LDS Hymns

-History: (Source: Wikipedia)

Written By: Bruce R. McConkie

McConkie wrote several poems, a few of which he read in various general conference addresses. One for which he is especially remembered is the poem I Believe in Christ, delivered in a 1972 General Conference address, “The Testimony of Jesus”. It was later set to music and published in the LDS Hymnal, as Hymn #134, “I Believe in Christ” and has since gained popularity among members of the church.

McConkie also penned the fourth verse to Hymn #21, “Come, Listen to a Prophet’s Voice”.

Music By: John Longhurst

John Longhurst (born 1940) was an organist for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for 30 years. He is also noted for writing the music to the Latter-day Saint hymn “I Believe in Christ” and being the one of the few main forces behind the design of the Conference Center organ.

As a child, Longhurst lived on a ranch near Placerville, California. In 1949, his father died and the family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. As a young man, Longhurst served as a Mormon missionary in the Atlantic States Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Longhurst earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degrees in music from the University of Utah and a Ph.D. from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester.

During the mid-1960s, Longhurst was a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Longhurst married Nancy Medrim, a native of Syracuse, New York, in the Salt Lake Temple in 1969. They are the parents of four children.

Longhurst served as a professor at Brigham Young University.

From 1977 to 2007 Longhurst served as a Mormon Tabernacle Choir organist.

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