Whitacre: Cloudburst, Sleep, Lux aurumque & Other Choral Works

Featuring

Stephen Layton
Stephen Betteridge
Robert Millett
Fran Fowler
Alice Heath
Suzanna Rennie

Eva Redman
Cecily Scott
Polyphony
Eric Whitacre

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Composer Biography

Eric Whitacre, born in 1970 in Reno, Nevada, initially had a patchy musical upbringing, including piano lessons that didn't stick and playing trumpet in a marching band.

Compositional Technique

In "Cloudburst," Whitacre uses piano, percussion, handbells, clapping, finger-clicking, and thigh-tapping by singers to effectively simulate a rainstorm.

Composer Biography

Whitacre's life profoundly changed when he joined a college choir, initially motivated by 'cute girls in the soprano section,' and began rehearsing Mozart's Requiem.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Despite the mystical feel of his music, Eric Whitacre states he is not religious and chooses poetry that speaks deeply to him, aiming to illuminate words with music.

Performer Biography

Polyphony, the choir on this recording, was formed by Stephen Layton in 1986 for a concert in King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and has since performed and recorded internationally to critical acclaim.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Whitacre asserts that writing for chorus is his true vocation, a real calling, and his work has centered around music for voices since his first choral piece at age twenty-one.

Composition History

The poem for Whitacre's work "Sleep" was a 'parody text' created by Charles Anthony Silvestri due to legal necessity after the Robert Frost Estate forbade the musical setting of Frost's original poem.