In conclusion, though, let me simply say this: may 2019 bring you moments of beauty and wonder. You’ll understand why I mention this if you watch the video. If you would like to see what this looks like in performance, I offer a link to Whitacre himself conducting a performance at the BBC Proms. This is not an easy piece to memorize-the first page of the sheet music alone has measures in 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, and 7/4 time. This is supplemented by drums, a piano, and even thundersheets, to create the effect of the sudden rains that inspired Paz and Whitacre. Again, it contains much randomness, as some of the singers use bells, some snap their fingers, some slap their thighs, each with a different rhythm. Sleep - Eric Whitacre Virtual Choir You Will be Found - BYU Vocal Point I. The Work is quite unsuitable for conventional Midi File format, and has been very hard to render in that way. I tried to 'match' the Midi Files to this performance, but it has been very difficult. The same technique appears more famously in the “Sanctus” of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem.īut it is of course after the breathy La lluvia. three local colleges) for an epic performance of Whitacres Cloudburst. Cloudburst Eric Whitacre Cloudburst There is an excellent performance of this Work, conducted by the Composer, on YouTube starting here. The opening measures make use of a “free chant” technique: the parts are given specific words and notes to sing, but each singer sings more-or-less randomly in terms of rhythm and timing. It’s a setting, in Spanish, of “El cántaro roto” (“The Broken Water-Jug”) by Octavio Paz. It’s scored for eight-part chorus and percussion, performed here by the Brigham Young University Singers, conducted by Ronald Staheli. 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.This was Eric Whitacre’s first major work. "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. Eric Whitacre describes Cloudburst as a ceremonial, a celebration of the unleashed kinetic energy in all things. 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. 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. Jensen for her high school choir - the final version of the piece was published in 1995. Whitacre began writing the piece in 1991 (when the composer was 21 ), at the request of conductor Dr. Cloudburst is a composition by Eric Whitacre for eight-part choir, with piano and percussion accompaniment.
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