Searcy 1 Slade Searcy Ms. Dasher English Literature and Composition 13 September 2016 Eric Whitacre's Influence on Modern Choral Music Cloudburst, Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, Godzilla Eats Las Vegas, Fly To Paradise, and Enjoy the Silence: these are all examples of outstanding and widely popular works that have been composed or arranges by the man himself, Eric Whitacre. Whitacre was born in Reno, Nevada, in the year 1970. He fell in love with choir when he joined one at the University of Nevada. From there, he has geared his life's work towards creating music, and molding choral music to his own personal style. He is currently one of the most popular and influential composers of the modern day. Most would say that he has even redefined choral music and choral composition as a whole. Eric Whitacre has revolutionized choral music by using a high amount of stark dissonances, adding perfect texture and musicality to classic, and new, text and literature, and creating the extremely popular virtual choir. A very large part of Whitacre's musical charm is his knack for using a very large amount of dissonances in his music. In the grand scheme of things, the use of dissonances is probably what he is most famous for. You could find many examples of dissonances, parallel motion, and other signature Whitacre techniques is just about any piece he has written. Some great examples are Sleep, with text by Charles Anthony Silvestri, and Lux Aurumque, with Latin translation also done by Silvestri. Although Whitacre has recently popularized the use of dissonances, they have been used for quite some time in the past. "IN 1898 CHARLES IVES set Psalm 67 to music. The piece begins with an eight-part bitonal chord, the men singing in four parts in G minor and
Searcy 2 the women in four parts in C major... David Ewen describes what this portended:. "Before Stravinsky, Ives worked with polyrhythms... he introduced music of chance (Westermeyer)."' This is an example of an 8 part, very dissonant choral arrangement, set to religious text, and composed 100 years before Whitacre's music became popular. This goes to show that Whitacre's compositions are not completely new ideas, but he is recreating these methods in a way that revitalizes the style and brings him immense popularity. To go along with that, Whitacre does not just randomly place dissonant notes into chords, hoping that they will sound good; he appears to have a distinct formula when composing in that style. What a dissonance is, specifically, is a clash between two notes, that causes the frequencies of the soundwaves to bounce off of each other to create an abrasive, discorded effect. Although, when used correctly, they can have a very cool and mysterious effect. Some common dissonances he uses are the add 2 and the add 4, which put an extra note in that clashes with what would be a normal sounding major or minor chord. Here is an example of an add 2: if thers is a C Major chord, which contains the notes C, E, and G, represented by the numbers 1, 3, and 5, the chord is happy sounding and very clear. An add 2 would be adding a D, represented by 2, to the chord, which would make the chord C, D, E, and G. The D would clash with the C and E, causing the sound to be dissonant and unclear, which adds a mysterious and contrasting effect to the sound. An Add 4 would be the same idea, but an F would be added to the chord instead, making it C, E, F, and G. Overall, Whitacre's use of dissonances adds a very mystical and magical feel to his pieces. That is one of the main reasons he is able to create such beautiful settings to the text he is given. Much of Whitacre's work is very text driven. He uses timeless poems and also modern texts to create beautiful settings that greatly appeal to not only the choral world, but somewhat to the general public. His vast use of dynamics, chord progressions, rhythms, and ever-changing
Searcy 3 tempos, combined in the style that he best sees fit for the text, creates outstanding choral works that, arguably, no other composer could do as well as he. "This composer seems to think in terms of textures rather than structures; though brushed by New Age sensibility, he shows a firm sense of destination in his settings, guided by the texts he has chosen--from e. e. cummings, Emily Dickinson, Octavio Paz or whomever (Freeman)." One of Whitacre's pieces, Sleep, was originally meant to be set to a Robert Frost poem called "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". Though after he had already written the music for the text, Whitacre realized he was not able to obtain the copyrights necessary to release the song. Luckily, he called up his old pal Charles Anthony Silvestri to save the day. Silvestri was able to write text to fit in perfectly with Whitacre wrote for Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Sleep went on the be one of the most popular and successful pieces that Whitacre and company has ever released. This goes to show how influential Whitacre's composing can be with the right text, and luckily, Silvestri was able to provide that text exceptionally well. The following quote gives a very straightforward explanation on Whitacre's influence. Eric Whitacre inspires us to hear choral music in new says, a refreshing take on what's often a musty old genre. He has a big following in high schools and colleges because of his popular master classes here and abroad. He just left to give some in Brazil. His web site on myspace.com gets tons of visitors, too. Given his youth - he's only 35 - and his surfer hunk handsomeness, the tall blonde composer probably didn't need to join the choir to meet women. But I'm glad he did and I bet that even my old hotrod neighbor Chris would like his music, too.(schnabel) There are definitely some very strong points in this quote relating to Whitacre's popularity. He has thoroughly revitalized the choral genre, and his constant interactions with today's youth lead
