Whitacre, Eric (b 1970)

[Richard Barrett]

His sound world is unique

I guess it might sound that way if you've never heard anything by Arvo Pärt! Also, a composer who can say "The human attention span lasts about 10 minutes, so when composing, I try to take the audience on a journey. So far I haven’t found anything that needs to be a longer journey" is not one I find it easy to take seriously.

[oddoneout]

I'm not an 'enthusiast', but I would say from my limited experience that any piece you choose sounds quite impressive - but then all the other pieces sound much the same.

And that is quite possibly a large part of his appeal for many, whether performers or listeners?

[MrGongGong]

I guess it might sound that way if you've never heard anything by Arvo Pärt! Also, a composer who can say "The human attention span lasts about 10 minutes, so when composing, I try to take the audience on a journey. So far I haven’t found anything that needs to be a longer journey" is not one I find it easy to take seriously.

Blimey

10 minutes ? That's one note

[jean]

For me the linear interest (viz. counterpoint) of the last three composers is crucial factor in their music's stature.

I understand that (I think). I don't understand this:

In an interview I once read, Penderecki asserted that counterpoint was particularly idiomatic to vocal ensembles...

[Richard Barrett]

I don't understand this:

What I understood him to mean was either or both of (a) contrapuntal textures are more suited to vocal ensembles than for example homophonic ones are; (b) vocal ensembles are more suited to contrapuntal music than are other types of ensemble. I wish I could remember exactly what he said; it was probably a lot clearer than I can manage now!

[Vox Humana]

I would have thought this true of any type of music. Isn't counterpoint necessary to some extent or other in order to maintain a listener's interest over any length of time? Short homophonic compositions can be effective, but a half-hour piece consisting of nothing but homophonic chords really doesn't bear thinking about.

[Richard Barrett]

Isn't counterpoint necessary to some extent or other in order to maintain a listener's interest over any length of time?

No. Very few non-Western musical traditions involve anything that can be called counterpoint; Gregorian chant of course has no counterpoint either; Messiaen's choral writing involves very little counterpoint, let alone numerous vocal-ensemble or choral works by later composers like Cage, Feldman and Stockhausen, some of which are considerably longer than half an hour (Stockhausen's Stimmung for example). Such music may of course not bear thinking about in your opinion; but it does exist.

Anyway, what Penderecki meant was certainly not so extreme. I take him to have meant that a music which is principally driven by linear relationships between its constituent parts is particularly suitable for vocal ensembles, in a way that it might not be for, say, wind ensembles.

[MrGongGong]

I would have thought this true of any type of music. Isn't counterpoint necessary to some extent or other in order to maintain a listener's interest over any length of time? Short homophonic compositions can be effective, but a half-hour piece consisting of nothing but homophonic chords really doesn't bear thinking about.

Oh I don't know about that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UmBTr-Kx-g

(a short part of a much longer piece)

[ahinton]

I guess it might sound that way if you've never heard anything by Arvo Pärt! Also, a composer who can say "The human attention span lasts about 10 minutes, so when composing, I try to take the audience on a journey. So far I haven’t found anything that needs to be a longer journey" is not one I find it easy to take seriously.

Quite. As I've tried to suggest, what EW can do, does and chooses to do must be taken on its own terms only and not on any other terms that are not commensurate with what he appears to have decided is his brief as a composer; wilfully limiting such "journeys" to 10 minutes max surely speaks for itself in terms of the extent to which anyone prepared to contemplate such things pragmatically can take it seriously. In any case, who was it that supposedly determined that "the human attention span lasts about 10 minutes" and why and on what grounds did he/she do so? So much art does not accord to such a notion that such an assertion is likewise impossible to take seriously.

[ahinton]

What I understood him to mean was either or both of (a) contrapuntal textures are more suited to vocal ensembles than for example homophonic ones are; (b) vocal ensembles are more suited to contrapuntal music than are other types of ensemble. I wish I could remember exactly what he said; it was probably a lot clearer than I can manage now!

Oh, don't worry about that; it's clear and obvious enough as you report Penderecki as having expressed it! It's about line, singular and plural and seems to me to be eminently easy to understand. Bach, for example - the composer of so very much fine vocal counterpoint - would not have had to question this or had it explained to him! And, on a level light years below that (and only as fhg has very kindly made reference to it), I have from the outset of working on it always regards my string quintet as a piece for six singers of whom five happen to play stringed instruments; I hope that this does not sound pretentious, for it's certainly not meant to be so...

[jean]

Oh, don't worry about that; it's clear and obvious enough as you report Penderecki as having expressed it!

Well that puts me in my place!

[light_calibre_baritone]

Well that puts me in my place!

Quite.

RB, Arvo Pärt sounds nothing like Eric Whitacre.

Incidentally, researchers now believe the human attention span to be about 8 SECONDS - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2...anks-to-smart/

[light_calibre_baritone]

... as I have from the outset of working on it always regards my string quintet as a piece for six singers of whom five happen to play stringed instruments; I hope that this does not sound pretentious, for it's certainly not meant to be so...

Oh, only as pretentious as taking listeners on a "journey" (length of which TBC).

[MrGongGong]

RB, Arvo Pärt sounds nothing like Eric Whitacre.

Not to my ears
BUT maybe i'm using a different listening strategy ?
To me EW sounds a bit like teenage Pärt pastiche though that might be to do with how the sounds of these types of choirs have a very similar spectral profile.

Incidentally, researchers now believe the human attention span to be about 8 SECONDS -

Bollocks

hey, look at that squirrel

[light_calibre_baritone]

Not to my ears
BUT maybe i'm using a different listening strategy ?
To me EW sounds a bit like teenage Pärt pastiche though that might be to do with how the sounds of these types of choirs have a very similar spectral profile.

To me Pärt is far sparser, using fewer harmonic colours (that's not a bad thing) resulting in a more immediate and stark sound world (Fratres, Spiegel im Spiegel spring to mind tho not choral). EW paints with more colour and seems to sweep his brush strokes; Pärt's true 'tintinnabuli' style really is in complete contrast... to me.

The choirs sounding the same is interesting... I can see how that could create difficulty when listening, particularly if the same approach is taken for each composer.