Get you a man that talks about you the way Eric Whitacre talks about choir music

4:07 The correct way to label chords 2019

Came here looking for techniques on orchestrating cool choir parts. Ended up finding the coolest choir dude ever

You can tell a lot of his success comes from how charismatic of a speaker he is, and how well he ties emotional language to his ideas. Really smart guy.

"It's so human." Such a simple sentence, but so extremely powerful.

his passion is contagious, what a cool dude.

eric whitacre is the bob ross of choral composing

alternative title: "eric whitacre fangirls over dissonance for 28 minutes"

Probably the best preview to a library I ever watched. An artist breathing his art, loving the human voice for profound reasons, and building stories that can draw us in while showcasing some of the best choral voices around. I enjoyed hearing about his creative process especially. I could never afford the library, but I will never forget how this presentation made me feel about creating music... Thank you Eric!

Same experience. Got to college, joined a choir, and my world was opened to how special writing for voice is. Instruments can't do what the voice can!

I wish I had a girl friend that look at me the same way Eric looks at music

Will pay extra for Eric Whitacre’s actual voice.

My hero!

His passion and love towards music is so impactful

Super amazing to have Eric himself presenting the product and sharing his feelings and stories! Glad I got that library! Thank you Spitfire and Eric!

I simply love how Eric gets so excited about the lil' nuances of the *sounds*... how it hooks into his 'Deep Field' piece.. and the emotions he feels and communicates to the listener... Fascinating.. and inspiring. Joyous.

My choir sang Whitacre quite frequently lately and i wanted to start writing choral music too and i took his pieces as my inspiration. Finding this video was such a lovely surprise

I love Eric’s enthusiasm and have often wondered how he approached his compositions. Thank you for posting this; great sounds.

I don't think I have ever related to the way another person views music as much as with Eric. His passion about sound and emotion is what kept me.

I expected an run through of a sample library and got a wonderful master class! thank you Eric and thank you Spitfire Audio. I think I got more insight into choir composition and arrangement from this half hour than I've gotten in the previous three years of (admittedly haphazard) reading on the subject

Man looks like Prince Charming from shrek

Just hearing the single chord from "A Boy and a Girl" had me near tears. Bravo, Mr. Whitacre

Very interesting to hear his backstory and philosophies along with the music. The cluster chords are awesome too.

“Shimmering cloud... Fearful majesty... The human voice is the only instrument made by god... Invitation to a mystical world... my god, it’s just transcendent”

Eric is a genius. Would love to meet him some day.

Interesting. Thanks Spitfire Audio for the educational elements in your videos, makes it way more interesting than just 100% product placement. I've been composing music for 40+ years now, and as a self-taught composer, and having this eternal curiosity to learn new things, watching your videos is often an enriching experience. And that Eric Whitacre's choir library, WOW, just makes me drool! Those nice dissonances he was playing brings me back almost 30 years when I first heard Arvo Pärt's choral work. That was a life changing experience to me, and Arvo's music still resonate with me as much today. Eric Whitacre's music seems to also have that same timelessness quality as Arvo Pärt's music. So thanks again Spitfire Audio for that Eric Whitacre video.

I've just bought this library and this is one of the most inspiring things I've seen. I love Eric's love of astronomy and composition. I'm awestruck!

Thank you so much Eric your passion and love for your art spoke volumes. A light went on listening to you.

These sounds are just stunning. What an endearing guy as well. Just an amazing insight.

This is gold right here!

