During my mission, I had the idea to write a musical based on The Book of Mormon. The immediate question for me was, which stories would I include and which would I have to leave out in the interest of time? I didn’t know. But, I did have a few musical ideas to start off with. I certainly wanted to include something about the political and spiritual struggles of the wars described in the latter half of the book of Alma. One of my favorite moments was one I never noticed until my mission: Pahoran’s reply to Captain Moroni’s aggressive epistle.
Both parties had a right to be upset. Captain Moroni’s armies were neglected by the government, and it wasn’t Pahoran’s fault. Even though he was the chief judge of the nation, he was powerless because of a hostile takeover of the nation's capital. Pahoran’s reply in the sixty-first chapter of Alma is inspiring. I was especially struck by his gracious words in verse nine. I wanted to set them to music, and I came up with a melody in my head by singing the words and letting the emotions of the words guide the notes and rhythms I produced. I also wanted some instrumental background as a prelude to the melody. The strings and oboe would underscore Pahoran speaking the first few paragraphs of his answer to Moroni, before singing with words of verse nine.
I didn’t come up with any underscoring for verse nine itself. To me, this verse teaches us to be forgiving, understanding, and courageous in our interactions with others and in defending our beliefs. I imagine that once Pahoran sings “God hath made us free” the second time, the music would lead in to another underscore as he continues to read his epistle to Captain Moroni.
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