"That was because the judges, I think, couldn't bring themselves to award first place to the Mormons," he quipped to laughter and applause. "That was the last time the choir has been in second place. Wherever it has gone across this broad world, wherever its wonderful music has been heard, it has been acknowledged as No. 1, and it becomes better constantly."

The guiding principles that give the choir purpose today were first voiced by early church President Wilford Woodruff in 1895, he said. They are to be active "as missionaries called for their special work," noting that all "duties of a public nature should be secondary" to their choir commitments. " 'We desire to see the choir become the highest exponent of the divine art in all the land,' " he quoted President Woodruff as saying. " 'This is a noble work and a glorious cause worthy of your noblest efforts and all that requires. . . . Be faithful to this trust.' "

Thousands have done so, President Hinckley said, reminding current choir members that "you stand today on the foothills of a great upward climb. The summit rises before you. The past has been but a prologue to a greater future. . . . Sing to the glory of God," he said, and "spread the gospel of peace to a world weary with conflict."

Osgood said the choir has "become so much a part of America, like the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore," noting members sang for President Ronald Reagan's inauguration and generated marked emotion in him and his wife, Nancy. A video clip showed the first couple visibly moved as the group sang for them. The former president would later dub it "America's Choir," now the title of a new CD, book and documentary.

After the national shock and horror of 9/11, Osgood said, people everywhere searched for flags and patriotic music. He himself was searching for a way to find some meaning in the sorrow, he said, and he sat down to write music to be set to the Pledge of Allegiance.

He was touched to hear the choir first perform his arrangement in the Lincoln Center in New York City last year at the opening of its inaugural celebration. It did so again Saturday night.

To close the evening, hundreds of former choir members, conductors, technicians and organists came up from the audience to the stage to sing the choir's signature anthem and Grammy-winning rendition of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Osgood closed the performance the same way each of the choir's three narrators has done for decades:

"May peace be with you, this day and always."

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E-mail: carrie@desnews.com