“Shenandoah”: Hear Two Very Different Versions by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra

By Nicholas Stix

I advise against watching the first video, while listening to it. It’s an exquisite choral performance from the album, God Bless America: 23 Patriotic Favorites, originally cut in 1965, and re-cut in 1992. The poster, however, posted a video of the MTC singing the same song—with a much inferior, monotonous arrangement from 2014. (And yet, the inferior version is still moving!) Thus, if you watch the video to the 1965 version, you’ll be jarred by the visual and audio being out of sync.

(Some listeners used to perfect pitch, like “W,” might be tempted to run into the street shooting at everyone from the jarring mismatch!)

I tried a different page of the 1965 version, without the video, but the sound quality was inferior.

That 1965 version is so exquisite that I thought of the sort of choral arrangements Ken Darby (1909-1992) did for pictures with Al Newman at 20th Centruy Fox Studio (e.g., How the West was Won, 1962), with layers and different verses ending with different musical emphases (e.g., hitting now, the second, and now the third beat in “Missouri”).

As beautiful as the female voices are, the men dominate, and that is how it must be. Whoever arranged and conducted the 2014 version gave the females parity, and that’s one of the reasons it stinks.

Shenandoah
“Written by: Bob Dylan (arr.)”

[Bob Dylan had absolutely nothing to do with writing “Shenandoah,” and this was not some web site whose proprietor engaged in “chipping” from other sites, and slapping the name of a pop singer in place of a composer, but his personal Web page, bobdylan.com. In any event, it’s much closer to the version sung by the MTC than that which we’re told was sung by the MTC.]

Oh, Shenandoah, I long to hear you,
Away, you rollin’ river,
Oh, Shenandoah, I long to hear you,
Away, we’re bound away,
'Cross the wide Missouri.

Now the Missouri is a mighty river,
Away, you rollin’ river,
Indians camp along her border,
Away, we’re bound away,
'Cross the wide Missouri.

Well a white man loved an Indian maiden,
Away, you rollin’ river,
With notions his canoe was laden,
Away, we’re bound away,
'Cross the wide Missouri.

Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter,
Away, you rollin’ river,
It was for her I’d cross the water,
Away, we’re bound away,
'Cross the wide Missouri.

For seven long years I courted Sally,
Away, you rollin’ river,
Seven more years I longed to hold her,
Away, we’re bound away,
'Cross the wide Missouri.

Well, it’s fare-thee-well, my dear,
I’m bound to leave you,
Away, you rollin’ river,
Shenandoah, I will not deceive you,
Away, we’re bound away,
'Cross the wide Missouri.


Comments I left at youtube:

3 weeks ago I love the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra so deeply. Go ahead, ask me what I love most about it! Whatever I just heard. That would make “Shenandoah” my all-time favorite song from them.


16 hours ago

I’ve heard the MTC sing dozens of songs, and always found their performances impeccable. And yet, with “Shenandoah,” they took it up a notch. While I find the arrangement here for the orchestra less than perfect—at times grand, at times not—this is the most exquisite choral performance by any group of any song I’ve ever heard. What is it about this song that inspires so many of the world’s greatest singers to do their best work—Jo Stafford, Harve Presnell, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Liam Clancy, Sissell? They must have found it a deeply religious song.


77,767 views Apr 18, 2020
“Edited clips of the choir and orchestra performing, ‘Shenandoah,’ ‘Homeward Bound,’ ‘My Shepherd Will Supply My Need’ and ‘Standing on the Promises’ dubbed with my favorite version of another one of my favorites from them, ‘Shenandoah (Across the Wide Missouri)’ from my CD, God Bless America: 23 Patriotic Favorites (1992).”


“Shenandoah . . .” - My Favorite Version - The Mormon Tabernacle Choir & Orchestra at Temple Square (N.S.: Not my title) (1965)





2014 Version