I have been setting to music parts of the Book of Mormon that appear to be or have been in verse in the original languages. I am aware that the Book of Mormon has been maligned by many, Mormon and not, for its stilted language and lack of poetic qualities. Setting texts reveals their poetic qualities in ways that no other activity can. I have found many of these texts to have delightful and evocative poetic qualities that I hadn’t noticed before, qualities that are quite musical. The Hebraic parallelisms are, of course, striking. They are not native to English language writing and have thus been annoying to many English speakers who have been taught to value economy and shun redundancy. But I have also been noticing turns of phrase which have unique delights of sound and sense in their English manifestation. There are abundant if subtle alliterations, in particular, as well as similes, synecdoches, etc. I’ve listed a few here from the “Psalm of Nephi”, 2 Nephi 4, which I am in the midst of setting:
behold, my soul
the great goodness
causing them to quake
my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.
why should my heart weep and my soul linger
droop in sin
robe of thy righteousness
I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh;
rock of my righteousness
my voice shall forever ascend
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