Searcy 4 to a great appreciation from high school and college chorus nerds everywhere. Furthermore, to add on to his current popularity, Whitacre took it a step further and created the virtual choir, which took him from being a current icon, and turned him into a living legend. One of Whitacre's most revolutionary ideas is the virtual choir. He has hundreds of singers from across the world send in tracks of them singing the different voice parts to one of his songs, and he compiles them into one, creating the essence of a choir, without any of these people singing together in real life. This genius idea came about when he saw a video online of a girl singing the soprano part to a popular song of his, Sleep. She talked about how much of an influence Whitacre is on her and how she aspires to be like him one day. This inspired Whitacre greatly, and he began to brainstorm the idea of compiling tracks like those together; thus, the virtual choir was born! It has since been a huge success and popularized his widely throughout the world. One of the singers in the virtual choir said, "It took me quite a while to get the hang of it, adjust to Whitacre's tempos, which were very loose, and respond to his gestures and, of course, learn the notes... But, I practiced and practiced with that little piano track and, a few days later, recorded myself on video - several times before I felt I got it right (Lunden)." Alongside the uniqueness of his choral music, the virtual choir has made Whitacre one of the most famous composers of the modern day. He has made virtual choirs for many of his works, such as Fly To Paradise, Lux Aurumque, etc. As a matter of fact, the Lux Aurumque choir contains 185 singers from 12 different countries, so it is obvious that Whitacre is very well known across the globe. This, along with my other given reasons are why Whitacre is a global icon and a world-renown musician. Throughout his lifetime, Whitacre has revolutionized choir music across the world, and continue to influence until the day he dies. He has revolutionized choral music by using a high
Searcy 5 amount of stark dissonances, adding perfect texture and musicality to classic, and new, text and literature, and creating the extremely popular virtual choir. Also, his high involvement in the choral world adds to his respect in the choir world and effect on today's singing youth. Even currently, Whitacre is still highly involved in the choral world. This upcoming March, Whitacre will be instructing the 10-12 th grade honor choir at the National American Choral Directors' Association Festival basically the most popular and legitimate choral convention in the country in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He also still arranges and composes new pieces, such as his recent arrangement of "The Star Spangled Banner," which definitely gave it the "Whitacre touch." He also writes pieces in non-choral genres, such as solos and orchestral works. " Goodnight Moon for harp, strings, and solo soprano is a setting of the immensely popular bedtime story. It is sung by Hila Plitmann, Whitacre s wife, who brings a bright, show-bizzy charm to the music (Greenfield)." As is the general consensus between classical music geeks throughout the world, Whitacre is a very unique and talented composer, and is a true gem to today's society. He will continue to wow the world with his unmatched composing abilities and his genius ideas, creating a more and more beautiful compositions, and experiences, for singers and musicians across the world to enjoy.
Searcy 6 Works Cited "Choral Music." Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia (2016): 1p. 1. Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia. Web. 12 Sept. 2016. "Eric Whitacre's Modern Choral Magic." All Things Considered 28 Sept. 2006. Student Resources in Context. Web. 7 Sept. 2016. Freeman, John W. "Eric Whitacre: Cloudburst and other choral works." Opera News July 2006: 52. Student Resources in Context. Web. 7 Sept. 2016 GREENFIELD. "Choral Pieces." American Record Guide 77.6 (2014): 181. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Sept. 2016. Greenfield. "WHITACRE: Choral Pieces." American Record Guide 75.4 (2012): 216-217. MasterFILE Elite. Web. 7 Sept. 2016. Moore, R. "Frances-Hoad: Vocal & Choral Pieces." American Record Guide May-June 2015: 101+.Student Resources in Context. Web. 11 Sept. 2016. Royce, Graydon. "Classical music: Eric Whitacre conducts the Minnesota Orchestra and Chorale." Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) 05 Apr. 2014: Newspaper Source. Web. 8 Sept. 2016 Stanwood, P. G. "Paradise Lost": Epic And Opera." Early Modern Literary Studies 15.3 (2011): 12. Literary Reference Center. Web. 12 Sept. 2016. "They've Never Met, But 2000+ Singers Perform Together." All Things Considered 6 Apr. 2011. Student Resources in Context. Web. 11 Sept. 2016. Westermeyer, Paul. "Chords and discords: choral music of our time." The Christian Century 132.26 (2015): 12+. Student Resources in Context. Web. 11 Sept. 2016.