Oratorio was journey for BYU-Idaho composer

Those of us who love music just want to sit back and enjoy an excellent performance. But sometimes what goes into creating that experience is at least as interesting as the piece itself.

Just ask composer Dave Zabriskie. Commissioned by BYU-Idaho to write a work for its Sacred Music Series, Zabriskie found that the process of creating "Testament of Paul, His Witness of Christ to the World" was a journey.

The journey began, Zabriskie said, when then-BYU-Idaho president David A. Bednar called him with the commission for the 72-member BYU-Idaho orchestra and 200-plus voice choir. "They commission it every two years, and I am number eight in the series," he said.

Zabriskie added that previous composers who had written pieces for the Sacred Work project had focused on scripture exclusive to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but he wanted to draw from the New Testament. "I got to looking at Paul's writings, and I thought, 'Oh my gosh, there is so much that Paul is teaching of Christ and is a witness of Christ.'

" . . . I read all the epistles and writings of Paul, picked out the scriptures that struck me most of all about his witness of Christ, and the doctrine he teaches — lots of cool doctrine." Zabriskie said that all of the libretto has to be taken from the scriptures. "You cannot use poetry or other sources," he said.

One of the basic concepts that Zabriskie wanted to emphasize was making Paul's voice distinctive. "I wanted to make sure that when you hear Paul sing, that you understand Paul," he said. "It's like when President Hinckley speaks or President Kimball spoke, they have a certain way they say things. They teach different doctrine, but by the way that they speak, you know their personality. You know who they are.

"They are very alive and real. And that's the way I want to make Paul. So every time Paul sings in the oratorio, there's a Paul theme that comes through, so you say, 'Oh, this is Paul speaking.' "

Zabriskie said that he also runs the theme of "Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ" throughout the piece. He said that is the focus of the second movement, but it sums up the whole message of the oratorio and that it shows up in other places, too.