Frank W. Asper Student Recital Series --
Recital by Dr. Shelby Fisher, Organist
This recital will focus on Cannon’s 30-year career as a Tabernacle organist, featuring works from his repertoire including old favorites as well as pieces you might not expect.
Tracy Young Cannon
Biography
Tracy Y. Cannon was born in 1879 into the heart of Latter-day Saint Mormonism. Throughout his 82 years, Cannon witnessed enormous changes to both his native city and to the church he loved.
As a Salt Lake Tabernacle organist, Cannon saw the church encounter the outside world with increasing frequency as it built a thriving tourism center and experimented with radio broadcasting and recording technologies.
Career
As director of the church’s McCune School of Music and Art, Cannon oversaw the education of countless musicians, leading in the dissemination of ideas about church music, choral direction, and organ playing.
Additionally, as a member and later chairman of the General Music Committee of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Cannon supervised the publication of numerous anthem collections, hymnals, and method books, guiding the youthful church into a more mature concept of Latter-day Saint music.
Legacy
Though an important figure in the Utah arts scene in the first part of the twentieth century, Cannon’s life and contributions have been largely neglected. Of a more subdued temperament (and perhaps lacking in showmanship), Cannon’s career has been overshadowed by his more gregarious colleagues such as Alexander Schreiner, J. Spencer Cornwall, and others.
Nevertheless, many stylistic, doctrinal, and conventional elements of modern LDS music still in use today are the direct result of Cannon’s leadership and personal taste.