Jump to content

Eric Whitacre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 69.144.56.214 (talk) at 03:15, 16 September 2006 (→‎Concert Band). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Eric Whitacre
Eric Whitacre

Eric Whitacre (born 1970) is an American composer of choral and wind band music and electronica. He has also served as a guest conductor for scores[citation needed] of ensembles throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and The Americas.

Musical Background

Whitacre began his musical training while an undergraduate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It was here that he wrote his Ghost Train triptych for concert band, which has come to be one of his most popular works.[verification needed] He would go on to study at the Juilliard School under John Corigliano and David Diamond, eventually receiving a Master's Degree.

Music

In the past decade, Whitacre has become one of the most famous and often-performed composers in America.[verification needed] Many of Whitacre's works for high school and college wind ensemble have entered the standard repertoire, including October, Sleep (a transcription of his choral work of the same name), Equus, and Cloudburst.[verification needed]

Whitacre has also written a multitude of choral works, some of which utilize texts by E. E. Cummings and Mexican poet Octavio Paz. His "Water Night", translated from the original poem of the same name, is very popular among high school and college vocal ensembles across the country. Also popular are his settings of texts by Cummings: "i thank you god for most this amazing day", "i will wade out", and "hope, faith, life, love."

Another of his works, "Sleep", was originally a setting of Robert Frost's "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening". After extensive legal battles, he was forced to discontinue use of Frost's text, and turned to poet and friend Charles Anthony Silvestri to craft a new text to fit the already existing music. Silvestri's text was inspired by watching his son fall asleep. When asked about the possibility of again using Frost's poem for the piece when it entered the public domain (in 2038), Whitacre stated that "[he] will NEVER use the Frost poem again with [the music for "Sleep"]"; additionally, Eric has gone on to say that he prefers the music with Silvestri's poem instead of Frost's.[citation needed]

Written in memory of a close friend's son, When David heard is a deeply personal work, so much so that Whitacre prefers not to talk about it.[citation needed]

The text for another of his works, Five Hebrew Love Songs, was composed at Whitacre's request by his Israeli wife, Hila Plitmann, a fellow Juilliard graduate, while on tour in Germany before they were married. The pitches of the "bongs" in movement four, "Snow", are the exact pitches of the bells that woke them each morning. The music of movement four is strongly related to that of another of his pieces, "Winter."

Whitacre premiered his first work for stage, Paradise Lost, in 2004 at Cal State Northridge, one year after premiering the work's musical suite in Berlin, Germany in the summer of 2003. The show is only distantly related to Milton's Paradise Lost. Eric calls Paradise Lost an "opera electronica"[citation needed]; the music is a mixture of many different styles of music including trance, classical, electronica, and traditional opera.

Whitacre's music—particularly his music for choir—has inspired the creation of a number of national and international music festivals. In July 2004, the Sydney Opera House hosted the first annual Eric Whitacre Wind Symphony Festival. In late July of 2007, Venice and Florence, Italy will host the first Venice Whitacre Festival, which will include a fully-staged performance of Paradise Lost.

Outside of his freelance work, Eric is a founding member of the consortium BCM International, a quartet of composers consisting of himself, Steven Bryant, Jonathan Newman, and James Bonney, who, according to their mission statement, aspire to "enrich the wind ensemble repertoire with music unbound by traditional thought or idiomatic cliché".[citation needed] BCM International's online discussion forum, which features participation by all four BCM members and others, dissects various topics related to music.

Works

Brass Ensemble

  • Lux Aurumque

Concert Band

  • Equus
  • Ghost Train Triptych
    • The Ride
    • At the Station
    • Motive Revolution
  • Godzilla Eats Las Vegas! †
  • Noisy Wheels of Joy
  • October
  • Sleep (Choral Transcription)
  • Lux Aurumque (Choral Transcription, transposed a semitone lower from C-Sharp Minor to C Minor)
  • Cloudburst (Choral Transcription)

† Note: This piece was originally titled "Gawd$illa Eats Las Vegas!" from fear of legal action. However, Whitacre always hated the name "Gawd$illa ..." as it held no significance to him.[citation needed] It's listed as "Godzilla ..." on his official website.

Choral

* collected on the album Eric Whitacre: The Complete A Cappella Works, 1991-2001 (Arsis Audio 2003), performed by the BYU Singers conducted by Ronald Staheli.

** collected on the album Cloudburst and Other Choral Works (Hyperion Records 2006), performed by Polyphony, conducted by Stephen Layton.

+ collected on the album Winter (Clarion 2005), performed by The Choral Project

++ collected on the album Water and Light (Clarion 2003), performed by The Choral Project

String Ensemble

  • Lux Aurumque
  • Water Night

Theatre

  • Paradise Lost: Opera Electronica

Other Arrangements

  • Rak HaHatchala (Only the Beginning), for soprano voice, solo violin, piano and wind ensemble
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eric_Whitacre&oldid=75987425"