Eric Whitacre is one of the most exciting choral composing voices to emerge in recent years. Championed by choirs around the world, Whitacre’s music is characterised by its rich textures and harmonies – often splitting the choir into eight or more parts.
Do you think that the popularity of your music is down to the exploding numbers of choirs today?
I’m not sure there are more people singing than there were 20 years ago, but it seems to be that for a long time there were millions of singers living this anonymous subculture. I don’t know if they were afraid to tell other people they were singers. In my own experience, watching over the past five or six years on Facebook alone, it seems that everyone is coming out of the shadows and announcing themselves as proud singers, creating this incredible wave of energy.
How valuable is social media to you?
I find Twitter powerful, but I find Facebook incredibly powerful. There’s a kind of ubiquitousness to it now. I can announce a concert and see the ticket sales instantly being affected, really within minutes of the announcement on Facebook. That certainly didn’t exist a few years ago.
Has social media affected the way you write music?
Not yet. But part of my process has changed – if I was struggling over a passage I used to only consult my closest friends or my wife, but now several times I’ve been on Facebook where I’ll have a technical question, say, a viola bowing, and I’ll post it to the crowd and say ‘is this difficult for viola’. Within ten minutes I’ll have 100 responses. And that’s changed the way I write.
What do you think the benefits of singing in a choir are?
It’s the best place on earth to meet people – I love singers in general. I love everything about them. I love the personality types and the social aspect of it. There must be some physiological benefit: coming together in a room and breathing together and making beautiful sounds with your body. I feel terrific after singing with a choir. And then you’re exploring some of the world’s great poetry though music – that can only make for a more compassionate person and a more compassionate society.
Interview by Oliver Condy
To book tickets to hear Côrdydd conducted by Eric Whitacre at St David’s Hall, Cardiff on 16 October, click here.