Latter-day Saint Life

New "How Great Thou Art" Video Has the Power to Touch Souls

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A new rendition of "How Great Thou Art" performed by BYU Men's Chorus was recently released in the form of a music video that captures faith and devotion to God and His wonderful work and plan. 

The video director and producer, Jeff Parkin, who collaborated with producer Jared Cardon on it said the project was based on Dan Forrest's arrangement of "How Great Thou Art."  

"I wanted this video to be unlike anything I had seen before," Parkin says.

The production team was made up of BYU students and alumni with skills in film, dance, and music. One particularly noteworthy characteristic throughout the video is its beautiful symbolic choreography, with movement that allowed the men's chorus to reflect their spiritual feelings through their bodies. "It was a special experience uniting our talents to develop a distinctive visual language and performer movement to try to convey the miracle of the Savior’s Atonement, [which] brings all that have fallen back into His glory and love," says Cardon. 

The music video was filmed in Utah at Rock Canyon, just above the Provo Temple, and at Aspen Grove Sundance Ski Resort. Days before the shoot, the weather was looking unpredictable. Rosalind Hall, director of the BYU Men's Chorus, even stopped a choral showcase concert just to request the audience to pray for good weather the day of filming. The day of the shoot was sunny, without rain or snow. 

Hall is grateful for this miracle and believes the video has the power to touch every soul in an extraordinary way. Hall says, "Before I retire, I wanted to try to have it reach more people than the relatively few who could experience it in our own concert hall. I knew that a music video was the only way to do this, as seeing the men’s faces as they sang their testimony of the Savior was what made it really special."

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Video Companion
How Great Thou Art | BYU Men’s Chorus (Arr. Dan Forrest)

The video has been received well, with over 16,000 views on Youtube and only one negative comment. In response to that comment, which was about the men not kneeling uniformly and gracefully, Parkin responded, “In our initial rehearsal, I [wished they kneeled more uniformly and gracefully] too. But then I realized that when the Savior comes, we will each bow in our own way—imperfectly, struggling under the load of our burdens, wrestling with our faults and weaknesses. And there is great beauty in that, because in our weaknesses, will we be made whole. And that is why we will proclaim, ‘My God, How Great Thou Art!’”

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