"I still would like to be in Depeche Mode" You and me both, buddy 😂😭

I personally have been using the word "moods" for many years to mean "emotional moments." I place a great deal of importance on what I describe as "relationships between melody and harmony." All of this for the purpose of creating and setting forth moods (mostly short phrasal moods) for both myself and the listener. A variety of moods is what my emotions revel in--which is why I like your music so much. (I additionally attempt to avoid the writing of "character pieces," which is a trap that many musicians fall into.) The result is well worth it, because each tune winds up with a character that is different from the one that came before, and all tunes are truly original. How never to be "blocked": Come up with an algorithm that will generate musical ideas. The algorithm can be simple or complex: "Sit down at a keyboard, click the record button, and doodle" is a simple algorithm. Once your algorithm sets forth a musical idea that makes you say, "Oooh! What was that? I like it. Play it again," you just interact with it emotionally to write MORE based on it. If you're writing homophony, worry ONLY about melody and homophonic harmonic structures. Do things like background lines LATER, when arranging, instead of now, when composing. You say, "What do I want to hear first?" Then you say, "What do I want to hear next?" Then you say, "And what if I do THIS?" You'll make more decisions in a few hours than an executive will make in an entire year. At some point, you'll stop to determine the structure of the piece, if you didn't already have a reason to determine it. Most often, you'll know in advance that you need to fill m minutes, so you'll figure out how many elapsed beats at what tempo you'll need, to fill m minutes, and how you want to divide the piece up into sections. Once you know how many sections and bars you need to fill, and you're interacting emotionally with what you've been coming up with, the music virtually completes itself. At some point, you'll break for lunch. Do you know how many times I came back from lunch and heard the music differently? When you're properly fueled up and ready to go, you'll hear things better than when you were tired and hungry. So, rest and make changes as necessary. Once you've got a tune, THEN you can worry about spotting comping voicings, and coming up with bass lines, foreground groups, independent background lines, background groups, and so on. Polyphony is different: There are no "comping voicings" or "bass lines" with polyphony. Polyphony will depend upon how you prefer to harmonize, which can be quite sophisticated depending upon your preferred methods, and therefore could be done EITHER when composing OR when arranging. For example, I generally like to do polyphonic implementations of homophonic tunes, so I first write a homophonic tune, then harmonize the melody using just two voices to establish full harmony for each melody note, moving a harmonizing voice as necessary when the melody moves, sometimes using just one voice to IMPLY a homophonic structure, then sometimes adding an independent background line as a fourth voice, all following the rules of good voice leading to achieve independence of the voices. Sometimes, up to five voices, but highly melodic polyphony tends to sound too crowded beyond five. Sometimes, I might break from the polyphony using, say, five-note quartal voicings. I have a sophisticated scheme for the organization, management, and manipulation of voices within vocal ranges, but that's getting into classified information. . . . So, there is no reason to ever be blocked. Just invent a way to generate a musical idea, temporarily become a fourteen year-old again, and let one happy thing happily lead to another happy thing.

Excellent video. Thank you

What a guy, I don't even know about or interested in choirs but he got me stuck to my seat watching the whole half hour video!

So inspiring, the way he devotedly shows us the choir being a bearer of true emotions... that's what we wanna send out, in space I guess. Thanks Eric and Spitfire!...

one of the most soothing voices, who writes some of the most soothing music. geez.

Thank you. You can learn through these lessons but they are also making me happy and calm. I don't know why. Thank you so much.

Deeply Profound...thankyou.

Chills multiple time watching this, just hearing Eric talk about music. Absolutely incredible video, what a treasure to be able to hear his insights. There are not many composers let alone people who can articulate so beautifully the way he does about music, even more so choir music. "Fearful majesty" indeed.

Fantastic introduction and professional comment form a very nice person and great composer. What an awesome library you've made! Never heard anything like this until today... Very good job Eric, congrats!!

Excellent description of the visceral effect of close chorale harmonies, and the complexity of the human voice as an instrument.

Just got this and so far playing with it has been a dream. Can't wait to explore the endless possibilities of the voice with it :) Now that I am working with Concerts and Dramas for Church, the voice, as he said, has really gripped me in new ways!

Thank you so much for your generosity and insight. Really helpful and extremely informative.

'Finding these emotional moments' - I really like that. Eric's enthusiasm is infectious. Wonderful.

What a lovely guy to listen to :)

Thank you for this.

Amazing to see how fascinated Eric is about this product. Real artist! :D

Thank you 🙏

Wow! So inspirational. Such enthusiasm and passion for creativity. What a great teacher. Eric, you need to record a masterclass!!!

Excellent insights into Eric's musical mind, wow!

Thanks for the master class, I love to do choir in my composition, I only can do the female and children by layering so I rely on libraries to add that extra "male" layer" to support sometimes and blend it. I love how the swell and how they can convey from bliss to tension. I dream of the day I can do a concert with a full real choir and orchestra.

Inspirational, thank you!

Honestly, I feel like Eric's explanation in this video is exactly what I needed to hear. I have had some writers block for a couple of months now and have been really struggling with it, and his definition of a visual "emotional arc" sounds very helpful and inspiring. Thanks Eric Whitacre!

