Trek Music

"For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads."   D & C 25:12

Trek Music

Please start singing the songs/hymns that we will be singing during Trek in your opening exercises and meetings now.  We would like the youth to be able to sing these songs from memory.  No phones/devices are allowed on Trek and we will not be taking hymnals.  Music is a powerful tool in bringing the spirit and we would like all to participate.  

As a special song for Trek, we will be singing the Trek Medley. It is actually the EFY Medley (As Sisters In Zion/We'll Bring the World His Truth) with a few changes to the lyrics.  

Download the Trek Medley words HERE. 

To listen to the EFY Medley, click HERE. (Make note of the changes to the lyrics).

To practice singing the Trek Medley, download the minus track HERE.

Hymns and Songs

Below is a list of songs that will be sung frequently on Trek.

“Come, Come, Ye Saints” Hymn #30
“The Spirit of God”, Hymn #2 (Vs. 1,2,3)
“They The Builders of the Nation", Hymn #36
“I Am a Child of God”, Hymn #301
“Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel”, Hymn #252
“Redeemer of Israel”, Hymn #6 (Vs. 1)
“Families Can Be Together Forever”, Hymn #300
“Handcart Song”, Children’s Songbook, Page 220
“Handcart Song”, Lyrics Below
“Pioneer Children Sang As They Walked”, Children’s Songbook, Page 214
“High on a Mountain Top” Hymn #5 

“The Handcart Song”

And long before the Valley's gained,
We will be met upon the plains
With music sweet and friends so dear,
And fresh supplies our hearts to cheer.
And then with music and with song
How cheerfully we'll march along,
And thank the day we made a start,
To cross the plains with our handcart.

["The Handcart Song," Pioneer Songs (1940), 21]

Come, Come Ye Saints 

History of "Come, Come Ye Saints"

Although it is generally believed that William Clayton wrote "Come, Come, Ye Saints" on the journey between Winter Quarters and Salt Lake City, the hymn was really written, while Brigham Young's Company was traveling from Nauvoo to Winter Quarters.

President Young, feeling great anxiety because there were murmurings in the camp of Israel, called Elder William Clayton aside and said, "Brother Clayton, I want you to write a hymn that the people can sing at their campfires in the evening; something that will give them succor and support, and help them to fight the many troubles and trials of the journey.” Elder Clayton withdrew from the camp and in two hours returned with the hymn familiarly known as "Come, Come, Ye Saints." His personal testimony is to the effect that it was written under the “favor and inspiration of the Lord."

The song, indeed, seems to have been written under the Lord's inspiration, for He has used it often to uplift His Saints. Oscar Winters, President Heber J. Grant's father-in law, relates the following story:

One night, as we were making camp, we noticed one of our brethren had not arrived and a volunteer party was immediately organized to return and see if anything had happened to him. Just as we were about to start, we saw the missing brother coming in the distance. When he arrived, he said he had been quite sick, - so some of us un-yoked his oxen and attended to his part of the camp duties. After supper, he sat down before the campfire on a large rock and sang in a very faint, but plaintive and sweet voice, the hymn "Come, Come, Ye Saints.” It was a rule of the camp that whenever anybody started this hymn, all in the camp should join, but for some reason this evening nobody joined him. He sang the hymn alone. When he had finished, I doubt if there was a single dry eye in the camp. The next morning, we noticed that he was not yoking up his cattle. We went to his wagon and found that he had died during the night. We dug a shallow grave and after we had covered the body with the earth, we rolled the large stone to the head of the grave to mark it--the stone on which he had been sitting the night before when he sang, "And should we die before our journeys through--Happy day! All is well ".

Truly, "Come, Come, Ye Saints" is worthy to be placed among the great hymns of Christian literature. With it, Clayton catches the spirit and sentiment of an oppressed people and crystallizes them into simple verse that arouses the interest of the multitude.

When the Salt Lake Tabernacle Choir was in Europe in 1955, they sang an arrangement of "Come, Come, Ye Saints," in every concert. Notwithstanding the difficulties caused by the various languages, it was encored every time it was performed. The repetitive phrase "all is well" seemed to be understood in each country and even by the refugees in Berlin where the people before whom the choir sang were without home, work, food, and even citizenship. Nothing was "well" with them, yet they encored the grand old hymn.

"Come, Come, Ye Saints" has served the purpose named in President Young's request: it was sung at every camp-fire, it gave succor and support to the saints, and it has helped pioneers, both of yesterday and today, to lay aside useless cares and to "fight the many troubles and trials of the journey."