Home VOCES8 & Eric Whitacre

• Eric Whitacre (b. 1970): Go, Lovely Rose:
• 1 Whitacre: Go, Lovely Rose 04:33
• The Seal Lullaby:
• 2 Whitacre: The Seal Lullaby 04:35
• Sing Gently:
• 3 Whitacre: Sing Gently 03:44
• All Seems Beautiful to Me:
• 4 Whitacre: All Seems Beautiful to Me 04:53
• The Sacred Veil:
• 5 Whitacre: The Sacred Veil: I. The Veil Opens 06:17
• 6 Whitacre: The Sacred Veil: II. In a Dark and Distant Year 02:07
• 7 Whitacre: The Sacred Veil: III. Home 03:56
• 8 Whitacre: The Sacred Veil: IV. Magnetic Poetry 07:10
• 9 Whitacre: The Sacred Veil: V. Wherever There is Birth 03:31
• 10 Whitacre: The Sacred Veil: VI. I'm Afraid 05:23
• 11 Whitacre: The Sacred Veil: VII. I am Here 02:10
• 12 Whitacre: The Sacred Veil: VIII. Delicious Times 05:08
• 13 Whitacre: The Sacred Veil: IX. One Last Breath 01:56
• 14 Whitacre: The Sacred Veil: X. Dear Friends 03:19
• 15 Whitacre: The Sacred Veil: XI. You Rise, I Fall 09:30
• 16 Whitacre: The Sacred Veil: XII. Child of Wonder 04:42
• Total Runtime 01:12:54

Info for Home

Two branches of choral royalty entwine with majestic harmony on the latest release from Grammy-winning composer Eric Whitacre and acclaimed vocal ensemble VOCES8. The album includes a world premiere, All Seems Beautiful To Me, and a new recording of Whitacre’s deeply moving 2019 cantata The Sacred Veil.

The five-minute work All Seems Beautiful To Me, released on Friday 10th February, is based on a poem by Walt Whitman (from Song of the Open Road) celebrating the human spirit’s capacity for generosity and growth. It was commissioned by the United States Air Force Band and here receives its world premiere recording. Also included is a new recording of one of Whitacre’s most frequently performed and much loved pieces, The Seal Lullaby.

The album also includes Sing Gently and Go, Lovely Rose. The former was composed during lockdown specially for Whitacre’s Virtual Choir, made up of over 17,500 singers from 124 different countries. The latter was Whitacre’s first ever composition, written 30 years ago, and thus the new album is also, in part, a joyful celebration of his three decades as a composer.

The longest work is the twelve-movement, hour-long 2019 cantata The Sacred Veil for choir, cello (Emma Denton), and piano (Christopher Glynn). The text, by Whitacre’s close friend and long-time collaborator Charles Anthony Silvestri, commemorates the death of the poet’s young wife Julie from ovarian cancer. It journeys from the growth of their love, through the birth of their children, to their struggle with the illness. One particularly striking section ‘You Rise, I Fall’ involves extraordinary descending and ascending tone-clusters mirroring the emotional states of the dying woman and her husband.

VOCES8
Eric Whitacre, conductor

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This album contains no booklet.