Eric Whitacre Biography

Eric Whitacre is one of the most well sack outn, performed, and awarded choral composers in the modern day choral scene. Eric was born on January 2, 1970 in Reno, Nevada, dabbling in piano lessons as a child and later, in junior high, joining marching band, and playing synthesizer in a techno-pop band. view it or not, Eric dreamt of be culmination a rock star. (Bowen) Although he is not among the likes of Metallica or The Beatles, Eric has won a Grammy for crush Choral Performance for his album Light and Gold in the past year, as well as a nomination in 2007 for Cloudburst and Other Choral Works.He is the youngest recipient ever of the Raymond C Brock Commission given by the American Choral Directors Association, awarded in 2001, as well as many former(a) awards from the ACDA, the Barlow international composition competition, and American Composers Forum. (Official meshingsite Biography) Although Whitacre is known for his choral works, he also writes and composes for wind ensemb les, plenteous orchestras, a full musical highborn Paradise Lost Shadows and Wings, as well as entraps for solo voice and supporting instrumentals. The most known composing that Eric has composed is the acapella choral piece titled Sleep. Sleep is a SATB choral piece. The story behind this haunting song is that Julia Armstrong, a attorney and professional mezzo-soprano from Texas, wanted commision Whitacre to compose a choral that would be performed by the Austin ProChorus, where she was an devouring(prenominal) member of the choir. She wanted the piece to be a memorial of her beloved parents, who died within weeks of each other after fifty years of marriage. She wanted the piece to determination the metrical composition by Robert Frost, called Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening. Whitacre agreed to take on her request and was deeply locomote by her story.Unfortunately, after a careful composition by Whitacre and a breathtaking performance of the piece by the Austin ProCho rus, Robert Frosts estate forbid Whitacre from using the numbers in any way for the piece. The poem will become public domain in 2038, but he did not have that dour to wait as other directors were practically begging to use the piece for their choirs. Instead of letting the piece lie under his bed, dead, as Whitacre said, he talked it over with his wife and decided to ask his adept and poet Charles Anthony Silvestri to compose a poem to set words to the iece. Silvestri was a trusted lyricist for Whitacre, writing lyrics for da Vinci Dreams of His Flying Machine, Lux Aurumque, Nox Aurumque, and Her Sacred Spirit Soars, all celebrated Whitacre pieces. Tony incorporated a spile of the same ideals of Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, the biggest being sleep. Whitacre says that he loves Tonys poem more than he ever did Stopping and will never set the words to Frosts poem to his song, withal when it becomes available in 26 years. (Whitacre) The piece itself is musically exquisite .It grabs your attention almost immanently. Whitacre uses this method of stacking voices at life-or-death points in the plot by splitting every voice part into two separate, so what was a four part becomes an eight part. The texture and the dynamics are maticulously planned and formulated, as if Whitacre were sitting in that location telling a story about a personal experience, but the choir was doing the speaking for him. thither are moments when you can feel the pain and anguish he wanted to express just through the dynamic of the voices. The emotion of this piece is palpable.The lyrics read The evening hangs beneath the moon A silver travel on darkened dune With closing eyes and resting head I know that sleep is coming soon Upon my pillow, safe in bed, A thousand pictures fill my head, I cannot sleep, my minds aflight, And yet my limbs seem do of lead If there are noises in the night, A frightening shadow, flickering light Then I surrender unto sleep, Where clouds of dream g ive second base sight. What dreams may come, both dark and deep Of flying move and soaring leap As I surrender unto sleep As I surrender unto sleep. (Official Website)The conclusion few bars of the piece are of the sopranos holding the word sleep and the other voice parts singing sleep in a two note pattern, growing quieter and quieter into absolute silence. I take that the song, in its core, is about death. Perhaps, Silvestri wrote the piece with someone in mind who was very sick and their death came as a relief, almost as sleep does at the end of a very long and exhausting day. Whitacre does something in his music that is so unique and complex, it is almost hard to believe that he did not know how to read music when he attended the University of Nevada as a Music Education major. Bowen) The way that he builds chords to provide moments of tension is seventh or ninth chords, with or without suspended seconds and fourths and root-position major triads with an added major second and/or perfect fourth. (Shrock) Whitacre also uses unconventional chord progressions, meter changes, and harmonies. He is also known to use hand actions or props, as he does in the piece Cloudburst when the singers use snapping, clapping, and stomping to imitate the survive of a rainstorm.With all of that being said, Eric has almost nothing in common with other composers of our time, and honestly that is what gives him so much of an edge. He is willing to step out of the box and be daring and different and that bump has paid off. Works Cited Bowen, Meurig. Whitacre Offical Biography. Web article. (2006) n. page. Web. . Official Biography. Official Website. n. page. Web. . Whitacre, Eric. The Story Behind Sleep. Official Website. Web Article. (The song can be heard on this link) Shrock, Dennis (Mar 2009). Choral Repertoire. Oxford University Press (USA). p. 761. ISBN 978-0-19-532778-6.