CES Director's assistant, asked, "What do you people do in Salt Lake?" |
We love the music in West Africa.
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Brigham Johnson (the patriarch's son) is a Stake Music Chairman. He has memorized the entire hymn book. |
Jessie Assogba, CES Director's assistant, asked, "What do you people do in Salt Lake?" |
Music is one of our favorite things anywhere, but here in Africa it’s especially fun. It was obvious from the beginning that the Ghanaians have a wonderful ability to memorize. While they can use a hymn book, most don’t need to. Many people have the hymns memorized, including the hymn numbers and their own harmony line. Recently at a stake conference the organist was playing a hymn for prelude Sister Markham couldn’t identify. She knew the hymn, but couldn’t get its words to come to mind. So, she turned to the Ghanaian sister next to her and asked what the hymn was. There was no doubt that she would know. Her response? Without hesitation she said, “Number 218.”
Last month we visited a ward where we sang two hymns Sister Markham had never even heard before. On Monday mornings, the employees and missionaries who work in the Area Office Building meet for a weekly Monday Devotional. Sister Markham arrived early to play these two hymns on the keyboard. She began playing the first hymn, #17, “Awake, Ye Saints of God, Awake!” Felicia, also there early, began singing along without a book. Sister Markham stopped and commented that Felicia knew the hymn. Felicia replied that it was one of her favorites. Sister Markham told her that she'd just heard two hymns for the first time, and the next hymn was going to be another unfamiliar hymn. After finishing #17, Sister Markham began playing #118, “Ye Simple Souls Who Stray.” Jessie, also there early, was astonished that Sister Markham didn’t know that hymn. She indignantly said, “What do you people DO in Salt Lake?” We think that’s a really good question!
A common pastime here is to memorize and sing hymns as families. Brigham Johnson was named after Brigham Young by his father, Joseph William Billy Johnson, before the Church was officially established in West Africa. Brigham had the old blue hymn book completely memorized, but when the green hymn book came out in 1985, he immediately began memorizing the new hymns and relearning all the hymn numbers. Brigham would also like to be able to play every hymn, but he works as a handyman/repairman during the day. His home does not have electricity, so while he can purchase batteries for his keyboard so he can practice at night, he does not have lights to read the music. He showed us how Ghanaians learn hymns without a keyboard. All Ghanaians learn the solfa system in school. Solfa, or Solfeggio, is using words to name a C Major scale instead of letters. Instead of C, D, E, they use Do, Re, Mi. Ghanaians all know the intervals between sol and ti, for example, or mi and re. The choir master will ‘transcribe’ the musical notes to the solfa system, and then a Ghanaian can easily read the music for the hymn and sing it. Sister Armstrong and Sister Markham work with a choir comprised of workers in the office building, and they’ve watched it. It’s impressive. Sister Markham can do anything musically with a keyboard or piano, but take it away – and she is helpless. Not Ghanaians. It’s like being able to see in the dark. Or, more accurately, sing in the dark.
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