It's so great to have Eric himself presenting the product and sharing his feelings and stories! Glad I got that library! Thanks Spitfire and Eric!

What a treat it is to get a peek into the composing process of the man whose music made me fall head over heals in love with choral music.

i never watched a review for library like that i really appreciate it you thank you 😊

Talk about loving your job xx

Eric Whitacre’s voice is so soothing to listen to. This man is a treasure

I love how you can hear the overtones of the oohs in the breath of the choir

This is the most amazing video i have ever seen. I need to learn more in order to create my own style

Just purchased this and couldn't be happier with it. I know its been around for a while but everything he says here and all the other videos around this pack, are still true. I read all the reviews people have left a while back and I still get that same impression they did 3 years ago. This is truly fantastic and I cant wait to explore it more as time flies by way too fast while I do.

Brilliant!

What a treat! Will be buying it in the next few days, I honestly cannot wait. Come to the end of Eric Whitacre interviews/lectures on YT, so pleasantly surprised to see this upload.

This is absolutely fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing all that process- it is sparking ideas in me. I find sitting at the piano making chords and listening a wonderful thing too. I agree that voices in chord are the most moving of musics and find it so much balm to be in a choir where you hold chords for ages and experiment with shifts for the joy of it.

I found this so inspiring. Downloading the choir now! :)

Wow i needed this.

what a wonderful video

I love your shimmering harmony. I also just love hearing you speaking…..I just swoon inside.

Thank you!

So dope!

that's awesome! 💪🏼

This is an incredibly inspiring video …

i wish eric whitacre would just do an ambient record for once instead of writing for choir

Water Night was the first piece of his I had heard. Been addicted to his music ever since. Been in choirs for 30 years, so I totally understand the music nerd vibe. So glad he discovered choral music.

Excellent Eric. Your vision is a great one. You probably should pair with Hans Zimmer. That score, if it did exist, would be a great one. Thanks for this

My favorite modern composer.

I was intro to Eric Whitacre when I sang Water Night as a junior year in high school. I had never heard anything like it & was in complete awe. Still am.

Wonderful

His genius amazes me

Loved this video and hope to buy your Choir VST in the future. Eric, your voice is very relaxing. You should make some relaxation 'tapes' with those fantastic choirs and voice over the top!

very inspiring video

Has anyone ever thought about casting him as Batman Voice Actor?

Great video

I feel like Jaime Lannister is teaching me music theory rn and I cannot complain.

18:22 - This advice is HUGE. As in that's becoming my go-to process from the next time I sit down. Music storyboarding is something that never even occurred to me.

A perfect tool to shape up vocal technique of choir singers.

I love this man... my little sister is meeting him thru Zoom this week and I am so jealous.

Wow he's so passionate

This is super cool. I make techno music and always like to incorporate vocals into it. Its an element that can really draw you in like no other. Also how Eric explains his process in writing music is interesting. The combination of imagery/visuals and actually drawing out on how the piece will develop. Awesome stuff.

Hearing your explanation of working from the overtone series, (large intervals low, tight intervals high) was on a exam in1st semester Music Theory in college. We had to memorize it. Your use of it hit me like a ton of bricks. WOW!

IT CERTAINLY DOES GO ON AND ON

Great!

Cool video!

"There is no other instrument, so intimate, as the human voice."

Ahhhhh! I had no idea Eric Whitacre was sooo young! Thanks for sharing! Great video!

I didn't know Josh Holloway is so devoted to choral music. All jokes aside, this is an amazing video, it's so nice to know how much love went into EW Choir instrument.

I'm imagining a Starfleet ship making First Contact with a newly discovered culture. They're exchanging histories, art, music, values and the best aspects of the diverse tapestry of ideas and experiences we have. This video is in that cultural cache that Starfleet sends to their new friends. Humanity doesn't get a whole lot better than this, folks. Best foot forward. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Eric, I also was a Jean-Michel Jarre fan in my high school times. I still am actually, but I now find myself writing soundtrack music and falling back on choir. I started wondering why. "Hey, you just got it going with the synths and woodwinds..". Without realizing it, I often automatically load up a good choir library to expand the piece. After watching this video, I begin to understand why. Thank you very much!

This video is the Golden Brick

Great stuff. Eric's passion and enthusiasm is so infectious that I want to go fire up EWC right now.