"Where Can I Turn for Peace?"

Episode 18: The history behind “Where Can I Turn for Peace?”: In 1971 Joleen G. Meredith and Emma Lou Thayne were asked to write a musical number for the Laurel workshop at June Conference. Emma Lou telephoned Joleen to discuss the assignment. Joleen recalls: “I happened to be in the music room of our home at the time. Sister Thayne says she had been thinking of a message of hope and peace as the hymn’s theme. As she began to relate some of the beginning lyrics, I stepped to the piano and said, ‘Sounds good—the music should go something like this…’ She said ’good,’ and gave me another line. I responded with additional measures of music. Before the conversation ended, we had mostly ‘roughed in’ the basic hymn. We have lovingly spoken of this number as the ‘telephone hymn’ throughout the years.” This program includes contemporary renditions of the hymn by the following artists: Greg Hansen, Michael Dowdle, Brigham Young University Women’s Chorus, Mark Small, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Gibbons Family, Voice Male, and the Utah Chamber Artists.