When David Heard - SSAATTBB

By Eric Whitacre

This work of the genius Whitacre is absolutely inspiring and pushes you back in your seat. At the C# cluster it breaks into 18 parts and is extremely difficult. Not only are the rhythms not written out at the beginning, but this expresses intense emotion and requires an extremely wide...

range for all participating members. The repetition of the phrase "my son" throughout the last 15 minutes adds to the emotion and difficulty in expressing it. I love this piece and hope you and your choir enjoy it

This song is the essence of grief translates into an emotional beauty. The lyrics are extremely simple, almost repetitive which is expected in a piece about mourning. The harmonies become very intense with the incredible dissonance. The scale slowly builds into the chord into a 18-part cluster of the...

C# scale. If you want to truly feel the essence and meaning of this piece, YouTube or search "When David Heard Eric Whitacre Polyphony". When you listen to the song it sounds every complex, however in the compositional aspect it's very simple. At the climax of the song, the 18-part chord consists of almost every note on the C# scale for about 3 octaves, truly ingenious idea. This song has inspired me, a 17 year old senior, to become a composer. Well done Mr. Whitacre, Well done.

This piece is absolutely flawless. I performed it at a festival for 8th grade choirs with my friends. It is absolutely difficult and intense but it is soo worth it! We recieved the highest scores of the day, though it was our only piece on account of the lengthiness of...

it. I love this piece and it is a great choice for a competition, but it make sure you are solid on it, because it will most likely be your only piece. So you want to be flawless and you will win the gold! Good luck with this piece.

I love this piece. It reall does make you think. If a piece can do that to someone, its got to be good!

This piece of music is difficult. Very difficult. Not only that it's 15 minutes long, or that the amount of dissonance is....intimidating, but the emotional power of the piece requires a large focus, because listening to a 15 minute song is difficult to fathom, especially when the dissonance...

makes it sound......different, clearly emotion must come into play. Whitacre's composition makes it very clear with its dynamics, but special attention must be payed still. Of course the large crescendos reflect the absolute most intense of grief, but the stuff in the middle could get overlong if you don't look at it and sing as though they are little bursts of grief. The piece goes from all out grief, to attempted calming, back into its pen-ultimate crescendo. A perfect piece of work, but know that only the best of choirs will be able to pull it off.