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I was invited to an informal concert on January 8th of Eric Whitacre’s music performed by the Brigham Young University Singers (the schools most advanced choral group) at the BYU Museum of Art by a Facebook friend (ah, the wonders of the internet). What she didn’t say was, be sure to arrive early if you want to get a seat. In the end, half of the audience was standing and most of us stuck around through the entire event.

 Unfortunately, there was no program, so I can only describe the pieces without their titles. The concert featured new music by Whitacre that has come out since the Singers recorded his, til then, complete choral works.

First of all, the Singers sang immaculately, as they always seem to. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a more balanced or unified choir in my life. Now for the music:

• The Concert Choir joined them for the first song, the text was a modern Shakespearean styled ode to Queen Elizabeth. Whitacre’s setting called for the two choirs to sing many parts of the work canonically, causing some really wonderful and unexpected harmonic things to occur. It was a really beautiful work.
• There was an interesting, and poetic work about two lovers and the progression of their relationship from the grass to the beach to under the earth. The setting was simple, but sensitive and moving.
• There were some short, fun comic settings of poems by Ogden Nash with piano.
• There was a piece in Spanish, about ancient Mexican ruins, that had some wonderful bird special effects by the choir. I’ll bet they loved doing those bird noises. For a second it really did sound like you were out there in the rainforest.
• I think my favorite setting though was of a poem called ‘little tree’ that I’ve read somewhere before. A wonderful addition to the Christmas literature.

Whitacre truly is an amazing talent in the choral world. I met him last year at a composer’s convention in L.A. and he seems to be a warm and friendly person as well. I’d like to hear him write some more pieces that show off his uptempo style, but other than that I can’t fault him. It is easy to see why the BYU Singers have a love affair with his music. The concert was a wonderful treat, well worth standing for.