Eric Whitacre’s “Sleep” is all about harmony formed through the choir parts. The tone of the piece is completely set up by the harmonies. The message of the song is dark and eerie; the message gets conveyed heavily through the chords made through the different choir parts singing. Tension is created in some chords when some of the notes are very close to each other, for example one natural note and one sharp note. As someone who has sung this piece, I can say that this effect is very difficult to create because if the intonation is off at all the chord is not correct. There is not much to be said about rhythm of this piece because of the lethargic nature of the song that represents sleep.

While watching this interview and reading about Joey Alexander, I was amazed by his natural abilities. I think talents like this can not be learned after a certain extent, it has to be natural and inside already. Joey is so different than other kids because of his sheer talent and his abilities to embellish and do his own thing set him apart. Although I’ve never met anyone like him to that extent, I do have a friend from high school that is able to pick up almost any instrument and play it after just a few times practicing; but I’ve never met anyone with talent to his extent.

I have enjoyed all of Mozart’s pieces that I have listened too so far and I am amazed at how much talent he possessed at such a young age! Mozart began writing his compositions at the age of six, this is mind boggling to me because I have worked in a kindergarten classrooms with six year old children and some of them can barely read or write. According to sources online, Mozart was able to write an entire score Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere, from memory. In today’s world, many times musicians are looked down upon as if they are not smart enough to have a “real job” but its people like Mozart that show how amazing the mind of a musician really is. Another interesting fact about Mozart is that he quit one of his jobs because he felt like he was being underpaid. He knew his true value and was willing to fight in order to receive fair compensation.

All information is from https://www.biographyonline.net/music/facts-mozart.html

As a singer, I know that vibrato is a hard technique to master. So I can appreciate both styles. However, I do prefer the Broadway straight tone opposed to the opera style vibrato. Vibrato can easily turn into a warble and the intonation can be off and while that didn’t happen during the opera piece, it was not my style. I think we are more similar to a pop or straight tone style these days in popular music; so hearing the heavy vibrato almost sounds like too much. However, when opera was more popular, I’m sure that listeners would enjoy it because they were used to it. In the piece I chose, there is not much vibrato because it is an acapella choir piece and too much vibrato could easily throw off the intonation of the singers.

Eric Whitacre’s “Sleep” features many dynamic changes throughout the song. The song itself describes the different stages of sleep and the journey to a state of deep sleep; or as some speculate, death. In the opening phrases, the dynamic level is soft but slowly becomes more forte, it is almost as if sleep is slowly towards the listener. The next few measures of the song stay relativity mezzo-piano, as the words describe the setting and mood. Then, the dynamic level changes to mezzo- forte with each phrase having a crescendo, decrescendo to add an eerie tension to the song. The lyrics continue to describe the descent into a deep sleep and because of this, the dynamic levels gradually become louder as more tension grows. There is a struggle between the character that is sleep and the person sleeping but then the person seemingly surrenders. This leads to the climax of the song and the dynamic levels; the person is entering the deep sleep. The final piece of the song is where the word “sleep” is repeated over and over with a lower dynamic level each time until the words are inaudible. Similar to the the way sleep came towards the listener at the start of the song, sleep is leaving and getting father away until the end. The timbre of the song only changes a few times in my opinion. The beginning of the song has an eerie feeling that makes the listener uneasy. Then it changes to a tense and harsh feeling as the person is fighting sleep. When peace finally wins, the feeling is somewhat placid because there is surrender from the person sleeping.

“Sleep” by Eric Whitacre is a amazing example of text painting and word- music relationship. The song is in a minor key which reflects the ambiguous and heavy nature of the text. The lyrics were written by Whitacre’s good friend and the song is said to be about the state between consciousness and total sleep; some even go as far as to say that the altered state could refer to the time before death. Whitacre uses unusual and sometimes obscure chords that add tension to the piece. As the song progresses, the dynamics get louder and the melody is higher, showing the new levels of sleep. The very end of the song gradually gets smaller and the chords become less complicated as the top parts repeat the word “sleep” over and over until it gets so quiet that it can not be heard. This signifies the actual state of sleep, or according to some, death.

Although my personal preference is not to listen to either of these songs (The Cricket and Il est bel et bon) I can appreciate them. The way that these examples show text painting are specifically special and help me to understand the relationship between words and music more thoroughly. Even though these songs are not in a language that understand, the music itself helps show the mood and tone for the piece so the meaning is more detectable. Being able to watch the performers is always very helpful to me because their facial expressions help me interpret what the message of the sing is. Just listening to the music is sometimes necessary to pick out individual parts but as a whole, I enjoy listening and watching at the same time.

The piece of music I chose is called “Sleep” by Eric Whitacre. I chose this piece of music because I have been in a choir that performed it and I love the chords and the word- music relationship that Whitacre was able to create. The version I picked is the choir without any accompaniment. Even though the texture is created with just the voices, it is very complicated and it varies greatly throughout the piece. With 8 different voice parts in most of the piece, the texture is mostly homophonic and polyphonic at some points. However, there are places where just one voice part is singing one melody so it is monophonic in those places. The range of the melody in this piece is huge because of the amount of voice parts.

Although the Eagle Dance and Bobby McFerrin’s performance are not necessarily something I would normally listen to, I can appreciate the significant meaning that the Eagle Dance has to the people listening. And as a singer, I can imagine how difficult the style of music that McFerrin performs is. In the Eagle Dance; the version where we could see the dancers was more enjoyable to me because we could see how the intertwined the vocables, rhythm and dancing is. One of those aspects without the others isn’t as powerful. In Bobby McFerrin’s performance I enjoyed the vocables more than the Eagle Dance because there was more variety of sounds and the range of pitches he used was much wider than the other. As I stated earlier, I can imagine how difficult this piece must be. He would have to have amazing breath support in order to make the vocables in the way that he did. Inviting the audience to join him was very cool and he was was able to improvise incredibly when the audience was singing with him.

I appreciate the musical abilities of both Louis Moreau Gottschalk and the performers in the group South City Voices but I do prefer the performance of the Star Spangled Banner by South City Voices over the performance by Gottschalk. As someone who has sang in numerous choirs and groups over many years, I know how difficult it can be to blend voices effectively, especially when when the notes are very close together. The tension of the chords could be trying to convey the war and the “bombs bursting”. The Gottschalk version is enjoyable but I personally enjoy the effect of hearing the words. The words give the music life and meaning. As far as the Stravinsky version, I could hear the variation in the harmonies due to my musical experience and I liked it. I have heard the Hendricks version before and although it is very different from the original; I think it is well done. I do not think that doing a different version of the Star Spangled Banner is offensive. Musician should be able to take artistic liberties but they should be tasteful and respectful. I do understand that some people may be offended because it is not the traditional norm but as long as the musician is trying their best, I think they should be able to do what they are being led to do.