Eric Whitacre

You should really click on that link.

I have been on a huge Whitacre kick for the past week or so; a couple of weeks ago I ordered some CDs of his and have been listening to them almost nonstop since they came in; there's an occasional break for some Dave Matthews or some Barenaked Ladies, but for the most part it's been all about the Whitacre. I've known about him since my sophomore year of high school, when I had to learn i thank you God for most this amazing day for All-State choir auditions. At the time, I hated him because his music was so hard to learn. I couldn't cheat and steal the pitches I was supposed to sing by guessing the harmonies; there was too much dissonance and not nearly enough tonality for my ear to find it all that pleasing (not that I knew to describe it that way when I was sixteen; I just didn't like how hard it was). But then, later that year, I actually heard a recording of the piece and suddenly I understood what all the fuss was about. I got the dissonances, I understood the leaps, and I was floored. I've pretty much been hooked ever since.

Any vocalist who has ever sung his piece Water Night is aware of the fourteen note simultaneity that happens at the big climax of the piece (if you're familiar with the recordings, it's the part where the whole choir seems to yelling "if you open your eyes night opens doors of musk"). At this point in the piece, all twelve pitch classes of the modern chromatic scale are represented, spread out across four octaves of vocal parts. It is huge. Play this thirty seconds of music in a room full of music majors and all of them will suddenly don a facial expression that most people associate with a lovesick puppy. It's a combination of feelings such as awe, joy, and envy at having not thought of the idea first. This moment is, without a doubt, my asolute favorite moment in all of music. It's just that good.

So... go buy some Whitacre.
-Carmack

Listening to - Sleep by Eric Whitacre, performed by Polyphony