The Virtual Choir began in May 2009 as a simple experiment in social media, when Britlin Losee – a fan of Eric’s music – recorded a video of herself singing “Sleep” and shared it on YouTube.
This choir sings composer and conductor Eric Whitacre's music. Whitacre recoreds himself conducting the song and then people video themselves singing the music and upload it to youtube, where Whitacre choses which voice tracks to use(I think) and it is put together to sound like a real choir, the 2 songs that have been done so far Virtual Choir 1.0 'Lux Aurumque' (composed by Whitacre in 2000) and Virtual choir 2.0 Sleep (another composition from 2000).
Originally the song sleep was written for the Robert Frost poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Unfortunately he didn't have permission from the Robert frost estate here is the super long blog post about it
I took my time with the piece, crafting it note by note until I felt that it was exactly the way I wanted it. The poem is perfect, truly a gem, and my general approach was to try to get out of the way of the words and let them work their magic. We premiered the piece in Austin, October 2000, and the piece was well received. Rene Clausen gave it a glorious performance at the ACDA National Convention in the spring of 2001, and soon after I began receiving letters, emails, and phone calls from conductors trying to get a hold of the work.
And here was my tragic mistake: I never secured permission to use the poem. Robert Frost’s poetry has been under tight control from his estate since his death, and until a few years ago only Randall Thompson (Frostiana) had been given permission to set his poetry. In 1997, out of the blue, the estate released a number of titles, and at least twenty composers set and published Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening for chorus. When I looked online and saw all of these new and different settings, I naturally (and naively) assumed that it was open to anyone. Little did I know that the Robert Frost Estate had shut down ANY use of the poem just months before, ostensibly because of this plethora of new settings.
After a LONG legal battle (many letters, many representatives), the estate of Robert Frost and their publisher, Henry Holt Inc., sternly and formally forbid me from using the poem for publication or performance until the poem became public domain in 2038.
I was crushed. The piece was dead, and would sit under my bed for the next 37 years because of some ridiculous ruling by heirs and lawyers. After many discussions with my wife, I decided that I would ask my friend and brilliant poet Charles Anthony Silvestri (Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, Lux Aurumque, Nox Aurumque, Her Sacred Spirit Soars) to set new words to the music I had already written. This was an enormous task, because I was asking him to not only write a poem that had the exact structure of the Frost, but that would even incorporate key words from “Stopping”, like ‘sleep’. Tony wrote an absolutely exquisite poem, finding a completely different (but equally beautiful) message in the music I had already written. I actually prefer Tony’s poem now…
And there it is. My setting of Robert Frost’s Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening no longer exists. And I won’t use that poem ever again, not even when it becomes public domain in 2038.
The Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota debuted the song, but when the copyright problem came up The Robert Frost estate told him to destroy the song pretty much. So Whitacre went to his friend Tony Silvestri, who is a poet and a history teacher and asked him to write a poem to his song. Silivestri did it in one night, it was inspired by his 3 year old son not wanting to go to sleep. There is something more touching though, Silvestiri's wife had cancer and as she was dying, she wanted to hear the song Sleep
because at the end it talks about letting go and going to sleep
This song started out as a 3 year old having trouble sleeping, to a dying wife. Any way I've been ranting about stuff you probably don't care about so here are the 2 virtual choir videos enjoy!
Virtual Choir 1.0 - 'Lux Aurumque'
fixed youtube tags-Lee
and Virtual Choir 2.0- Sleep
Sleep
The evening hangs beneath the moon
A silver thread on darkened dune
With closing eyes and resting head
I know that sleep is coming soon
Upon my pillow, safe in bed,
A thousand pictures fill my head,
I cannot sleep, my minds aflight,
And yet my limbs seem made of lead
If there are noises in the night,
A frightening shadow, flickering light…
Then I surrender unto sleep,
Where clouds of dream give second sight.
What dreams may come, both dark and deep
Of flying wings and soaring leap
As I surrender unto sleep
As I surrender unto sleep.
Last edited by Graces4you on Wed Nov 30, 2011 6:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Oh WOW. I cannot believe how absolutely beautifully stunning that is. I don't hear a lot of parts though. I'd like to hear a bit more alto on those. But yeah... that is absolutely cool.
I really like the works of Eric Whitacre, and in my last year of high school the senior choir I was in sang "Seal Lullaby." I quite enjoyed that piece (along with most of the other pieces).
I think my favourite piece is still "Seal Lullaby," but that is probably just because I have sung it.
31899
Last edited by 31899 on Wed Nov 30, 2011 6:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
bookworm wrote:That’s amazing. How in the world did he put all those together?
A man named Scott Haines contacted Whitacre and offered to do it for free, he'd been looking for something like Virtual Choir to do for a while, it talks about it in this video http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_whitacre_ ... trong.html
Amazing! That was the most interesting thing I've seen in a long time. =] Just think, in Heaven I suppose we'll here singing even more beautiful than that!
The weirdest thing ever happened. I JUST listened to this the other day, then at this concert I went to last night my friend's group sang this. It was even more amazing live.
Love you always, SnC "A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?" -Albert Einstein
Graces4you wrote:
We received 3746 videos from 2945 people in 73 countries singing one or more parts, at one point the song breaks into 14 different parts.
I'll have to watch it on my phone. The 14 different parts, is that the lyrics or actually like Alto, Bass, Tenor... Because if its the latter, how in the world do you come up with 14? Is it like Bass 2.0 or something?
Graces4you wrote:
We received 3746 videos from 2945 people in 73 countries singing one or more parts, at one point the song breaks into 14 different parts.
I'll have to watch it on my phone. The 14 different parts, is that the lyrics or actually like Alto, Bass, Tenor... Because if its the latter, how in the world do you come up with 14? Is it like Bass 2.0 or something?
The parts, Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass. I think it splits into Soprano 1,2,3, 4, and 5, Alto 1,2,and3, Tenor 1,2,and 3, and Bass 1,2,and 3.
