12/23/2023 0 Comments Cloudburst eric whitacreHis use of harmony and unusually knowing way with choral “effects” comes from an internal hearing and unique imagining, not from what he thinks may be the “next cool thing”. You could say that Whitacre is the “anti-Tavener” in other words, he’s fiercely, organically original. According to his press materials, his piece Water Night “has become one of the most popular choral works of the last decade…one of the top selling choral publications in the last five years”, and his published works “have sold more than 350,000 copies worldwide.” On hearing the 14 selections on this CD–and after a memorable encounter with his new work A Boy and a Girl (premiered on this disc) at a national choral convention last year–I can only say that the acclaim and attention is well deserved. Even the sparsely talented John Tavener managed to make a mark, and his contined output of pretentious and opportunistic creations shows just how wide and open-armed the choral music world can be.Īnd then there’s Eric Whitacre, a 35-year-old American composer who in a few short years has carved more than just a niche: his music has captured the hearts and minds of singers, conductors, and vocal music fans across oceans and continents. The album included other works by Whitacre and was nominated for the 2007 Grammy Award in best Choral Performance.Ī concert band version, commissioned for the Indiana All-State Band, was released by Whitacre in 2001.You hear about huge advance orders for the latest CD by the biggest, hottest pop superstar, or for the most fashionably hip tell-all book–but when the buzz is about a CD of classical choral music? Yes, there have been big successes by vocal groups during the last decade or two–Anonymous 4, the King’s Singers, the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, the Tallis Scholars, the Bulgarian women’s choirs, and don’t forget those Spanish monks–and by choral composers, including the abundantly popular John Rutter, the eminently revered Arvo Pärt, and the currently faddish and always challenging texturalist Morten Lauridsen. "Cloudburst" was the title feature of an album by Stephen Layton's chamber choir Polyphony. The storm gradually builds then fades, and the ending of the piece mirrors the beginning section, with the choir arpeggiating as the piano voices block chords. A thunder sheet, bass drum, handbells, suspended cymbal, wind chimes, and piano contribute to the effect of a thunderstorm. During this time, the choir begins claps, snaps, and thigh smacks in order to imitate the sound of rain. In the section titled "The Cloudburst", handbells (which are directed to be hidden from the audience) play a written two bars, and then play at random as the choir crescendos into an aleatoric section, which is signaled by a loud clap of "thunder". This section continues into a spoken, arrhythmic incantatory solo with background. Following the opening section is a baritone solo, which is then followed by the development of a new a cappella theme. Whitacre notates long, sustained notes with text to be spoken at random by each individual singer. The first section is a cappella, notable for its dissonant tone clusters. Jensen in 1991 to write a piece for her high school choir. On his website, Whitacre stated that he composed it after approached by Jocelyn K. The text was adapted from Octavio Paz's poem El cántaro roto (The Broken Water-Jar), and inspired by the experience of the composer witnessing a desert cloudburst. Cloudburst is a composition by Eric Whitacre for eight-part choir, with piano and percussion accompaniment, written in 1991 (when the composer was 21) and published in 1995.
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