World of Pageantry

What pieces has your band played by Eric Whitacre?

I've heard a recording of a piece called Equus and it sounds great. Anyone familiar?

Another new piece by Eric Whitacre will be unveiled at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago this week. It is called "Sleep."

"Ghost Train" is another of Whitacre's known pieces.

snarimba wrote:What pieces has your band played by Eric Whitacre? If you've played many, which are your favorites? I'd like to hear some pieces besides the famous, October, named as well.

I've heard a recording of a piece called Equus and it sounds great. Anyone familiar?

He has a great web site that if you load flash player you can listen to alot of his music.

http://www.ericwhitacre.com/home.html

These are pieces I've played and heard of Eric Whitacre:

My favorite is Cloud Burst....at the end the audiance snaps their fingers and it sounds like rain. As the people's fingers get tired, the rain seems to almost stop and then the rain picks up again. It's so awesome! He wrote this piece after watching and listening to a huge thunderstorm. In the piece you can hear the thunder clapping....close your eyes and picture it.....SO AWESOME!

others are: October, Go Lovely Rose, Water Night, Ghost Train, Godzilla Eats Las Vegas, Five Hebrew Love Songs, Noisy Wheels Sleep of Joy, all are great pieces you should try!

I have had the joy to play "October," my fav. piecde ever, and "Ghost Train." I will have the joy of playing "Sleep," with the world Renowned Mt. SAC Chamber Singers this spring coming up. It will be an awsome concert, and it would be cool for some of you to come. I will keep updates later.

Hey that Godzilla Eats Las Vegas is pretty cool. It sort of changes themes randomly though.

The reason it changes themes is because Godzilla stops on people: Wayne Newton, Frank Sinatra, and an army of Elvi (Elvis impersonators) It plays the theme songs then you can hear a loud "boom" and they are dead.....it's so awesome, you're band will get a crack out of doing the screaming that it calls for!

We played Sleep at Norcal Honor band, pretty cool. It could have been arranged by a different person though, I can't recall. I just remember some song was written by Eric Whitacre. What we played was cool, it was just dumb how such an emotional sounding song can be written about something stupid like sleep. I mean c'mon!! At least write it about something that has substence, love, loss, life, tragedy, anything but SLEEP for peets sake.

We're playing October and Ghost Train. I think we're playing one for the CBDA Convention in Fresno in a few weeks, But I'm not sure...Ghost Train has awesome percussion parts

this year we're trying to play October, Godzilla Eats Las Vegas, and last year we played Ghost Train. Man, those parts where he just sort of experimented in meter, accelerando, and even clef were really somewhat annoying.

yeah ghost train is awesome... were playing it this year. i actually like the meter changes... They add an unpredictable element to it. were only playing the first part though... my director doesnt like "at the station" or the something or other revolution... or whatever it is. But ive never heard it myself.

MusicMan wrote:We played Sleep at Norcal Honor band, pretty cool. It could have been arranged by a different person though, I can't recall. I just remember some song was written by Eric Whitacre. What we played was cool, it was just dumb how such an emotional sounding song can be written about something stupid like sleep. I mean c'mon!! At least write it about something that has substence, love, loss, life, tragedy, anything but SLEEP for peets sake.

In response to this, I had the joy of being able to ask him about this. The original Song was about a death. He was commissioned to write it about death. However, after it was done, the lady who commissioned it threatened to sue Mr. Whitacre if the music was published. So he had the lyrics changed, to litterally about sleep. I still think it is beautiful though.

I played October in our county honor band and our wind ensemble has read through it a couple of times but haven't performed it yet.

I've played Ghost Train and we're playing October and Godzilla this spring. Godzilla i don't like that much but since i'm a euphonium October rules.