34 Days Until Trek - Singing Songs on the Trail

Singing will be a big part of Trek. In the 19th-century, it was something that kept the pioneers focused and inspired. Latter-day Saints have a strong tradition of singing and musical performances.

“All companies sang popular songs and hymns. Orson Pratt wrote in 1846: ‘During the evening, as usual, the animating sounds of music, in different parts of the camp, seemed to break gently in upon the surrounding solitudes of these uninhabited regions.’ Latter-day Saints favored hymns such as ‘The Morning Breaks,’ ‘Redeemer of Israel,’ ‘How Firm a Foundation,’ ‘The Spirit of God,’ ‘O My Father,’ ‘Hail to the Prophet,’ and ‘Come All Ye Sons of Zion,’ – hymns still sung today. The most famous Latter-day Saint hymn of them all, the LDS ‘Marseilles,’ was the poignant ‘Come, Come, Ye Saints.’”

Selection from Stanley B. and Violet T. Kimball's 2011 book, Villages on Wheels: A Social History of the Gathering to Zion.