Entry #8 Not So Classical


When you think of classical composers, you probably are thinking about some of the composers that I have written about on this blog, like Richard Wagner, or John Cage or maybe one of the true classic legends, Mozart or Beethoven. Therefore, when people generally think of something classical, they think of something of the past, but thats not always the case. 

 Composer, Eric Whitacre is a modern composer, a graduate from Juilliard, and a grammy winner. I spent every year of schooling, in choir performing many of his pieces. He writes for various vocal arrangements for both high and low voices, solos, orchestras, theatre, and film. In my opinion, he makes classical music fun. Since music is no longer written for the church, he uses this freedom to create pieces that sound mature and beautiful, but uses words of nonsense. 




This is a personal favorite of mine. What sounds like something out of an Opera is essentially a joke. With lyrics, like "I don't like eels, except with meals" the sound coming out of the choir's voices, is very different than what one would expect from reading the short poems composed inside of this piece, "Animal Crackers." It's ingenious.

His talent goes way beyond just writing jokes, he can write his music in hundreds of languages bringing poems from around the world to life. His music has reached every person with these languages, expanding his work to over 110 countries. Here's one of his pieces that would fit better with the classical definition. Another favorite of mine, "Five Hebrew Love Songs"




While I don't know many people who know his name, Eric Whitacre is more known world wide than Britney Spears of Justin Bieber. He used his fame to bring music lovers alike together with his YouTube virtual choir. He did this annually from the year 2010 to 2013. Anyone in the world had the opportunity to audition. While I'm not sure if there will be any more, it was amazing what he had did. Featuring almost 6,000 people from 101 different countries, these epic video created magic from what I could only imagine being months of work.



In my choir, we referred to Eric Whitacre as some kind of music god. I could never imagine the genius that it takes to create a reputation that he has. He weaves the classical era into modern day and makes essentially boring things like Opera, awesome and fun. I wish that music like his could become more popular become "mainstream," but I'll do my best to spread my passion for music like his between both my friends and all the people that actually read this blog.




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