Program Notes
ERIC WHITACRE (b. 1970)
LUX AURUMQUE
Duration: ca. 4 minutes
Eric Whitacre is an anomaly among composers, a creator of
otherworldly choral works whose YouTube following ranks
with rock stars. Conductor, Grammy winner, motivational
speaker, and curator of virtual musical projects, the
49-year-old is among the most vocal artists working today,
a half-Medieval, half-modern maestro in demand across
the United States and Europe for his simple but indelible
constructs. If you haven’t heard of Whitacre or his music,
you’re in the presence of both tonight when he leads TFO
and the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay in three of his more
popular pieces.
“There’s something about his music that grabs the
attention of people everywhere,’’ said Brett Karlin, Artistic
Director of the Master Chorale. “So I’m curious to see the
vibe in the room for this concert.’’
Whitacre was relatively unknown a decade ago when
he launched his Virtual Choir, an online, user-generated
chorus that became a global phenomenon. Singers from
around the world uploaded videos of a vocal line Whitacre
provided, which he synchronized into a digital mosaic
with sound and visuals. The Virtual Choir project has
grown from 185 singers to more than 8,000 today, with an
estimated 60 million online views.
Whitacre is excited about conducting this weekend’s
Masterworks concerts, most notably the opening Lux
Aurumque, and for good reason: He composed it in 2000 as
a commission by the Master Chorale, and the group soon
recorded it on a holiday compact disc. Whitacre dedicated
the piece to Jo-Michael Scheibe, the choir’s former artistic
director.
“We made the premiere recording of the work, so this is a
big-deal piece for us,’’ Karlin said. “For every high school
choral student who interacts with Eric, this is an entry
piece, so it’s sung all over the planet. He’s responsible for
getting many people involved, invested and passionate
about choral music.’’
Sung in Latin, Lux Aurumque (Light and Gold) reflects the
sound of cathedral music heard during the late Renaissance,
with pauses that allow the voices to expand and
echo. Whitacre set the music to a poem by Edward Esch,
and said, “I was immediately struck by its genuine, elegant
simplicity.’’ Keeping that feeling was “essential to the success
of the work, and I waited patiently for the tight harmonies
to shimmer and glow.’’
Lux,
Calida gravisque pura velut aurum
Et canunt angeli molliter
modo natum.
THE FLORIDA OR 62 CHESTRA | 2019-2020
Light,
warm and heavy as pure goldand angels sing softly
to the new-born babe.
ERIC WHITACRE (b. 1970 )
EQUUS
Duration: ca. 9 minutes
When Eric Whitacre first heard Pacific 231 by Arthur
Honegger, he was impressed by the composer’s musical
depiction of a steam locomotive as it builds power and
speed before slowly coming to rest. Whitacre wanted to
write something similar, not about a train but an animal
he admired for its strength, grace and endurance.
“I started with this throw-away music, then began to
develop a theme, capturing the idea of a running horse,
the mythical spirit of a horse,’’ Whitacre said. “I wanted
to write a moto perpetuo, a piece that starts running and
never stops.’’
Whitacre started tinkering with his idea after seeing Peter
Schafer’s 1973 play Equus, about a young man with a
pathological obsession with horses. But like Honegger,
Whitacre wasn’t interested in a literal depiction: “The
music is really more about a visceral experience, the
muscle and power of horses, not so much a horse itself.’’
Composed in 2000 for the University of Miami Wind
Ensemble, Equus is what Whitacre calls “dynamic
minimalism’’ because of its repeated patterns. He
arranged the music in groups of five, with leaps of a fifth,
symbolizing the five letters in the title. In 2012, Whitacre
arranged the score for full orchestra, with fragments
from the woodwinds evolving into the strings, brass,
and percussion, and a chorus delivering a violent edge
reminiscent of Orff’s Carmina Burana. “It’s bigger and
muscular,’’ he said. “Just as I always hoped it would be.’’
LEONARD BERNSTEIN (1918-1990)
CHICHESTER PSALMS
Duration: ca. 19 minutes
No American did more to popularize classical music than
Leonard Bernstein, and no one was more successful
at explaining it to the modern audience. He taught,
motivated, dazzled, and made converts of the skeptical.
During his time with the New York Philharmonic recorded
more than 400 pieces, winning a half-dozen Grammy
awards.
As a composer, Bernstein made his mark on Broadway,
and West Side Story remains his most beloved score, with
the Candide Overture being his most-performed short
piece. His three symphonies are less well known, as is the
rarely heard Chichester Psalms for Chorus and Orchestra,
which you will hear tonight. The work was commissioned
in 1965 by the dean of Chichester Cathedral in England for
the Southern Cathedrals Festival, which brought together
choirs of the Chichester, Salisbury and Winchester